Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2009
We exhibit a large class K* of real 2 × 2 matrices of determinant ±1 such that, for nearly all A and B in K*, the group generated by A and B1 (the transpose of B) is the free product of the cyclic groups It is shown that K* contains all matrices of determinant ±1 with integer entries satisfying |b| > |a|, |c|, |d|. This gives a generalization of a theorem of Goldberg and Newman [2]. We also prove related results concerning the dominance of b and the discreteness of the free products .