A differential-difference hierarchy associated with relativistic Toda and Volterra hierarchies

By embedding a free function into a compatible zero curvature equation, we enlarge the original differential-difference hierarchy into a new hierarchy with the free function which still admits zero curvature representation. The new hierarchy not only includes the original hierarchy, but also the well-known relativistic Toda hierarchy and the Volterra hierarchy as special reductions by properly choosing the free function. Infinitely many conservation laws and Darboux transformation for a representative differential-difference system are constructed based on its Lax representation. The exact solutions follow by applying the Darboux transformation.