We present a number of examples to illustrate the use of small quotient dessins as substitutes for their often much larger and more complicated Galois (minimal regular) covers. In doing so we employ several useful group-theoretic techniques, such as the Frobenius character formula for counting triples in a finite group, pointing out some common traps and misconceptions associated with them. Although our examples are all chosen from Hurwitz curves and groups, they are relevant to dessins of any type.
We derive explicit formulae for the generating series of mixed Grothendieck dessins d'enfant/monotone/simple Hurwitz numbers, via the semi-infinite wedge formalism. This reveals the strong piecewise polynomiality in the sense of Goulden-Jackson-Vakil, generalising a result of Johnson, and provides a new explicit proof of the piecewise polynomiality of the mixed case. Moreover, we derive wall-crossing formulae for the mixed case. These statements specialise to any of the three types of Hurwitz numbers, and to the mixed case of any pair.
An operation of joining coset diagrams for a given group, introduced by Higman and developed by Conder in connection with Hurwitz groups, is reinterpreted and generalised as a connected sum operation on dessins d'enfants of a given type. A number of examples are given.
Hurwitz numbers count genus $g$, degree $d$ covers of the complex projective line with fixed branched locus and fixed ramification data. An equivalent description is given by factorisations in the symmetric group. Simple double Hurwitz numbers are a class of Hurwitz-type counts of specific interest. In recent years a related counting problem in the context of random matrix theory was introduced as so-called monotone Hurwitz numbers. These can be viewed as a desymmetrised version of the Hurwitz-problem. A combinatorial interpolation between simple and monotone double Hurwitz numbers was introdu…
We prove quasi-polynomiality for monotone and strictly monotone orbifold Hurwitz numbers. The second enumerative problem is also known as enumeration of a special kind of Grothendieck's dessins d'enfants or $r$-hypermaps. These statements answer positively two conjectures proposed by Do-Karev and Do-Manescu. We also apply the same method to the usual orbifold Hurwitz numbers and obtain a new proof of the quasi-polynomiality in this case. In the second part of the paper we show that the property of quasi-polynomiality is equivalent in all these three cases to the property that the $n$-point gen…
The Hurwitz problem asks which ramification data are realizable, that is appear as the ramification type of a covering. We use dessins d'enfant to show that families of genus 1 regular ramification data with small changes are realizable with the exception of four families which were recently shown to be nonrealizable. A similar description holds in the case of genus 0 ramification data.
We reinterpret ideas in Klein's paper on transformations of degree $11$ from the modern point of view of dessins d'enfants, and extend his results by considering dessins of type $(3,2,p)$ and degree $p$ or $p+1$, where $p$ is prime. In many cases we determine the passports and monodromy groups of these dessins, and in a few small cases we give drawings which are topologically (or, in certain examples, even geometrically) correct. We use the Bateman-Horn Conjecture and extensive computer searches to support a conjecture that there are infinitely many primes of the form $p=(q^n-1)/(q-1)$ for som…
We give conditions for the monodromy group of a Hurwitz space over the configuration space of branch points to be the full alternating or symmetric group on the degree. Specializing the resulting coverings suggests the existence of many number fields with full Galois group and surprisingly little ramification --- for example, the existence of infinitely many such number fields unramified away from {2,3,5}.
We solve the Hurwitz monodromy problem for degree-4 covers. That is, the Hurwitz space H_{4,g} of all simply branched covers of P^1 of degree 4 and genus g is an unramified cover of the space P_{2g+6} of (2g+6)-tuples of distinct points in P^1. We determine the monodromy of pi_1(P_{2g+6}) on the points of the fiber. This turns out to be the same problem as the action of pi_1(P_{2g+6}) on a certain local system of Z/2-vector spaces. We generalize our result by treating the analogous local system with Z/N coefficients, gcd(3,N)=1, in place of Z/2. This in turn allows us to answer a question of E…
In this paper, we study the algebraic form of the symmetric generalized Lamé equations which have finite projective monodromy groups. In particular, we consider equations with $3$ regular singular points on a flat torus $T$ which takes the form \begin{equation*} \begin{split} \frac{d^2 y}{dz^2}-\left[n_1(n_1+1)(\wp(z+a) +\wp(z-a))\right.\left. +A_1(ζ(z+a) - ζ(z-a))+n_0(n_0+1) \wp(z)+B\right]y=0, \end{split} \end{equation*} where $n_1, n_0 \in \Bbb R$, $A_1,B \in \Bbb C$, and $\wp$ is the Weierstrass elliptic function. We give a complete list of all the group types that occur as the finite proj…
Simple Hurwitz numbers enumerate branched morphisms between Riemann surfaces with fixed ramification data. In recent years, several variants of this notion for genus $0$ base curves have appeared in the literature. Among them are so-called monotone Hurwitz numbers, which are related to the HCIZ integral in random matrix theory and strictly monotone Hurwitz numbers which count certain Grothendieck dessins d'enfants. We generalise the notion of Hurwitz numbers to interpolations between simple, monotone and strictly monotone Hurwitz numbers to any genus and any number of arbitrary but fixed ramif…
Graber, Harris and Starr proved, when n >= 2d, the irreducibility of the Hurwitz space H^0_{d,n}(Y) which parametrizes degree d coverings of a smooth, projective curve Y of positive genus, simply branched in n points, with full monodromy group S_d (math.AG/0205056). We sharpen this result and prove that H^0_{d,n}(Y) is irreducible if n >= max{2,2d-4} and in the case of elliptic Y if n >= max{2,2d-6}. We extend the result to coverings simply branched in all but one point of the discriminant. Fixing the ramification multiplicities over the special point we prove that the corresponding Hurwitz sp…
Hodge classes on the moduli space of admissible covers with monodromy group G are associated to irreducible representations of G. We evaluate all linear Hodge integrals over moduli spaces of admissible covers with abelian monodromy in terms of multiplication in an associated wreath group algebra. In case G is cyclic and the representation is faithful, the evaluation is in terms of double Hurwitz numbers. In case G is trivial, the formula specializes to the well-known result of Ekedahl-Lando-Shapiro-Vainshtein for linear Hodge integrals over the moduli space of curves in terms of single Hurwitz…
We consider components of Hurwitz moduli space of G-Galois covers and set up a powerful algebraic framework to study the set of corresponding equivalence classes of monodromy maps. Within that we study geometric stabilisation by various G-covers branched over the disc. Our results addresses the problem to decide equivalence and stable equivalence algebraically. We recover a homological invariant, which we show to distinguish the equivalence classes of given boundary monodromy and Nielsen type, if the latter is sufficiently large in the appropriate sense.
Edge-contraction operations form an effective tool in various graph enumeration problems, such as counting Grothendieck's dessins d'enfants and simple and double Hurwitz numbers. These counting problems can be solved by a mechanism known as topological recursion, which is a mirror B-model corresponding to these counting problems. We show that for the case of orbifold Hurwitz numbers, the mirror objects, i.e., the spectral curve and the differential forms on it, are constructed solely from the edge-contraction operations of the counting problem in genus $0$ and one marked point. This forms a pa…
Given any matrix B in SL(2,Z), we will describe an algorithm that provides at least one elliptic fibration over the disk, relatively minimal and Lefschetz, within each topological equivalence class, whose total monodromy is the conjugacy class of B.
Università degli studi di Trieste（的里雅斯特大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Trieste（意大利国家核物理研究所（INFN）的里雅斯特分部）；Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa（里斯本大学理学院）
本文通过基本方法研究Hurwitz数在高 genus 下的渐进行为，涵盖单、双及任意固定分支类型，以及简单或包含完整循环等分支类型，总结了主要贡献。
Motivated by the problem of Hurwitz equivalence of $Δ^2$ factorization in the braid group, we address the problem of Hurwitz equivalence in the symmetric group, obtained by projecting the $Δ^2$ factorizations into $S_n$. We get $1_{S_n}$ factorizations with transposition factors. Looking at the transpositions as the edges in a graph, we show that two factorizations are Hurwitz equivalent if and only if their graphs have the same weighted connected components. The main result of this paper will help us to compute the "Braid Monodromy Type" invariant. The graph structure gives a weaker but very …
We study the components of the Hurwitz scheme of ramified coverings of $\mathbb{P}^1$ with monodromy given by the alternating group $A_6$ and elements in the conjugacy class of product of two disjoint cycles. In order to detect the connected components of the Hurwitz scheme, inspired by the case of the spin structures studied by Fried for the $3$-cycles, we use as invariant the lifting to the Valentiner group, triple covering of $A_6$. We prove that the Hurwitz scheme has two irreducible components when the genus of the covering is greater than zero, in accordance with the asymptotic solution …
Starting from a beautiful idea of Kanev, we construct a uniformization of the moduli space A_6 of principally polarized abelian 6-folds in terms of curves and monodromy data. We show that the general ppav of dimension 6 is a Prym-Tyurin variety corresponding to a degree 27 cover of the projective line having monodromy the Weyl group of the E_6 lattice. Along the way, we establish numerous facts concerning the geometry of the Hurwitz space of such E_6-covers, including: (1) a proof that the canonical class of the Hurwitz space is big, (2) a concrete geometric description of the Hodge-Hurwitz ei…
Let G be the group A_4 or Z_2xZ_2. We compute the integral of λ_g on the Hurwitz locus H_G\subset M_g of curves admitting a degree 4 cover of P^1 having monodromy group G. We compute the generating functions for these integrals and write them as a trigonometric expression summed over the positive roots of the E_6 and D_4 root systems respectively. As an application, we prove the Crepant Resolution Conjecture for the orbifolds [C^3/A_4] and [C^3/(Z_2xZ_2)].
Hurwitz numbers count ramified covers of a Riemann surface with prescribed monodromy. As such, they are purely combinatorial objects. Tautological classes, on the other hand, are distinguished classes in the intersection ring of the moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces of a given genus, and are thus ``geometric.'' Localization computations in Gromov-Witten theory provide non-obvious relations between the two. This paper makes one such computation, and shows how it leads to a ``master'' relation (Theorem 0.1) that reduces the ratios of certain interesting tautological classes to the pure combinato…
We consider multi-matrix models that are generating functions for the numbers of branched covers of the complex projective line ramified over $n$ fixed points $z_i$, $i=1,\dots,n$, (generalized Grotendieck's dessins d'enfants) of fixed genus, degree, and the ramification profiles at two points, $z_1$ and $z_n$. Ramifications at other $n-2$ points enter the sum with the length of the profile at $z_2$ and with the total length of profiles at the remaining $n-3$ points. We find the spectral curve of the model for $n=5$ using the loop equation technique for the above generating function represente…
We introduce a one-parameter deformation of the 2-Toda tau-function of (weighted) Hurwitz numbers, obtained by deforming Schur functions into Jack symmetric functions. We show that its coefficients are polynomials in the deformation parameter $b$ with nonnegative integer coefficients. These coefficients count generalized branched coverings of the sphere by an arbitrary surface, orientable or not, with an appropriate $b$-weighting that "measures" in some sense their non-orientability. Notable special cases include non-orientable dessins d'enfants for which we prove the most general result so fa…
A formula for factorizations of the full twist in the braid group $Br_{2m}$ depending on any four factorizations of the full twist in $Br_{m}$ is given. Applying this formula, a symplectic 4-manifold $X$ and two isotopic generic coverings $f_i :X\to \mathbb C\mathbb P^2$, branched, respectively, along cuspidal Hurwitz curves $\bar H_i\subset \mathbb C\mathbb P^2$ (without negative nodes) having different braid monodromy factorization types, are constructed. The class of the fundamental groups of the complements of the affine plane Hurwitz curves is described in terms of generators and defining…
We consider the determination of the number $c_k(α)$ of ordered factorisations of an arbitrary permutation on n symbols, with cycle distribution $α$, into k-cycles such that the factorisations have minimal length and such that the group generated by the factors acts transitively on the n symbols. The case k=2 corresponds to the celebrated result of Hurwitz on the number of topologically distinct holomorphic functions on the 2-sphere that preserve a given number of elementary branch point singularities. In this case the monodromy group is the alternating group, and this is another case that, in…
