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11 votes
2 answers
840 views

What relationship is there between repeated roots of discriminants and orders of roots of the original polynomials?

Disclaimer: I asked this problem several days ago on MSE, I'm cross-posting it here. The title sounds like a high school problem, but (as a grad student not in algebra) it feels subtle/deep. ...
Harambe's user avatar
  • 225
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

Visualizing genus-two Riemann surfaces: from the three-fold branched cover to the sphere with two handles

I am trying to visualize the genus-two Riemann surface given by the curve $$ y^3 = \frac{(x-x_1)(x-x_2)}{(x-x_3)(x-x_4)}. $$ We can regard this surface as a three-fold cover of the sphere with four ...
Holomaniac's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
412 views

Is the number of ramified coverings of given degree of a curve with prescribed branch divisor finite?

Let Y be a smooth projective curve over C and prescribe a branch divisor B on Y. I want to know if the number of coverings of Y of fixed degree and branched along B is finite. If so, why? Or, where is ...
enoch's user avatar
  • 23
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

Finite morphisms to projective space

Let $X$ be a projective variety of dimension n. Then there exists a finite surjective morphism $X \to \mathbf P^n$. Let $d$ be the minimal degree of such a finite surjective morphism. Let $d^\prime ...
Edgar JH's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
383 views

branch locus of the discriminant map $\overline{\mathcal{H}}_{g',r} \to \overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$

Let $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ be the moduli space of pointed, stable, genus $g$ curves. Let $\overline{\mathcal{H}}_{g',r}$ be the hurwitz space of cyclic covers of degree $r$ of genus $g$ curves ...
IMeasy's user avatar
  • 3,737
9 votes
3 answers
3k views

What prevents a cover to be Galois?

Let $f:X\rightarrow Y$ be a ramified cover of Riemann surfaces or algebraic curves over $\mathbb{C}$. My question is can one in terms of the ramification data of $f$, determine whether the cover is ...
Darius Math's user avatar
  • 2,221
4 votes
2 answers
184 views

Dimension of the space of invariant quadratic differentials in Galois covers

Let $f: X \rightarrow Y $ be a Galois cover of with $X$ and $Y$ algebraic curves over $\mathbb{C}$. I want to compute the dimension of the subspace of $G$-invariants in $H^{0}(X,\omega^{\otimes2})$ (...
Darius Math's user avatar
  • 2,221
2 votes
1 answer
689 views

Trigonal curves of genus three: can their Galois closure be non-abelian

Let $X$ be a curve of genus three which is not hyperelliptic. Then $X$ is trigonal, i.e., there exists a finite morphism $X \to \mathbf P^1$ of degree $3$. Let $Y\to X \to \mathbf P^1$ be a Galois ...
Tridib's user avatar
  • 23
4 votes
0 answers
394 views

Do regular noetherian schemes of dimension one only have finitely many etale covers of bounded degree

Let $X$ be a regular noetherian scheme of dimension one. Let $d$ be an integer. Question. Are there only finitely many finite etale morphisms $Y\to X$ of degree $d$? I want to exclude finite etale ...
Masse's user avatar
  • 381
4 votes
0 answers
402 views

Every curve is a Hurwitz space in infinitely many ways

Diaz, Donagi and Harbater proved that every curve over $\overline{\mathbf{Q}}$ is a Hurwitz space. A Hurwitz space is a connected component of the curve $H_n$. The curve $H_n$ is (the ...
Harized's user avatar
  • 163
1 vote
1 answer
360 views

Manin-Drinfeld and constructing a finite morphism with two given ramification points

Fix a smooth projective connected curve $X$ over $\overline{\mathbf{Q}}$ of genus $g\geq 1$ and distinct points $x,y \in X$ such that $x-y$ has infinite order in the Jacobian. Can we always find a ...
Ariyan Javanpeykar's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
264 views

Comparing heights of rational points on curves through covers

Let $a$ be a closed point in $\mathbf{P}^1_{\overline{\mathbf{Q}}}$. Let $Y \cong \mathbf{P}^1_{\overline{\mathbf{Q}}} $ and let $\pi:Y\to \mathbf{P}^1_{\overline{\mathbf{Q}}}$ be a finite morphism ...
Showmie's user avatar
  • 23
35 votes
4 answers
3k views

Curves which are not covers of P^1 with four branch points

The following interesting question came up in a discussion I was having with Alex Wright. Suppose given a branched cover C -> P^1 with four branch points. It's not hard to see that the field of ...
JSE's user avatar
  • 19.1k