Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2009
Every subgroup of finite index of the modular group PSL (2, ℤ) has a signature consisting of conjugacy-invariant integer parameters satisfying certain conditions. In the case of genus zero, these parameters also constitute a prescription for the degree and the orders of the poles of a rational function F with the property:
Functions correspond to subgroups, and we use this to establish necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of subgroups with a certain subclass of allowable signatures.