For $2 \leq d \leq 5$, we show that the class of the Hurwitz space of smooth degree $d$, genus $g$ covers of $\mathbb {P}^1$ stabilizes in the Grothendieck ring of stacks as $g \to \infty$, and we give a formula for the limit. We also verify this stabilization when one imposes ramification conditions on the covers, and obtain a particularly simple answer for this limit when one restricts to simply branched covers.

We study triple covers of K3 surfaces, following Miranda (1985, American Journal of Mathematics 107, 1123–1158). We relate the geometry of the covering surfaces with the properties of both the branch locus and the Tschirnhausen vector bundle. In particular, we classify Galois triple covers computing numerical invariants of the covering surface and of its minimal model. We provide examples of non-Galois triple covers, both in the case in which the Tschirnhausen bundle splits into the sum of two line bundles and in the case in which it is an indecomposable rank 2 vector bundle. We provide a criterion to construct rank 2 vector bundles on a K3 surface S which determine a non-Galois triple cover of S. The examples presented are in any admissible Kodaira dimension, and in particular, we provide the constructions of irregular covers of K3 surfaces and of surfaces with geometrical genus equal to 2 whose transcendental Hodge structure splits in the sum of two Hodge structures of K3 type.

In this paper we apply Conley index theory in a covering space of an invariant set S, possibly not isolated, in order to describe the dynamics in S. More specifically, we consider the action of the covering translation group in order to define a topological separation of S which distinguishes the connections between the Morse sets within a Morse decomposition of S. The theory developed herein generalizes the classical connection matrix theory, since one obtains enriched information on the connection maps for non-isolated invariant sets, as well as for isolated invariant sets. Moreover, in the case of an infinite cyclic covering induced by a circle-valued Morse function, one proves that the Novikov differential of f is a particular case of the p-connection matrix defined herein.

We provide evidence for this conclusion: given a finite Galois cover $f:X\rightarrow \mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{Q}}^{1}$ of group $G$, almost all (in a density sense) realizations of $G$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ do not occur as specializations of $f$. We show that this holds if the number of branch points of $f$ is sufficiently large, under the abc-conjecture and, possibly, the lower bound predicted by the Malle conjecture for the number of Galois extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ of given group and bounded discriminant. This widely extends a result of Granville on the lack of $\mathbb{Q}$-rational points on quadratic twists of hyperelliptic curves over $\mathbb{Q}$ with large genus, under the abc-conjecture (a diophantine reformulation of the case $G=\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ of our result). As a further evidence, we exhibit a few finite groups $G$ for which the above conclusion holds unconditionally for almost all covers of $\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{Q}}^{1}$ of group $G$. We also introduce a local–global principle for specializations of Galois covers $f:X\rightarrow \mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{Q}}^{1}$ and show that it often fails if $f$ has abelian Galois group and sufficiently many branch points, under the abc-conjecture. On the one hand, such a local–global conclusion underscores the ‘smallness’ of the specialization set of a Galois cover of $\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{Q}}^{1}$. On the other hand, it allows to generate conditionally ‘many’ curves over $\mathbb{Q}$ failing the Hasse principle, thus generalizing a recent result of Clark and Watson devoted to the hyperelliptic case.

The paper studies a relation between fundamental group of the complement to a plane singular curve and the orbifold pencils containing it. The main tool is the use of Albanese varieties of cyclic covers ramified along such curves. Our results give sufficient conditions for a plane singular curve to belong to an orbifold pencil, that is, a pencil of plane curves with multiple fibers inducing a map onto an orbifold curve whose orbifold fundamental group is nontrivial. We construct an example of a cyclic cover of the projective plane which is an abelian surface isomorphic to the Jacobian of a curve of genus 2 illustrating the extent to which these conditions are necessary.

We extend to compact Kähler manifolds some classical results on linear representation of fundamental groups of complex projective manifolds. Our approach, based on an interversion lemma for fibrations with tori versus general type manifolds as fibers, gives a refinement of the classical work of Zuo. We extend to the Kähler case some general results on holomorphic convexity of coverings such as the linear Shafarevich conjecture.

We exhibit a numerical method to compute three-point branched covers of the complex projective line. We develop algorithms for working explicitly with Fuchsian triangle groups and their finite-index subgroups, and we use these algorithms to compute power series expansions of modular forms on these groups.

Hurwitz numbers count branched covers of the Riemann sphere with specified ramification data, or equivalently, transitive permutation factorizations in the symmetric group with specified cycle types. Monotone Hurwitz numbers count a restricted subset of these branched covers related to the expansion of complete symmetric functions in the Jucys–Murphy elements, and have arisen in recent work on the the asymptotic expansion of the Harish-Chandra–Itzykson–Zuber integral. In this paper we begin a detailed study of monotone Hurwitz numbers. We prove two results that are reminiscent of those for classical Hurwitz numbers. The first is the monotone join-cut equation, a partial differential equation with initial conditions that characterizes the generating function for monotone Hurwitz numbers in arbitrary genus. The second is our main result, in which we give an explicit formula for monotone Hurwitz numbers in genus zero.

An abelian cover is a finite morphism X→Y of varieties which is the quotient map for a generically faithful action of a finite abelian group G. Abelian covers with Y smooth and X normal were studied in [R. Pardini, Abelian covers of algebraic varieties, J. Reine Angew. Math. 417 (1991), 191–213; MR 1103912(92g:14012)]. Here we study the non-normal case, assuming that X and Y are S2 varieties that have at worst normal crossings outside a subset of codimension greater than or equal to two. Special attention is paid to the case of ℤr2-covers of surfaces, which is used in [V. Alexeev and R. Pardini, Explicit compactifications of moduli spaces of Campedelli and Burniat surfaces, Preprint (2009), math.AG/arXiv:0901.4431] to construct explicitly compactifications of some components of the moduli space of surfaces of general type.

We show that polarized endomorphisms of rationally connected threefolds with at worst terminal singularities are equivariantly built up from those on ℚ-Fano threefolds, Gorenstein log del Pezzo surfaces and ℙ1. Similar results are obtained for polarized endomorphisms of uniruled threefolds and fourfolds. As a consequence, we show that every smooth Fano threefold with a polarized endomorphism of degree greater than one is rational.

In this paper we describe six pencils of $K3$-surfaces which have large Picard number $\left( \rho =19,20 \right)$ and each contains precisely five special fibers: four have $\text{A-D-E}$ singularities and one is non-reduced. In particular, we characterize these surfaces as cyclic coverings of some $K3$-surfaces described in a recent paper by Barth and the author. In many cases, using 3-divisible sets, resp., 2-divisible sets, of rational curves and lattice theory, we describe explicitly the Picard lattices.

This paper contains a new proof of the classification of prime order elements of Bir(ℙ2) up to conjugation. The first results on this topic can be traced back to classic works by Bertini and Kantor, among others. The innovation introduced by this paper consists of explicit geometric constructions of these Cremona transformations and the parameterization of their conjugacy classes. The methods employed here are inspired to [4], and rely on the reduction of the problem to classifying prime order automorphisms of rational surfaces. This classification is completed by combining equivariant Mori theory to the analysis of the action on anticanonical rings, which leads to characterize the cases that occur by explicit equations (see [28] for a different approach). Analogous constructions in higher dimensions are also discussed.

Let $Y$ be an infinite covering space of a projective manifold $M$ in ${{\mathbb{P}}^{N}}$ of dimension $n\ge 2$. Let $C$ be the intersection with $M$ of at most $n-1$ generic hypersurfaces of degree $d$ in ${{\mathbb{P}}^{N}}$. The preimage $X$ of $C$ in $Y$ is a connected submanifold. Let $\phi$ be the smoothed distance from a fixed point in $Y$ in a metric pulled up from $M$. Let ${{\mathcal{O}}_{\phi }}(X)$ be the Hilbert space of holomorphic functions $f$ on $X$ such that ${{f}^{2}}{{e}^{-\phi }}$ is integrable on $X$, and define ${{\mathcal{O}}_{\phi }}(X)$ similarly. Our main result is that (under more general hypotheses than described here) the restriction ${{\mathcal{O}}_{\phi }}(Y)\to {{\mathcal{O}}_{\phi }}(X)$ is an isomorphism for $d$ large enough.

This yields new examples of Riemann surfaces and domains of holomorphy in ${{\mathbb{C}}^{n}}$ with corona. We consider the important special case when $Y$ is the unit ball $\mathbb{B}$ in ${{\mathbb{C}}^{n}}$, and show that for $d$ large enough, every bounded holomorphic function on $X$ extends to a unique function in the intersection of all the nontrivial weighted Bergman spaces on $\mathbb{B}$. Finally, assuming that the covering group is arithmetic, we establish three dichotomies concerning the extension of bounded holomorphic and harmonic functions from $X$ to $\mathbb{B}$.

In this paper, we shall give a method in constructing dihedral Galois covering with prescribed branch locus. As an application, we shall look into dihedral Galois covering of P2, where torsion elements of the Mordell-Weil group of an elliptic surface play key roles in constructing coverings