The theme of the 2020 MSRI-UP was “Branched Covers of Curves" and the research leader was Dr. Edray Goins, Professor of Mathematics at Pomona College. The research program focused on Galois Theory of curves, i.e. the realization of certain finite groups as the symmetries of maps from one curve to another. Students worked on a variety of problems ranging from the explicit construction of covers for a given group to visualizing such covers as exotic surfaces which are self-intersections of the sphere and the torus. The research groups focused on Belyi maps, Dessin d’Enfants, Origami, and Shabat polynomials; while working in a variety of areas such as Galois theory, monodromy groups, number theory, and Riemann surfaces.

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Project #1: Automorphism Groups and Monodromy of Classical Modular Curves

Group Members: Samuel Heard, Fabian Ramirez, and Vanessa Sun