Questions tagged [riemann-surfaces]

Riemann surfaces(Riemannian surfaces) is one dimensional complex manifold. For questions about classical examples in complex analysis, complex geometry, surface topology.

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11 answers
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Uniformization theorem for Riemann surfaces

How does one prove that every simply connected Riemann surface is conformally equivalent to the open unit disk, the complex plane, or the Riemann sphere, and these are not conformally equivalent to ...
18 votes
5 answers
2k views

"Physical" construction of nonconstant meromorphic functions on compact Riemann surfaces?

Miranda's book on Riemann surfaces ignores the analytical details of proving that compact Riemann surfaces admit nonconstant meromorphic functions, preferring instead to work out the algebraic ...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
1k views

The Teichmüller space $T_g$ of a closed riemann surface $S_g$ of genus $g \geq 2$ can't be parametrized by $6g−6$ geodesic length functions

I asked this question almost a month ago on Math SE. After waiting three weeks for an answer or a comment, I opened a bounty on the question in hope that it might get an answer this way. The bounty ...
user331406's user avatar
84 votes
1 answer
5k views

Is there a complex surface into which every Riemann surface embeds?

This question was previously asked on Math SE. Every Riemann surface can be embedded in some complex projective space. In fact, every Riemann surface $\Sigma$ admits an embedding $\varphi : \Sigma \...
Michael Albanese's user avatar
33 votes
4 answers
4k views

How to visualize the Riemann-Roch theorem from complex analysis or geometric topology considerations?

As the question title asks for, how do others visualize the Riemann-Roch theorem with complex analysis or geometric topology considerations? That is all Riemann would have had back in the day, and he ...
Squid with Black Bean Sauce's user avatar
28 votes
7 answers
7k views

Elementary Proof of Riemann-Roch for Compact Riemann Surfaces

I am supposed to give a talk about the Riemann-Roch theorem to a seminar of first and second year graduate students. I want to do Riemann-Roch for compact Riemann surfaces, but I am open to perhaps ...
user avatar
21 votes
7 answers
3k views

What should be taught in a 1st course on Riemann Surfaces?

I am teaching a topics course on Riemann Surfaces/Algebraic Curves next term. The course is aimed at 1st and 2nd year US graduate students who have have taken basic coursework in algebra and manifold ...
jlk's user avatar
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20 votes
2 answers
1k views

Belyi functions on non-compact surfaces; or: Building Riemann surfaces from equilateral triangles

Some background on (compact) Belyi surfaces $\newcommand{\Ch}{\hat{\mathbb{C}}}$ A compact Riemann surface $X$ is called a Belyi surface if there exists a branched covering map $f:X\to \Ch$ such that $...
Lasse Rempe's user avatar
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14 votes
1 answer
735 views

Cutting up the Bring surface into six pairs of pants

The Bring sextic, with 120 automorphisms, is the numerically most symmetric compact Riemann surface of genus 4. To cut it up into six pairs of pants, we need to cut along nine disjoint geodesic loops....
Lyle Ramshaw's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
3k views

Which Riemann surfaces arise from the Riemann existence theorem?

The following was already known to Riemann. Suppose that one is given a connected Riemann surface $X$, a finite set $\Delta \subset X$ and a homomorphism $\phi: \pi_1(X \backslash \Delta) \to S_d$ ...
skupers's user avatar
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10 votes
3 answers
1k views

How do you see that higher genus surfaces are not homogeneous?

I am trying to get some intuition about why the torus and the sphere are the only surfaces which can be realised as homogeneous spaces. On the one hand, I know this is true because there is the ...
Simon Willerton's user avatar
57 votes
7 answers
8k views

Maryam Mirzakhani's works

Maryam Mirzakhani has made several contributions to the theory of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces. Mirzakhani was awarded the Fields Medal in 2014 for "her outstanding contributions to the dynamics ...
user avatar
40 votes
4 answers
3k views

Why are Green functions involved in intersection theory?

I've been learning Arakelov geometry on surfaces for a while. Formally I've understood how things work, but I'm still missing a big picture. Summary: Let $X$ be an arithmetic surface over $\...
Dubious's user avatar
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32 votes
7 answers
12k views

Links between Riemann surfaces and algebraic geometry

I'm taking introductory courses in both Riemann surfaces and algebraic geometry this term. I was surprised to hear that any compact Riemann surface is a projective variety. Apparently deeper links ...
Randomblue's user avatar
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31 votes
3 answers
3k views

References for Riemann surfaces

I know this question has been asked before on MO and MSE (here, here, here, here) but the answers that were given were only partially helpful to me, and I suspect that I am not the only one. I am ...
25 votes
9 answers
13k views

Teichmuller Theory introduction

What is a good introduction to Teichmuller theory, mapping class groups etc., and relation to moduli space of curves or Riemann surfaces?
23 votes
3 answers
1k views

Gromov-Hausdorff limits of 2-dimensional Riemannian surfaces

Let $\{M_i\}$ be a sequence of 2-dimensional orientable closed surfaces of genus $g$ with smooth Riemannian metrics with the Gauss curvature at least $-1$ and diameter at most $D$. By the Gromov ...
asv's user avatar
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20 votes
1 answer
990 views

Canonical immersion of the double torus

It is easy to check that the immersion $\mathbb{T}^2=\mathbb{S}^1\times \mathbb{S}^1\longrightarrow\mathbb{R}^4$, $(\alpha,\beta)\longmapsto(\cos\alpha,\sin\alpha,\cos\beta,\sin\beta)$ induces the ...
Jjm's user avatar
  • 2,071
16 votes
2 answers
1k views

Are mapping class groups of orientable surfaces good in the sense of Serre?

A group G is called ‘good’ if the canonical map $G\to\hat{G}$ to the profinite completion induces isomorphisms $H^i(\hat{G},M)\to H^i(G,M)$ for any finite $G$-module $M$. I’ve had multiple academics ...
Tsein32's user avatar
  • 343
16 votes
2 answers
3k views

The fundamental group of a closed surface without classification of surfaces?

The fundamental group of a closed oriented surface of genus $g$ has the well-known presentation $$ \langle x_1,\ldots, x_g,y_1,\ldots ,y_g\vert \prod_{i=1}^{g} [x_i,y_i]\rangle. $$ The proof I know ...
Johannes Ebert's user avatar
14 votes
3 answers
3k views

Automorphisms of Riemann Surfaces

Izumi Kuribayashi and Akikazu Kuribayashi have classified all groups of automorphisms of compact Riemann surfaces of genus 3,4,5. (J. Pure Applied Alg.65(3)-Sept.1990, and J. Alg.134(1) Oct.1990) ...
Martin David's user avatar
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12 votes
3 answers
4k views

Teichmuller theory and moduli of Riemann surfaces

This is a sequel to my earlier question asking for references for Teichmuller theory and moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces. In this connection, I have read Chapter 11 of the book Primer of mapping ...
Anweshi's user avatar
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12 votes
3 answers
1k views

Conformal Welding Reference

I'm looking for a reference for the following fact: given two Riemann surfaces and an identification of their boundaries, once I topologically glue the surfaces together there exists a unique ...
Harold Williams's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
870 views

On a corollary of a paper by Colin and Honda

The question is about the last sentence of the last corollary of Stabilizing the monodromy of an open book decomposition by Vicent Colin and Ko Honda. This question is also related to this other ...
Paul's user avatar
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12 votes
2 answers
1k views

Universal covering of a 2-sphere without $n$ points

Let $X$ be the $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^1$ with $n$ points deleted. Let $n\geq 3$. If I understand correctly, the universal covering of $X$ is isomorphic to the upper half plane as a complex analytic ...
asv's user avatar
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11 votes
2 answers
713 views

Visualizing holomorphic differentials on a compact Riemann surface?

It is a classical result that the vector space of holomorphic differentials on a compact Riemann surface of genus $g$ has dimension $g$. I am wondering if there is a way of visualizing this wonderful ...
Timothy Chow's user avatar
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11 votes
5 answers
1k views

Schottky locus in genus 2

Let $\phi_g : \mathcal{M}_g \rightarrow \mathcal{A}_g$ be the period mapping from the open moduli space of genus $g$ Riemann surfaces to the moduli space of $g$-dimensional principally polarized ...
G Fiori's user avatar
  • 113
11 votes
4 answers
3k views

Laplace-Beltrami Operator on Surfaces

I would like to know what is known about the spectrum of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on 2-dimensional negatively curved surfaces of constant curvature. For instance, What is the spectrum of the ...
ght's user avatar
  • 3,616
11 votes
3 answers
730 views

Explicit triples of isomorphic Riemann surfaces

Inspired by a discussion with Neil Strickland I am very interested to hear of explicit examples (one per answer, please), as follows. A compact Riemann surface can be presented in many different ways....
10 votes
2 answers
2k views

The class of the diagonal in the symmetric product of a smooth curve

Let $C$ be a smooth curve of genus $g$, and let us consider its $d$-th symmetric product $\textrm{Sym}^d(C)$ and its Jacobian $J(C)$. Fixing a point $p_0 \in C,$ there are two maps $$u_d\colon C_d \to ...
Francesco Polizzi's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
769 views

Can you cover a genus a billion hyperbolic surface with 15 balls?

Here's a question I was wondering about this week. Not sure how interesting it is, but I thought it was kind of curious. Question: Given $k$, is there a number $N=N(k)$ such that if a closed ...
biringer's user avatar
  • 512
10 votes
1 answer
934 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
9 votes
2 answers
3k views

The existence of meromorphic functions on Riemann surfaces

In Miranda's book on algebraic curves and Riemann surfaces, Miranda writes: It is a basic and highly nontrivial result that a compact Riemann surface has nonconstant meromorphic functions on ...
Jonah Sinick's user avatar
  • 6,942
9 votes
3 answers
1k views

An analytic proof of the De Franchis theorem

The De Franchis theorem in its simplest form states that given two compact Riemann surfaces $\Sigma_{g_1},\Sigma_{g_2}$ where $g_1,g_2 > 1$, there are only finitely many non-constant holomorphic ...
Jaikrishnan's user avatar
  • 1,149
8 votes
2 answers
379 views

Image of boundary circle under map from punctured elliptic curve to ℂ

Let $E=\mathbb C/\Lambda$ be an elliptic curve, and let $D\subset E$ be a very small disc. ($D$ is round for the usual flat metric on $E$) By the main result of [1], there exists a holomorphic ...
André Henriques's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
893 views

Is there an algorithm to compute efficiently the dessin d'enfant from a Belyi pair?

Let $(X,f)$ be a Belyi pair, i.e. a Riemann surface $X$ together with a morphism $f: X \to \mathbb{P}^1$, ramified only in $0,1, \infty$. Grothendieck's dessin d'enfant is the pre-image $G$ of the ...
Dima Sustretov's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
432 views

Fundamental group of $\mathrm{Sym}^2 (C_g)$ minus the diagonal

Let $C_g$ be a compact Riemann surface of genus $g$, and let $X:=\mathrm{Sym}^2(C_g)$ be its double symmetric product and $\Delta \subset X$ the diagonal. Question. What is the topological ...
Francesco Polizzi's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
786 views

Non-algebraic curve visualisation

Is there any software which can automatically visualise a non-algebraic complex curve, I mean the structure of it's ramification points and sheet? I think a good test example would be the Lambert ...
Sasha's user avatar
  • 1,343
7 votes
1 answer
365 views

Selberg Zeta Function and Fenchel-Nielsen Coordinates

According to Uniformization theorem every compact Riemann surface $\Sigma$ of genus $g\ge2$ is isomorphic to a space that can be obtained by the action of a Fuchsian group on upper half plane $\mathbb{...
QGravity's user avatar
  • 969
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Uniformizations of the bordered/punctured Riemann surfaces

The uniformization theorems of Riemann surfaces state that any Riemann surface can be constructed by an action of some group on some space. It is quite hard to find materials relating different ...
QGravity's user avatar
  • 969
5 votes
2 answers
931 views

Isometric embedding of a genus g surface

Can a genus $g$ surface with constant negative curvature and $g>1$ be isometrically embedded in $\mathbb{R}^4?$
GAUTAM NEELAKANTAN's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is the definition of ideal boundary?

In many papers about dynamical system, I found the word " ideal boundary". T don't know what is the definition of ideal boundary.
Jun Lu's user avatar
  • 471
5 votes
2 answers
747 views

Uniformization for annuli with boundary

Let $(A,g)$ be a compact surface with boundary, diffeomorphic to the standard annulus $\{z\in\mathbb{C}:1\le|z|\le 2\}$, equipped with a smooth metric $g$. Does there always exist a conformal (...
Mizar's user avatar
  • 3,096
5 votes
1 answer
192 views

Mapping-Class Groups of Subsurfaces of a Hyperbolic Surface

If $\mathcal{R}'$ is a closed subsurface of a hyperbolic surface $\mathcal{R}$, then there is an inclusion homomorphism between the mapping class groups: $$\text{Mod}(\mathcal{R}')\longrightarrow \...
QGravity's user avatar
  • 969
4 votes
2 answers
211 views

Measured geodesic laminations have either discrete or Cantor set local cross-sections

I'm reading through Kerckhoff's paper "The Nielsen Realization Problem": https://www.jstor.org/stable/2007076. In section 1, after he defines measured geodesic laminations, he makes the ...
Harry Reed's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
482 views

fundamental domains in H^2 containing large balls

I would like to construct a genus $g$ surface regularly tiled by triangles (for example by 238 triangles). Edmunds-Ewing-Kulkarni prove that the only obstruction to doing this is Euler characteristic ...
Arielle Leitner's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
381 views

Cluster algebras of type A and X

I will base my question on Fock and Goncharov's paper Dual Teichmüller and lamination spaces. Let $S$ be a surface with boundaries, marked points on such boundaries, punctures and boundaries without ...
giulio bullsaver's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
1k views

Explicit description of the group of deck transformations acting on the universal cover of a Riemann Surface

I am finding the explicit description of genus $2$ surface as the upper half plane modulo group of Deck Transformation. I did't find it anywhere. Also, I found a similar question here. But, there is ...
user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
666 views

Holomorphic vector bundles over a Riemann surface does not satisfy $\mathbf{AB2}$ but satisfies $\mathbf{AB1}$

in Grothendieck's Tohoku paper (page 127), Grothendieck asserts that the category of holomorphic vector bundles $\mathbf{Bund}(X)$ over a fixed Riemann surface $X$ does not satisfy $\mathbf{AB2}$, but ...
user40276's user avatar
  • 2,199
3 votes
1 answer
434 views

Periods of translation surfaces

A translation surface is a Riemann surface equipped with a holomorphic 1-form $\omega$ and a Riemannian metric $g=\omega \bar \omega$ with conical singularities. It is well-known that there exists ...
Sebastian's user avatar
  • 6,735