Friday, 8 September 2006

ag.algebraic geometry - Counting branched covers of the projective line and Spec Z

I've asked a question like this before, but now I'm more interested in counting the number of covers.



We suppose given the following data.



  1. A positive integer $d$


  2. A finite set of closed points $B= ( b_1,ldots,b_n )$ in $mathbf{P}^1_mathbf{C}$


  3. Branch types $T_1,ldots, T_n$.


Question. How many branched covers of $mathbf{P}^1_mathbf{C}$ exist which are branched only over $b_i$ (with branch type $T_i$ over each $b_i$)?



The answer lies within the Hurwitz number for $(T_1,ldots,T_n)$. This translates the problem to combinatorial group theory.



Now, for my main question:



Q1. Can one ``count'' covers of $textrm{Spec} mathbf{Z}$ as above? That is, can one count the number of finite field extensions $$mathbf{Q}subset K$$ of given degree $d=[K:mathbf{Q}]$ which are unramified outside a given set of prime numbers $p_1,ldots,p_n$ with ramification types $T_1,ldots,T_n$?



I know that one can use Minkowski's Geometry of Numbers to give some nontrivial bounds on the discriminant. Is this the best we can do?

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