Children's Drawings and the Riemann-Hilbert Problem

We state and solve a discrete version of the classical Riemann-Hilbert problem. In particular, we associate a Riemann-Hilbert problem to every dessin d'enfants. We show how to compute the solution for a dessin that is a tree. This amounts to finding a Fuchsian differential equation satisfied by the local inverses of a Shabat polynomial. We produce a universal annihilating operator for the inverses of a generic polynomial. We classify those plane trees that have a representati...

A dessin d'enfant, or dessin, is a bicolored graph embedded into a Riemann surface. Acyclic dessins can be described analytically by pre-images of certain polynomials, called Shabat polynomials, and also algebraically by their monodromy groups, that is, the group generated by rotations of edges about black and white vertices. In this paper we investigate the Shabat polynomials and monodromy groups of planar acyclic dessins that are uniquely determined by their passports.

A dessin d'enfant, or dessin, is a bicolored graph embedded into a Riemann surface, and the monodromy group is an algebraic invariant of the dessin generated by rotations of edges about black and white vertices. A rational billiards surface is a two dimensional surface that allows one to view the path of a billiards ball as a continuous path. In this paper, we classify the monodromy groups of dessins associated to rational triangular billiards surfaces.

In this paper we show that counting Grothendieck's dessins d'enfants is universal in the sense that some other enumerative problems are either special cases or directly related to it. Such results provide concrete examples that support a proposal made in the paper to study various dualities from the point of view of group actions on the moduli space of theories. Connections to differential equations of hypergeometric type can be made transparent from this approach, suggesting...

We consider an application of Grothendieck's dessins d'enfants to the theory of the sixth Painlev\'e and Gauss hypergeometric functions: two classical special functions of the isomonodromy type. It is shown that, higher order transformations and the Schwarz table for the Gauss hypergeometric function are closely related with some particular Belyi functions. Moreover, we introduce a notion of deformation of the dessins d'enfants and show that one dimensional deformations are a...

We point out an explicit connection between graphs drawn on compact Riemann surfaces defined over the field $\bar{\mathbb{Q}}$ of algebraic numbers --- so-called Grothendieck's {\it dessins d'enfants} --- and a wealth of distinguished point-line configurations. These include simplices, cross-polytopes, several notable projective configurations, a number of multipartite graphs and some 'exotic' geometries. Among them, remarkably, we find not only those underlying Mermin's magi...

The classical theory of dessin d'enfants, which are bipartite maps on compact orientable surfaces, are combinatorial objects used to study branched covers between compact Riemann surfaces and the absolute Galois group of the field of rational numbers. In this paper, we show how this theory is naturally extended to non-compact orientable surfaces and, in particular, we observe that the Loch Ness monster (the surface of infinite genus with exactly one end) admits infinitely man...

A dessin d'enfant, or dessin, is a bicolored graph embedded into a Riemann surface, and the monodromy group is an algebraic invariant of the dessin generated by rotations of edges about black and white vertices. A rational polygonal billiards surface is a Riemann surface that arises from the dynamical system of billiards within a rational-angled polygon. In this paper, we compute the monodromy groups of dessins embedded into rational polygonal billiards surfaces and identify ...

Given a finite index subgroup $\Gamma$ of ${\rm{PSL}}_2(\Bbb{Z})$, we investigate Belyi functions on the corresponding modular curve $X(\Gamma)$ by introducing two methods for constructing such functions. Numerous examples have been worked out completely and as an application, we have derived modular equations for $\Gamma_0(2),\Gamma_0(3)$ and several special values of the $j$-function by a new method based on the theory of Belyi functions and dessin d'enfants.

In the paper we give an upper estimate of the number of apparent singularities that are sufficient for construction of a system of linear differential equations on a Riemann surface with given fuchsian singularities and monodromy.