On the Moduli Space of Cyclic Trigonal Riemann Surfaces of Genus 4

Abstract: A closed Riemann surface which can be realized as a 3-sheeted covering of the Riemann sphere is called trigonal, and such a covering is called a trigonal morphism. Accola showed that the trigonal morphism is unique for Riemann surfaces of genus g ? 5. This thesis characterizes the cyclic trigonal Riemann surfaces of genus 4 with non-unique trigonal morphism using the automorphism groups of the surfaces. The thesis shows that Accola’s bound is sharp with the existence of a uniparametric family of cyclic trigonal Riemann surfaces of genus 4 having several trigonal morphisms. The structure of the moduli space of trigonal Riemann surfaces of genus 4 is also characterized.Finally, by using the same technique as in the case of cyclic trigonal Riemann surfaces of genus 4, we are able to deal with p-gonal Riemann surfaces and show that Accola’s bound is sharp for p-gonal Riemann surfaces. Furthermore, we study families of p-gonal Riemann surfaces of genus (p ? 1)2 with two p-gonal morphisms, and describe the structure of their moduli space.