Reverse Hurwitz counts of genus 1 curves
Abstract
In this paper, we study a problem that is in a sense a reversal of the Hurwitz counting problem. The Hurwitz problem asks: for a generic target -- with a list of points -- and partitions of , how many degree covers are there with specified ramification over ? We ask: for a generic source -- an -pointed curve of genus -- and partitions of with , how many degree covers are there with ramification profile over corresponding to a fiber and elsewhere ramification profiles ? While the enumerative invariants we study bear a similarity to generalized Tevelev degrees, they are more difficult to express in closed form in general. Nonetheless, we establish key results: after proving a closed form result in the case where the only non-simple unmarked ramification profiles and are ``even'' (consisting of ), we go on to establish recursive formulas to compute invariants where each unmarked ramification profile is of the form . A special case asks: given a generic -pointed genus curve , how many degree covers are there with unspecified points of having ramification index ? We show that the answer is an explicit quartic in .
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.11280,
title = {Reverse Hurwitz counts of genus 1 curves},
author = {Michael Mueller},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.11280},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
35 pages, many TikZ figures; comments welcome