Tamely Ramified Covers of the Projective Line with Alternating and Symmetric Monodromy

Abstract

Let $k$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p$ and let $X$ the projective line over $k$ with three points removed. We investigate which finite groups $G$ can arise as the monodromy group of finite étale covers of $X$ that are tamely ramified over the three removed points. This provides new information about the tame fundamental group of the projective line. In particular, we show that for each prime $p\ge 5$, there are families of tamely ramified covers with monodromy the symmetric group $S_n$ or alternating group $A_n$ for infinitely many $n$. These covers come from the moduli spaces of elliptic curves with $PS{L}_2({\mathbb{F}}_{\ell })$-structure, and the analysis uses work of Bourgain, Gamburd, and Sarnak, and adapts work of Meiri and Puder, about Markoff triples modulo $\ell$.

arXiv commentimproved and updated based on referee comments

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