Analytic and Topological Nets

Abstract

We characterize which planar graphs arise as the pullback, under a rational map $r$, of an analytic Jordan curve passing through the critical values of $r$. We also prove that such pullbacks are dense within the collection of $f^{-1}(\Sigma )$, where $f$ is a branched cover of the sphere and $\Sigma$ is a Jordan curve passing through the branched values of $f$.