Distributions of regular branched surface coverings. (Q1427440)

A map \(p : S_1 \to S_2\) between two surfaces is a covering if it is a local homeomorphism. The map is a branched covering if there is a finite set of branch points \(B \subset S_2\) such that \(p\) is a covering on \(S_1 - p^{-1}(B)\). A branched covering is regular if there is a group \(A\) acting pseudofreely on \(S_1\) such that \(S_2\) is the quotient space under this action; call this an \(A\)-covering. Let \(S\) be a fixed surface, \(B\) a fixed subset of branch points, and \(A\) a fixed group. How many regular branched \(A\)-coverings of \(S\) with branch points \(B\) are there from a fixed surface? J. H. Kwak recorded these numbers in the branched covering distribution polynomial, \(R_{(S,B,A)}(x)\), where the coefficient on \(x^i\) is the number of such coverings from the orientable surface of genus \(i\) (negative values of \(i\) are allowed to count the coverings from nonorientable surfaces). G. A. Jones enumerated the equivalence classes of branched \(A\)-coverings according to the degrees of the branch points, which allows the calculation of the branched covering distribution polynomial when \(S\) is orientable. In this paper, the authors calculate this polynomial when \(S\) is nonorientable. As an application, they give an explicit calculation of the polynomial in the case \(A\) is cyclic or dihedral.