The number of ramified coverings of the sphere by the double torus, and a general form for higher genera (Q1818214)

Let \(\mu^{(g)}_m(\alpha)\) be the number of almost simple ramified coverings of the sphere by \(X\) with ramification type \(\alpha\), where \(X\) is a compact connected Riemann surface of genus \(g\), and \(\alpha\) is a partition with \(m\) parts. The problem of finding an explicit expression for \(\mu^{(g)}_m(\alpha)\) is known as the Hurwitz enumeration problem. The paper gives an explicit result for \(g=2\), conjectures an explicit result for \(g= 3\), and conjectures an explicit result for the generating series of these numbers for any \(g\geq 3\). The proof uses an encoding of the Hurwitz enumeration problem into permutation enumeration, and heavily uses computer algebra (Maple). It is interesting that these results give no information for the case \(g=1\).