Painlevé I, coverings of the sphere and Belyi functions (Q485289)

The first Painlevé transcendent \(y=y(\lambda)\) solving PI: \(y''=6y^2 -\lambda\) follows from an isomonodromic deformation of the linear equation \[ \frac{d^2\psi}{dz^2} = \Bigl( 4z^3 - 2\lambda z + 2\lambda y - 4y^3 + (y')^2 + \frac {y'}{z-y} + \frac{3}{4(z-y)^2} \Bigr) \psi \] [\textit{T. Kawai} and \textit{Y. Takei}, Algebraic analysis of singular perturbation theory. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2005; Zbl 1100.34004)]. If \(\lambda=a\) is a pole of \(y(\lambda)\), this approaches the cubic oscillator \[ d^2\psi / dz^2 = (4z^3 -2a z -28b)\psi \tag{1} \] as \(\lambda \to a,\) where \(b\) is another integration constant of \(y(\lambda)\). Then, the poles are in one-to-one correspondence with equivalence classes of branched coverings of the sphere \(f:\) \(\mathbb{C} \to \overline{\mathbb{C}},\) with five transcendental singularities \(w_0,\) \(w_{\pm 1},\) \(w_{\pm 2}\) and with no critical points, where the meromorphic function \(f\) is given by the ratio of linearly independent solutions of (1), that is, a solution of the \textit{R. Nevanlinna} problem [Acta Math. 58, 295--373 (1932; JFM 58.0369.01)]. In this paper, for the tritronquée solution \(y(\lambda)\sim - \sqrt{\lambda/6}\) in \(|\arg \lambda |<4\pi/5,\) the function \(f\) is constructed as the limit of a sequence of rational functions. In this case the singularities above are normalised as \(w_0=0,\) \(w_1=w_{-2}=1,\) \(w_2=w_{-1}=\infty,\) and these approximate rational functions are Belyi functions that have three critical values \(0,\) \(1,\) \(\infty\) [\textit{G. V. Belyĭ}, Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Mat. 43, 267--276 (1979; Zbl 0409.12012)].