Orbifold Hurwitz numbers and Eynard-Orantin invariants (Q510367)

The orbifold Hurwitz numbers \(H_{g;\mu}^{[a]}\) give weighted counts of connected genus \(g\) branched covers of \(\mathbb{P}^1\) with ramification profile over \(\infty\) given by \(\mu\), and over \(0\) by \((a,\dots,a)\). One recovers (simple) Hurwitz numbers for \(a=1\). The main result of the paper generalizes the Bouchard-Mariño conjecture [\textit{V. Bouchard} and \textit{M. Mariño}, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 78, 263--283 (2008; Zbl 1151.14335)] (proved by Eynard-Mulase-Safnuk [\textit{B. Eynard} et al., Publ. Res. Inst. Math. Sci. 47, No. 2, 629--670 (2011; Zbl 1225.14022)]), which expresses the analytic expansion of the Eynard-Orantin invariants \(w_n^g\) around \(0\) in terms of the generating function of Hurwitz numbers. The spectral curve of Eynard-Orantin in this case is given by \(x=ze^{-z^a}\) and \(y=z^a\). The motivation comes from the work of Johnson-Pandharipande-Tseng [\textit{P. Johnson} et al., Mich. Math. J. 60, No. 1, 171--198 (2011; Zbl 1222.14119)] on Hurwitz-Hodge integrals, which leads to an ELSV-type formula for \(H_{g;\mu}^{[a]}\). Together with the paper's main result this allows to compute the Hurwitz-Hodge integrals via the Eynard-Orantin recursion, which also appears in the computation of Weil-Petersson volumes, lattice point counts on the moduli of curves, and Gromov-Witten invariants of \(\mathbb{P}^1\) and toric Calabi-Yau threefolds. The proof generalizes the approach of Eynard-Mulase-Safnuk, and uses the cut-and-join recursion and string and dilation equations.