On Macbeath-Singerman symmetries of Belyi surfaces with PSL(2,p) as a group of automorphisms

Abstract

The famous theorem of Belyi states that the compact Riemann surface X can be defined over the number field if and only if X can be uniformized by a finite index subgroup Γ of a Fuchsian triangle group Λ. As a result such surfaces are now called Belyi surfaces. The groups PSL(2,q),q=pn are known to act as the groups of automorphisms on such surfaces. Certain aspects of such actions have been extensively studied in the literature. In this paper, we deal with symmetries. Singerman showed, using acertain result of Macbeath, that such surfaces admit a symmetry which we shall call in this paper the Macbeath-Singerman symmetry. A classical theorem by Harnack states that the set of fixed points of a symmetry of a Riemann surface X of genus g consists of k disjoint Jordan curves called ovals for some k ranging between 0 and g+1. In this paper we show that given an odd prime p, a Macbetah-Singerman symmetry of Belyi surface with PSL(2,p) as a group of automorphisms has at most