Subgroups of profinite surface groups

Abstract

We study the subgroup structure of the \'etale fundamental group $\Pi$ of a projective curve over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0. We obtain an analog of the diamond theorem for $\Pi$. As a consequence we show that most normal subgroups of infinite index are semi-free. In particular every proper open subgroup of a normal subgroup of infinite index is semi-free.