Harmonic Galois theory for finite graphs

Abstract

This paper develops a harmonic Galois theory for finite graphs, thereby classifying harmonic branched $G$-covers of a fixed base $X$ in terms of homomorphisms from a suitable fundamental group of $X$ together with $G$-inertia structures on $X$. As applications, we show that finite embedding problems for graphs have proper solutions and prove a Grunwald-Wang type result stating that an arbitrary collection of fibers may be realized by a global cover.