Generalized superelliptic Riemann surfaces

Abstract

A closed Riemann surface $\mathcal X$, of genus $g \geq 2$, is called a generalized superelliptic curve of level $n \geq 2$ if it admits an order $n$ conformal automorphism $\tau$ so that $\mathcal X/\langle \tau \rangle$ has genus zero and $\tau$ is central in ${\rm Aut}(\mathcal X)$; the cyclic group $H=\langle \tau \rangle$ is called a generalized superelliptic group of level $n$ for $\mathcal X$. These Riemann surfaces are natural generalizations of hyperelliptic Riemann surfaces (when $n=2$). We provide an algebraic curve description of these Riemann surfaces in terms of their groups of automorphisms. Also, we observe that the generalized superelliptic group $H$ of level $n$ is unique, with the exception of a very particular family of exceptional generalized superelliptic Riemann surfaces for $n$ even. In particular, the uniqueness holds if either: (i) $n$ is odd or (ii) the quotient $\mathcal X/H$ has all its cone points of order $n$ (for instance, when $\mathcal X$ is a superelliptic curve of level $n$). In the non-exceptional case, we use this uniqueness property of its generalized superelliptic group $H$ to observe that the corresponding curves are definable over their fields of moduli if ${\rm Aut}(\mathcal X)/H$ is neither trivial or cyclic.