Kleins ten planar dessins of degree 11, and beyond


Abstract in English

We reinterpret ideas in Kleins paper on transformations of degree~$11$ from the modern point of view of dessins denfants, and extend his results by considering dessins of type $(3,2,p)$ and degree $p$ or $p+1$, where $p$ is prime. In many cases we determine the passports and monodromy groups of these dessins, and in a few small cases we give drawings which are topologically (or, in certain examples, even geometrically) correct. We use the Bateman--Horn Conjecture and extensive computer searches to support a conjecture that there are infinitely many primes of the form $p=(q^n-1)/(q-1)$ for some prime power $q$, in which case infinitely many groups ${rm PSL}_n(q)$ arise as permutation groups and monodromy groups of degree $p$ (an open problem in group theory).

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