Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications (SIGMA)


SIGMA 20 (2024), 040, 30 pages      arXiv:2205.13912      https://doi.org/10.3842/SIGMA.2024.040

Co-Axial Metrics on the Sphere and Algebraic Numbers

Zhijie Chen a, Chang-Shou Lin b and Yifan Yang c
a) Department of Mathematical Sciences, Yau Mathematical Sciences Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China
b) Department of Mathematics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
c) Department of Mathematics, National Taiwan University and National Center for Theoretical Sciences, Taipei 10617, Taiwan

Received November 07, 2023, in final form May 09, 2024; Published online May 20, 2024

Abstract
In this paper, we consider the following curvature equation $$\Delta u+{\rm e}^u=4\pi\biggl((\theta_0-1)\delta_0+(\theta_1-1)\delta_1 +\sum_{j=1}^{n+m}\bigl(\theta_j'-1\bigr)\delta_{t_j}\biggr)\qquad \text{in}\ \mathbb R^2,$$ $$u(x)=-2(1+\theta_\infty)\ln|x|+O(1)\qquad \text{as} \ |x|\to\infty,$$ where $\theta_0$, $\theta_1$, $\theta_\infty$, and $\theta_{j}'$ are positive non-integers for $1\le j\le n$, while $\theta_{j}'\in\mathbb{N}_{\geq 2}$ are integers for $n+1\le j\le n+m$. Geometrically, a solution $u$ gives rise to a conical metric ${\rm d}s^2=\frac12 {\rm e}^u|{\rm d}x|^2$ of curvature $1$ on the sphere, with conical singularities at $0$, $1$, $\infty$, and $t_j$, $1\le j\le n+m$, with angles $2\pi\theta_0$, $2\pi\theta_1$, $2\pi\theta_\infty$, and $2\pi\theta_{j}'$ at $0$, $1$, $\infty$, and $t_j$, respectively. The metric ${\rm d}s^2$ or the solution $u$ is called co-axial, which was introduced by Mondello and Panov, if there is a developing map $h(x)$ of $u$ such that the projective monodromy group is contained in the unit circle. The sufficient and necessary conditions in terms of angles for the existence of such metrics were obtained by Mondello-Panov (2016) and Eremenko (2020). In this paper, we fix the angles and study the locations of the singularities $t_1,\dots,t_{n+m}$. Let $A\subset\mathbb{C}^{n+m}$ be the set of those $(t_1,\dots,t_{n+m})$'s such that a co-axial metric exists, among other things we prove that (i) If $m=1$, i.e., there is only one integer $\theta_{n+1}'$ among $\theta_j'$, then $A$ is a finite set. Moreover, for the case $n=0$, we obtain a sharp bound of the cardinality of the set $A$. We apply a result due to Eremenko, Gabrielov, and Tarasov (2016) and the monodromy of hypergeometric equations to obtain such a bound. (ii) If $m\ge 2$, then $A$ is an algebraic set of dimension $\leq m-1$.

Key words: co-axial metric; location of singularities; algebraic set.

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