ON AUTOMORPHISMS OF ALGEBRAIC CURVES 9

at P we see that g ∗ f = f . It follows that g ∗ is trivial on all of k(X ) and hence

g is trivial on all of X . From the

format of the matrix for g ∗ it follows that the
2 ∗
action on GLk MP (X )/MP (X ) ⋍ k is trivial on elements of order p, so that the
map GP → k ∗ has cyclic image and the kernel is a p-group. It then follows that
GP ⋍ Cm ⋉ H where H is a p-group and that eπ (P ) = m × q where q is some
p-power. For g ∈ GP we call the image of g ∗ in k ∗ the rotation number of g at
P.

2.6. Cyclic n-gonal curves. A cyclic n-gonal curve has a cyclic G = Cn

action for which the genus of X /G is zero. A defining equation is of the form
y n = f (x), where f (x) is a rational function. The curve can be put in a canonical
form:
y n = (x − a1 )n1 · · · (x − at )nt ,
where n, n1 , . . . , nt ∈ Z+ , a1 , . . . , at ∈ k satisfy:
(1) a1 , . . . , at are distinct,
(2) 0 < ni < n,
(3) n divides n1 + · · · + nt
(4) gcd(n1 , . . . , nt ) = 1.
The conditions 1 and 2 simplify the model and eliminate degeneracies, condition
3 ensures that curve is not ramified over ∞, and condition 4 ensures that curve
is irreducible. The curve needs to be normalized to make it smooth. There is a
G-action, where G = Un = {u ∈ k : un = 1}, given by (x, y) → (x, uy). We must
assume the p does not divide n otherwise the field extension will be inseparable.
The quotient map is (x, y) → x, and is branched over a1 , . . . , at . The local equation
is y n = b(x)(x − ai )ni , where b(ai ) 6= 0. There are di = gcd(n, ni ) branches of
the curve meeting at (ai , 0), and in the normalization the ramification degree is
mi = n/di . For a discussion of the p = 0 case, which extends in many ways to the
p > 0 case see [18],[16]. In the complex case, the vector (n1 , . . . , nt ) is a generating
vector (see Section 6.1) for G = Cn by the conditions 2, 3, 4. In the p > 0 case
(n1 , . . . , nt ) is a classifier for the Cn action and may be thought of as a generating
vector for Galois covers of Y = P1 (k), ramified exactly over B = {a1 , . . . , at }, with
Galois group G = Cn . It plays the role of generating vector, though it is not
constructed topologically. We will look at such curves in more detail in Section 5.

3. Weierstrass Gap Theorem and Weierstrass points

We assume that the reader is familiar with basic definitions on divisors on
curves. For a short introduction see [27] in this volume or [70].
Let P be a point on Xg and consider the vector spaces L(nP ) for n = 0, 1, . . . , 2g−
1. These vector spaces contain functions with poles only at P up to a specific order.
This leads to a chain of inclusions
L(0) ⊆ L(P ) ⊆ L(2P ) ⊆ · · · ⊆ L((2g − 1)P )
with a corresponding non-decreasing sequence of dimensions
ℓ(0) ≤ ℓ(P ) ≤ ℓ(2P ) ≤ · · · ≤ ℓ((2g − 1)P ).
The following proposition shows that the dimension goes up by at most 1 in each
step.