Degenerations and fibrations of Riemann surfaces associated with regular polyhedra and soccer ball

Abstract

To each of regular polyhedra and a soccer ball, we associate degenerating families (degenerations) of Riemann surfaces. More specifically: To each orientation-preserving automorphism of a regular polyhedron (and also of a soccer ball), we associate a degenerating family of Riemann surfaces whose topological monodromy is the automorphism. The complete classification of such degenerating families is given. Besides, we determine the Euler numbers of their total spaces. Furthermore, we affirmatively solve the compactification problem raised by Mutsuo Oka — we explicitly construct compact fibrations of Riemann surfaces that compactify the above degenerating families. Their singular fibers and Euler numbers are also determined.