Symmetric and Alternating Groups As Monodromy Groups of Riemann Surfaces I : Generic Covers and Covers with Many Branch Points

Considers indecomposable degree $n$ covers of Riemann surfaces with monodromy group an alternating or symmetric group of degree $d$. The authors show that if the cover has five or more branch points then the genus grows rapidly with $n$ unless either $d = n$ or the curves have genus zero, there are precisely five branch points and $n =d(d-1)/2$.