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A branch value is the image of a ramification point of a holomorphic map. Away from all branch values, a proper holomorphic map is an ordinary unramified covering.

Set $F(z,w)=w^2-z^n+1$. Its complex gradient is $(-n{z}^{n-1},2w)$, never zero on $F=0$: simultaneous zero would give $z=w=0$, which is not on the curve. The complex implicit function theorem therefore gives a one-dimensional complex manifold, hence a Riemann surface. Where $w\ne 0$ use $z$ as coordinate, and where $z\ne 0$ use $w$; the transition maps and both projections are holomorphic.

For $\pi$, a ramification point of a holomorphic map has $w=0$ and $z=\zeta$ with ${\zeta }^n=1$. In the coordinate $w$, $z-\zeta =w^2/(n{\zeta }^{n-1})+O(w^4)$, giving ramification index $2$. Thus there are $n$ such points, and their branch points are the $n$th roots of unity.

For $\tau$, a ramification point of a holomorphic map has $z=0,w=\pm i$. In the coordinate $z$, $w-w_0=z^n/(2w_0)+O(z^{2n})$, giving ramification index $n$ at both points and branch points $\pm i$.

Write $n=2m$. At infinity set $u=1/z$, $v=w{u}^m$; then $v^2=1-u^n$. At $u=0$ there are two smooth points, $v=\pm 1$, and $u$ is a local coordinate. The extended $\pi$ has a simple pole at each, so neither is ramified. The degree-two Riemann-Hurwitz formula for the map to the Riemann sphere gives $2g-2=2(-2)+n$, henceThe list for $\tau$ above concerns the original affine Riemann surface; on the compactification its poles at the two added points have order $m$ and are additionally ramified if $m>1$.

In local coordinates centred at $p$ and $f(p)$, a nonconstant rational map has the formThe point $p$ is a ramification point of a holomorphic map when its ramification index of a holomorphic map satisfies $e_p>1$. A branch value of a holomorphic map, also called a branch point in the target, is a value $f(p)$ of some ramification point.

Let $B$ be the finite set of branch values and put $R=f^{-1}(B)$. For every $w\notin B$, all points of $f^{-1}(w)$ have local degree one, so the holomorphic inverse function theorem supplies disjoint neighbourhoods on which $f$ is biholomorphic. Compactness of the fibre lets their target neighbourhoods be intersected to one evenly covered neighbourhood of $w$. Henceis an unramified covering map. Here the displayed restriction requires $R=f^{-1}(B)$; if “ramification point” is reserved only for points with $e_p>1$, then the source deletion must be written $f^{-1}(B)$.

The monodromy theorem says that analytic continuations along endpoint-fixed homotopic paths have the same terminal germ. Equivalently here, the path lifting theorem lifts a loop $\gamma$ based at $w\notin B$ from each point of $f^{-1}(w)$; taking the endpoint of each lift permutes that fibre. The permutation depends only on $[\gamma ]\in {\pi }_1({\mathbb{C}}_{\infty }\setminus B,w)$, giving the monodromy group of a covering.

For the stated function, make the Möbius change of coordinateThenThe critical points are $t=0,\pm 1/\sqrt{2},\infty$, with branch valuesA loop around $0$ interchanges the two roots born from $t=0$, so its branch cycle is a transposition. A loop around $-1/4$ simultaneously interchanges the two pairs that collide there, so its branch cycle is a product of two disjoint transpositions. With a suitable labelling these areThey generate a transitive group of order eight; their product is a four-cycle. Therefore the full monodromy group isthe dihedral group in its action on the four vertices of a square.