Scrollar invariants, resolvents, and syzygies

With every cover C --> P^1 of the projective line one can associate its so-called scrollar invariants (also called Maroni invariants) which describe how the push-forward of the structure sheaf of C splits over P^1. They can be viewed as geometric counterparts of the successive minima of the lattice associated with the ring of integers of a number field. In this talk we consider the following problem: how do the scrollar invariants of the Galois closure C' --> P^1 and of its various subcovers (the so-called resolvents of C --> P^1) relate to known invariants of the given cover? This concerns ongoing work with Yongqiang Zhao, in which we put a previous observation for covers of degree 4 due to Casnati in a more general framework. As we will see the answer involves invariants related to syzygies that were introduced by Schreyer. As time permits, we will discuss a number-theoretic manifestation of the phenomena observed.