Graph-theoretic Hurwitz Groups

This paper studies the analogue of Hurwitz groups and surfaces in the context of harmonic group actions on finite graphs. Our main result states that maximal graph groups are exactly the finite quotients of the modular group $\Gamma= $ of size at least 6. As an immediate consequence, every Hurwitz group is a maximal graph group, and the final section of the paper establishes a direct connection between maximal graphs and Hurwitz surfaces via a construction due to Brooks and Makover.