Non-emptiness of Brill-Noether loci in M(2,K)

Abstract

Let C be a smooth projective complex curve of genus $g\geq2$. We investigate the Brill-Noether locus consisting of stable bundles of rank 2 and canonical determinant having at least $k$ independent sections. Using the Hecke correpondence we construct a fundamental class, which determines the non-emptiness of this locus at least when $C$ is a Petri curve. We prove that in many expected cases the Brill-Noether locus is non-empty. For some values of $k$ the result is best possible.