Tropes, Torelli and theta characteristics

Abstract

Our main result is an effective version of the Torelli theorem in genus $3$ and any characteristic not $2$: the configuration of the odd theta characteristics of a curve $C$ of genus $3$ determines a del Pezzo surface $S$ of degree two and that $C$ is recovered as the normalization of a certain curve on $S$. This surface is not the one usually associated to $C$; we describe the distinction. We also give an explicit geometrical description of the quadratic twist (observed by Serre) that arises in the statement of the Torelli theorem.