The local-global principle for symmetric determinantal representations of smooth plane curves in characteristic two (Q503801)

Let \(C\) be a smooth projective plane curve of degree \(d \geq 1\) over a field \(K\). If \(C\) can be defined by \(\det M=0\) where \(M\) is a symmetric matrix of size \(d\) with entries in \(K\)-linear forms in three variables \(X,Y,Z\), then the curve is said to admit a symmetric determinantal representation. The authors are interested in the local-globlal principle for the existence of symmetric determinantal representations, i.e., the relationship between the two statements: (1) \(C\) admits a symmetric determinantal representation over a global field \(K\); (2) \(C\) admits a symmetric determinantal representation over all local fields \(K_v\). In the authors' earlier work [ibid. 221, No. 6, 1316--1321 (2017; Zbl 1368.14046)], it is proved that for conics and cubics, the principle holds if \(\mathrm{char}(K)\neq 2\), and counterexamples were introduced for quartics. Moreover, the authors use some group theoretic results to explain why they expect the existence of counterexamples for all degree \(\geq 4\). In this paper under review they prove that if \(\mathrm{char}(K)=2\), then the principle holds for all degrees, and this generality is due to Mumford's theory of canonical theta characteristics on smooth projective curves in characteristic two.