Vanishing thetanulls on curves with involutions (Q1945106)

If \(C\) is a hyperelliptic curve, the configuration of its theta characteristics and vanishing thetanulls is completely understood [\textit{D. Mumford}, Tata lectures on theta. II: Jacobian theta functions and differential equations. With the collaboration of C. Musili, M. Nori, E. Previato, M. Stillman, and H. Umemura. Reprint of the 1984 edition. Modern Birkhäuser Classics. Basel: Birkhäuser (2007; Zbl 1112.14003)]. In this note, the author obtains an analogous result for non hyperelliptic curves \(C\) of genus \(g\) with an involution \(\sigma\). His main result is that there are at least \(2^{g-1} (2^{g-2b}+1-2^{-r+1} {2r \choose r})\) (resp. \(2^{g-2} -2^{(g-3)/2}\)) vanishing thetanulls if the cover \(C \mapsto C/\langle \sigma \rangle\) is ramified (resp. étale), where \(b\) is the genus of \(C/\langle \sigma \rangle\) and \(r=g-2b+1\).