The theta characteristic of a branched covering (Q2469875)

For a smooth complex algebraic curve, a theta characteristic is a divisor which is equivalent to half of the canonical divisor. Let \(f:C\to B\) be a map which has only odd ramifications and \(L\) be a theta characteristic on \(B\). Then one can define \(f^*L\) as half of the pull-back by \(f\) of the canonical divisor on \(B\). The main question of this work is to understand the relationship between the parity of \(\dim \mathcal O(L)\) and that of \(f^*(L)\). The answer is given in terms of the combinatorics of the Sergeev group (which is the semi-direct product of the Clifford group and the symmetric group). An application of this result is a formula for the generating function for the number of nonisomorphic branched coverings \(f\) of a torus with given ramification set, with respect to the parity of \(f^*(L)\) in the sense above (here, for the torus, theta characteristic \(L\) is the zero divisor) and the weight, which is the cardinality of the automorphism group of \(f\). As a corollary it is shown that the generating function is, up to the series \(\prod_{n>0}(1-q^n)\) (which is the generating function for coverings with empty ramification set), quasi-modular.