Tangent cones to generalised theta divisors and generic injectivity of the theta map

Abstract

Let $C$ be a Petri general curve of genus $g$ and $E$ a general stable vector bundle of rank $r$ and slope $g-1$ over $C$ with $h^{0}(C,E)=r+1$. For $g\geqslant (2r+2)(2r+1)$, we show how the bundle $E$ can be recovered from the tangent cone to the generalised theta divisor $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E9}_{E}$ at ${\mathcal{O}}_{C}$. We use this to give a constructive proof and a sharpening of Brivio and Verra’s theorem that the theta map $\mathit{SU}_{C}(r){\dashrightarrow}|r\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E9}|$ is generically injective for large values of $g$.