Weber’s formula for the bitangents of a smooth plane quartic

Abstract

In a section of his 1876 treatise Theorie der Abel'schen Functionen vom Geschlecht 3 Weber proved a formula that expresses the bitangents of a non-singular plane quartic in terms of Riemann theta constants (Thetanullwerte). The present note is devoted to a modern presentation of Weber's formula. In the end a connection with the universal bitangent matrix is also displayed.