On the geometry of the moduli space of spin curves

We determine the smooth locus and the locus of canonical singularities in the Cornalba compactification \bar S_g of the moduli space S_g of spin curves, i.e., smooth curves of genus g with a theta characteristic. Moreover, the following lifting result for pluricanonical forms is proved: Every pluricanonical form on the smooth locus of \bar S_g extends holomorphically to a desingularisation of \bar S_g.