Hyperbolic Geometry and Moduli of Real Curves of Genus Three

Abstract: The moduli space of smooth real plane quartic curves consists of six connected components. We prove that each of these components admits a real hyperbolic structure. These connected components correspond to the six real forms of a certain hyperbolic lattice over the Gaussian integers. We will study this Gaussian lattice in detail. For the connected component that corresponds to maximal real quartic curves we obtain a more explicit description. We construct a Coxeter diagram that encodes the geometry of this component.