We carry out a complete birational classification of the universal theta divisor Th_g over the moduli space of curves of genus g, and show that Th_g enjoys good rationality properties for g<12, and is a variety of general type for g\geq 12. The key ingredient is an intersection-theoretic study of the universal antiramification locus of the Gauss map. We also present a complete classification of the universal symmetric product of degree g-2 over M_g.
Categories: math.AG