On the homology of two-dimensional elimination (Q2481477)

The focus of this article is an algorithm for computing the defining equations of \(\mathcal{R}(I)\), the Rees algebra of an ideal \(I\), where \(I\) is an almost complete intersection of codimension 2 minimally generated by homogeneous 3-forms in \(R = k[s,t]\) (\(k\) an infinite field), all of the same degree \(n+1 \leq 5\). The authors do this by constructing a `super-generic' ideal \(L = (f,g,h_1,\ldots,h_m)\), where \(f,g\) are related to the defining equations of the symmetric algebra of \(I\), and the \(h_i\) are derived through Sylvester forms, with \(h_m\) being the elimination equation. They then show that \(L\) specializes to the defining ideal of \(\mathcal{R}\). In order to develop the algorithm, the authors prove several results in greater generality. In particular, they prove that a rational map with empty base locus defined by an almost complete intersction ideal \(I \subset R\) is birational iff the Chern numbers \(e_1(I)\) and \(e_1(\mathfrak{m}^d)\) are equal, where \(\mathfrak{m}\) is the maximal ideal of the Cohen-Macaulay, local ring \((R,\mathfrak{m})\) of dimension \(d\). They show that these Chern numbers can be calculated in terms of Hilbert coefficients, multiplicity and the minimal reduction of \(I\). Under similar conditions (minus the `empty base locus' and adding the requirement that depth \(R/I \geq \dim R/I-1\)), they show that \(\text{Sym}(I)\), the symmetric algebra of \(I\), is Cohen-Macaulay. The authors conjecture that for arbitrary \(n\), \(L\), the generic ideal derived from the original ideal \(I\), has projective dimension 2 and specializes to the defining ideal of \(\mathcal{R}\). This conjecture is proved in the paper by \textit{D. Cox, J. W. Hoffman} and \textit{H. Wang} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 212, No. 7, 1787--1796 (2008; Zbl 1151.13012)].