Syzygies and projective generation of plane rational curves (Q2259154)

A rational curve \(\mathcal{C}\) of degree \(d\) of \(\mathbb{P}_2\) is the image of the map \(\varphi : \mathbb{P}_1 \rightarrow \mathbb{P}_2\), \([t_0,t_1] \mapsto [u_0(t_0,t_1), u_1(t_0,t_1), u_2(t_0,t_1)]\) when \(\varphi\) is injective at all but finitely many points, and \(u_0, u_1, u_2\) are coprime homogeneous polynomials of degree \(d\). The ideal \(I = (u_0, u_1, u_2)\) has associated a graded module of syzygies which is a free \(\mathbb{C}[T_0,T_1]\)-module of rank 2. The paper under review is devoted to study the relationship between the rational plane curves and the envelopes defined by their syzygies. In order to do that, the author establishes the concept of parameterized curve (p-curve for short) which is a non-constant rational map \(\mathcal{C} : \mathbb{P}_1 \rightarrow \mathbb{P}_2\). Then, he extends to p-curves a number of concepts and results pertaining to rational curves. A key concept in the pair curve-envelope is that of incidence which is studied in Section 3. Then, Section 4 of the paper develops the projective generation, that is to say, results on existence and uniqueness of generating p-envelopes. And finally, in Sections 5 to 7 the geometric properties of the pairs consisting of a p-curve and an incident p-envelope are considered.