Monomial generators of complete planar ideals

Abstract

We provide an algorithm that computes a set of generators for any complete ideal in a smooth complex surface. More interestingly, these generators admit a presentation as monomials in a set of maximal contact elements associated to the minimal log-resolution of the ideal. Furthermore, the monomial expression given by our method is an equisingularity invariant of the ideal. As an outcome, we provide a geometric method to compute the integral closure of a planar ideal and we apply our algorithm to some families of complete ideals.