Resultants and Singularities of Parametric Curves

Abstract

Let ${\cal C}$ be an algebraic space curve defined parametrically by ${\cal P}(t)\in {\Bbb K}(t)^{n},\,n\geq 2$. In this paper, we introduce a polynomial, the T--function, $T(s)$, which is defined by means of a univariate resultant constructed from ${\cal P}(t)$. We show that $T(s)=\prod_{i=1}^n H_{P_i}(s)^{m_i-1}$, where $H_{P_i}(s),\,i=1,\ldots,n$ are polynomials (called the fibre functions) whose roots are the fibre of the ordinary singularities $P_i\in {\cal C}$ of multiplicity $m_i,\,i=1,\ldots,n$. Thus, a complete classification of the singularities of a given space curve, via the factorization of a resultant, is obtained.