Implicitization of surfaces in P^3 in the presence of base points

Abstract

We show that the method of moving quadrics for implicitizing surfaces in P^3 applies in certain cases where base points are present. However, if the ideal defined by the parametrization is saturated, then this method rarely applies. Instead, we show that when the base points are a local complete intersection, the implicit equation can be computed as the resultant of the first syzygies.