Conchoidal transform of two plane curves

Abstract

The conchoid of a plane curve $C$ is constructed using a fixed circle $B$ in the affine plane. We generalize the classical definition so that we obtain a conchoid from any pair of curves $B$ and $C$ in the projective plane. We present two definitions, one purely algebraic through resultants and a more geometric one using an incidence correspondence in $\PP^2 \times \PP^2$. We prove, among other things, that the conchoid of a generic curve of fixed degree is irreducible, we determine its singularities and give a formula for its degree and genus. In the final section we return to the classical case: for any given curve $C$ we give a criterion for its conchoid to be irreducible and we give a procedure to determine when a curve is the conchoid of another.

18 pages Revised version: slight title change, improved exposition, fixed proof of Theorem 5.3 Accepted for publication in Appl. Algebra Eng., Commun. Comput.