Graded basic elements.

We prove the existence theorem for basic elements in the quasi-projective case, extending results of Eisenbud-Evans and Bruns from the affine case. We give several geometric applications. For example, we show that every local complete intersection of pure codimension two in a smooth projective variety of dimension d over an infinite field is the degeneracy locus of d − 1 sections of a rank d bundle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]