Projections of del Pezzo surfaces and Calabi--Yau threefolds

We study the syzygetic structure of projections of del Pezzo surfaces in order to construct singular Calabi-Yau threefolds. By smoothing those threefolds, we obtain new examples of Calabi-Yau threefolds with Picard group of rank 1. We also give an example of type II primitive contraction whose exceptional divisor is the blow-up of the projective plane at a point.