Sparse solutions of linear Diophantine equations

Abstract

We present structural results on solutions to the Diophantine system $A{\boldsymbol y} = {\boldsymbol b}$, ${\boldsymbol y} \in \mathbb Z^t_{\ge 0}$ with the smallest number of non-zero entries. Our tools are algebraic and number theoretic in nature and include Siegel's Lemma, generating functions, and commutative algebra. These results have some interesting consequences in discrete optimization.