A note on Siegel's lemma (Q1359151)

Consider a system of \(M\) homogeneous linear equations in \(N>M\) variables, defined over a number field \(K\). By linear algebra, we know that the system admits nontrivial solutions in \(K^N\); a classical problem is the estimation of the height of a minimal solution. Results in this direction are called ``Siegel's lemmas''; perhaps the most precise one is due to \textit{E. Bombieri} and \textit{J. Vaaler} [Invent. Math. 73, 11-32 (1983; Zbl 0533.10030)], who provided upper bounds involving the discriminant of \(K\) over \({\mathbb{Q}}\) and the height of the matrix attached to the linear system. It was not clear from Bombieri-Vaaler's proof whether the dependence on the discriminant of the number field was really necessary. Recently Roy and Thunder (see the following review Zbl 0905.11031) proved that in general the discriminant must appear in the estimation, at least if \(N\geq M+2\). In the paper under review it is proved that in the remaining case, \(N=M+1\), the dependence on the discriminant in Bombieri-Vaaler's estimation is essentially best possible.