On Intrinsic Bounds in the Nullstellensatz

 Let k be a field and  f ₁, . . . ,  f _s be non constant polynomials in kX ₁, . . . , X _n ] which generate the trivial ideal. In this paper we define an invariant associated to the sequence  f ₁, . . . ,  f _s : the geometric degree of the system. With this notion we can show the following effective Nullstellensatz: if δ denotes the geometric degree of the trivial system  f ₁, . . . ,  f _s and d :=max _j  deg( f _j ), then there exist polynomials p ₁, . . . , p _s ∈kX ₁, . . . , X _n ] such that 1=∑ _j  p _j  f _j and deg p _j   f _j ≦3n ²δd. Since the number δ is always bounded by (d+1) ^n-1 , one deduces a classical single exponential upper bound in terms of d and n, but in some cases our new bound improves the known ones. Received November 24, 1995, revised version January 19, 1996