On cutting planes and matrices

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Continuing the work of Chvatal and Gomory, Schrijver proved that any rational polyhedron {x I Ax ~ b} has finite Chvatal rank. This was extended by Cook, Gerards, Schrijver, and Tardos, who proved that in fact this Chvatal rank can be bounded from above by a number only depending on A, hence independent of b . The aim of this note is to show that the latter result can be proved quite easily from the result of Chvatal and Schrijver.