Existence of a unique solution to parametrized systems of generalized polynomial equations

Abstract

We consider solutions to parametrized systems of generalized polynomial equations (with real exponents) in $n$ positive variables, involving $m$ monomials with positive parameters; that is, $x\in\mathbb{R}^n_>$ such that ${A \, (c \circ x^B)=0}$ with coefficient matrix $A\in\mathbb{R}^{l \times m}$, exponent matrix $B\in\mathbb{R}^{n \times m}$, parameter vector $c\in\mathbb{R}^m_>$, and componentwise product $\circ$. As our main result, we characterize the existence of a unique solution (modulo an exponential manifold) for all parameters in terms of the relevant geometric objects of the polynomial system, namely the $\textit{coefficient polytope}$ and the $\textit{monomial dependency subspace}$. We show that unique existence is equivalent to the bijectivity of a certain moment/power map, and we characterize the bijectivity of this map using Hadamard's global inversion theorem. Furthermore, we provide sufficient conditions in terms of sign vectors of the geometric objects, thereby obtaining a multivariate Descartes' rule of signs for exactly one solution.