Reply to ‘‘Comment on ‘Ground state of the strong-coupling Hubbard Hamiltonian: A numerical diagonalization study’ ’’

We establish the correctness of our exact diagonalization results for the ground state of the effective strong-coupling Hubbard Hamiltonian, and the consistency of their interpretation within the finite-size system studied. We discuss why comparison of our results to calculations by S. Tang and J. E. Hirsch (preceding Comment) is misleading and inconclusive. The possible importance of finite-size effects has already been pointed out.