Minimum distance functions of graded ideals and Reed-Muller-type codes (Q326562)

The paper provides an application of commutative algebra to error-correcting codes. It defines the notion of minimum distance function of a graded ideal \(I\) in a polynomial ring \(S=K[t_1, \dots, t_s]\), \(K\) a field, function which allows to give an algebraic formulation of the minimum distance of a projective Reed-Muller-type code (a projective Reed-Muller-type code of degree \(d\) is the image of a certain evaluation map \(ev_d: S_d\longrightarrow K^m\), where \(K\) is now a finite field) and to find lower bounds for the minimum distance of these codes. Section 1 defines the minimum distance function \(\delta_I\) of the ideal \(I\) and summarizes the content of the paper. Sections 2 and 3 gather some concepts and results needed in the following. Section 4 studies the properties of \(\delta_I\) and Theorem 4.7 proves that \(\delta_I\) generalizes the minimum distance of projective Reed-Muller-type codes. Then the paper considers the case of projective nested cartesian codes and a conjecture about the minimum distance of these codes, conjecture due to \textit{C. Carvalho} et al., [``Projective nested Cartesian codes'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1411.6819}]. The present paper provides some support to that conjecture (Section 6, Theorem 6.6]. Finally Section 7 shows several examples (with procedures for Macaulay2) illustrating the results obtained.