Footprint and minimum distance functions

Let $S$ be a polynomial ring over a field $K$, with a monomial order $\prec$, and let $I$ be an unmixed graded ideal of $S$. In this paper we study two functions associated to $I$: the minimum distance function $δ_I$ and the footprint function ${\rm fp}_I$. It is shown that $δ_I$ is positive and that ${\rm fp}_I$ is positive if the initial ideal of $I$ is unmixed. Then we show that if $I$ is radical and its associated primes are generated by linear forms, then $δ_I$ is strictly decreasing until it reaches the asymptotic value $1$. If $I$ is the edge ideal of a Cohen--Macaulay bipartite graph, we show that $δ_I(d)=1$ for $d$ greater than or equal to the regularity of $S/I$. For a graded ideal of dimension $\geq 1$, whose initial ideal is a complete intersection, we give an exact sharp lower bound for the corresponding minimum distance function.