Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Determining the minimal number of intensity measurements required for phase retrieval in $\mathbb{C}^4$ has been a long-standing open problem. Prior to this work, the best-known results implied that this minimum was either $10$ or $11$. In this paper, we leverage characteristic classes and cohomology groups from differential topology to prove that no family of $10$ vectors in $\mathbb{C}^4$ possesses the phase retrieval property. Combining our lower bound with Vinzant's explicit eleven-vector construction establishes that the exact minimum is $11$. Our result yields a significant consequence for pure state quantum tomography, namely, a rank-one POVM on $\mathbb{C}^4$ requires exactly $11$ elements to be informationally complete for pure states. This further implies that three orthonormal bases are insufficient to uniquely distinguish all pure states in $\mathbb{C}^4$. Because four orthonormal bases are already known to be sufficient, we conclude that exactly four bases are required, thereby completely resolving the problem left in [C. Carmeli, T. Heinosaari, J. Schultz, A. Toigo, Eur. Phys. J. D].
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Huang, Meng, Kim, Jihun
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G216288333, G4408365483
OpenAlex ID: W7172012217