An algebraic characterization of injectivity in phase retrieval

A complex frame is a collection of vectors that span $\mathbb{C}^M$ and define measurements, called intensity measurements, on vectors in $\mathbb{C}^M$. In purely mathematical terms, the problem of phase retrieval is to recover a complex vector from its intensity measurements, namely the modulus of its inner product with these frame vectors. We show that any vector is uniquely determined (up to a global phase factor) from $4M-4$ generic measurements. To prove this, we identify the set of frames defining non-injective measurements with the projection of a real variety and bound its dimension.Comment: 11 page

A small frame and a certificate of its injectivity

We present a complex frame of eleven vectors in 4-space and prove that it defines injective measurements. That is, any rank-one $4\times 4$ Hermitian matrix is uniquely determined by its values as a Hermitian form on this collection of eleven vectors. This disproves a recent conjecture of Bandeira, Cahill, Mixon, and Nelson. We use algebraic computations and certificates in order to prove injectivity.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure