{"paper":{"title":"Phase Retrieval in $\\mathbb C^4$ Requires Exactly Eleven Measurements","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["cs.IT","math.DG","math.IT"],"primary_cat":"quant-ph","authors_text":"Meng Huang","submitted_at":"2026-07-30T05:56:44Z","abstract_excerpt":"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 f"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2607.27719","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2607.27719/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}