Optimality conjecture for harmonic frames in real two-dimensional phase retrieval

Let m4m\geq 4 be an even integer. For ARm×2\boldsymbol{A}\in\mathbb{R}^{m\times 2}, let βAR\beta_{\boldsymbol{A}}^{\mathbb{R}} denote its condition number, and let EmRm×2\boldsymbol{E}_m\in\mathbb{R}^{m\times 2} be the harmonic frame

Em:=(1cos1mπcosm1mπ0sin1mπsinm1mπ)T.\boldsymbol{E}_m:=\left(\begin{array}{cccc} 1 & \cos \frac{1}{m}\pi & \cdots & \cos \frac{m-1}{m}\pi \\ 0 & \sin \frac{1}{m}\pi & \cdots & \sin \frac{m-1}{m}\pi \end{array}\right)^{T}.

Harmonic-frame optimality conjecture. If m4m\geq 4 is even, then

βEmR=minARm×2βAR.\beta_{\boldsymbol{E}_m}^{\mathbb{R}}=\min_{\boldsymbol{A}\in\mathbb{R}^{m\times 2}}\beta_{\boldsymbol{A}}^{\mathbb{R}}.

The corresponding equality is known for odd integers m3m\geq 3, while the conjecture asserts optimality of the harmonic frame in the remaining even case.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Zhiqiang Xu, Zili Xu and Xinyue Zhang, “Optimal Frames for Phase Retrieval from Edge Vectors of Optimal Polygons”, arXiv:2510.04099 (2026).

Additional references

4 papers in this index state this conjecture (2011–2025). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:1407.3631, arXiv:1312.4550, arXiv:1104.3988.

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