Fourier Phase Retrieval for Finite Unions of Intervals

Mathematics > Functional Analysis [Submitted on 18 Jun 2026] Title:Fourier Phase Retrieval for Finite Unions of Intervals View PDF HTML (experimental)Abstract:This paper investigates the one-dimensional Fourier phase retrieval problem for indicator functions of finite unions of intervals. Specifically, we study the recovery of a set $\Omega = \bigcup_{j=1}^m I_j \subset\mathbb{R}$ from the magnitude of its Fourier transform $|\widehat{\mathbf{1}_\Omega}|$, where each $I_j \subset \mathbb{R}$ is a bounded interval. For $m\le 2$, we prove that $\Omega$ is uniquely determined by $ |\widehat{\mathbf{1}_\Omega}|$ up to the natural ambiguities of translation and reflection, and we further establish a stability result for this reconstruction. In contrast, for $m\ge 3$, uniqueness fails in general. More precisely, for every $m\ge 3$, we explicitly construct functions $f_m,g_m\in\mathcal{I}_m$ such that $|\widehat{f_m}|=|\widehat{g_m}|,$ while $f_m$ cannot be obtained from $g_m$ by any translation or reflection, where $\mathcal{I}_m$ denotes the class of indicator functions of unions of exactly $m$ intervals. Furthermore, building on the theory of the turnpike problem, in which a finite integer set is uniquely determined by its multiset of pairwise differences under a collision-free condition, we establish an analogous result for finite subsets of $\mathbb{R}$. This, in turn, yields a sufficient condition for recovering indicator functions of finite unions of intervals. These results provide a complete characterization of the Fourier phase retrieval problem for indicator functions of finite unions of intervals and offer new insights into Fourier phase retrieval for indicator functions of more general domains in higher dimensions. References & Citations Loading... Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Recommenders and Search Tools Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.