How many orthonormal bases are needed to distinguish all pure quantum states?

Abstract

Abstract We collect some recent results that together provide an almost complete answer to the question stated in the title. For the dimension d = 2 the answer is three. For the dimensions d = 3 and d ≥ 5 the answer is four. For the dimension d = 4 the answer is either three or four. Curiously, the exact number in d = 4 seems to be an open problem.