Necessary and sufficient conditions for a Mueller matrix to be derivable from a Jones matrix

Abstract
Necessary and sufficient conditions for an optical system characterized by a Mueller matrix to be characterized by a Mueller–Jones, and thence by a Jones, matrix are considered, and the issue of measurement error is examined. It is shown that a Mueller matrix can be expressed as a linear combination of at most four trace orthonormal Mueller–Jones matrices, and an algorithm for the construction is given.