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arXiv:1802.04703 · Quantum Science and Technology

Regularising data for practical randomness generation

Boris Bourdoncle, Pei-Sheng Lin, Denis Rosset, Antonio Acín, Yeong-Cherng Liang

Published Jan 25, 2019• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Assuming that the no-signalling principle holds, non-local correlations contain intrinsic randomness. In particular, for a specific Bell experiment, one can derive relations between the amount of randomness produced, as quantified by the min-entropy of the output data, and its associated violation of a Bell inequality. In practice, due to finite sampling, certifying randomness requires the development of statistical tools to lower-bound the min-entropy of the data as a function of the estimated Bell violation. The quality of such bounds relies on the choice of certificate, i.e. the Bell inequality whose violation is estimated. In this work, we propose a method for choosing efficiently such a certificate and analyse, by means of extensive numerical simulations (with various choices of parameters), the extent to which it works. The method requires sacrificing a part of the output data in order to estimate the underlying correlations. Regularising this estimate then allows one to find a Bell inequality that is well suited for certifying practical randomness from these specific correlations. We then study the effects of various parameters on the obtained min-entropy bound and explain how to tune them in a favourable way. Lastly, we carry out several numerical simulations of a Bell experiment to show the efficiency of our method: we nearly always obtain higher min-entropy rates than when we use a pre-established Bell inequality, namely the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality.

DOI
10.1088/2058-9565/ab01e8

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Assuming that the no-signalling principle holds, non-local correlations contain intrinsic randomness. In particular, for a specific Bell experiment, one can derive relations between the amount of randomness produced, as quantified by the min-entropy of the output data, and its associated violation of a Bell inequality. In practice, due to finite sampling, certifying randomness requires the development of statistical tools to lower-bound the min-entropy of the data as a function of the estimated Bell violation. The quality of such bounds relies on the choice of certificate, i.e. the Bell inequality whose violation is estimated. In this work, we propose a method for choosing efficiently such a certificate and analyse, by means of extensive numerical simulations (with various choices of parameters), the extent to which it works. The method requires sacrificing a part of the output data in order to estimate the underlying correlations. Regularising this estimate then allows one to find a Bell inequality that is well suited for certifying practical randomness from these specific correlations. We then study the effects of various parameters on the obtained min-entropy bound and explain how to tune them in a favourable way. Lastly, we carry out several numerical simulations of a Bell experiment to show the efficiency of our method: we nearly always obtain higher min-entropy rates than when we use a pre-established Bell inequality, namely the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality.
One of the striking properties of quantum mechanics is the occurrence of the Bell-type non-locality. They are a fundamental feature of the theory that allows two parties that share an entangled quantum system to observe correlations stronger than possible in classical physics. In addition to their theoretical significance, non-local correlations have practical applications, such as device-independent randomness generation, providing private unpredictable numbers even when obtained using devices delivered by an untrusted vendor. Thus, determining the quantity of certifiable randomness that can be produced using a specific set of non-local correlations is of significant interest. First, we present an experimental realization of recent Bell-type operators designed to provide private random numbers that are secure against adversaries with quantum resources. We use semi-definite programming to give lower bounds on the generated randomness in terms of both min-entropy and von Neumann entropy in a device-independent scenario. Our results demonstrate the first experiment that certifies nearly two bits of randomness from binary measurements of two parties [1], [2]. Apart from single-round certification, we provide an analysis of finite-key protocol for quantum randomness expansion using the Entropy Accumulation Theorem. Second, we present an efficient and practical method for certifying quantum randomness using generalized measurements. Indeed, we have derived a method for self-testing the presence of POVMs. We present the certification of more than one bit of min-entropy from a single POVM on one of the qubits of an entangled state using a variant of the elegant Bell inequality. We also obtain more than one bit of randomness in a prepare and measure scenario of a similar structure with a POVM on a single qubit [3]. We provide numerical simulations to demonstrate the effectiveness of our randomness certification and expansion.
Device-independent randomness generation and quantum key distribution protocols rely on a fundamental relation between the non-locality of quantum theory and its random character. This relation is usually expressed in terms of a trade-off between the probability of guessing correctly the outcomes of measurements performed on quantum systems and the amount of violation of a given Bell inequality. However, a more accurate assessment of the randomness produced in Bell experiments can be obtained if the value of several Bell expressions is simultaneously taken into account, or if the full set of probabilities characterizing the behavior of the device is considered. We introduce protocols for device-independent randomness generation secure against classical side information, that rely on the estimation of an arbitrary number of Bell expressions or even directly on the experimental frequencies of measurement outcomes. Asymptotically, this results in an optimal generation of randomness from experimental data (as measured by the min-entropy), without having to assume beforehand that the devices violate a specific Bell inequality.
We investigate device-independent certification of global randomness based on Bell inequality violations in bipartite scenarios with three outcomes per party. Our goal is to determine whether multi-outcome measurements allow one to surpass the amount of randomness achievable with binary outputs in realistic scenarios. We begin by analyzing several known Bell expressions and evaluating their robustness against noise for randomness certification. We then introduce a systematic method for generating new Bell expressions within structured families and perform a large-scale numerical study. We find that a substantial number of inequalities certify significant amounts of min-entropy. In particular, we identify simple inequalities that achieve near-maximal global randomness while involving a reduced number of measurement settings, thus improving the balance between certified randomness and number of inputs. Moreover, the vast majority of nontrivial certificates exhibit robustness against realistic noise, maintaining positive certified randomness away from the ideal regime. These results demonstrate that strong device-independent randomness expansion in multi-outcome scenarios is not restricted to carefully engineered inequalities, but arises generically within suitably constructed families of Bell expressions.
Bell inequality violations can be used to certify private randomness for use in cryptographic applications. In photonic Bell experiments, a large amount of the data that is generated comes from no-detection events and presumably contains little randomness. This raises the question as to whether randomness can be extracted only from the smaller post-selected subset corresponding to proper detection events, instead of from the entire set of data. This could in principle be feasible without opening an analogue of the detection loophole as long as the min-entropy of the post-selected data is evaluated by taking all the information into account, including no-detection events. The possibility of extracting randomness from a short string has a practical advantage, because it reduces the computational time of the extraction. Here, we investigate the above idea in a simple scenario, where the devices and the adversary behave according to i.i.d. strategies. We show that indeed almost all the randomness is present in the pair of outcomes for which at least one detection happened. We further show that in some cases applying a pre-processing on the data can capture features that an analysis based on global frequencies only misses, thus resulting in the certification of more randomness. We then briefly consider non-i.i.d strategies and provide an explicit example of such a strategy that is more powerful than any i.i.d. one even in the asymptotic limit of infinitely many measurement rounds, something that was not reported before in the context of Bell inequalities.
For practical applications of quantum randomness generation, it is important to certify and further produce a fixed block of fresh random bits with as few trials as possible.Consequently, protocols with high finite-data efficiency are preferred.To yield such protocols with respect to quantum side information, we develop quantum probability estimation.Our approach is applicable to device-independent as well as device-dependent scenarios, and it generalizes techniques from previous works [Miller and Shi, SIAM J. Comput. 46, 1304 (2017); Arnon-Friedman et al., Nat. Commun. 9, 459 (2018)].Quantum probability estimation can adapt to changing experimental conditions, allows stopping the experiment as soon as the prespecified randomness goal is achieved, and can tolerate imperfect knowledge of the input distribution.Moreover, the randomness rate achieved at constant error is asymptotically optimal.For the device-independent scenario, our approach certifies the amount of randomness available in experimental results without first searching for relations between randomness and violations of fixed Bell inequalities.We implement quantum probability estimation for device-independent randomness generation in the CHSH Bell-test configuration, and we show significant improvements in finite-data efficiency, particularly at small Bell violations which are typical in current photonic loophole-free Bell tests.
Abstract One of the striking properties of quantum mechanics is the occurrence of the Bell-type non-locality. They are a fundamental feature of the theory that allows two parties that share an entangled quantum system to observe correlations stronger than possible in classical physics. In addition to their theoretical significance, non-local correlations have practical applications, such as device-independent randomness generation, providing private unpredictable numbers even when they are obtained using devices delivered by an untrusted vendor. Thus, determining the quantity of certifiable randomness that can be produced using a specific set of non-local correlations is of significant interest. In this paper, we present an experimental realization of recent Bell-type operators designed to provide private random numbers that are secure against adversaries with quantum resources. We use semi-definite programming to provide lower bounds on the generated randomness in terms of both min-entropy and von Neumann entropy in a device-independent scenario. We compare experimental setups providing Bell violations close to the Tsirelson’s bound with lower rates of events, with setups having slightly worse levels of violation but higher event rates. Our results demonstrate the first experiment that certifies close to two bits of randomness from binary measurements of two parties. Apart from single-round certification, we provide an analysis of finite-key protocol for quantum randomness expansion using the Entropy Accumulation theorem and show its advantages compared to existing solutions.