Random Numbers & Quantum Computers

Yutaka Shikano

The fundamental link between physics and computation leads to an exciting field of quantum computation. Since the birth of the programmable digital computer, random number generators in computers have been developed. In principle, the pseudo random number generators currently implemented in digital computers are predictable. However, a quantum random number generator is employed to ideally generate unpredictable random numbers. In this essay, we explain why a one-qubit quantum computer can be a quantum random number generator and how this leads to justifying the foundations of quantum mechanics.

Mark McCartney, David H. Glass

The topic of random numbers is investigated in such a way as to illustrate links between mathematics, physics and computer science. First, the generation of random numbers by a classical computer using the linear congruential generator and logistic map is considered. It is noted that these procedures yield only pseudo-random numbers since deterministic algorithms are used. The paper then discusses the strange behaviour of the quantum world and briefly describes how its properties could be exploited in a quantum computer to produce numbers that are genuinely random. The final section considers how different ways of looking at a problem can yield insights into the concept of randomness.

Thaddeus D. Ladd, Fedor Jelezko, Raymond Laflamme +3 more

IntroBooks, Gnk Raj

Kentaro Tamura, Yutaka Shikano

Abstract A cloud quantum computer is similar to a random number generator in that its physical mechanism is inaccessible to its users. In this respect, a cloud quantum computer is a black box. In both devices, its users decide the device condition from the output. A framework to achieve this exists in the field of random number generation in the form of statistical tests for random number generators. In the present study, we generated random numbers on a 20-qubit cloud quantum computer and evaluated the condition and stability of its qubits using statistical tests for random number generators. As a result, we observed that some qubits were more biased than others. Statistical tests for random number generators may provide a simple indicator of qubit condition and stability, enabling users to decide for themselves which qubits inside a cloud quantum computer to use.