Randomness from vacuum

Виктор Степанович Доценко

YANYANG ZHU, Guangqiang He, Guihua Zeng

In this paper, a new quantum random number generation scheme which is implemented by measuring quantum noise of the squeezed vacuum state is proposed. In the proposed scheme, the Shannon entropy is employed to measure randomness of the generated random numbers. In addition, some characteristics of the generated random numbers are investigated. To reach the pure quantum randomness, an extraction approach based on universal hash functions for the generated quantum random numbers is presented. Results show that the proposed scheme based on squeezed vacuum state has remarkable advantages over the one associated with the vacuum state.

A. E. Ivanova, Sergey A. Chivilikhin, George P. Miroshnichenko +1 more

Quantum random number generation allows one to obtain the absolutely random sequences by using nondeterministic physical processes.Fluctuations of the vacuum, recorded by homodyne detection, can be one of the entropy sources in those generators.In this paper, a system of quantum random numbers generation, based on vacuum fluctuations and using a fiber Y-splitter is presented.

Deborah J. Bennett, Stephen G. Gasiorowicz

Marc Jofre, Marcos Curty, Fabian Steinlechner +4 more

Random numbers are essential for applications ranging from secure communications to numerical simulation and quantitative finance. Algorithms can rapidly produce pseudo-random outcomes, series of numbers that mimic most properties of true random numbers while quantum random number generators (QRNGs) exploit intrinsic quantum randomness to produce true random numbers. Single-photon QRNGs are conceptually simple but produce few random bits per detection. In contrast, vacuum fluctuations are a vast resource for QRNGs: they are broad-band and thus can encode many random bits per second. Direct recording of vacuum fluctuations is possible, but requires shot-noise-limited detectors, at the cost of bandwidth. We demonstrate efficient conversion of vacuum fluctuations to true random bits using optical amplification of vacuum and interferometry. Using commercially-available optical components we demonstrate a QRNG at a bit rate of 1.11 Gbps. The proposed scheme has the potential to be extended to 10 Gbps and even up to 100 Gbps by taking advantage of high speed modulation sources and detectors for optical fiber telecommunication devices.