We consider the intrinsic randomness problem for correlated sources. Specifically, there are three correlated sources, and we want to extract two mutually independent random numbers by using two separate mappings, where each mapping converts one of the output sequences from two correlated sources into a random number. In addition, we assume that the obtained pair of random numbers is also independent of the output sequence from the third source. We first show the δ-achievable rate region where a rate pair of two mappings must satisfy in order to obtain the approximation error within δ ∈ [0,1), and the second-order achievable rate region for correlated general sources. Then, we apply our results to non-mixed and mixed independently and identically distributed (i.i.d.) correlated sources, and reveal that the second-order achievable rate region for these sources can be represented in terms of the sum of normal distributions.
We consider the intrinsic randomness problem for correlated sources. Specifically, there are three correlated sources, and we want to extract two mutually independent random numbers by using two separate mappings, where each mapping converts one of the output sequences from two correlated sources into a random number. In addition, we assume that the obtained pair of random numbers is also independent of the output sequence from the third source. We first show the δ-achievable rate region where a rate pair of two mappings must satisfy in order to obtain the approximation error within δ ∈ [0,1), and the second-order achievable rate region for correlated general sources. Then, we apply our results to non-mixed and mixed independently and identically distributed (i.i.d.) correlated sources, and reveal that the second-order achievable rate region for these sources can be represented in terms of the sum of normal distributions.
The second-order achievable rates in typical random number generation problems are considered. In these problems, several researchers have derived the first-order and the second-order achievability rates for general sources using the information spectrum methods. Although these formulas are general, their computation are quite hard. Hence, an attempt to address explicit computation problems of achievable rates is meaningful. In this paper, we consider mixed sources of two i.i.d. sources and compute the second-order achievable rates explicitly.
Random number generators are important devices in randomized algorithms, Monte-Carlo methods, and in simulation studies of random systems. A random number generator is usually modeled as a random source emitting independent, equally likely random bits. In practice, the random source one has at hand can deviate from this idealized model, and the random number generator operates by applying a deterministic mapping on the output of the (nonideal) random source. The deterministic mapping is chosen so that the resulting process approximates, in some sense, a sequence of independent, equally likely random bits. A prime measure of the intrinsic randomness of a given source X is the maximal rate at which random bits can be extracted from X by suitably mapping its output. This maximal rate depends on the statistics of the source X and on the sense of approximation. We study the problem of finite-precision random bit generation, where the accuracy measure is the variational distance. The relevant information theory is addressed.
Random numbers play a significant role in fields like scientific simulations and cryptography. Here we describe a physical random number generator based on the intrinsic randomness of quantum mechanics. We design a simple method to produce and analyze random sequences starting with a source of correlated/entangled photon pairs as an entropy source. We generate random bits from the coincidence rates of photon pairs in 3 steps: (i) generate correlated/entangled photon pairs, (ii) convert the coincidence rates from decimal to binary, (iii) apply a randomness extraction procedure (post-processing). In this approach, we have tested the influence of entanglement on the entire generation process. In order to obtain a good-quality random sequance, we have used and compared two different extractors in the post-processing step.
Motivated by applications in cryptography, we consider a generalization of randomness extraction and the related notion of privacy amplification to the case of two correlated sources. We introduce the notion of correlation extractors, which extract nearly perfect independent instances of a given joint distribution from imperfect, or "leaky," instances of the same distribution. More concretely, suppose that Alice holds a and Bob holds b, where (a, b) are obtained by taking n independent samples from a joint distribution (X, Y) and letting a include all X instances and b include all Y instances. An adversary Eve obtains partial information about (a, b) by choosing a function L with output length t and learning L(a, b). The goal is to design a protocol between Alice and Bob which may use additional fresh randomness, such that for every L as above the following holds. In the end of the interaction, Alice outputs a' and Bob outputs b' such that (a', b') are statistically indistinguishable from m independent instances of (X, Y) even when conditioned on Eve's view, and even when conditioned on the joint view of Eve together with either Alice or Bob. The standard questions of privacy amplification and randomness extraction correspond to the case where X and Y are identical random bits. In this work we address this question for other types of correlations. A central special case is that of OT extractors, which are correlation extractors for the correlation (X, Y) corresponding to the cryptographic primitive of oblivious transfer. Our main result is that for any finite joint distribution (X, Y) there is an explicit correlation extractor which extracts m = ?(n) instances using O(n) bits of communication, even when t = ?(n) bits of information can be leaked to Eve. We present several applications which motivate the concept of correlation extractors and our main result. These include: ? Protecting certain cryptographic protocols against sidechannel attacks. ? A protocol which realizes m instances of oblivious transfer by communicating only O(m) bits. The security of the protocol relies on a number-theoretic intractability assumption. ? A constant-rate unconditionally secure construction of oblivious transfer (for semi-honest parties) from any nontrivial channel. This establishes constant-rate equivalence of any two nontrivial finite channels.
We consider a pair of causally independent processes, modelled as the tensor product of two channels, acting on a possibly correlated input to produce random outputs X and Y. We show that, assuming the processes produce a sufficient amount of randomness, one can extract uniform randomness from X and Y. This generalizes prior results, which assumed that X and Y are (conditionally) independent. Note that in contrast to the independence of quantum states, the independence of channels can be enforced through spacelike separation. As a consequence, our results allow for the generation of randomness under more practical and physically justifiable assumptions than previously possible. We illustrate this with the example of device-independent randomness amplification, where we can remove the constraint that the adversary only has access to classical side information about the source.
Suppose Alice and Bob receive strings X=(X1,...,Xn) and Y=(Y1,...,Yn) each uniformly random in [s]n, but so that X and Y are correlated. For each symbol i, we have that Yi=Xiwith probability 1-ε and otherwise Yiis chosen independently and uniformly from [s]. Alice and Bob wish to use their respective strings to extract a uniformly chosen common sequence from [s]k, but without communicating. How well can they do? The trivial strategy of outputting the first k symbols yields an agreement probability of (1-ε+ε/s)k. In a recent work by Bogdanov and Mossel, it was shown that in the binary case where s=2 and k=k(ε) is large enough then it is possible to extract k bits with a better agreement probability rate. In particular, it is possible to achieve agreement probability (kε)-1/2·2-kε/(2(1-ε/2))using a random construction based on Hamming balls, and this is optimal up to lower order terms. In this paper, we consider the same problem over larger alphabet sizes s and we show that the agreement probability rate changes dramatically as the alphabet grows. In particular, we show no strategy can achieve agreement probability better than (1-ε)k(1+δ(s))kwhere δ(s)→ 0 as s→∞. We also show that Hamming ball-based constructions have much lower agreement probability rate than the trivial algorithm as s→∞. Our proofs and results are intimately related to subtle properties of hypercontractive inequalities.