Southwest Quantum Information and Technology

Experimentally generated random numbers certified by the impossibility of superluminal signaling

Presenting Author: Peter Bierhorst, NIST Boulder
Contributing Author(s): Lynden K. Shalm, Alan Mink, Stephen Jordan, Yi-Kai Liu, Andrea Rommal, Scott Glancy, Bradley Christensen, Sae Woo Nam, and Emanuel Knill

Random numbers are an important resource for applications such as numerical simulation and secure communication. However, it is difficult to certify whether a physical random number generator is truly unpredictable. Here, we exploit the phenomenon of quantum entanglement in a loophole-free photonic Bell test experiment to obtain data containing randomness that cannot be predicted within any non-superdeterministic physical theory that does not also allow the sending of signals faster than the speed of light. To certify and quantify the randomness, we develop a new protocol that performs well in an experimental regime characterized by low violation of Bell inequalities. Applying an extractor function to our data, we obtain 256 new random bits, uniform to within 10^-3.

(Session 7 : Friday from 11:00am - 11:30am)