Alan Mink

Applications of randomness such as private key generation and public randomness beacons require small blocks of certified random bits on demand. Device-independent quantum random number generators can produce such random bits, but existing quantum-proof protocols and loophole-free implementations suffer from high latency, requiring many hours to produce any random bits. Here we develop a broadly applicable framework, quantum probability estimation, for yielding efficient quantum-proof protocols. The framework is general and encompasses methods from previous works [Miller and Shi, SIAM Journal on Computing 46, 1304 (2017); Arnon-Friedman et al., Nature Communications 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, we demonstrate device-independent quantum randomness generation from a loophole-free Bell test with quantum probability estimation, obtaining multiple blocks of 512 random bits with an average experiment time of less than 5 minutes per block and with certified error bounded by $2^{-64}\approx 5.42\times 10^{-20}$.

Quantum random numbers distinguish themselves from others by their intrinsic unpredictability arising from the principles of quantum mechanics. As such they are extremely useful in many scientific and real-world applications with considerable efforts going into their realizations. Most demonstrations focus on high asymptotic generation rates. For this goal, a large number of repeated trials are required to accumulate a significant store of certifiable randomness, resulting in a high latency between the initial request and the delivery of the requested random bits. Here we demonstrate low-latency real-time certifiable quantum randomness generation from measurements on photonic time-bin states. For this, we develop methods to efficiently certify randomness taking into account adversarial imperfections in both the state preparation and the measurement apparatus. Every 0.12 seconds we generate a block of 8192 random bits which are certified against all quantum adversaries with an error bounded by 2^{-64}. Our quantum random number generator is thus well suited for realizing a continuously operating, high-security, and high-speed quantum randomness beacon.