[tt] Random numbers created out of nothing

Eugen Leitl eugen at leitl.org
Thu Sep 30 09:24:01 EDT 2010


Right from the snake-oil-security-dept.

----- Forwarded message from Arlind Boshnjaku <arlindboshnjaku at yahoo.com> -----

From: Arlind Boshnjaku <arlindboshnjaku at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:48:44 +0200
To: transhumanist news <tt at postbiota.org>
Subject: [tt] Random numbers created out of nothing

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19520-random-numbers-created-out-of-nothing.html

Random numbers created out of nothing

12:36 30 September 2010 by Kate McAlpine

It's something from nothing. A random number generator that harnesses
the quantum fluctuations in empty space could soon sit inside your
computer.

A device that creates truly random numbers is vital for a number of
applications, including cryptography.

Algorithms can generate numbers that pass statistical tests for
randomness, but they're useless for secure cryptography if the
algorithm falls into the wrong hands. Other methods using entangled
ions to generate random numbers are more reliable, but tend to be
slower and more expensive.

Now Christian Gabriel's team at the Max Planck Institute for the
Science of Light in Erlangen, Germany, has built a prototype that
draws on a vacuum's random quantum fluctuations. These impart random
noise to laser beams in the device, which converts it into numbers.

"It's an easy method, and it's good value," says Gabriel.

The team sent a laser into a beam splitter, sheltered from external
light sources. Without influence from the vacuum, the two emerging
beams would have been identical. However, the lowest energy state of
the electromagnetic field carries just enough energy to interact with
the laser as it passes through the beam splitter. "The beams carry
this quantum noise," says Gabriel.

The exiting beams were captured in two detectors which turned the
light into electronic signals, and the signals were subtracted from
one another, leaving only the noise from the vacuum and electronics.
The team used a mathematical function to tease out the truly random
signal of the vacuum. Because they could calculate the total disorder
in the system and the portion which comes from the vacuum, they were
able to reduce the set of numbers so that the electronic contribution
was eliminated and only a fully random string remained.

Though reduced, the stream of bits comes at speedy 6.5 million per
second. This is already in line with the speed of commercially
available quantum random number generators, say the researchers, but
they hope to achieve rates more than 30 times higher.

Collaborator Christoph Marquardt says the generator's optimised speed
will be "faster than anything you could buy or that is available in
other comparable systems nowadays".

The lab set-up costs about €1000, and the researchers estimate that
the cost could fall to about €100. As the device functions at room
temperature and could be made to fit in the palm of your hand, it may
one day be integrated into a desktop computer.

Antonio Acín of the Institute for Photonic Sciences in Barcelona,
Spain, points out that although the quantum noise of the vacuum is
tamper-proof, most users won't be able to verify the workings of their
random number generators – meaning they'll find it impossible to tell
whether they are receiving a unique random stream from the generator
or a pre-programmed, statistically random set from elsewhere.

Journal source: Nature Photonics, DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2010.197
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