[Science and Technology Daily] More reliable, more secure University of Science and Technology to explore a new quantum random number protocol

Science and Technology Daily News (Reporter Wu Changfeng) Reporter learned from the University of Science and Technology of China that Professor Han Zhengfu and his collaborators from the team of Academician Guo Guangcan of the school proposed a new semi-device independent quantum random number generator protocol, and carried out relevant experimental verification. Even when the light source is not trusted, the protocol does not need to characterize the detection device, and only needs to use everyday light sources to quickly generate secure quantum random numbers. This protocol improves the security and practicability of quantum random number generator in many aspects, and lays a solid foundation for the practical application of semi-device independent quantum random number generator. The relevant research results were recently published online in the renowned international academic journal Physical Review Letters.

Quantum random number generator generates true random numbers with intrinsic randomness based on the principle of quantum physics, which provides great help for scientific simulation, cryptography and other fields. However, the non-ideality that quantum random number generators may have in reality will destroy the unpredictability and privacy of random numbers. Although the "complete device-independent quantum random number generator" can tolerate these non-idealizations, it is still far from being practical due to the difficulty of protocol implementation, low random number generation rate and high cost.

The "semi-device independent quantum random number generator" has greatly relaxed the requirements of some components, and provides a practical and feasible security implementation scheme, so it has been widely concerned. However, because the existing semi-device-independent schemes ignore some key factors affecting their performance, their application in real conditions is limited.

In response to this problem, Han Zhengfu's research group has carried out in-depth research. Based on the uncertainty relation of smooth entropy and the quantum residual hash theorem, we propose a new semi-device-independent quantum random number generator protocol, which does not need to characterize the measuring device, and prove the security of the protocol under the condition of untrustworthiness of the source side and no representation of the probe side. At the same time, the research group also completed validation experiments using halogen lamps, which are daily light sources and lasers. It has been proved that the rate of random number generated by this random number generator is comparable to that of commercial random number generators, but the security is significantly better than the latter.

This research not only ensures the rapid generation of random numbers and the simplicity and practicality of the system, but also greatly reduces the requirements for device reliability and characterization, which plays an important role in breaking through the research bottleneck of high-performance and high-security quantum random number generators.

Science and Technology Daily (Page 05, August 16, 2022)

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