Experimental device-independent certified randomness generation with an instrumental causal structure

• Published in: Communications physics 2020-06, Vol.3 (1), Article 110
• Main Authors: Agresti, Iris, Poderini, Davide, Guerini, Leonardo, Mancusi, Michele, Carvacho, Gonzalo, Aolita, Leandro, Cavalcanti, Daniel, Chaves, Rafael, Sciarrino, Fabio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/766/400/482; 639/766/483/2802; 639/766/483/481; Correlation analysis; Cryptography; Entangled states; Numbers; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Privacy; Quantum physics; Quantum theory; Random numbers; Randomness
• ISSN: 2399-3650; 2399-3650
• DOI: 10.1038/s42005-020-0375-6

The intrinsic random nature of quantum physics offers novel tools for the generation of random numbers, a central challenge for a plethora of fields. Bell non-local correlations obtained by measurements on entangled states allow for the generation of bit strings whose randomness is guaranteed in a device-independent manner, i.e. without assumptions on the measurement and state-generation devices. Here, we generate this strong form of certified randomness on a new platform: the so-called instrumental scenario, which is central to the field of causal inference. First, we theoretically show that certified random bits, private against general quantum adversaries, can be extracted exploiting device-independent quantum instrumental-inequality violations. Then, we experimentally implement the corresponding randomness-generation protocol using entangled photons and active feed-forward of information. Moreover, we show that, for low levels of noise, our protocol offers an advantage over the simplest Bell-nonlocality protocol based on the Clauser-Horn-Shimony-Holt inequality. Random number generation has applications spanning several sectors, from scientific research to cryptography, with the intrinsic random nature of quantum physics allows to obtain truly random sequences. The authors present a proof-of principle implementation of a device-independent random number generator protocol, whose effectiveness is certified by quantum instrumental correlations, which also ensures privacy with respect to any quantum adversarial attack.