Real-time seedless post-processing for quantum random number generators

Abstract

Quantum-proof randomness extraction is essential for handling quantum side information possessed by a quantum adversary, which is widely applied in various quantum cryptography tasks. In this study, the authors introduce a real-time two-source quantum randomness extractor against quantum side information. The authors’ extractor is tailored for forward block sources, a novel category of min-entropy sources introduced in this work. These sources retain the flexibility to accommodate a broad range of quantum random number generators. The authors’ online algorithms demonstrate the extraction of a constant fraction of min-entropy from two infinitely long independent forward block sources. Moreover, the authors’ extractor is inherently block-wise parallelisable, presenting a practical and efficient solution for the timely extraction of high-quality randomness. Applying the authors’ extractors to the raw data of one of the most commonly used quantum random number generators, a simulated extraction speed as high as 64 Gbps is achieved.