Encryption systems depend on random numbers, which conventional computers struggle to generate perfectly. New research indicates quantum physics can address this challenge.
The project led by researchers at ETH Zurich focused on two interconnected cryostats cooling superconducting qubits, operating under the principles of quantum mechanics.
Researchers in Switzerland dedicated a decade and $12 million to this effort, yielding significant results published in Nature. They developed highly random numbers critical for digital information security. Data flows over the internet through public and private keys, with private keys made up of bits, or zeros and ones, that encode vast numbers generated by computers. Though computers approach genuine randomness, they follow specific processes, implying predictability.
Morgan W. Mitchell, a quantum physicist from the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, noted that if someone could understand a computer’s calculations, they could predict the outcomes precisely. This predictability exposes encrypted systems to potential exploitation by hackers searching for weak randomness.
The Swiss team addressed this issue using randomness amplification, enhancing lower-grade random numbers with quantum physics. They produced numbers considered “effectively perfect,” according to Dr. Mitchell, who was not involved with the Swiss research group. While other scientists have advanced random number generation with a stronger reliance on computers, the Swiss approach featured inherent validation, independent of computational processing.
“In a sense, we trust physics,” Dr. Mitchell stated. Their work, according to Roger Colbeck, a professor of quantum information theory at King’s College London, represents the most convincing demonstration yet of generating high-quality randomness from quantum processes.
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