English

How random are random numbers generated using photons?

Quantum Physics 2015-06-25 v1

Abstract

Randomness is fundamental in quantum theory, with many philosophical and practical implications. In this paper we discuss the concept of algorithmic randomness, which provides a quantitative method to assess the Borel normality of a given sequence of numbers, a necessary condition for it to be considered random. We use Borel normality as a tool to investigate the randomness of ten sequences of bits generated from the differences between detection times of photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric downconversion. These sequences are shown to fulfil the randomness criteria without difficulties. As deviations from Borel normality for photon-generated random number sequences have been reported in previous work, a strategy to understand these diverging findings is outlined.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1502.05882,
  title  = {How random are random numbers generated using photons?},
  author = {Aldo Solis and Alí M. Angulo Martinez and Roberto Ramírez Alarcón and Hector Cruz Ramírez and Alfred B. U'Ren and Jorge G. Hirsch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.05882},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

9 pages, 7 figures. To appear in Physica Scripta as an invited Article

R2 v1 2026-06-22T08:34:00.786Z