美国科罗拉多大学博尔德分校Lynden K. Shalm团队研究了非局部量子优势的可追踪随机数。2025年6月11日出版的《自然》杂志发表了这项最新研究成果。

随机数的不可预测性是数字安全和公平分配资源的应用程序的基础。然而，现有的随机数生成器存在局限性——生成过程无法完全跟踪、审计和证明不可预测。伪随机数生成器中使用的算法步骤是可审计的，但它们不能保证在已知初始种子的情况下，它们的输出是先验不可预测的。独立于设备的量子随机数生成器可以确保随机性的来源事先是未知的，但用于提取随机性的步骤很容易被篡改。

研究组演示了一种基于设备无关技术的完全可追溯的随机数生成协议。该协议从不可预测的非局部量子相关性中提取随机性，并使用分布式交织哈希链对提取过程进行加密跟踪和验证。该协议构成了研究组推出的公共可追溯和可认证的量子随机信标的基础。在运行的前40天，研究组完成了7454次尝试中的7434次，成功率为99.7%。每次协议成功时，信标都会发出512位可追踪随机性的脉冲。这些比特被证明是均匀的，误差乘以实际成功概率，其范围为2-64。可证明和可追踪的随机性的产生代表了一种公共服务，与类似的经典方法相比，它具有纠缠衍生的优势。

附：英文原文

Title: Traceable random numbers from a non-local quantum advantage

Author: Kavuri, Gautam A., Palfree, Jasper, Reddy, Dileep V., Zhang, Yanbao, Bienfang, Joshua C., Mazurek, Michael D., Alhejji, Mohammad A., Siddiqui, Aliza U., Cavanagh, Joseph M., Dalal, Aagam, Abelln, Carlos, Amaya, Waldimar, Mitchell, Morgan W., Stange, Katherine E., Beale, Paul D., Brando, Lus T. A. N., Booth, Harold, Peralta, Ren, Nam, Sae Woo, Mirin, Richard P., Stevens, Martin J., Knill, Emanuel, Shalm, Lynden K.

Issue&Volume: 2025-06-11

Abstract: The unpredictability of random numbers is fundamental to both digital security1,2 and applications that fairly distribute resources3,4. However, existing random number generators have limitations—the generation processes cannot be fully traced, audited and certified to be unpredictable. The algorithmic steps used in pseudorandom number generators5 are auditable, but they cannot guarantee that their outputs were a priori unpredictable given knowledge of the initial seed. Device-independent quantum random number generators6,7,8,9 can ensure that the source of randomness was unknown beforehand, but the steps used to extract the randomness are vulnerable to tampering. Here we demonstrate a fully traceable random number generation protocol based on device-independent techniques. Our protocol extracts randomness from unpredictable non-local quantum correlations, and uses distributed intertwined hash chains to cryptographically trace and verify the extraction process. This protocol forms the basis for a public traceable and certifiable quantum randomness beacon that we have launched10. Over the first 40 days of operation, we completed the protocol 7,434 out of 7,454 attempts—a success rate of 99.7%. Each time the protocol succeeded, the beacon emitted a pulse of 512 bits of traceable randomness. The bits are certified to be uniform with error multiplied by actual success probability bounded by 264. The generation of certifiable and traceable randomness represents a public service that operates with an entanglement-derived advantage over comparable classical approaches.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09054-3

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09054-3