MHz-rate semi-device-independent quantum random number generators based on unambiguous state discrimination

Understand

An approach to quantum random number generation based on unambiguous quantum state discrimination (USD) is developed.

• We consider a prepare-and-measure protocol, where two non-orthogonal quantum states can be prepared, and a measurement device aims at unambiguously discriminating between them.
• Because the states are non-orthogonal, this necessarily leads to a minimal rate of inconclusive events whose occurrence must be genuinely random and which provide the randomness source that we exploit.
• Our protocol is semi-device-independent in the sense that the output entropy can be lower bounded based on experimental data and few general assumptions about the setup alone.