Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Astronomical random numbers for quantum foundations experiments

Abstract

Photons from distant astronomical sources can be used as a classical source of randomness to improve fundamental tests of quantum nonlocality, wave-particle duality, and local realism through Bell's inequality and delayed-choice quantum eraser tests inspired by Wheeler's cosmic-scale Mach-Zehnder interferometer gedanken experiment. Such sources of random numbers may also be useful for information-theoretic applications such as key distribution for quantum cryptography. Building on the design of an astronomical random number generator developed for the recent cosmic Bell experiment, in this paper we report on the design and characterization of a device that, with 20-nanosecond latency, outputs a bit based on whether the wavelength of an incoming photon is greater than or less than ≈ 700 nm. Using the one-meter telescope at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Table Mountain Observatory, we generated random bits from astronomical photons in both color channels from 50 stars of varying color and magnitude, and from 12 quasars with redshifts up to z = 3.9 . With stars, we achieved bit rates of ~ 1 × 10 6 Hz / m 2 , limited by saturation of our single-photon detectors, and with quasars of magnitudes between 12.9 and 16, we achieved rates between ~ 10 2 and 2 × 10 3 Hz / m 2 . For bright quasars, the resulting bitstreams exhibit sufficiently low amounts of statistical predictability as quantified by the mutual information. In addition, a sufficiently high fraction of bits generated are of true astronomical origin in order to address both the locality and freedom-of-choice loopholes when used to set the measurement settings in a test of the Bell-CHSH inequality.

Authors:
; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1434398
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1503823
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0012567; PHY-1541160
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Physical Review A
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Physical Review A Journal Volume: 97 Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9926
Publisher:
American Physical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; quantum nonlocality; electromagnetic radiation astronomy

Citation Formats

Leung, Calvin, Brown, Amy, Nguyen, Hien, Friedman, Andrew S., Kaiser, David I., and Gallicchio, Jason. Astronomical random numbers for quantum foundations experiments. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.97.042120.
Copy to clipboard
Leung, Calvin, Brown, Amy, Nguyen, Hien, Friedman, Andrew S., Kaiser, David I., & Gallicchio, Jason. Astronomical random numbers for quantum foundations experiments. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.042120
Copy to clipboard
Leung, Calvin, Brown, Amy, Nguyen, Hien, Friedman, Andrew S., Kaiser, David I., and Gallicchio, Jason. Tue . "Astronomical random numbers for quantum foundations experiments". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.042120.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_1434398,
title = {Astronomical random numbers for quantum foundations experiments},
author = {Leung, Calvin and Brown, Amy and Nguyen, Hien and Friedman, Andrew S. and Kaiser, David I. and Gallicchio, Jason},
abstractNote = {Photons from distant astronomical sources can be used as a classical source of randomness to improve fundamental tests of quantum nonlocality, wave-particle duality, and local realism through Bell's inequality and delayed-choice quantum eraser tests inspired by Wheeler's cosmic-scale Mach-Zehnder interferometer gedanken experiment. Such sources of random numbers may also be useful for information-theoretic applications such as key distribution for quantum cryptography. Building on the design of an astronomical random number generator developed for the recent cosmic Bell experiment, in this paper we report on the design and characterization of a device that, with 20-nanosecond latency, outputs a bit based on whether the wavelength of an incoming photon is greater than or less than ≈700 nm. Using the one-meter telescope at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Table Mountain Observatory, we generated random bits from astronomical photons in both color channels from 50 stars of varying color and magnitude, and from 12 quasars with redshifts up to z=3.9. With stars, we achieved bit rates of ~1×106Hz/m2, limited by saturation of our single-photon detectors, and with quasars of magnitudes between 12.9 and 16, we achieved rates between ~102 and 2×103Hz/m2. For bright quasars, the resulting bitstreams exhibit sufficiently low amounts of statistical predictability as quantified by the mutual information. In addition, a sufficiently high fraction of bits generated are of true astronomical origin in order to address both the locality and freedom-of-choice loopholes when used to set the measurement settings in a test of the Bell-CHSH inequality.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.97.042120},
journal = {Physical Review A},
number = 4,
volume = 97,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {4}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.042120
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 4 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: Wheeler’s original delayed-choice proposal on a tabletop where the second beamsplitter can be rapidly inserted or removed after a single photon from S passes the first beamsplitter. The legend here applies for Figs. 1–4.
All figures and tables (13 total)
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

Event-Ready Bell Test Using Entangled Atoms Simultaneously Closing Detection and Locality Loopholes
journal, July 2017

Delayed-choice gedanken experiments and their realizations
journal, March 2016

Quantum Uncertainty Considerations for Gravitational Lens Interferometry
journal, July 2009

Testing Bell’s Inequality with Cosmic Photons: Closing the Setting-Independence Loophole
journal, March 2014

Quantum-key-distribution protocol with pseudorandom bases
journal, January 2018

Violation of local realism with freedom of choice
journal, November 2010

  • Scheidl, T.; Ursin, R.; Kofler, J.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 107, Issue 46
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1002780107

Loopholes in Bell inequality tests of local realism
journal, October 2014

Arbitrarily Small Amount of Measurement Independence Is Sufficient to Manifest Quantum Nonlocality
journal, November 2014

Fully Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution
journal, September 2014

Device-independent quantum key distribution secure against collective attacks
journal, April 2009

No Signaling and Quantum Key Distribution
journal, June 2005

Free randomness can be amplified
journal, May 2012

  • Colbeck, Roger; Renner, Renato
  • Nature Physics, Vol. 8, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphys2300

Requirements for a loophole-free photonic Bell test using imperfect setting generators
journal, March 2016

Pilot-Wave Hydrodynamics
journal, January 2015

On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen paradox
journal, November 1964

A wave-particle delayed-choice experiment with a single-photon state
journal, June 1989

  • Baldzuhn, J.; Mohler, E.; Martienssen, W.
  • Zeitschrift f�r Physik B Condensed Matter, Vol. 77, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1007/BF01313681

Measurement dependent locality
journal, May 2016

Proposed Experiment to Test Local Hidden-Variable Theories
journal, October 1969

Loophole-free Bell inequality violation using electron spins separated by 1.3 kilometres
journal, October 2015

New insights into black bodies
journal, February 2012

Planck 2015 results : XIII. Cosmological parameters
journal, September 2016

Optical Refractive Index of Air: Dependence on Pressure, Temperature and Composition
journal, January 1967

Frequency-dependent effects of gravitational lensing within plasma
journal, May 2015

  • Rogers, Adam
  • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 451, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv903

Quantum erasure with causally disconnected choice
journal, January 2013

  • Ma, Xiao-Song; Kofler, Johannes; Qarry, Angie
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1213201110

Strong Loophole-Free Test of Local Realism
journal, December 2015

Significant-Loophole-Free Test of Bell’s Theorem with Entangled Photons
journal, December 2015

Satellite-Relayed Intercontinental Quantum Network
journal, January 2018

Wheeler's delayed-choice gedanken experiment with a single atom
journal, May 2015

  • Manning, A. G.; Khakimov, R. I.; Dall, R. G.
  • Nature Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphys3343

Random numbers certified by Bell’s theorem
journal, April 2010

Cosmological Applications of Gravitational Lensing
journal, September 1992

The Upward Bias in Measures of Information Derived from Limited Data Samples
journal, March 1995

Cosmic Bell Test: Measurement Settings from Milky Way Stars
journal, February 2017

The Square Kilometre Array pulsar timing array
journal, November 2013

Composite Quasar Spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
journal, August 2001

  • Vanden Berk, Daniel E.; Richards, Gordon T.; Bauer, Amanda
  • The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 122, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1086/321167

How Much Measurement Independence Is Needed to Demonstrate Nonlocality?
journal, March 2011

Optimal free will on one side in reproducing the singlet correlation
journal, May 2012

  • Banik, Manik; Gazi, MD. Rajjak; Das, Subhadipa
  • Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, Vol. 45, Issue 20
  • DOI: 10.1088/1751-8113/45/20/205301

The International Pulsar Timing Array
journal, November 2013

Random Numbers from Astronomical Imaging
journal, January 2005

  • Pimbblet, Kevin A.; Bulmer, Michael
  • Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, Vol. 22, Issue 01
  • DOI: 10.1071/AS04043

Satellite-based entanglement distribution over 1200 kilometers
journal, June 2017

Bell nonlocality
journal, April 2014

  • Brunner, Nicolas; Cavalcanti, Daniel; Pironio, Stefano
  • Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 86, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1103/RevModPhys.86.419

Quantum generalizations of Bell's inequality
journal, March 1980

  • Cirel'son, B. S.
  • Letters in Mathematical Physics, Vol. 4, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1007/BF00417500

Full randomness from arbitrarily deterministic events
journal, October 2013

  • Gallego, Rodrigo; Masanes, Lluis; De La Torre, Gonzalo
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 4, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3654

The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
journal, November 2013

The European Pulsar Timing Array and the Large European Array for Pulsars
journal, November 2013

Random Number Generation with Cosmic Photons
journal, April 2017

The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
journal, November 2013

Delayed-Choice Test of Quantum Complementarity with Interfering Single Photons
journal, June 2008

Relaxed Bell inequalities and Kochen-Specker theorems
journal, August 2011

Local Deterministic Model of Singlet State Correlations Based on Relaxing Measurement Independence
journal, December 2010

    Sort by:
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Relaxed Bell inequalities with arbitrary measurement dependence for each observer
    journal, January 2019

    Real-Time Source-Independent Quantum Random-Number Generator with Squeezed States
    journal, September 2019

    Test of Local Realism into the Past without Detection and Locality Loopholes
    journal, August 2018

      Sort by:
      [ × clear filter / sort ]

      Figures / Tables found in this record:

      FIG. 1 (p. 4)figure
      FIG. 2 (p. 5)figure
      FIG. 3 (p. 5)figure
      FIG. 4 (p. 5)figure
      FIG. 5 (p. 8)figure
      FIG. 6 (p. 9)figure
      FIG. 7 (p. 9)figure
      FIG. 8 (p. 9)figure
      FIG. 10 (p. 10)figure
      FIG. 9 (p. 10)figure
      FIG. 11 (p. 11)figure
      TABLE I (p. 11)table
      FIG. 12 (p. 13)figure
        [ × clear filter / sort ]
        Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.

        Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: