Hybrid Hadamard and controlled-Hadamard based quantum random number generators in IBM QX

Abstract

Designing novel circuits and models for generating truly random numbers is of great importance. Recent attention has been focused on the idea of using real quantum computers to generate random numbers. In order to generate purely random bits and numbers, one method relies on the natural superposition of quantum gates. Here, we design a Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) exploiting combinations of Hadamard and controlled-Hadamard gates in IBM Quantum Experience (QX). In order to verify that the generated bit sequences were truly random, the proposed circuit’s outputs were subjected to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) test suite. In comparison to previous works, we found that not only had the total number of passed tests increased, but the P-values had also improved in many cases. For example, in the simulation style of the IBM QX, the number of passed tests is 14 out of 15 standard NIST tests. For the experimental mood of the IBM 16Q Melbourne, the number of passed tests is six without using any extractions. Furthermore, one more test is passed by adding Barrier operations to the circuits, and the P-values have increased. As a result, we found that the proposed method had more passed tests than previous works. The average of P-values for the six passed tests in former research for the mood of using a combination of extractors is about 0.43 . However, the best result we can get with our circuits is around 0.60 (the average of P-values for 14 passed tests), which is an improvement of 0.17 compared to former works . Because of this, our circuits are getting ever closer to being a true QRNG.