Randomness from Radiation: Evaluation and Analysis of Radiation-Based Random Number Generators

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of radioactive decay-based quantum random number generators by analyzing the impact of source type, distance, and recording time on the randomness quality, using entropy, frequency, and NIST tests.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of radioactive QRNGs, including experimental setup, data testing, and factors affecting randomness quality, which is less explored compared to other QRNG methods.

Findings

Radioactive source type influences randomness quality.

Distance and recording time affect entropy and randomness.

NIST tests confirm the security standards of generated numbers.

Abstract

Random numbers are central to various applications such as secure communications, quantum key distribution theory (QKD), statistics, and other tasks. One of today's most popular generators is quantum random numbers (QRNGs). The inherent randomness and true unpredictability in quantum mechanics allowed us to construct QRNGs that are more accurate and useful than traditional random number generators. Based on different quantum mechanical principles, several QRNGs have already been designed. The primary focus of this paper is the generation and analysis of quantum random numbers based on radioactive decay. In the experimental set, two beta-active radioactive sources, cobalt-60 (Co60) and Strontium-90 (Sr 90), and an ST-360 counter with a Geiger-Muller (GM) tube are used to record the counts. The recorded data was then self-tested by entropy and frequency measurement. Moreover, popular testing technique, the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) randomness testing is used, to ensure that the guaranteed randomness meets security standards. The research provides the impact of the nature of the radioactive source, the distance between the counter and sources, and the recording time of the counts on generating quantum random numbers of radioactive QRNGs.