Physicist uses laser to generate random numbers

National Post : Random number sequences are usually generated by computational algorithms, which only give the appearance of randomness, but a new technique uses a laser light pulse to create truly random numbers. Ben Sussman of Canada’s National Research Council and coworkers have found that when they shine a pulse of laser light at a diamond, the light changes as it passes through because it interacts with quantum vacuum fluctuations. What happens to the light is unknown and, fundamentally, unknowable. The measurements of the pulses of light that emerge from the diamond are therefore random in a way that nothing in our ordinary surroundings is, writes Tom Spears for Canada’s National Post. “A truly random number generator will provide impenetrable encryption for communications—be they military transmissions, secure banking, or online purchasing—that underpin the modern connected world,” said Sussman.