The generation of certifiable randomness is the most fundamental information-theoretic task that meaningfully separates quantum devices from their classical counterparts. We propose a protocol for exponential certified randomness expansion using a single quantum device. The protocol calls for the device to implement a simple quantum circuit of constant depth on a 2D lattice of qubits. The output of the circuit can be verified classically in linear time, and contains a polynomial number of certified random bits under the sole physical assumption that the device used to generate the output operated using a (classical or quantum) circuit of sub-logarithmic depth. This assumption contrasts with the locality assumption used for randomness certification based on Bell inequality violation and more recent proposals for randomness certification based on computational assumptions. Our procedure is inspired by recent work of Bravyi et al. (arXiv:1704.00690), who designed a relation problem that can be solved by a constant-depth quantum circuit, but provably cannot be solved by any classical circuit of sub-logarithmic depth. We expand the discovery of Bravyi et al. into a framework for robust randomness expansion. Furthermore, to demonstrate randomness generation it is sufficient for a device to sample from the ideal output distribution within constant statistical distance. Our proposal can thus be interpreted as a proposal for demonstrated quantum advantage that is more noise-tolerant than most other existing proposals that can only tolerate multiplicative error, or require additional conjectures from complexity theory. Our separation does not require any conjectures, but assumes that the adversarial device implements a circuit of sub-logarithmic depth.
A similar result has been recently (and independently) obtained by Coudron, Stark and Vidick and expanded into a framework for robust randomness expansion REF .
Trading locality for time: certifiable randomness from low-depth circuits
arXiv: Quantum Physics
Mathematics Physics