Review of pseudo and quantum random number generators

Randomness has attracted the attention of scientists the last decades. From probability theory and pure mathematics, to quantum mechanics and inherently quantum phenomena, randomness is a fundamental aspect of reality as we know it nowadays. Recently, with the advent of quantum computers expected to be in the next decades for commercial use, there is an ever growing need for the generation of random numbers for cryptography. In other words, we have to invent sequences of random numbers that are uniform and they can be generated fast, in order to accommodate cryptographic protocols. This is the reason why random number generators are so useful. In this thesis, I will go through some protocols of pseudorandom number generators, i.e. random numbers produced by an algorithm (deterministic), and some setups that generate random numbers based on a quantum process, i.e quantum random generators. The first category, pseudorandom number generators, can be extremely fast. However, due to the fact that they are produced by a computer which is deterministic, those numbers produced by it cannot be viewed as truly random ones, hence the name pseudorandom. On the other hand, the second category is the quantum random number generators, which produce truly random numbers because their process is inherently quantum. The main drawback of these generators is that they are not quite practical yet, since they require an experimental setup. Also, most quantum random numbers may need some post-processing in order to deal with correlations or problems of the detector. The first chapter will include some pseudorandom number generators and their techniques, the second will focus on the permuted congruential generator, considered to be one of the best pseudorandom number generators out there, the third will give an idea about the different types of quantum random number generators and the fourth will go through qiskit, a Python library developed by IBM for quantum computing. In the fifth and final chapter, I will have explain how we try to make a good pseudorandom number generator with a quantum random number generator.Randomness has attracted the attention of scientists the last decades. From probability theory and pure mathematics, to quantum mechanics and inherently quantum phenomena, randomness is a fundamental aspect of reality as we know it nowadays. Recently, with the advent of quantum computers expected to be in the next decades for commercial use, there is an ever growing need for the generation of random numbers for cryptography. In other words, we have to invent sequences of random numbers that are uniform and they can be generated fast, in order to accommodate cryptographic protocols. This is the reason why random number generators are so useful. In this thesis, I will go through some protocols of pseudorandom number generators, i.e. random numbers produced by an algorithm (deterministic), and some setups that generate random numbers based on a quantum process, i.e quantum random generators. The first category, pseudorandom number generators, can be extremely fast. However, due to the fact that they are produced by a computer which is deterministic, those numbers produced by it cannot be viewed as truly random ones, hence the name pseudorandom. On the other hand, the second category is the quantum random number generators, which produce truly random numbers because their process is inherently quantum. The main drawback of these generators is that they are not quite practical yet, since they require an experimental setup. Also, most quantum random numbers may need some post-processing in order to deal with correlations or problems of the detector. The first chapter will include some pseudorandom number generators and their techniques, the second will focus on the permuted congruential generator, considered to be one of the best pseudorandom number generators out there, the third will give an idea about the different types of quantum random number generators and the fourth will go through qiskit, a Python library developed by IBM for quantum computing. In the fifth and final chapter, I will have explain how we try to make a good pseudorandom number generator with a quantum random number generator