Physicists working at the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) and the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) are edging ever
closer to getting really random.
Their work—a source that provides the most efficient
delivery of a particularly useful sort of paired photons yet reported*—sounds
prosaic enough, but it represents a new high-water mark in a long-term effort
toward two very different and important goals, a definitive test of a key
feature of quantum theory and improved security for Internet transactions.