Research Seminar by Josef PIEPRZYK | Pulsars as a Source of Publicly Verifiable Randomness

This work explores the potential of using pulsars to generate binary random sequences. The randomness obtained in this way possesses all the attributes of publicly verifiable randomness (PVR). PVR has numerous applications. In cryptography, it can be used as a timestamp, but also as a public random sequence (e.g., timestamp, public nonce). PVR can also be utilized for verifying international agreements and public lotteries (e.g., match schedules in international competitions).   Pulsars are neutron stars (white dwarfs) that emit beams of electromagnetic radiation at regular intervals. We selected two relatively bright (millisecond) pulsars and observed their flux density using a telescope from the Australian observatory in Parkes. We applied three different methods of bit extraction. The randomness of the obtained bits was verified using statistical tests from the collection recommended by NIST. Two telescopes, one in Australia (Parkes) and the other in China (FAST), were used to generate the same random sequence at two locations approximately 6000 km apart.   The presentation is based on work published in Astronomy and Computing in 2022. A free version is available at https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.05763.

Dr Josef PIEPRZYK is a Senior Principal Research Scientist at Data61, CSIRO, Sydney, Australia and a Professor at Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. His main research interest focus is Cryptology and Information Security and includes design and analysis of cryptographic algorithms (such as encryption, hashing and digital signatures), secure multiparty computations, cryptographic protocols, copyright protection, e-commerce, web security and cybercrime prevention. Dr PIEPRZYK published 5 books, edited 11 books (conference proceedings), 6 book chapters, and more than 300 papers in refereed journals and refereed international conferences. He is an IACR Fellow.