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Computer Science > Data Structures and Algorithms

arXiv:1910.06437 (cs)
[Submitted on 14 Oct 2019 (v1), last revised 14 Nov 2019 (this
version, v2)]

Title:It is high time we let go of the Mersenne Twister

Authors:Sebastiano Vigna
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    Abstract: When the Mersenne Twister made his first appearance in
    1997 it was a powerful example of how linear maps on $\mathbf
    F_2$ could be used to generate pseudorandom numbers. In
    particular, the easiness with which generators with long periods
    could be defined gave the Mersenne Twister a large following, in
    spite of the fact that such long periods are not a measure of
    quality, and they require a large amount of memory. Even at the
    time of its publication, several defects of the Mersenne Twister
    were predictable, but they were somewhat obscured by other
    interesting properties. Today the Mersenne Twister is the default
    generator in C compilers, the Python language, the Maple
    mathematical computation system, and in many other environments.
    Nonetheless, knowledge accumulated in the last $20$ years
    suggests that the Mersenne Twister has, in fact, severe defects,
    and should never be used as a general-purpose pseudorandom number
    generator. Many of these results are folklore, or are scattered
    through very specialized literature. This paper surveys these
    results for the non-specialist, providing new, simple,
    understandable examples, and it is intended as a guide for the
    final user, or for language implementors, so that they can take
    an informed decision about whether to use the Mersenne Twister or
    not.

Subjects: Data Structures and Algorithms (cs.DS); Cryptography and
          Security (cs.CR)
Cite as:  arXiv:1910.06437 [cs.DS]
          (or arXiv:1910.06437v2 [cs.DS] for this version)
          https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1910.06437
          Focus to learn more
          arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

Submission history

From: Sebastiano Vigna [view email]
[v1] Mon, 14 Oct 2019 21:44:14 UTC (49 KB)
[v2] Thu, 14 Nov 2019 14:50:14 UTC (49 KB)
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