Entanglement-free certification of entangling gates

Not all quantum protocols require entanglement to outperform their classical alternatives. The nonclassical correlations that lead to a quantum advantage are conjectured to be captured by quantum discord. Here we demonstrate that discord has an immediate practical application: it allows a client who lacks the ability to generate entanglement or conduct quantum measurements to certify whether an untrusted party has entangling gates. We implement our protocol in the discrete-variable regime with photonic qubits and show its success in the presence of high levels of noise and imperfect gate operations. Our technique offers a practical method to test claims of quantum processing and to benchmark entangling operations for physical architectures in which only highly mixed states are available.