Quantum Position Verification with Remote Untrusted Devices

Abstract: Many applications require or benefit from being able to securely localize remote parties. In classical physics, adversaries can in principle have complete knowledge of such a party's devices, and secure localization is fundamentally impossible. This limitation can be overcome with quantum technologies, but proposals to date require trusting vulnerable hardware. Here we develop and experimentally demonstrate a protocol for device-independent quantum position verification that guarantees security with only observed correlations from a loophole-free Bell test across a quantum network. The protocol certifies the position of a remote party against adversaries who, before each instance of the test, are weakly entangled, but otherwise have unlimited quantum computation and communication capabilities. Our demonstration achieves a one-dimensional localization that is 2.47(2) times smaller than the best, necessarily non-remote, classical localization protocol. Compared to such a classical protocol having identical latencies, the localization is 4.53(5) times smaller. This work anchors digital security in the physical world.