Toward Secure Multitenant Quantum Computing: Circuit Affinity, Crosstalk Patterns, and Grouping Strategies

Abstract

Multitenancy increases throughput and reduces costs in cloud-based quantum computing, but concurrent job execution introduces security risks through inter-circuit crosstalk. We characterize the structural predictability of these interference patterns across seven IBM superconducting processors, spanning Heron (r1-r3) and Nighthawk (r1) architectures and five different circuit types. We evaluate pairwise interactions, by applying the Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) and a structural $t$-statistic to the concurrent execution of five foundational quantum circuits (QAOA, Grover's, QPE, QFT, and ZZFeatureMap), we quantify behavioral consistency across disparate hardware. Our results identify three types of circuits: universally aggressive, universally sensitive, and cotenant-dependent circuits. Aggressive circuits, such as Grover's Algorithm, exhibit a statistically significant interference pattern, yielding a $t$-statistic range of $[1.37,2.61]$ relative to the standalone baselines across all tested pairings. Conversely, sensitive circuits, such as the Quantum Fourier Transform, demonstrate a disproportionate susceptibility to multitenant execution, showing high deviations from single-tenant computational behavior. We demonstrate that crosstalk signatures are highly consistent within architectural revisions--with intra-revision similarity reaching $0.77$ (Hr3) and $0.68$ (Hr2)--while inter-revision similarity drops to $0.43$. Furthermore, we identify a ``topological decoupling" between Heavy-Hex and square lattice systems, where structural similarity falls to $0.01$ between Heron r1 and Nighthawk r1. These findings provide an empirical foundation for hardware-aware schedulers to strategically pair jobs, maximizing system utilization while preserving computational integrity.