The Paul trap simulator experiment is a compact laboratory Paul trap that simulates a long, thin charged-particle bunch coasting through a kilometers-long magnetic alternating-gradient (AG) transport system by putting the physicist in the beam’s frame of reference. The transverse dynamics of particles in both systems are described by similar equations, including all nonlinear space-charge effects. The time-dependent quadrupolar electric fields created by the confinement electrodes of a linear Paul trap correspond to the axially dependent magnetic fields applied in the AG system. Results are presented for experiments in which the lattice period and strength are changed over the course of the experiment to transversely compress a beam with an initial depressed tune of 0.9. Instantaneous and smooth changes are considered. Emphasis is placed on determining the conditions that minimize the emittance growth and the number of halo particles produced by the beam compression process. Both the results of particle-in-cell simulations performed with the warp code and envelope equation solutions agree well with the experimental data.
