# Quantum stability of an ion in a Paul trap revisited

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the quantum stability of ions in a Paul trap, confirming through numerical simulations that classical stability criteria are applicable to quantum motion when considering wave-packet dynamics.

## Contribution

It revisits previous findings by analyzing full wave-packet dynamics, demonstrating that classical trapping criteria hold in quantum regimes.

## Key findings

- Quantum trajectories align with classical stability regions.
- Wave-packet simulations confirm classical trapping criteria.
- Quantum and classical stability regions are consistent.

## Abstract

We study the quantum stability of the dynamics of ions in a Paul trap. We revisit the results of Wang et al. [Phys. Rev. A 52, 1419 (1995)], which showed that quantum trajectories did not have the same region of stability as their classical counterpart, contrary to what is obtained from a Floquet analysis of the motion in the periodic trapping field. Using numerical simulations of the full wave-packet dynamics, we confirm that the classical trapping criterion are fully applicable to quantum motion, when considering both the expectation value of the position of the wave packet and its width.