PhD Success!

Jake Flowerdew, holding the previous IBEX Paul trap, stands next to the vacuum vessel containing the IBEX-2 trap in the IBEX lab at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Congratulations to University of Oxford student Jake Flowerdew who on 5th October 2023 successfully defended his thesis, titled "Investigating Nonlinear Integrable Optics with a Paul Trap".

Jake's PhD research used a Paul trap to simulate the transverse beam dynamics in alternating gradient accelerators. His thesis concentrated on testing a novel accelerator lattice design, described by the theory of Quasi-Integrable Optics (QIO). QIO aims to introduce octupole elements into a lattice in order to mitigate space charge effects, without exciting the resonances associated with octupoles.

In order to experimentally test QIO in a Paul trap, Jake designed and commissioned a new trap to allow for the creation of octupole fields in addition to the quadrupole focusing. His thesis involved both simulation and experimental testing of the QIO in the Intense Beams Experiment (IBEX) Paul Trap.

Jake has already taken up a Fellowship position at CERN where he will be working on reducing longitudinal transfer losses from the PS to the SPS.