Geometry-controlled correlated electric-field noise in enclosed ion traps from billiard return spectra

Abstract

We ask how passive conducting geometry determines the spatial structure of electric-field noise seen by trapped ions. From a boundary-potential covariance and the Dirichlet Green function we construct the $N$-ion electric-field cross-spectral matrix and its blockwise motional Kossakowski generator. In a parallel slab, billiard unfolding turns the electrostatic response into a return-depth measure and yields an exact return-pair functional for arbitrary stationary surface spectra. For every finite equal-height ion array, the passive cover increases the normal-field covariance matrix in the positive-semidefinite ordering and decreases the tangential-field covariance matrix in the same ordering: all collective normal-field coordinates acquire more absolute noise, while all collective tangential coordinates acquire less. At $h=2d$ the local-noise single-ion ratios are exactly $\zeta(3)$ and $\eta(3)$. Diagonalizing the equal-frequency covariance identifies collective environmental noise eigenchannels and a geometry-dependent noise rank; within a degenerate frequency block these become the Lindblad jump channels. In a ten-ion example, closing the cover to $h=2d$ lowers the participation rank from 5.61 to 5.11 while increasing the leading channel's share from 23.7% to 28.6%; a primitive M{\o}lmer-S{\o}rensen calculation shows how the projected covariance sets the weak-heating gate exposure. Beyond parallel walls, specular paths emerge as large-$q_z$ saddles of the screened boundary operator. Across 16 curved covers, the fitted electrostatic decay exponent correlates at 0.9991 with the independently computed shortest specular excess length, while separate tests resolve focusing and competing saddles.