  It was recently demonstrated that wire guide roughness can be suppressed by
modulating the wire currents so that the atoms experience a time-averaged
potential without roughness. We theoretically study the limitations of this
technique. At low modulation frequency, we show that the longitudinal potential
modulation produces a heating of the cloud and we compute the heating rate. We
also give a quantum derivation of the rough conservative potential associated
with the micro-motion of the atoms. At large modulation frequency, we compute
the loss rate due to non adiabatic spin flip and show it presents resonnances
at multiple modulation frequencies. These studies show that the modulation
technique works for a wide range of experimental parameters. We also give
conditions to realise radio-frequency evaporative cooling in such a modulated
trap.
