Precise quasisymmetry together with MHD stability at reactor pressure · revision history

Revision 2

Accepted · core change · record

Changes against revision 1:

Title
Precise quasisymmetry together with MHD stability at reactor pressure
Plain
Quasisymmetry is a hidden symmetry of the field strength that makes particles in a 3D stellarator move as if in a symmetric machine, and it has been achieved almost exactly in vacuum fields. Whether it can be kept while the plasma pressure is high enough for a reactor and the plasma stays stable is unknown.
Precise · changed · core
Revision 1: Quasisymmetry ($\left|B\right|$ depending on flux-surface angles only through one fixed linear combination) was achieved in vacuum with symmetry-breaking amplitude about 5e-5 of the field strength (about $0.5\,\mathrm{G}$ in a $1\mathrm{e}4\,\mathrm{G}$ field; Landreman and Paul, 2022). Determine whether equilibria exist with quasisymmetry error below 1e-3, volume-averaged $\beta$ of at least $5\,\mathrm{percent}$, ideal-MHD ballooning and kink stability, and nested flux surfaces, and map the trade-off frontier between these quantities. An answer is explicit configurations or a demonstrated frontier.
Revision 2: Quasisymmetry ($\left|B\right|$ depending on flux-surface angles only through one fixed linear combination) was achieved in vacuum with symmetry-breaking amplitude about $5 \times 10^{-5}$ of the field strength (about $0.5\,\mathrm{G}$ in a $10^{4}\,\mathrm{G}$ field; Landreman and Paul, 2022). Determine whether equilibria exist with quasisymmetry error below $10^{-3}$, volume-averaged $\beta$ of at least $5\%$, ideal-MHD ballooning and kink stability, and nested flux surfaces, and map the trade-off frontier between these quantities. An answer is explicit configurations or a demonstrated frontier.
Settled by
Published equilibria verified by independent equilibrium and stability codes, or a systematic frontier showing incompatibility.
Kind
well-posed
Answer type
yes-no
References
(empty)
Literature status
partially-resolved
Status note
Finite-$\beta$ precisely quasisymmetric equilibria were reported after 2022; simultaneous stability at reactor $\beta$ is not established.
Posed since
(empty)

Decisions