Measures of quasisymmetry for stellarators

TL;DR

This paper analyzes three measures of quasisymmetry in stellarators, highlighting their limitations and suggesting improvements for optimization processes by incorporating physical metrics.

Contribution

It compares three existing quasisymmetry measures, discusses their lack of universality, and proposes using physical metrics to improve stellarator optimization.

Findings

Lack of universality in quasisymmetry measures.

Physical metrics should guide optimization near QS minima.

Example demonstrates impact of different measures on optimization.

Abstract

Quasisymmetric stellarators are an attractive class of optimised magnetic confinement configurations. The property of quasisymmetry (QS) is in practice limited to be approximate, and thus the construction requires measures that quantify the deviation from the exact property. In this paper we study three measure candidates used in the literature, placing the focus on their origin and the comparison of their forms. The analysis shows clearly the lack of universality in these measures. As these metrics do not directly correspond to any physical property (except when exactly QS), optimisation should employ additional physical metrics for guidance. Especially close to QS minima, treating QS metrics through inequality constraints so that additional physics metrics dominate optimisation is suggested. The impact of different quasisymmetric measures on optimisation is presented through an example.