Full Self-Consistent Vlasov-Maxwell Solution

TL;DR

This paper develops a self-consistent method for finding stationary Vlasov-Maxwell solutions in cylindrically symmetric plasmas, revealing bifurcations that enhance confinement and the emergence of a separatrix in particle motion.

Contribution

It introduces a novel self-consistent approach to solve Vlasov-Maxwell equations for magnetically confined plasmas with cylindrical symmetry, including bifurcation analysis.

Findings

Bifurcation improves plasma confinement.

Emergence of a separatrix in particle trajectories.

Self-consistent solutions derived from entropy maximization.

Abstract

Full self-consistent stationary Vlasov-Maxwell solutions of magnetically confined plasmas are built for systems with cylindrical symmetries. The stationary solutions are thermodynamic equilibrium solutions. These are obtained by computing the equilibrium distribution function resulting from maximizing the entropy and closing the equations with source terms that are then computed by using the obtained distribution. This leads to a self-consistent problem corresponding to solving a set of two coupled second order non-linear differential equations. Relevant plasma parameters are introduced and a bifurcation leading to an improvement of plasma confinement is shown. Conversely in the improved confinement setting, we exhibit the emergence of a separatrix in the integrable motion of a charged particles.