Invariant tori for the pressure-jump Hamiltonian

TL;DR

This paper develops a computational method to identify regions in phase space where invariant tori do not exist for the pressure-jump Hamiltonian, advancing understanding of magnetic equilibria in non-axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to compute non-existence regions of invariant tori in the pressure-jump Hamiltonian, improving analysis of magnetic interfaces beyond axisymmetry.

Findings

Method to compute phase space regions without invariant tori.

Identification of parameter spaces with no Hamilton-Jacobi solutions.

Potential to approximate full non-existence regions with computational effort.

Abstract

A major achievement of Dewar and coworkers is the SPEC code to construct stepped-pressure equilibria in magnetohydrostatics without axisymmetry. Their existence had been proved by Bruno and Laurence. As part of the procedure of Bruno and Laurence, it is required to solve the Hamilton-Jacobi equation for a magnetic potential on the outside of an interface given the field on the inside and the pressure-jump across the interface. For non-axisymmetric interface, it was understood that solutions with insufficiently irrational rotational transform might not exist, and examples have been given for which there are no solutions at all for large enough pressure-jump. The present paper gives a method to compute regions in the phase space for the pressure-jump Hamiltonian through which no invariant tori pass. The paper also shows how to present the results as regions in the space of pressure-jumps and outer rotational transform for which there is no solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. The method is expected to reach arbitrarily close to the full non-existence region with enough computational work, so what is left over can be relied on to be mostly invariant tori. The paper also brings to attention a class of metrics on tori that are not necessarily axisymmetric yet have integrable geodesic flow. They could give interfaces with solutions for all but finitely many rotational transforms.