Equilibrium of a simplified coil quasi-axisymmetric stellarator: Free boundary approach

TL;DR

This paper explores the design of a simplified coil quasi-axisymmetric stellarator using a free boundary approach, optimizing for neoclassical transport reduction with a focus on coil configuration and magnetic field properties.

Contribution

It introduces a method to optimize coil configurations for quasi-axisymmetry and neoclassical transport reduction in stellarators without relying on Boozer coordinates.

Findings

Achieved quasi-axisymmetric configurations with good neoclassical transport properties.

Optimized coil configurations that invert the rotational transform after optimization.

Demonstrated effectiveness of the triple product metric as a local error indicator.

Abstract

Inspired by the design for the simple Columbia Non-neutral Torus (CNT) proposed by Pedersen and Boozer (Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 205002(2002)), and later revisited by Yu et al. (J. Plasma Phys. 88 905880306 (2022)), this work explores axi-symmetric equilibria using two planar vertical field coils and two non-planar intertwined coils. Neoclassical optimization studies are performed in a single stage approach using the DESC stellarator equilibrium solver (Dudt and Koleman, Phys. Plasmas 27 (2020) 102513). The physical parameters used as input were the toroidal magnetic flux function $\psi$, the rotational transform $\iota(\rho)$ as a function of the normalized flux function $\rho$ as the radial coordinate, the number of field periods $N_{FP}$, and an initial equilibrium assumption, given the major radius $R_0$ and the minor radius $a$. Once the equilibrium given by the coil configuration is defined, an optimization is made for quasi-symmetry. In this study, a triple product metric as defined by Dudt et al., (J. Plasma Phys. 89 (2023) 95589020) is used as a local error indicator, which is evaluated without resorting to Boozer coordinates. The goal is to optimize the effective ripple modulation amplitude ${\epsilon}_{eff}^{3/2}$, thus decreasing the neoclassical transport in the low collisionality $1/\nu$ regime. We show a sample of quasi-axisymmetric configurations obtained, both for the vacuum field and with finite pressure, which have reasonably good neoclassical transport in the sense of Boozer coordinates. In the best case scenarios the final rotational transfrom is inverted after optimization.