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Magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium and stability of stellarators. (English) Zbl 0545.76135

New York etc.: Springer-Verlag. X, 196 p. DM 110.00; $ 40.10 (1984).
The present book is a continuation of the previous volume: of the authors, A computational method in plasma physics (1978; Zbl 0408.76077) of the Springer series in computational physics. Using the classical variational principle of magnetohydrodynamics, the authors give a detailed description of a numerical method to study the equilibrium and stability of a plasma confined by a strong magnetic field in toroidal geometry without two-dimensional symmetry. Emphasis is placed on stellarators, which are currently of interest in thermonuclear fusion research.
In the first part of their book they explain their approach, which relies on the introduction of flux coordinates in order to describe the equilibrium and to estimate stability by either surveying the energy landscape or applying the Mercier criterion. In the following chapters the authors concentrate on a quantitative treatment of nonlinear stability based on the minimum energy principle and to a discussion of the Mercier criterion for local stability. An analysis of nested flux surfaces, magnetic islands, and transport is appended. Chapters 7 to 9 are devoted to stellarators, starting with a general description of major stellarator experiments. The final four chapters of the book are allocated to a Fortran listing of a new version of their computer code BETA, together with a sample run, a user’s manual, and a glossary of parameters.
Reviewer: J.Groß

MSC:

76W05 Magnetohydrodynamics and electrohydrodynamics
76X05 Ionized gas flow in electromagnetic fields; plasmic flow
76-04 Software, source code, etc. for problems pertaining to fluid mechanics
76M99 Basic methods in fluid mechanics
76-02 Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to fluid mechanics

Citations:

Zbl 0408.76077