Bauer, Frances; Betancourt, Octavio; Garabedian, Paul 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 Cited in 14 Documents 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 Keywords:classical variational principle; equilibrium and stability; plasma confined by a strong magnetic field; toroidal geometry without two- dimensional symmetry; stellarators; thermonuclear fusion research; flux coordinates; Mercier criterion; nonlinear stability; minimum energy principle; local stability; nested flux surfaces; magnetic islands; transport; Fortran listing; computer code BETA; sample run; a user’s manual; glossary of parameters Citations:Zbl 0408.76077 PDFBibTeX XML