Energetic particle optimization of quasi-axisymmetric stellarator equilibria

• Published in: Nuclear fusion 2022-12, Vol.63 (1)
• Main Authors: LeViness, Alexandra, Schmitt, John C., Lazerson, Samuel A., Bader, Aaron, Faber, Benjamin J., Hammond, Kenneth C., Gates, David A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; fast ions; fusion; stellarator
• ISSN: 0029-5515

An important goal of stellarator optimization is to achieve good confinement of energetic particles such as, in the case of a reactor, alphas created by deuterium–tritium fusion. In this work, a fixed-boundary stellarator equilibrium was re-optimized for energetic particle confinement via a two-step process: first, by minimizing deviations from quasi-axisymmetry (QA) on a single flux surface near the mid-radius, and secondly by maintaining this improved QA while minimizing the analytical quantity Γc, which represents the angle between magnetic flux surfaces and contours of J||, the second adiabatic invariant. This was performed multiple times, resulting in a group of equilibria with significantly reduced energetic particle losses, as evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations of alpha particles in scaled-up versions of the equilibria. This is the first time that energetic particle losses in a QA stellarator have successfully been reduced by optimizing Γc. The relationship between energetic particle losses and metrics such as QA error (Eqa) and Γc in this set of equilibria were examined via statistical methods and a nearly linear relationship between volume-averaged Γc and prompt particle losses was found.