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arXiv:1808.00622physics.plasm-ph

A different approach to the MHD equilibrium

John Hedditch

Abstract

Equations describing plasma equilibria are derived from the total energy of the system. The MHD equilibrium is shown to hold even for systems where the magnetic field may locally vanish. Through conservation of helicity, confinement is shown to be intimately related to electromagnetic tension. For an axisymmetric device, the presence of a magnetic field or current circling the axis is shown to be destabilising. This provides a simple explanation for the poor performance of some devices for which MHD predicts stability.

arXiv comments
Equation 1 is incomplete (missing E^2 - B^2 term). Consequently, much that follows is also incomplete or misleading
Journal reference
DOI
Subjects
physics.plasm-phPlasma Physics

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  1. Fusion in a magnetically-shielded-grid inertial electrostatic confinement device 2 comments

    • As this paper is from 2015 and I can't claim to understand it, is the follow up paper by the first author [0] the reason why it actually doesn't work? [0]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.00622

      Azrael3000View on HNParent context

    • https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.00622 [2019] " Equations describing plasma equilibria are derived from the total energy of the system. The MHD equilibrium is shown to hold even for systems where the magnetic field may locally vanish. Through conservation of helicity, confinement is…

      rolphView on HNParent context

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