Charged particle dynamics near an X-point of a non-symmetric magnetic field with closed field lines

Abstract

Understanding particle drifts in a non-symmetric magnetic field is of primary interest in designing optimized stellarators to minimize the neoclassical radial loss of particles. Quasisymmetry and omnigeneity, two distinct properties proposed to ensure radial localization of collisionless trapped particles in stellarators, have been explored almost exclusively for magnetic fields that generate nested flux surfaces. In this work, we extend these concepts to the case where all the field lines are closed. We then study charged particle dynamics in the exact non-symmetric vacuum magnetic field with closed field lines, obtained recently by Weitzner and Sengupta (arXiv:1909.01890), which possesses X-points. The magnetic field can be used to construct magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium in the limit of vanishing plasma pressure. Expanding in the amplitude of the nonsymmetric fields, we explicitly evaluate the omnigeneity and quasisymmetry constraints. We show that the magnetic field is omnigeneous in the sense that the drift surfaces coincide with the pressure surfaces. However, it is not quasisymmetric according to the standard definitions.

Vacuum magnetic fields with exact quasisymmetry near a flux surface. Part 1. Solutions near an axisymmetric surface

“…such that B = B(η, ψ). Note that a similar function can be constructed even if the rotational transform is rational by replacing ψ by dl/B, where the integral is carried out along a closed field line (Elbarmi, Sengupta & Weitzner 2020). The streamlines of η must close on a constant ψ surface.…”