The use of near-axis magnetic fields for stellarator turbulence simulations
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Jorge, R. (ORCID:0000000329416571)↗
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Optimized finite-build stellarator coils using automatic differentiation
A new stellarator coil design code is introduced that optimizes the position and winding pack orientation of finite-build coils. The new code, called flexible optimized curves in space using automatic differentiation (AD) and finite build (FOCUSADD), performs gradient-based optimization in a high-dimensional, non-convex space. The derivatives with respect to parameters of finite-build coils are easily and efficiently computed using AD. FOCUSADD parametrizes coil positions in free space using a Fourier series and uses a multi-filament approximation to the coil winding pack. The orientation of the winding pack is parametrized with a Fourier series and can be optimized as well. Optimized finite-build coils for a Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X)-like stellarator are found, and compared with filamentary coil results. The final positions of optimized finite-build W7-X-like coils are shifted, on average, by approximately 2.5 mm relative to optimized filamentary coils. These results suggest that finite-build effects should be accounted for in the optimization of stellarators with low coil tolerances.
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
Design and construction of the MUSE permanent magnet stellarator
This paper documents the design and construction of MUSE, the world's first permanent magnet (PM) stellarator and the first quasi-axisymmetric experiment. The purpose of MUSE is to develop and assess a new way of building optimised stellarators that uses simple planar coils PMs. Our PM optimisation algorithm consists of initialising a geometry to pack dipoles densely, running the FAMUS code to minimise surface field error subject to PM constraints and applying discrete jumps to reach a physically realisable solution. FAMUS treats the PM system as a set of ideal point dipoles. From there we construct finite-volume magnet towers to be housed in 3D-printed PM holders. We describe the design of the PM holders, which were validated by laser metrology. We analyse the effects of finite permeability, sensitivity to perturbations and magnetostatic forces. An exact analytic formula for the magnetic field from a finite-volume PM tower is presented to compute PM–PM forces and stress on the PM holder. Stellarator construction is complete and experiments are underway.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
Merging of the superbanana plateau and $\sqrt{v}$ transport regimes in nearly quasisymmetric stellarators
We report alpha particle confinement is one of the most demanding issues for stellarators. It now seems clear that it is possible to design optimized stellarators that confine the background plasma at near tokamak radial transport levels. Moreover, adequate collisionless alpha particle confinement is possible in the core of a highly optimized stellarator. Here, the collisional confinement of barely trapped alphas in an optimized stellarator is considered by accounting for the resonance due to the reversal in direction of the drift within a flux surface and investigating the sensitive role of magnetic shear in keeping this resonance close to the passing boundary in some nearly quasisymmetric stellarator configurations. The treatment relies on a narrow collisional boundary layer formulation that combines the responses of both these resonant pitch angle alphas and the remaining barely trapped alphas. A novel merged regime treatment leads to explicit expressions for the energy diffusivity for both superbanana plateau (or resonant plateau) and $\sqrt{v}$ transport in the large aspect ratio limit for a slowing down tail alpha distribution function, where v is the effective pitch angle scattering collision frequency of the trapped alphas off the background ions. Depending on the details of the optimization scheme and the sign of the magnetic shear, modest magnetic shear can be used to reduce superbanana (or resonant) plateau transport to below the $\sqrt{v}$ transport level. In addition, a quasilinear equation retaining spatial diffusion is derived for a general alpha distribution function that allows the radial alpha transport to modify the distribution so it is no longer isotropic in velocity space.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
SDSS-IV MaStar: Data-driven Parameter Derivation for the MaStar Stellar Library
The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) Stellar Library (MaStar) is a large collection of high-quality empirical stellar spectra designed to cover all spectral types and ideal for use in the stellar population analysis of galaxies observed in the MaNGA survey. The library contains 59,266 spectra of 24,130 unique stars with spectral resolution R ~ 1800 and covering a wavelength range of 3622–10,354 Å. In this work, we derive five physical parameters for each spectrum in the library: effective temperature (T eff ), surface gravity ($\mathrm{log} g$), metallicity ([Fe/H]), microturbulent velocity ($\mathrm{log}({v}_{\mathrm{micro}})$), and alpha-element abundance ([α/Fe]). These parameters are derived with a flexible data-driven algorithm that uses a neural network model. We train a neural network using the subset of 1675 MaStar targets that have also been observed in the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), adopting the independently-derived APOGEE Stellar Parameter and Chemical Abundance Pipeline parameters for this reference set. For the regions of parameter space not well represented by the APOGEE training set (7000 ≤ T ≤ 30,000 K), we supplement with theoretical model spectra. We present our derived parameters along with an analysis of the uncertainties and comparisons to other analyses from the literature.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
Stellarator Theory and Non-Axisymmetric Shaping (Final Technical Report)
Divertors are a critical concept for all magnetically confined fusion systems. The W7-X stellarator has an island divertor as do many of the privately funded stellarator reactor designs, but non-resonant divertors have many advantages, which are defined in the paper OSTI ID: 3021689, “Stellarators with enhanced tritium confinement and edge radiation control” and discussed in OSTI ID: 3021687, 3021688, 3021692, and 3021695. The three basic advantages are: (1) Resilience, the location at which the diverted plasma reaches the walls is insensitive to plasma conditions, unlike island divertors. (2) The width of the region at the plasma edge that flows into the divertor has a controllable width. It can be made sufficiently broad to avoid neutrals impending on the plasma from charge exchanging with high energy plasma particles. The resulting high energy neutrals erode the walls. (3) The controllable width and confinement of non-resonant divertors allow high-Z impurities to be added. The shortness of their confinement time limits their diffusion into the plasma interior. High-Z impurity radiation at the plasma edge seems the only way to sufficiently spread the outcoming power over the walls. The lack of experiments is a major impediment to application of non-resonant divertors, although the small experiment STAR_LITE is being built at Hampton University to study them.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
Current potential patches
A novel form of the current potential, a mathematical tool for the design of stellarators and stellarator coils, is developed. Specifically, these are current potentials with a finite-element basis, called current potential patches. Current potential patches leverage the relationship between distributions of magnetic dipoles and current potentials to explore limits of the access properties of stellarator coil sets. An example calculation is shown using the Helically Symmetric Experiment (HSX) equilibrium, demonstrating the method's use in coil design and understanding the limits of the access properties of coil sets. Current potential patches have additional desirable properties such as of promoting sparse current sheet solutions and identifying crucial locations of shaping current placement. A result is found for the HSX equilibrium that shaping currents covering only 22% of the winding surface are sufficient to produce the equilibrium to a good accuracy, provided a toroidal field is generated by an exterior coil set.
Elder, Todd↗
High Angular Resolution Mid-Infrared Imaging of Young Stars in Orion BN/KL
The authors present Keck LWS images of the Orion BN/KL star forming region obtained in the first multi-wavelength study to have 0.3--0.5 resolution from 4.7 (micro)m to 22 (micro)m. The young stellar objects designed infrared source n and radio source I are believed to dominate the BN/KL region. They have detected extended emission from a probable accretion disk around source n but infer a stellar luminosity on the order of only 2000 L(sub (center-dot)).
STARS↗
Conceptual Design of a Scintillator-Based Fast-Ion Loss Detector for the Wendelstein 7-X Stellarator
Here, a conceptual design of a scintillator-based fast-ion loss detector (FILD) has been developed for the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator (W7-X). Simulations using the Monte Carlo codes ASCOT5 and BEAMS3D have been performed to calculate the expected flux of neutral beam injection (NBI)-generated fast hydrogen ions onto the conceptual detector probe head. These fast-ion loss fluxes have been calculated for several magnetic field configurations as well as probe insertion positions. At the maximum insertion position, both co-and counter-going losses with high incident pitch angles are observed; however, at retracted positions, only co-going fast ions reach the probe head. The FILDSIM code has been used to optimize the geometry of the detector entrance and collimating elements to achieve a wide velocity space coverage as well as a high velocity–space resolution. A synthetic FILD signal is calculated for the expected loss distribution via forward modeling using the instrument response function. The synthetic signal is found to largely retain the velocity space features of the loss distribution.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
Solar-Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment 1. I - Instrument design and operation
The main objective for the Solar-Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE) is to accurately measure the full disk solar spectral irradiance in the ultraviolet (UV) spectral region over a long time period. To meet this objective, SOLSTICE has the unique capability of making routine observations of the UV radiation from a set of early-type stars, using the identical optical elements and detectors employed for the solar observations. The stars selected for this calibration are assumed, on the basis of stellar evolution theory, to be extremely stable in the UV spectral region. Moreover, it is the average flux from a number of stars, perhaps from as many as 25, that is assumed to be stable. The SOLSTICE 1 is on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), and the overall design and operation of the instrument are discussed. The quality of the solar and stellar data is extremely high and preliminary results indicate that the technique is working well.
Rottman, Gary J.↗
A mission and system design option for the Orbiting Stellar Interferometer
The Orbiting Stellar Interferometer (OSI) is a proposed space-based observatory that will open exciting new vistas in astronomy and address fundamental scientific questions by making extremely accurate (3 to 30 microarcsecond) astrometric measurements of the positions of stars, quasars, and other astronomical objects as faint as magnitude 20. In addition, it will be able to image objects with a resolution of about 13 milliarcseconds. Using the lessons learned from the development of a point design for OSI, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed a new conceptual design, with emphasis on reducing its cost and complexity while maximizing the return of valuable science.
Rayman, M. D.↗
Multi-delay coherence imaging spectroscopy optimized for ion temperature measurements in the divertor plasma of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator
A new coherence imaging spectroscopy (CIS) diagnostic optimized to measure the C 2+ impurity ion temperature T i spatial distribution in the divertor plasma of the W7-X stellarator is designed, tested, and validated. Using CIS to obtain T i in the edge of magnetically confined plasmas has historically been challenging because Doppler broadening and Zeeman splitting have comparable effects on the shape of spectral emission lines. To distinguish between these two mechanisms, a novel approach to birefringent crystal design is employed to minimize the diagnostic’s sensitivity to Zeeman splitting. The recently developed pixelated multi-delay CIS approach is also used to obtain four times as much spectral information as traditional CIS approaches. The T i -optimized CIS diagnostic is validated in a long-pulse W7-X plasma by comparison with a high-resolution spectrometer whose sightlines overlap with the CIS field of view. The CIS and spectrometer T i profiles have the same shape and agree to within 10% on average and 25% in the worst case. Images of the T i distribution near the divertor show toroidally elongated bands aligned with the magnetic field, with T i ranging between 10 and 40 eV.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
Charged particle dynamics near an X-point of a non-symmetric magnetic field with closed field lines
Understanding particle drifts in a non-symmetric magnetic field is of primary interest in designing optimized stellarators in order 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 with nested flux surfaces. In this work, we examine radial particle confinement when all field lines are closed. We then study charged particle dynamics in the special case of a non-symmetric vacuum magnetic field with closed field lines obtained recently by Weitzner & Sengupta ( Phys. Plasmas , vol. 27, 2020, 022509). These magnetic fields can be used to construct magnetohydrodynamic equilibria for low pressure. Expanding in the amplitude of the non-symmetric 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.
Physics↗
Piecewise omnigenous stellarators with zero bootstrap current
Until now, quasi-isodynamic magnetic fields have been the only known stellarator configurations that, at low collisionality, give small radial neoclassical transport and zero bootstrap current for arbitrary plasma profiles, the latter facilitating control of the magnetic configuration. The recently introduced notion of piecewise omnigenous fields has enormously broadened the space of stellarator configurations with small radial neoclassical transport. Here, in this Letter, the existence of piecewise omnigenous fields that give zero bootstrap current is proven analytically and confirmed numerically. These results establish piecewise omnigenity as an alternative approach to stellarator reactor design.
Calvo, Iván [Research Centre for Energy, Environme↗
Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer
Wide-field imaging systems equipped with objective prisms or gratings have had a long history of utility in groundbased observations of meteors and comets. Deployment of similar instruments from low Earth orbit would allow the first UV observations of meteors. This instrument can be used for comets and Lyman alpha coronae of Earth-orbit-crossing asteroids. A CaF2 prism imaging spectrograph designed for stellar observations was used aboard Skylab to observe Comet Kohoutek (1973f), but its 1300-A cut-off precluded Lyman alpha images and it was not used for observation of meteors. Because the observation of the UV spectrum of a meteor has never been attempted, researchers are denied the opportunity to obtain composition information from spectra at those wavelengths. We propose construction of a flight instrument functioning in the 1100-3200 A spectral range that is suitable for a dedicated satellite ('Quick Star') or as a space-station-attached payload. It can also be an autonomous package in the space shuttle cargo bay.
Wdowiak, T. J.↗
Conceptual design of a heavy ion beam probe diagnostic for the Wendelstein 7-X Stellarator
This article describes the current state of the design of the heavy ion beam probe (HIBP) for Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X). It will be the first HIBP diagnostic on an optimized stellarator and is designed to study electric fields and ion scale turbulence in all W7-X reference magnetic configurations. The use of an existing 2 MV accelerator, located outside of the torus hall, results in the need for a circuitous primary beamline. This increases the complexity of the ion optics design to deliver a focused beam to the plasma. To access most of the magnetic configuration space of W7-X, the secondary beamline and an energy analyzer are designed to pivot, thereby redirecting a wider range of secondary beam trajectories. Signal level estimates indicate that the equilibrium potential can be measured at all radii and that the radial coverage for potential and density fluctuations measurements depends on the plasma density.
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
Topology optimization of permanent magnets for stellarators
In this work, we introduce a topology optimization method to design permanent magnets for advanced stellarators. Recent researches show that permanent magnets have great potentials to simplify stellarator coils. We adopt state-of-the-art numerical techniques to determine the presence of magnets in the entire designing space. The FAMUS code is developed and it can design engineering-feasible permanent magnets for general stellarators satisfying the constraints of the maximum material magnetization and explicit forbidden regions. FAMUS has been successfully verified against the previously proposed linear method. Three different permanent magnet designs together with planar TF coils for a half-Tesla NCSX configuration have been obtained for demonstrations. The designs have good accuracy in generating the desired equilibrium and offer considerably large plasma access on the outboard side. The results show that FAMUS is a flexible, advanced numerical tool for future permanent magnet stellarator designs.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
Design Enhancements of the Fourier Kelvin Stellar Interferometer to Enable Detection of Earth Twins
During the last few years, considerable effort has been directed towards very large-scale (> $5 billion) missions to detect and characterize Mars-radius to Earth-radius planets around nearby stars; such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer and Darwin missions. However, technological issues such as formation flying and control of systematic noise sources will likely prevent these missions from entering Phase A until at least the end of the next decade. Presently more than 350 planets have been discovered by a variety of techniques, and little is known about the majority of them other than their approximate mass. However, a simplified nulling interferometer operating in the near- to mid-infrared (e.g. approx. 5-15 microns), like the enhanced version of the Fourier Kelvin Stellar Interferometer (FKSI), can characterize the atmospheres of a large sample of the known planets - including Earth twins. Many other scientific problems can be addressed with a system like FKSI, including the studies of debris disks, active galactic nuclei, and low mass companions around nearby stars. We report results of a recent engineering study on an enhanced version of FKSI that includes 1-meter primary mirrors, 20-meter boom length, and an advanced sun shield that will provide a 45-degree FOR and 40K operating temperature for all optics including siderostats.
Barry, Richard K.↗