Systematic comparison of VMEC and HINT equilibrium calculations for finite-beta LHD plasmas
New research compares two leading plasma equilibrium codes, revealing limitations at higher beta values.
A recent study published on arXiv systematically compared the VMEC and HINT codes for calculating plasma equilibria in the Large Helical Device (LHD) at finite beta.
The research examined three vacuum magnetic-axis configurations across a range of beta values from 0% to 5%. At low beta, both codes produced consistent results, suggesting that the assumption of nested flux surfaces holds.
However, above a critical beta value, the codes began to diverge, indicating that the nested flux surfaces assumption is compromised. The HINT code showed a decrease in enclosed plasma volume at higher beta due to stochasticity.
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