Topics Covered:

This class is intended to give students an introduction to the principles of magnetic confinement and heating of plasmas for controlled thermonuclear fusion. Topics typically covered include:

• magnetic field structures.

• single particle orbits in toroidal and linear confinement devices.

• magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium.

• magnetohydrodynamic stability.

• collisions.

• transport of particles and energy.

• heating of plasmas.

• modeling of plasmas.

• rudimentary discusion of fusion plasma diagnostics.

Central to the entire class will be discussion about and elaboration of the above topics for current leading confinement concepts, including:

• tokamaks.

• stellarators 

• reversed field pinches

• spherical tokamaks

Lab: none

Prerequisites: Physics 525 or equivalent

Standard Texts:

• Plasma Confinement and Heating Notes, J. Callen, Physics Department Copy Shop.

• Principles of Fusion Energy,  A.A. Harms, K.F. Schoepf, G.H. Miley, and D.R. Kingdon,   World Scientific 2000.
• Tokamaks,  Wesson, Oxford Press (1971).

Reference Texts:

• Ideal Magnetohydrodynamics, Jeffrey Freidberg, Plenum, 1987.
• Plasma Physics for Nuclear Fusion, K. Miyamoto, MIT Press, 1976.

Overview:

Principles of magnetic confinement and heating of plasmas for controlled thermonuclear fusion: magnetic field structures, single particle orbits, equilibrium, stability, collisions, transport, heating, modeling and diagnostics. Discussion of current leading confinement concepts: tokamaks, stellarators, reversed field pinches.