New approach to transport improvement in a helical magnetic axis system by introduction of effective toroidal curvature

Abstract

A new approach to transport improvement in a helical magnetic axis stellarator is proposed. First of all, the proposal is presented for the L = 1 system. The effective toroidal curvature term epsilon(T), defined as the sum of the usual toroidal curvature and one of the nearest satellite harmonics of the helical field, determines confinement conditions of localized trapped particles. There exists a certain correlation between the smallness of epsilon(T) and the omnigeneity. This approach would give rise to the possibility of a stellarator design study in a wider parameter domain than quasisymmetry approaches.