UCLA

A new approach to high pressure magnetically-confined plasmas is necessary to design efficient fusion devices. This Letter presents a new sort of equilibrium combining two solutions of the Grad–Shafranov equation, which describes the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium in toroidal geometry. The outer equilibrium is paramagnetic and confines the inner equilibrium, whose strong diamagnetism permits to balance large pressure gradients. The existence of both equilibria in the same volume yields a dual equilibrium structure. This combination improves free-boundary mode stability.