The formal stability analysis of Eulerian extended magnetohydrodynamics (XMHD) equilibria is considered within the noncanonical Hamiltonian framework by means of the energy-Casimir variational principle and the dynamically accessible stability method. Specifically, we find explicit sufficient stability conditions for axisymmetric XMHD and Hall MHD (HMHD) equilibria with toroidal flow and for equilibria with arbitrary flow under constrained perturbations. The dynamically accessible, second-order variation of the Hamiltonian, which can potentially provide explicit stability criteria for generic equilibria, is also obtained. Moreover, we examine the Lagrangian stability of the general quasineutral two-fluid model written in terms of MHD-like variables, by finding the action and the Hamiltonian functionals of the linearized dynamics, working within a mixed Lagrangian-Eulerian framework. Upon neglecting electron mass, we derive a HMHD energy principle, and in addition, the perturbed induction equation arises from Hamilton's equations of motion in view of a consistency condition for the relation between the perturbed magnetic potential and the canonical variables.
A necessary condition for existence of general dissipative magnetohydrodynamic equilibria is derived. The ingredients of the derivation are Ohm's law and the existence of magnetic surfaces, only in the sense of KAM theorem. All other equations describing the system matter exclusively for the evaluation of the condition in a concrete case.
A sufficient condition for the linear stability of three dimensional equilibria with incompressible flows parallel to the magnetic field is derived. The condition involves physically interpretable terms related to the magnetic shear and the flow shear.
A simulated annealing (SA) relaxation method is used for calculation of high-beta reduced magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equilibria in toroidal geometry. The SA method, based on artificial dynamics derived from the MHD Hamiltonian structure, is used to calculate equilibria of large-aspect-ratio and circular-cross-section tokamaks as well as toroidally averaged stellarators. Tokamak equilibria including incompressible poloidal rotations are obtained and the Shafranov shift is seen to increase nearly quadratically in the rotation speed. A mapping procedure between non-rotating and poloidally rotatin…
It is proved that (a) the solutions of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic equation, which describe the equlibrium states of a cylindrical plasma with purely poloidal flow and arbitrary cross sectional shape [G. N. Throumoulopoulos and G. Pantis, Plasma Phys. and Contr. Fusion 38, 1817 (1996)] are also valid for incompressible equlibrium flows with the axial velocity component being a free surface quantity and (b) for the case of isothermal incompressible equilibria the magnetic surfaces have necessarily circular cross section.
The equilibrium theory of the 2D magnetohydrodynamic equations is derived, accounting for the full infinite hierarchies of conserved integrals. An exact description in terms of two coupled elastic membranes emerges, producing long-ranged correlations between the magnetic and velocity fields. This is quite different from the results of previous variational treatments, which relied on a local product ansatz for the thermodynamic Gibbs distribution. The equilibria display the same type of coherent structures, such as compact eddies and zonal jets, previously found in pure fluid equilibria. Possib…
The present study is a continuation of a previous one on "hyperelliptic" axisymmetric equilibria started in [Tasso and Throumoulopoulos, Phys. Plasmas 5, 2378 (1998)]. Specifically, some equilibria with incompressible flow nonaligned with the magnetic field and restricted by appropriate side conditions like "isothermal" magnetic surfaces, "isodynamicity" or P + B^2/2 constant on magnetic surfaces are found to be reducible to elliptic integrals. The third class recovers recent equilibria found in [Schief, Phys. Plasmas 10, 2677 (2003)]. In contrast to field aligned flows, all solutions found he…
The Hamiltonian structure of ideal translationally symmetric extended MHD (XMHD) is obtained by employing a method of Hamiltonian reduction on the three-dimensional noncanonical Poisson bracket of XMHD. The existence of the continuous spatial translation symmetry allows the introduction of Clebsch-like forms for the magnetic and velocity fields. Upon employing the chain rule for functional derivatives, the 3D Poisson bracket is reduced to its symmetric counterpart. The sets of symmetric Hall, Inertial, and extended MHD Casimir invariants are identified, and used to obtain energy-Casimir variat…
Being motivated by the paper [O. I. Bogoyavlenskij, Phys. Rev. 66, 056410 (2002)] we generalise the symmetry transformations for MHD equilibria with isotropic pressure and incompressible flow parallel to the magnetic field introduced therein in the case of respective CGL equilibria with anisotropic pressure. We find that the geometrical symmetry of the field-aligned equilibria can break by those transformations only when the magnetic field is purely poloidal. In this situation we derive three-dimensional CGL equilibria from given axisymmetric ones. Also, we examine the generic symmetry transfo…
It was recently demonstrated that static, resistive, magnetohydrodynamic equilibria, in the presence of spatially-uniform electrical conductivity, do not exist in a torus under a standard set of assumed symmetries and boundary conditions. The difficulty, which goes away in the ``periodic straight cylinder approximation,'' is associated with the necessarily non-vanishing character of the curl of the Lorentz force, j x B. Here, we ask if there exists a spatial profile of electrical conductivity that permits the existence of zero-flow, axisymmetric r esistive equilibria in a torus, and answer the…
Metriplectic dynamics is applied to compute equilibria of fluid dynamical systems. The result is a relaxation method in which Hamiltonian dynamics (symplectic structure) is combined with dissipative mechanisms (metric structure) that relaxes the system to the desired equilibrium point. The specific metric operator, which is considered in this work, is formally analogous to the Landau collision operator. These ideas are illustrated by means of case studies. The considered physical models are the Euler equations in vorticity form, the Grad-Shafranov equation, and force-free MHD equilibria.
The noncanonical Hamiltonian formulation of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is used to construct variational principles for symmetric equilibrium configurations of magnetized plasma including flow. In particular, helical symmetry is considered and results on axial and translational symmetries are retrieved as special cases of the helical configurations. The symmetry condition, which allows the description in terms of a magnetic flux function, is exploited to deduce a symmetric form of the noncanonical Poisson bracket of MHD. Casimir invariants are then obtained directly from the Poisson bracket. Eq…
We describe the construction of stepped-pressure equilibria as extrema of a multi-region, relaxed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) energy functional that combines elements of ideal MHD and Taylor relaxation, and which we call MRXMHD. The model is compatible with Hamiltonian chaos theory and allows the three-dimensional MHD equilibrium problem to be formulated in a well-posed manner suitable for computation. The energy-functional is discretized using a mixed finite-element, Fourier representation for the magnetic vector potential and the equilibrium geometry; and numerical solutions are constructed us…
A recent study on axisymmetric ideal magnetohydrodynamic equilibria with incompressible flows [H. Tasso and G. N. Throumoulopoulos, Phys. Plasmas {\bf 5}, 2378 (1998)] is extended to the generic case of helically symmetric equilibria with incompressible flows. It is shown that the equilibrium states of the system under consideration are governed by an elliptic partial differential equation for the helical magnetic flux function $ψ$ containing five surface quantities along with a relation for the pressure. The above mentioned equation can be transformed to one possessing differential part ident…
In three-dimensional ideal magnetohydrodynamics, closed flux surfaces cannot maintain both rational rotational-transform and pressure gradients, as these features together produce unphysical, infinite currents. A proposed set of equilibria nullifies these currents by flattening the pressure on sufficiently wide intervals around each rational surface. Such rational surfaces exist at every scale, which characterizes the pressure profile as self-similar and thus fractal. The pressure profile is approximated numerically by considering a finite number of rational regions and analyzed mathematically…
The equilibrium of a resistive axisymmetric plasma with purely toroidal flow surrounded by a conductor is investigated within the framework of the nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic theory. It is proved that a) the poloidal current density vanishes and b) apart from an idealized case the pressure profile should vanish on the plasma boundary. For the cases of isothermal magnetic surfaces, isentropic magnetic surfaces and magnetic surfaces with constant density, the equilibrium states obey to an elliptic partial differential equation for the poloidal magnetic flux function, which is identical in form…
Resistive steady states in toroidal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), where Ohm's law must be taken into account, differ considerably from ideal ones. Only for special (and probably unphysical) resistivity profiles can the Lorentz force, in the static force-balance equation, be expressed as the gradient of a scalar and thus cancel the gradient of a scalar pressure. In general, the Lorentz force has a curl directed so as to generate toroidal vorticity. Here, we calculate, for a collisional, highly viscous magnetofluid, the flows that are required for an axisymmetric toroidal steady state, assuming un…
Stability analyses for equilibria of the compressible reduced magnetohydrodynamics (CRMHD) model are carried out by means of the Energy-Casimir (EC) method. Stability results are compared with those obtained for ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) from the classical δW criterion. An identification of the terms in the second variation of the free energy functional for CRMHD with those of δW is made: two destabilizing effects present for CRMHD turn out to correspond to the kink and interchange instabilities in usual MHD, while the stabilizing roles of field line bending and compressibility are also…
It is shown that the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium states of an axisymmetric toroidal plasma with finite resistivity and flows parallel to the magnetic field are governed by a second-order partial differential equation for the poloidal magnetic flux function $ψ$ coupled with a Bernoulli type equation for the plasma density (which are identical in form to the corresponding ideal MHD equilibrium equations) along with the relation $Δ^\star ψ=V_c σ$. (Here, $Δ^\star$ is the Grad-Schlüter-Shafranov operator, $σ$ is the conductivity and $V_c$ is the constant toroidal-loop voltage divided by $2 π$)…
The equilibrium of a cylindrical plasma with purely poloidal mass flow and cross section of arbitrary shape is investigated within the framework of the ideal MHD theory. For the system under consideration it is shown that only incompressible flows are possible and, conscequently, the general two dimensional flow equilibrium equations reduce to a single second-order quasilinear partial differential equation for the poloidal magnetic flux function $ψ$, in which four profile functionals of $ψ$ appear. Apart from a singularity occuring when the modulus of Mach number associated with the Alfvén vel…
Analytic solutions of the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium equations for a cylindrically symmetric magnetically confined plasma with reversed magnetic shear, s < 0, and sheared flow are constructed by prescribing the safety factor-, poloidal velocity- and axial velocity- profiles consistently with experimental ones.
Because different constraints are imposed, stability conditions for dissipationless fluids and magnetofluids may take different forms when derived within the Lagrangian, Eulerian (energy-Casimir), or dynamical accessible frameworks. This is in particular the case when flows are present. These differences are explored explicitly by working out in detail two magnetohydrodynamic examples: convection against gravity in a stratified fluid and translationally invariant perturbations of a rotating magnetized plasma pinch. In this second example we show in explicit form how to perform the time-depende…
Hamiltonian extended magnetohydrodynamics (XMHD) is restricted to respect helical symmetry by reducing the Poisson bracket for 3D dynamics to a helically symmetric one, as an extension of the previous study for translationally symmetric XMHD (D.A. Kaltsas et al, Phys. Plasmas 24, 092504 (2017)). Four families of Casimir invariants are obtained directly from the symmetric Poisson bracket and they are used to construct Energy-Casimir variational principles for deriving generalized XMHD equilibrium equations with arbitrary macroscopic flows. The system is then cast into the form of Grad-Shafranov…
Exact solutions of the equation governing the equilibrium magetohydrodynamic states of an axisymmetric plasma with incompressible flows of arbitrary direction [H. Tasso and G.N.Throumoulopoulos, Phys. Pasmas {\bf 5}, 2378 (1998)] are constructed for toroidal current density profiles peaked on the magnetic axis in connection with the ansatz $S=-ku$, where $S=d/d u [\varrho (dΦ/du)^2]$ ($k$ is a parameter, $u$ labels the magnetic surfaces; $\varrho(u)$ and $Φ(u)$ are the density and the electrostatic potential, respectively). They pertain to either unbounded plasmas of astrophysical concern or b…
Modifications of the equations of ideal fluid dynamics with advected quantities are introduced that allow selective decay of either the energy $h$ or the Casimir quantities $C$ in the Lie-Poisson formulation. The dissipated quantity (energy or Casimir, respectively) is shown to decrease in time until the modified system reaches an equilibrium state consistent with ideal energy-Casimir equilibria, namely $δ(h+C)=0$. The result holds for Lie-Poisson equations in general, independently of the Lie algebra and the choice of Casimir. This selective decay process is illustrated with a number of examp…
Relaxed magnetohydrodynamics with cross-field flow
Mathematical Sciences Institute, Australian National University（澳大利亚国立大学数学科学研究所）；Proxima Fusion（普罗克西玛聚变）；School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University（南洋理工大学物理与数理科学学院）
Stability properties and mode signature for equilibria of a model of electron temperature gradient (ETG) driven turbulence are investigated by Hamiltonian techniques. After deriving the infinite families of Casimir invariants, associated with the noncanonical Poisson bracket of the model, a sufficient condition for stability is obtained by means of the Energy-Casimir method. Mode signature is then investigated for linear motions about homogeneous equilibria. Depending on the sign of the equilibrium "translated" pressure gradient, stable equilibria can either be energy stable, i.e.\ possess def…
The gyrokinetic Vlasov-Maxwell equations are cast as an infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian system. The gyrokinetic Poisson bracket is remarkably simple and similar to the Morrison-Marsden-Weinstein bracket for the Vlasov-Maxwell equations. By identifying many of the bracket's Casimirs, this work enables (i) the derivation of gyrokinetic equilibrium variational principles and (ii) the application of the energy-Casimir method and the method of dynamically-accessible variations to study stability properties of gyrokinetic equilibria.
Stability conditions of magnetized plasma flows are obtained by exploiting the Hamiltonian structure of the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations and, in particular, by using three kinds of energy principles. First, the Lagrangian variable energy principle is described and sufficient stability conditions are presented. Next, plasma flows are described in terms of Eulerian variables and the noncanonical Hamiltonian formulation of MHD is exploited. For symmetric equilibria, the energy-Casimir principle is expanded to second order and sufficient conditions for stability to symmetric perturbation a…
Simulated annealing (SA) is applied for three-dimensional (3D) equilibrium calculation of ideal, low-beta reduced MHD in cylindrical geometry. The SA is based on the theory of Hamiltonian mechanics. The dynamical equation of the original system, low-beta reduced MHD in this study, is modified so that the energy changes monotonically while preserving the Casimir invariants in the artificial dynamics. An equilibrium of the system is given by an extremum of the energy, therefore SA can be used as a method for calculating ideal MHD equilibrium. Previous studies demonstrated that the SA succeeds to…
The cat-eyes steady state solution in the framework of hydrodynamics describing an infinite row of identical vortices is extended to the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium equation with incompressible flow of arbitrary direction. The extended solution covers a variety of equilibria including one- and two-dimensional generalized force-free and Harris-sheet configurations which are preferable from those usually employed as initial states in reconnection studies. Although the vortex shape is not affected by the magnetic field, the flow in conjunction with the equilibrium nonlinearity has a strong im…
In plasma physics, a hybrid fluid-kinetic model is composed of a magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) part that describes a bulk fluid component and a Vlasov kinetic theory part that describes an energetic plasma component. While most hybrid models in the plasma literature are non-Hamiltonian, this paper investigates a recent Hamiltonian variant in its two-dimensional configuration. The corresponding Hamiltonian structure is described along with its Casimir invariants. Then, the energy-Casimir method is used to derive explicit sufficient stability conditions, which imply a stable spectrum and suggest no…
The Hamiltonian formulation of a plasma four-field fluid model that describes collisionless reconnection is presented. The formulation is noncanonical with a corresponding Lie-Poisson bracket. The bracket is used to obtain new independent families of invariants, so-called Casimir invariants, three of which are directly related to Lagrangian invariants of the system. The Casimirs are used to obtain a variational principle for equilibrium equations that generalize the Grad-Shafranov equation to include flow. Dipole and homogeneous equilibria are constructed. The linear dynamics of the latter is …
We present strategies based upon extremization principles, in the case of the axisymmetric equations of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). We study the equilibrium shape by using a minimum energy principle under the constraints of the MHD axisymmetric equations. We also propose a numerical algorithm based on a maximum energy dissipation principle to compute in a consistent way the equilibrium states. Then, we develop the statistical mechanics of such flows and recover the same equilibrium states giving a justification of the minimum energy principle. We find that fluctuations obey a Gaussian shape an…
It is found that the ideal magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium of an axisymmetric gravitating magnetically confined plasma with incompressible flows is governed by a second-order elliptic differential equation for the poloidal magnetic flux function containing five flux functions coupled with a Poisson equation for the gravitation potential, and an algebraic relation for the pressure. This set of equations is amenable to analytic solutions. As an application, the magnetic-dipole static axisymmetric equilibria with vanishing poloidal plasma currents derived recently by Krasheninnikov, Catto, and Ha…
The dynamics of an ideal fluid or plasma is constrained by topological invariants such as the circulation of (canonical) momentum or, equivalently, the flux of the vorticity or magnetic fields. In the Hamiltonian formalism, topological invariants restrict the orbits to submanifolds of the phase space. While the coadjoint orbits have a natural symplectic structure, the global geometry of the degenerate (constrained) Poisson manifold can be very complex. Some invariants are represented by the center of the Poisson algebra (i.e., the Casimir elements such as the helicities), and then, the global …
A comprehensive study of a reduced version of Lust's equations, the extended magnetohydrodynamic (XMHD) model obtained from the two-fluid theory for electrons and ions with the enforcement of quasineutrality, is given. Starting from the Hamiltonian structure of the fully three-dimensional theory, a Hamiltonian two-dimensional incompressible four-field model is derived. In this way energy conservation along with four families of Casimir invariants are naturally obtained. The construction facilitates various limits leading to the Hamiltonian forms of Hall, inertial, and ideal MHD, with their con…
We present two generalized hybrid kinetic-Hall magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) models describing the interaction of a two-fluid bulk plasma, which consists of thermal ions and electrons, with energetic, suprathermal ion populations described by Vlasov dynamics. The dynamics of the thermal components are governed by standard fluid equations in the Hall MHD limit with the electron momentum equation providing an Ohm's law with Hall and electron pressure terms involving a gyrotropic electron pressure tensor. The coupling of the bulk, low-energy plasma with the energetic particle dynamics is accomplishe…
A general procedure for constructing action principles for continuum models via a generalization of Hamilton's principle of mechanics is described. Through the procedure, an action principle for a gyroviscous magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) model is constructed. The model is shown to agree with a reduced version of Braginskii's fluid equations. The construction reveals the origin of the gyromap, a device used to derive previous gyrofluid models. Also, a systematic reduction procedure is presented for obtaining the Hamiltonian structure in terms of the noncanonical Poisson bracket. The construction …
We unite the one-flow-dominated-state (OFDS) argument of \citet{MeyrandGaltierPRL12} with the one-chiral-sector-dominated-state (OCSCS) one \citep[][]{hydrochirality} to form a nonlinear extended-magnetohydrodynamics (XMHD) theory for the solar wind turbulence (SWT), \textbf{ranging from the MHD- to subproton-, and even to subelectron-scale regimes} \citep[modifying the theory of][]{AbdelhamidLingamMahajanAPJ16}. Degenerate chiral states in \citet{MiloshevichLingamMorrisonNJP17}'s XMHD absolute equilibria are exposed with helical representation, to offer the basis of replacing the linear wave …
Simulated annealing (SA) is a kind of relaxation method for finding equilibria of Hamiltonian systems. A set of evolution equations is solved with SA, which is derived from the original Hamiltonian system so that the energy of the system changes monotonically while preserving Casimir invariants inherent to noncanonical Hamiltonian systems. The energy extremum reached by SA is an equilibrium. Since SA searches for an energy extremum, it can also be used for stability analysis when initiated from a state where a perturbation is added to an equilibrium. The procedure of the stability analysis is …
