Topological Arrest of Ballooning Modes in Nonaxisymmetric Toroidal Plasmas

Physical Review Letters 2026 Open access

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Authors: Amitava Bhattacharjee
DOI: 10.1103/6m2z-wlmb
Cited by: 0
References: 24

Abstract

Why do nonaxisymmetric stellarators avoid ballooning crashes that afflict tokamaks? Three-dimensional geometry induces Anderson localization of ballooning modes, converting a global instability into a Ginzburg-Landau network of isolated wave packets. Global stability reduces to a percolation problem: Below a critical threshold, instability is arrested; above it, a crash occurs. This explains benign stellarator saturation, predicts vulnerability in quasisymmetric designs, and introduces the critical threshold as a nonlinear stability metric for reactor optimization, pending experimental validation.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Magnetic confinement fusion research Fusion and Plasma Physics Studies Fusion materials and technologies

Publication details

Journal / source
Physical Review Letters
Volume
137
Issue
10
Pages
105101–105101
Publication date
12 June 2026
Language
EN