Magnetic confinement for the 2D axisymmetric relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system in an annulus

Abstract

Although the nuclear fusion process has received a great deal of attention in recent years, the amount of mathematical analysis that supports the stability of the system seems to be relatively insufficient. This paper deals with the mathematical analysis of the magnetic confinement of the plasma via kinetic equations. We prove the global wellposedness of the Vlasov-Maxwell system in a two-dimensional annulus when a huge (but finite-in-time) external magnetic potential is imposed near the boundary. We assume that the solution is axisymmetric. The authors hope that this work is a step towards a more generalized work on the three-dimensional Tokamak structure. The highlight of this work is the physical assumptions on the external magnetic potential well which remains finite within a finite time interval and from that, we prove that the plasma never touches the boundary. In addition, we provide a sufficient condition on the magnitude of the external magnetic potential to guarantee that the plasma is confined in an annulus of the desired thickness which is slightly larger than the initial support. Our method uses the cylindrical coordinate forms of the Vlasov-Maxwell system.