stellarator
/ˈstɛləreɪtə
/noun Physics
A toroidal apparatus for producing controlled fusion reactions in hot plasma, where all the controlling magnetic fields inside it are produced by external windings.The design techniques and physics analysis of modern stellarator configurations for magnetic fusion research rely heavily on high performance computing and simulation....
- These low-aspect-ratio stellarator-tokamak hybrids differ from conventional stellarators in their use of the plasma-generated bootstrap current to supplement the poloidal field from external coils.
- Research is being carried out on several types of stellarator differing mainly in the periodicity of the toroidal and poloidal components of their magnetic field.
Origin
1950s: from stellar (with reference to the fusion processes in stars), on the pattern of generator.