English

Permanent magnet optimization of stellarators with coupling from finite permeability and demagnetization effects

Plasma Physics 2025-12-18 v1 Computational Physics

Abstract

Permanent magnets provide an attractive path for shaping university-scale stellarator magnetic fields. Previous work has shown that greedy permanent magnet optimization (GPMO) can produce sparse, grid-aligned arrays that match target surfaces with high accuracy under an ideal rigid-remanence model. Here we extend this approach to a greedy permanent magnet optimization with macromagnetic refinement (GPMOmr) by introducing a block-level macromagnetic model that accounts for magnet-magnet and magnet-coil coupling from finite permeability and demagnetizing interactions, and apply it to the published magnet grid from the MUSE stellarator design. Finite-permeability effects produce degree-scale tilts and few-percent magnitude changes in individual magnets and modify the surface-normal field Bn\mathbf B\cdot\mathbf n only at the percent level, yet for a fixed layout they increase the standard squared-flux objective by more than a factor of two. When the same model is embedded in the greedy loop, GPMOmr achieves fBf_B histories and final errors within a few percent of classical GPMO while producing visibly more nonuniform magnetization patterns. Our formulation provides a fast and practical tool for quantifying and incorporating finite-permeability effects in permanent-magnet stellarator designs, and offers a framework for extending permanent-magnet optimization to higher field strengths and to materials with stronger macromagnetic coupling.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.14997,
  title  = {Permanent magnet optimization of stellarators with coupling from finite permeability and demagnetization effects},
  author = {Armin Ulrich and Mason Haberle and Alan A. Kaptanoglu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.14997},
  year   = {2025}
}