Session

DescriptionThis minisymposium highlights cutting-edge computational advances in stellarator design. Unlike tokamaks, stellarators achieve plasma confinement through complex 3D magnetic fields, enabling steady-state operation without plasma current. However, their design involves navigating a vast configuration space, requiring high-fidelity physics models and efficient optimization algorithms. This session presents recent breakthroughs in simulation and optimization tools essential for modern stellarator development. Erol Balkovic introduces SPECTRE, a fast solver for general MHD equilibria with arbitrary magnetic topology, including islands and chaos. Robert Köberl discusses the ideal MHD free-boundary equilibrium problem and the GVEC code. Dario Panici presents DESC, a next-generation optimization framework leveraging JAX for automatic differentiation and GPU acceleration. Finally, Robert Davies showcases rapid computational tools for characterizing magnetic topology at the edge, which is critical for divertor design, and their integration into optimization workflows. Together, these talks underpin the need for advanced algorithms in advancing stellarator physics and design.