Analytic and Computational Exploration of Stellarator Coil Optimization

Designing stellarator coils which meet both physics and engineering constraints remains an important area of stellarator research. In particular coil robustness to manufacturing errors and geometric simplicity has become a critical issue in the design of new experiments. Through a combination of both analytic and numerical methods, we seek to explore the connection between the magnetic axis, quasisymmetric magnetic field, and coil complexity of quasiaxisymmetric stellarator configurations, with a particular eye towards developing a more sophisticated understanding in how coil complexity and robustness is coupled to the magnetic field and axis geometry.