Abstract

The computational cost of constructing 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibria is one of the limiting factors in stellarator research and design. Although data-driven approaches have been proposed to provide fast 3D MHD equilibria, the accuracy with which equilibrium properties are reconstructed is unknown. In this work, we describe an artificial neural network (NN) that quickly approximates the ideal-MHD solution operator in Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) configurations. This model fulfils equilibrium symmetries by construction. The MHD force residual regularizes the solution of the NN to satisfy the ideal-MHD equations. The model predicts the equilibrium solution with high accuracy, and it faithfully reconstructs global equilibrium quantities and proxy functions used in stellarator optimization. We also optimize W7-X magnetic configurations, where desirable configurations can be found in terms of fast particle confinement. This work demonstrates with which accuracy NN models can approximate the 3D ideal-MHD solution operator and reconstruct equilibrium properties of interest, and it suggests how they might be used to optimize stellarator magnetic configurations.