Applications of symmetry methods to the theory of plasma physics (Q2495168)

The authors give three examples of successful applications of symmetry methods in PDEs of plasma physics. The first one is the Liouville equation \(\nabla^2u+exp(2u)=0\) describing the configuration of an isothermal plasma embedded in a stationary magnetic field by the component \(u(x,y)\) of the magnetic vector potential perpendicular to the \((x,y)\)-plane. The second one is the system of two PDEs relatively the time dependent magnetic \(u(x,y,t)\) and electric \(v(x,y,t)\) potentials of a 2-dimensional planar configuration of a fluid plasma embedded in a strong magnetic field orthogonal to \((x,y)\)-plane and with a shear magnetic field in this plane. The third one is the Grad-Schlüter-Shafranov type equation \(u_{xx}+\frac{a}{x}u_x+u_{yy}=x^{2p}F(u)+G(u)\) describing the magnetohydrodynamics force balance in a magnetically confined toroidal plasma, where the two arbitrary flux functions \(F(u)\), \(G(u)\) related to the pressure and current density profiles, are required to find so that the equation could admit nontrivial symmetries. The obtained results include on the base of symmetry analysis the determination of some conditional and partial symmetries, the construction of group-invariant solution and the symmetry classification of these nonlinear PDEs.