Emergence and control of self–organisation in fusion plasmas: through the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and beyond

The realisation of fusion energy by toroidal magnetic confinement relies on the existence of magnetic flux surfaces, which create a closed, insulating magnetic bottle. Such surfaces are only guaranteed under perfect toroidal symmetry, unobtainable in reality. A combination of new experiments and theory suggests a deep relationship between self-organised symmetry-breaking states, confinement, and Edge Localised Modes (ELMs), which have the potential to destroy the ITER first wall in a single day. We explore whether a new variational principle, MRXMHD can describe emergence of self-organisation in fusion plasmas. Harnessing self-organisation to control confinement and ELMs in ITER and future machines would be a major outcome.