Energy minimization of confined plasmas in tokamak fusion reactors

The tokamak has been the preferred design for fusion test reactors since the 70's. While the tokamak holds promise to be one of the most efficient in the field of fusion research, it is still important to achieve minimal energy field configurations for the sake of demonstrating commercial potential. In 1986, John B. Taylor solved the problem of finding energy minimizing vector fields on the flat torus, given certain constraints. This paper will explore the fundamentals of fusion energy and give an overview of Taylor's solution.