Identification of MHD equilibrium $β$ limits for CFQS plasmas
The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibrium $β$ limits in the Chinese First QuasiAxisymmetric Stellarator (CFQS) are investigated using the NTEC code, for both the standard and the magnetic island configurations. The equilibrium $β$ limit is identified upon the onset of the rapid destruction of nested flux surfaces by evaluating several numerical metrics, including the fractal dimension, weighted Birkhoff average, and effective volume of parallel diffusion. In the standard configuration, the net-current-free and the bootstrap-current-carrying equilibria can sustain well-ordered magnetic surfaces up to $\langleβ\rangle\approx1.5\%$. The proliferation of stochastic field lines starts after the critical overlap between the internal major islands and the high-order island chains. Two types of divertor island configurations are studied based on net-current-free equilibria. It is found that the edge islands may transition into open field lines at low $\langleβ\rangle$ values and lead to a drastic shrinkage of the last closed flux surface. Meanwhile, the threshold $\langleβ\rangle$ value of the degradation of inner flux surfaces is similar to the standard configuration.