In recent years, members of the Maryland Theory Group have made significant contributions to the national fusion theory programs and in many cases these theoretical development helped to interpret experimental results and to design new experimental programs. In the following, the authors summarize the technical progress in five major areas: (1) rf interaction with plasmas including wave propagation, rf heating, rf induced runaways and current drive; (2) spheromak -- formation, equilibrium, and stability; (3) stability of nonaxisymmetric systems (EBT, mirror, etc.); (4) stability theory of toroidal plasmas -- tokamak, RFP, etc.; and (5) nonlinear theory.

Annual report of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Accelerator & Fusion Research Division presenting major accomplishments during fiscal year 1981.