Counterexamples to Grad's conjecture

Abstract

For each sufficiently large $N$, we construct smooth solutions of the magnetohydrostatic equations on embedded solid tori whose regular pressure levels are nested tori, whose magnetic field vanishes exactly on a round magnetic axis, and whose group of Euclidean symmetries, even when isometries reversing the sign of the field are admitted, is exactly the cyclic group $C_N$ of rotations through multiples of $2π/N$. For each such $N$, these equilibria form a smooth one-parameter family which is locally nontrivial in the moduli space of embedded configurations and have none of the plane-reflection, axial, or helical symmetries conjectured by Grad. A Lean 4 certification of the above results is also provided.