Axisymmetric ideal magnetohydrodynamic equilibria with incompressible flows

It is shown that the ideal MHD equilibrium states of an axisymmetric plasma with incompressible flows are governed by an elliptic partial differential equation for the poloidal magnetic flux function ψ containing five surface quantities along with a relation for the pressure. Exact equilibria are constructed including those with non vanishing poloidal and toroidal flows and differentially varying radial electric fields. Unlike the case in cylindrical incompressible equilibria with isothermal magnetic surfaces which should have necessarily circular cross sections [G. N. Throumoulopoulos and H. Tasso, Phys. Plasmas 4, 1492 (1997)], no restriction appears on the shapes of the magnetic surfaces in the corresponding axisymmetric equilibria. The latter equilibria satisfy a set of six ordinary differential equations which for flows parallel to the magnetic field B can be solved semianalytically. In addition, it is proved the non existence of incompressible axisymmetric equilibria with (a) purely poloidal flows and (b) non-parallel flows with isothermal magnetic surfaces and vertical stroke B vertical stroke = vertical stroke B vertical stroke (ψ) (omnigenous equilibria). (orig.)