Mathematics and Maxwell's equations

The universality of mathematics and Maxwell's equations is not shared by specific plasma models. Computations become more reliable, efficient and transparent if specific plasma models are used to obtain only the information that would otherwise be missing. Constraints of high universality, such as those from mathematics and Maxwell's equations, can be obscured or lost by integrated computations. Recognition of subtle constraints of high universality is important for (1) focusing the design of control systems for magnetic field errors in tokamaks from perturbations that have little effect on the plasma to those that do, (2) clarifying the limits of applicability to astrophysics of computations of magnetic reconnection in fields that have a double periodicity or have (B) over right arrow = 0 on a surface, as in a Harris sheet. Both require a degree of symmetry not expected in natural systems. Mathematics and Maxwell's equations imply that neighboring magnetic field lines characteristically separate exponentially with distance along a line. This remarkably universal phenomenon has been largely ignored, though it defines a trigger for reconnection through a critical magnitude of exponentiation. These and other examples of the importance of making distinctions and understanding constraints of high universality are explained.