Particle Simulations in Relaxed Taylor States

Results from particle orbit simulations in force-free (Taylor state) magnetic fields in a cylindrical boundary are presented. An expansion in eigenfunctions of the curl ($\nabla \times {\bf B} = \lambda {\bf B}$) is used to represent a relaxed Taylor state in a conducting cylinder of dimensions $L=1~m$ and $R=0.08~m$. A particle-pushing code (PPC) is used to simulate collision-free ion and electron orbits in this geometry. Particle confinement results from the simulation are compared with data from experiments done at the SSX facility in a cylinder with the same dimensions. In addition, a simulation-based calibration of the SSX Mach probe is described. The effects of random electric field fluctuations and/or particle collisions on particle confinement will be presented if available.