Thomas M. O'Neil

Professor Emeritus

Ph.D. UC San Diego, 1965

My area of research is theoretical plasma physics, and I am particularly interested in plasmas with a single sign of charge (nonneutral plasmas). Here at UCSD we have experiments that involve the confinement of pure electron plasm as, pure ion plasmas, and positron plasmas. Much of my theoretical work is motivated by and is strongly correlated with these experiments. For more information on nonneutral plasmas and my research, please view our Nonneutral Plasma Group web page.

For a simple overview of the field, see the Physics Today article, "Trapped Plasmas with a Single Sign of Charge (From Coulomb Crystal s to 2D Turbulence and Vortex Dynamics)."