A Vector Diagram of Maxwells Equations

D. R. Wilton
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Houston
University Park
Houston, TX 77204-4793
Tel: (713) 743-4442

1. Abstract
A vector diagram illustrating Maxwells equations is derived
in this paper. Upon equating various components of vectors in the
diagram, a number of common relationships between field quantities are obtained. The potentials and their relationships to field
quantities may also be represented. Justification of the procedure
used to construct the diagram is based on Fourier transformation of
Maxwells equations. While the diagram is mostly of interest for its
novelty, it has found use in clarifying certain gauge choices in dealing with electromagnetic potentials.

2. Introduction

n this paper, we present a vector diagram in which are represented all the common relationships between field and potential
quantities implied by Maxwells equations. The relationships are
obtained from the diagram by equating appropriate components of
the vectors appearing in it. The line of reasoning, used in Section 3
to construct the diagram, is based on the,fornm/ similarity of many
theorems of vector calculus to those of vector algebra. The procedure is more-rigorously justified in Section 4, by means of Fouriertransform pairs.

To derive a graphical representation of the above relationships, we formally treat the vector-differential operator, V , as an
ordinary vector. Rigorous justification of this point of view is
delayed, so that we might first motivate the usefulness of the
approach. Here, we merely proceed to develop a graphical representation of the relationships implied by Equations (1) and (2)
under this assumption. Thus, for example, we treat the divergence
and curl operations in Equations (1) as ordinary scalar (dot) and
vector (cross) products, respectively, and examine what the resulting equations would imply. For example, Equations (IC) and (2b)
imply that H is perpendicular to the vector V . This relationship is
shown Figure 1 by drawing H out of the plane of the page, where
V is assumed to be in the plane of the page. The vector V x H
must be perpendicular to both V and H and, hence, lies in the plane
of the page, but perpendicular to V , Equation (lb) may now be
represented by constructing the vector sum of E and J / ( , j u s ) ,and
equating it to V x H / ( j m ) . By Equation (la), E is perpendicular
to H and, therefore, must lie in the plane of the figure, as must J.
At this point, one notes from Figure 1 that the components of
E and J / ( j m ) parallel to V must be equal and opposite. That is,
by Equation s( 1d) and (2a),

The procedure for deriving the diagram clarifies, by analogy,

the rationale for choosing potential functions. It illustrates particularly well the arbitrariness of the choice of gauge in constructing
potentials. For simplicity, we restrict our attention to the timeharmonic case with linear, homogeneous, and isotropic media,
leaving extensions to more-general cases to the reader.

3. Construction of the vector diagram

Maxwells time-harmonic equations (with assumed exp(jot)
time dependence suppressed) for isotropic, homogeneous, linear
media are

V x E = --/w,LIH,
V x H = p & E +J ,
V*B=O,
V*D=p.
These are supplemented by the constitutive relations
D = &E,
B=pH
Since we assume a homogeneous, isotropic medium, the permittivity, E , and permeability, ,U, are scalar constants.

H=
Figure 1. The vector diagram of field and source quantities.

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 37,No. 5, October 1995

1045-9243/93/$03.0001995
IEEE

is employed, then one obtains

Thus, the vector component of E parallel to V is

(4)

where the scalar V * V = V2 has been introduced so as to normalize

V to a unit vector This vector component is also shown in the figure By our construction, it is also seen that, upon equating the dot
product of V(p / E ) / V and E, Equation (1 d) is obtained. On the
other hand, if these quantities are equated to -V J / ( , j c x ) , the
equation of continuity,

where k = o,uz. Recall that V A is, as yet, arbitrary. We may

choose it so as to simplify Equation (8) by eliminating the term in
parentheses:
V. A = -,j@,uEO,
(9)
this choice being the familiar Lorenz gauge Upon employing
Equation (9) in Equation (8), one obtains a result which may be
written

is obtained Note that this relationship is the first that has been
d u from the diagram The diagram not only allows us to derive
relationships but, as this example shows, it also suggests how to do
it i e , dot Equation ( I b) with V and use Equations (Id) and
(24
All but one of Maxwells Equations (1) are now incorporated
into Figure 1 Since H is perpendicular to the diagram, however, its
length relative to the other vectors cannot be shown and, hence, we
must show its defining relation by giving Equation (1) on the diagram explicitly This completes the vector diagram, and the reader
may check that all the Maxwell relations, Equations (l), appear
there
Next, we look at several useful potential quantities from
which fields can be derived: these relationships may also be illustrated on the diagram. First, we note that since H is perpendicular
to V , there exists a vector A such that

\
/

1
H=-VxA,

iu

where we have chosen the (arbitrary) symbol, the multiplicative

constant, and the ordering of the cross product so that Equation (6)
takes a familiar form. But Equation (6) also implies that H is perpendicular to A, so that A must be in the plane of the diagram.
Note, however, that A is not unique, since only its component perpendicular to V contributes to the cross product. Hence, we have
still to specify V A , the component of A parallel to V . Next, we
substitute Equation (6) into Equation (l), obtaining

v x (E +@A)

Figure 2. A diagram illustrating two possible pairs of potentials.

VxVxA

Jw ___-

= 0,

from which we deduce that the quantity in parentheses is parallel to

V Thus, there must exist some scalar, 0 ,such that
E+jwA=-V@

(7)

Equation (7) is illustrated in Figure 2, for two arbitrary choices of

potential pairs (A,@) and ( A , @ ) . Note that if V * A were
specified, both the vector and the scalar potential would be unique.
On the other hand, 0 may be arbitrarily chosen; once selected,
however, V - A is automatically determined. If Equation (7) is
substituted into Equation (lb), and the expansion of the vector triple product

v x (V x A) = v ( v . A ) - ( v .V)A = V V ~ A - V ~ A
a

-VxE
H=j w

V
x H ____VxVxE
___ jo&
k2

Figure 3. The vector diagram of field, source, arid potential

quantities in the Lorenz gauge.

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 37, No. 5, October 1995

J
V2A
j w A -- = -

JWpE

JCi&

Since V 2 is a scalar, this equation implies that J and A are parallel,

and it is plotted in Figure 3 One concludes from Equation (9) that
the component of JCOAparallel to V is k2V@I V 2 , also shown in
Figure 3,
Having sufficiently established the line of reasoning to be
used, we leave it to the reader to verify the lengths and directions of
the remaining vectors shown in Figure 3. Note that a number of
familiar formulas may be derived merely by equating various vector
components in the diagram For example, it is seen from the figure
that

which yields, upon taking the dot product of both sides with V ,

Figure 4. The vector diagram of field, source, and potential

quantities in the Coulomb gauge

We

may

even

give

meaning

to

the

expression

p / E , obtained from Equation (1 I), if we agree

to the following interpretation of (V

+ k2)- :

The inverse of the Laplacian operator also follows from Equation (12) by merely setting k equal to zero on both sides of the
equation:

exception might appear to be to choose A parallel to E, but this is

tantamount to choosing E itself as the vector potential, an approach
that is indeed sometimes (often implicitly) used. We have also
found the vector diagram usehl in interpreting various gauge
choices that appear in dealing with multilayered materials, where
various components of A may be chosen parallel or perpendicular
to a material boundary [ 11.
The vector diagrams presented here apply also to the timedomain form of Maxwells equations, if we make the correspondence (,jm) + (?/a/),and interpret the inverse operator (Bl?t)-
as

Rather than the Lorenz gauge, we could easily have chosen the
Coulomb gauge,

V * A ,= 0 ,

(14)

wherein the component of the vector A parallel to V is set equal to

zero. Note that we use the subscript c to distinguish use of the
Coulomb gauge. From Equations (8) and (14), we now obtain

where vis assumed to vanish as t approaches (-m) Magnetic currents can also be incorporated in the diagram, but the vector quantities then no longer lie in the plane of the figure However, if magnetic currents ordy are used, diagrams dual to those presented here
are obtained, and situations where both types of current are present
can be obtained by superposition

4. Justification of the approach

which yields the vector diagram of Figure 4. As seen from the figure, the scalar potential in the Coulomb gauge satisfies

We also note that the vector diagram clearly shows that the
Coulomb and Lorenz gauges are the only choices that make A
either parallel or perpendicular to any of the other vectors in the
diagram, thus simplifying its relationship to those vectors. In this
sense, these gauges are seen to be the only usehl choices. An

In this section, we justify the analysis of the previous sections,

where, somewhat cavalierly, we treated the vector-differential
operator V as an ordinary vector. We begin by first assuming that
the source currents J in Equation ( 1 ) radiate in an unbounded,
homogeneous, isotropic medium, characterized by constant
parameters ,U and E . If we wish to consider bounded and/or inhomogeneous regions, we may use equivalence theorems or polarization currents [2] radiating in an unbounded space with constant
parameters. We assume here that the current, J, in Equation (l),
already includes such equivalent sources where they exist. If magnetic currents are introduced in the process of setting up equivalent

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine,Vol. 37, No. 5,October 1995

currents, then the superposition principle may be invoked to treat

individually the fields due to electric and magnetic currents.
Our next step is to Fourier transform Maxwell's equations in
all three spatial dimensions. Ordinarily, to ensure that the fields are
Fourier transformable, source currents are restricted to be of finite
extent, but it is often useful to treat sources at infinity by suitable
limiting arguments. Now, introduce the three-dimensional Fourier
transform

and its inverse

(V2j-'arise in our manipulations, we simply use the right hand

side of Equations (12) and (13), which are the space-domain counterparts of the transform-domain operations of division by
(k'-k*k)

and ( - k - k ) , respectively )

Mathematically speaking, the field and potential quantities are

isontorphic to their transforms: that is, (1) there exists a one-to-one
correspondence between spatial-domain quantities and their transforms; and (2), any operations in one domain have corresponding
operations in the other domain, which preserve the correspondence
between quantities in the two domains. Operations illustrating this
correspondence are the divergence and curl operations, which, as
w e have seen, correspond to scalar- and vector-product multiplication, respectively, by ( j k ) . Other corresponding operations are
multiplication and convolution; partial differentiation with respect
to x, y , z, and multiplication by ( -k,, - j k J , , -jk,), respectively;
translation of the coordinate origin to ro = (xo,yo,z o ) and multipli-

where,

in

Cartesian

coordinates,

k = k,; + kvf + k,i?

and

may be either both scalar

r = x7i +J+ +,*i The functions F and
or both vector quantities Fourier transformation of Maxwell's
Equation (l), and the use of standard manipulations, yields the following set of transformed equations

; and so on. Despite the existence

cation of the transform by
of an isomorphism between the two domains, one may still have
misgivings about the approach of the preceding section. This might
be possibly engendered by legitimate warnings by textbooks or
professors concerning the dangers of treating V as a vector, or by
one's own experiences with vector identities, such as

-,jk x E = - , j r i j / H ,

-jk x 6 = j ~ & +5 ,
-jk x B = 0 ,

and

-px D = 5,

v .(A

where all transformed quantities are indicated by a tilde. Similarly,

Equation (2) yields

6=&E,
E =jrH,
Equations (19) and (20) are vector algebraic equations, valid at
every point k in the transform domain. It is evident that there exist
a set of corresporidei1ce.r between Equations (l), (2), and (19),
(20). For example, the latter pair of equations are obtained from the
former pair, if we merely replace field quantities by field-transform
quantities, and replace the vector-differential operator V by - j k .
Note that the first correspondence is between elements (the field
vectors), whereas the second i s between operafors in the two
domains.
In the transformed Equations (19) and (20), a true vector
quantity replaces the operator V and, hence, the arguments of the
preceding section now may be rigoroudy applied to construct vector diagrams corresponding to Figures 1-4, depicting corresponding
relationships between the fi-aii.~foi-ined
fields and potentials. These
relationships, and any others we obtain from the diagram, have
space-domain counterparts, which can be obtained by inverse
Fourier transformation. But because of the correspondences mentioned above, the space-domain counterparts are obtained merely
by replacing transform-domain quantities by spatial-domain quantities, and the vector ( - j k ) by the vector V, taking care to arrange
terms involving V in such a way that the indicated operations make
sense. (We remark that this was the actual procedure used to construct the diagram; it was first constructed in the Fourier domain.)
We have merely eliminated these steps by labeling the diagrams for
transformed quantities with the corresponding spatial-domain
quantities directly (Note that if the operations (V2 + k 2 ) - '

10

and

B) = B

-v

xA

-A.

vxB,

(22)

in which it is clear that V does riof behave like an ordinary vector

The problem in the above examples, though, is failure to observe
another correspondence If we Fourier transform Equation (21), we
find that we must also invoke the multiplication-convolution correspondence between spatial and Fourier domains, which would lead
to

where the asterisk denotes convolution. This identity can be verified

in the transform domain directly (Note that the vector - j k can
not be brought out of the parentheses on the right-hand side of
Equation (23), since it i s involved in the convolution ) In order to
similarly Fourier transform Equation (22), we find it convenient to
introduce a "convolution-vector product" and "convolution-scalar
product," defined in terms of Cartesian components by

and

respectively. Note that these new operations correspond in the

transform domain to the ordinary scalar and vector product operations in the original domain. Now the transform of Equation (22)
can be written succinctly as
(-jk).(iOB)=BO(-jk xA)-AO(-jk x B ) .

(26)

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 37, No. 5 , October 1995

With these two new pairs of corresponding operations, we may

now write down transform-domain counterparts to all the vector
identities. Fortunately, no products of functions appeared in our
earlier manipulations of Maxwells equations, so that convolution
operations were unnecessary. Note, however, that if we had
allowed the permittivity and permeability to vary with position, then
convolution would have been required.
Finally, we note that Equations (1) and (2) can be thought of
as resulting from Fourier transformation of Maxwells time-domain
equations to a frequency-domain form. In this case, we have the
well-known correspondence between the derivative operation
( a / & ) in the time domain, and multiplication by 00) in the frequency domain. From this point of view, Equations (19) and (20)
represent a four-dimensional transformation (time and the three
space dimensions) of Maxwells time-dependent equations.

6. References
1. K. A. Michalski and D. Zheng, Electromagnetic Scattering and
Radiation by Surfaces of Arbitrary Shape in Layered Media, Part. I:
Theory, IEEE Gatisncfiom or?Aiileririas atid Pr.oycrgafioti,AP38, 3, March 1990, pp. 335-344.
2. R. F. Harrington, Tinie-Hariiioi7ic Elec/i~oiiiagiielicFields, New
York, McGraw-Hill, 1961

Introducing Feature Article Author

5. Conclusions
We have derived a vector diagram of Maxwells timeharmonic equations in homogeneous isotropic media by formally
treating the del operator V as an ordinary vector The diagram
not only illustrates Maxwells equations, but also many of the standard relationships derivable from them The procedure may also be
used to establish and depict relationships among the vector and
scalar potentials and the field quantities The often-conhsing concepts of gauge invariance and choice of gauge are particularly well
clarified by the vector diagram
The analysis leading to the vector diagrams is justified on the
basis of the formal correspondence between Maxwells equations
and their three-dimensional (spatial) Fourier transforms. It is shown
that, upon Fourier transformation, Maxwells equations become
ordinary vector algebraic equations, in which the vector differential
operator V is replaced by an ordinary vector To each operation on
the resulting transformed equations there corresponds an operation
on the original equations, so that one may solve the equations in
the transform domain (by a series of algebraic operations), and
transform back to obtain the solution in the original domain. It is
apparent that this approach is nothing more than a multi-dimensional generalization of the use of Fourier or Laplace transforms to
transform ordinary linear-differential equations with constant coefficients into algebraic equations which, when solved, yield the
transform of the solution to the original problem

Donald R. Wilton was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, October 25, 1942 He received the BS, MS, and PhD degrees from the
University of Illinois in 1964, 1966, and 1970, respectively From
1965 to 1968, he was with Hughes Aircraft Company, Fullerton,
California, engaged in the analysis and design of phased-array
antennas From 1970-1983, he was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Mississippi, and since 1983 he has
been Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of
Houston From 1978-1979, he was a Visiting Professor at Syracuse
University His research interests are primarily in computational
electromagnetics, and he has published extensively in these areas

Dr Wilton is a Fellow of the IEEE, and a member of

Commission B of the US National Committee of URSI
(USNCKJRSI) He was a US delegate to the URSI General
Assemblies in 1981, 1984, 1987, and 1993 He has served as an
Associate Editor of the IEEE Trarisactioris or1 Aritcmas arid
Propagation, as a Distinguished Lecturer and a member of AdCom
of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, and is currently
Vice Chair of Commission B of USNC/URSI %

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 37, No. 5,October 1995