ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some of the basic concepts of the electromagnetic fields, with emphasis on those aspects which bear directly on wave propagation. It presents studies related to the operations and functions of vector analysis, and the basic concepts of static and quasistatic electric and magnetic field theory. The latter is recapitulated to provide a logical base for applications of Maxwell's equations and the accompanying boundary conditions. Macroscopic electromagnetic-wave phenomena may be described by means of four vector fields, B, H, D, and E; the parameters of permittivity e, permeability μ, and conductivity σ; and electric-charge volume density ρ. Maxwell's differential equations constrain and interrelate the fields, independently of any specific coordinate system, by means of two rate-of-change-with-distance functions of a vector field, the divergence and the curl. Coordinate systems are introduced as aids in the mathematical description of the particular fields which exist when specific boundary surfaces are present.
