MAXWELL FIELDS: TRANSVERSE ELECTRIC AND TRANSVERSE MAGNETIC

The connecting link between the observed electromagnetic (e.m.) field and its source is the Maxwell field equations. The linear acceleration of the source, as well as the relative motion of the expanding set of recording clocks, determine the axis of a cylindrical geometry. This geometry results in the solutions to the e.m. field being decomposed into two distinct independently evolving fields the familiar T.M. polarized field and the T.E. field. Each is based on a single scalar field, which is a scalar under those Lorentz transformations which preserve cylindrical symmetry. In particular, the T.M. (resp. T.E.) field has vanishing magnetic (resp. electric) but nonzero electric (resp. magnetic) field parallel to the cylinder axis. Finally, there are also the T.E.M. fields. They are both T.E. and T.M. at the same time, and they propagate strictly parallel to the cylinder axis.

There is an analogous T.M.-T.E.-T.E.M. decomposition of the source. For example, the difference between the T.M. and the T.E. fields is that the source of the T.M. fields is the density of electric multipoles, while the source for the T.E. fields is the density of magnetic multipoles.