Beltrami vector fields structures

In this final section, it is shown that the three magnetic field components of electromagnetic radiation in 0(3) electrodynamics are Beltrami vector fields, illustrating the fact that conventional Maxwell-Heaviside electrodynamics are incomplete. Therefore Beltrami electrodynamics can be regarded as foundational, structuring the vacuum fields of nature, and extending the point of view of Heaviside, who reduced the original Maxwell equations to their presently accepted textbook form. In this section, transverse plane waves are shown to be solenoidal, complex lamellar, and Beltrami, and to obey the Beltrami equation, of which B is an identically nonzero solution. In the Beltrami electrodynamics, therefore, the existence of the transverse 1 = implies that of , as in 0(3) electrodynamics. 

BELTRAMI VECTOR FIELDS IN ELECTRODYNAMICS—A REASON FOR REEXAMINING THE STRUCTURAL FOUNDATIONS OF CLASSICAL FIELD PHYSICS ... 

There are two known standard methods for decomposition of any smooth (differentiable) vector field. One is that attributed to Helmholtz, which splits any vector field into a lamellar (curl-free) component, and a solenoidal (divergenceless) component. The second, which divides a general vector field into lamellar and complex lamellar parts, is that popularized by Monge. However, the relatively recent discovery by Moses [7] shows that any smooth vector field— general or with restraints to be determined—may also be separable into circularly polarized vectors. Furthermore, this third method simplifies the otherwise difficult analysis of three-dimensional classical flow fields. The Beltrami flow field, which has a natural chiral structure, is particularly amenable to this type analysis. 

Although Beltrami fields have featured prominently in hydrodynamics for over a century, only until relatively recently have they received much attention in experimental and theoretical classical electrodynamics. The reason for the omission of this link in the standard development of electric/magnetic field theory can possibly be traced to a key related deficiency in the structure of vector... 

---