When charges are not isolated points but form a continuous distribution with a local charge density ρ being the ratio of the charge δq in a small cell to the volume δv of the cell, then the flux of E over the surface of the cell is ρδv/ε₀, by Gauss’s theorem, and is proportional to δv. The ratio of the flux to δv is called the divergence of E and is written div E. It is related to the charge density by the equation div E = ρ/ε₀. If E is expressed by its Cartesian components (ε_x, ε_y, ε_z,),

And since E_x = −∂ϕ/dx, etc.,

The expression on the left side is usually written as ∇²ϕ and is called the Laplacian of ϕ. It has the property, as is obvious from its relationship to ρ, of being unchanged if the Cartesian axes of x, y, and z are turned bodily into any new orientation.

If any region of space is free of charges, ρ = o and ∇²ϕ = 0 in this region. The latter is Laplace’s equation, for which many methods of solution are available, providing a powerful means of finding electrostatic (or gravitational) field patterns.

Nonconservative fields

The magnetic field B is an example of a vector field that cannot in general be described as the gradient of a scalar potential. There are no isolated poles to provide, as electric charges do, sources for the field lines. Instead, the field is generated by currents and forms vortex patterns around any current-carrying conductor. Figure 9 shows the field lines for a single straight wire. If one forms the line integral ∫B·dl around the closed path formed by any one of these field lines, each increment B·δl has the same sign and, obviously, the integral cannot vanish as it does for an electrostatic field. The value it takes is proportional to the total current enclosed by the path. Thus, every path that encloses the conductor yields the same value for ∫B·dl; i.e., μ₀I, where I is the current and μ₀ is a constant for any particular choice of units in which B, l, and I are to be measured.

If no current is enclosed by the path, the line integral vanishes and a potential ϕ_B may be defined. Indeed, in the example shown in Figure 9, a potential may be defined even for paths that enclose the conductor, but it is many-valued because it increases by a standard increment μ₀I every time the path encircles the current. A contour map of height would represent a spiral staircase (or, better, a spiral ramp) by a similar many-valued contour. The conductor carrying I is in this case the axis of the ramp. Like E in a charge-free region, where div E = 0, so also div B = 0; and where ϕ_B may be defined, it obeys Laplace’s equation, ∇²ϕ_B = 0.

Within a conductor carrying a current or any region in which current is distributed rather than closely confined to a thin wire, no potential ϕ_B can be defined. For now the change in ϕ_B after traversing a closed path is no longer zero or an integral multiple of a constant μ₀I but is rather μ₀ times the current enclosed in the path and therefore depends on the path chosen. To relate the magnetic field to the current, a new function is needed, the curl, whose name suggests the connection with circulating field lines.

The curl of a vector, say, curl B, is itself a vector quantity. To find the component of curl B along any chosen direction, draw a small closed path of area A lying in the plane normal to that direction, and evaluate the line integral ∫B·dl around the path. As the path is shrunk in size, the integral diminishes with the area, and the limit of A^-1∫B·dl is the component of curl B in the chosen direction. The direction in which the vector curl B points is the direction in which A^-1∫B·dl is largest.

To apply this to the magnetic field in a conductor carrying current, the current density J is defined as a vector pointing along the direction of current flow, and the magnitude of J is such that JA is the total current flowing across a small area A normal to J. Now the line integral of B around the edge of this area is A curl B if A is very small, and this must equal μ₀ times the contained current. It follows that

Expressed in Cartesian coordinates,

with similar expressions for J_y and J_z. These are the differential equations relating the magnetic field to the currents that generate it.

A magnetic field also may be generated by a changing electric field, and an electric field by a changing magnetic field. The description of these physical processes by differential equations relating curl B to ∂E/∂τ, and curl E to ∂B/∂τ is the heart of Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory and illustrates the power of the mathematical methods characteristic of field theories. Further examples will be found in the mathematical description of fluid motion, in which the local velocity v(r) of fluid particles constitutes a field to which the notions of divergence and curl are naturally applicable.