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The current associated with electric polarization and magnetization in matter. If the magnetic response is neglected, it is ${\mathbf{J}}_b={\partial }_t\mathbf{P}$. It is distinguished from a free conduction current in the Maxwell equations in matter.

A uniform cylindrical volume charge relaxes exponentially under Ohm's law and the continuity equation for electric charge. In a cylinder of radius $R$ initially carrying no surface charge, the radial conduction current deposits ${\rho }_s(t)=R{\rho }_0(1-e^{-\sigma t/{ϵ}_0})/2$ on its surface. Total charge per unit length remains $\pi R^2{\rho }_0$, so the exterior radial electric field is time independent even though the interior field decays. Neglecting the deposited surface charge violates charge conservation.

A conduction current is transport of electric charge by mobile carriers through matter. For a local isotropic ohmic medium, its current density is ${\mathbf{J}}_c=\sigma \mathbf{E}$, with electrical conductivity $\sigma$. It differs from displacement current $\partial \mathbf{D}/\partial t$, which can be nonzero in a capacitor's insulating gap without carriers crossing the gap.

Choose the plate polarity so that the gap electric field points along $+z$ when $V>0$. Away from the plate edges, the quasistatic electromagnetic approximation gives $E_z=V_0\sin \omega t/d$. A circular Ampere-Maxwell law contour of radius $r<a$ then givesIt is displacement current, rather than a conduction current across the air, that supplies the enclosed current term. The direction follows the right-hand rule for increasing positive electric flux; it reverses every half cycle. In the ideal extension that sets the gap electric field to zero outside the plate footprint, $B_{\varphi }={\mu }_0{ϵ}_0\omega V_0{a}^2\cos \omega t/(2dr)$ for $r>a$. That extension is an edge approximation, not an exact exterior solution for finite plates. Neglect fringing field of a capacitor and retardation, requiring $d\ll a$ and $\omega a/c\ll 1$.