The identity divergence of a curl is zero follows by the symmetry of second partial derivatives and antisymmetry of the Levi-Civita symbol. Therefore
If and is in Coulomb gauge, the curl of the curl identity gives . Apply the supplied scalar Poisson equation representation to each component of the decaying vector potential. In the units of this problem the Coulomb-gauge vector potential of a localized steady current is
Here one needs , and enough localization of for the stated representation and differentiations. A smooth compactly supported current density is a sufficient convenient case. The local differential equations and gauge alone do not impose these conditions: , , satisfy them but do not satisfy the displayed integral formula. The formula selects the decaying solution, excluding nondecaying homogeneous harmonic functions.
With , the gradient of the kernel is . Since is independent of ,
Thus taking the curl gives the Biot-Savart law in the problem's normalization:
Finally, change variables in the integral for . This keeps the singular kernel independent of the differentiation variable:
For smooth localized , differentiation under the integral sign is legitimate: is locally integrable in three dimensions, and on a bounded neighbourhood of the translated sources and their derivatives have common compact support. The integral indeed satisfies Coulomb gauge.
Differentiate under the integral and use :
The omitted boundary term vanishes if the current is localized sufficiently rapidly. A steady current obeys charge conservation , hence
For much larger than the source size,
Localization and imply . They also imply
by integrating . Thus the first nonzero moment is antisymmetric and can be written using the magnetic dipole moment
Consequently the Coulomb-gauge vector potential of a localized steady current has far field
The dimensions are