Abstract. After a systematic introduction of some formulae for the energy radiated by localized electric charges and currents distributions, one considers the multipole radiation and the reduction of the multipole tensors to the symmetric traceless ones. A general formula for the total power radiated by a confined system of charges is given. Although one uses Cartesian tensor components in the explicit calculations, the final results are given in a consistent tensorial form.

PACS numbers: 03.50.De, 41.20.−q

Print publication: Issue 16 (23 April 2004)
Received 24 November 2003, in final form 16 February 2004
Published 5 April 2004