fields together had six components to solve for. In the potential formulation, there are only four components: the electric potential and the three components of the vector potential. However, the equations are messier than Maxwell's equations using the electric and magnetic fields.

Gauge freedom

These equations can be simplified by taking advantage of the fact that the electric and magnetic fields are physically meaningful quantities that can be measured; the potentials are not. There is a freedom to constrain the form

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