  We generalize the concept of parity-time symmetric structures with the goal
to create meta-atoms exhibiting extraordinary abilities to overcome the
presumed limitations in the scattering of overall lossless particles, such as
non-zero forward scattering and the equality of scattering and extinction
powers for all lossless particles. Although the forward scattering amplitude
and the extinction cross section of our proposed meta-atoms vanish, they
scatter incident energy into other directions, with controllable
directionality. These meta-atoms possess extreme electromagnetic properties not
achievable for passive scatterers. As an example, we study meta-atoms
consisting of two or three small dipole scatters. We consider possible
microwave realizations in the form of short dipole antennas loaded by lumped
elements. The proposed meta-atom empowers extraordinary response of a
shadow-free scatterer and theoretically enables most unusual material
properties when used as a building block of an artificial medium.
