  Electric-dipole radiation has the well-known far-field solutions of
transverse electric and magnetic (TEM) fields with peak values propagating
normal to (and going to zero along) the dipole axis. The calculation of these
electromagnetic fields is based on the use of the magnetic vector potential:
Its time derivative and divergence for the electric field E, and its curl for
the magnetic field B. In this paper, we suggest the possibility of additional
radiation fields, namely, those based on the shear of the vector potential. Our
results show that these shear waves have a 1/r dependence on far-field
distance, with four radiative components: (1)-(3) an orthogonal triad
consisting of two transverse waves and a longitudinal wave propagating along
the dipole axis (analogous to an acoustic dipole); and (4) a transverse wave
propagating into the same solid angle as E and B, parallel to the E-field but
with one-half the magnitude of the B-field. If confirmed by experiment,
possible applications include RF communications, novel biomedical sensors, and
a new tool in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI).
