Consider the following statements about the displacement current:(A)…

The correct answer is Option (4) → (A) and (C) only

Maxwell’s displacement current \( i_d=\varepsilon_0\,d\Phi_E/dt \) is present wherever the electric flux changes with time, whether or not any charge flows there.

(A) It is present in the gap between the plates of a capacitor while the capacitor is being charged. — True. No charge crosses the gap, but the field between the plates grows, so the whole current in the gap is displacement current, \( i_d=i \).

(B) It is present inside a copper wire carrying a steady current. — False. A steady current needs only a steady electric field in the wire. That field does not change with time, so \( i_d=0 \).

(C) It produces a magnetic field in the same way as a conduction current does. — True. Maxwell added it to Ampere’s law as a source of magnetic field. The magnetic field between the plates of a charging capacitor is the same as that just outside them.

(D) It can exist only in a region where a conduction current is also flowing. — False. The gap of a charging capacitor has no conduction current at all. There can also be large regions of space with only a displacement current, due to time-varying electric fields.

NCERT (2026-27):
Displacement Current – “… In explicit terms, this means that outside the capacitor plates, we have only conduction current i_c = i, and no displacement current, i.e., i_d = 0. On the other hand, inside the capacitor, there is no conduction current, i.e., i_c = 0, and there is only displacement current, so that i_d = i.”

Displacement Current – “In all respects, the displacement current has the same physical effects as the conduction current. In some cases, for example, steady electric fields in a conducting wire, the displacement current may be zero since the electric field E does not change with time. … Most interestingly, there may be large regions of space where there is no conduction current, but there is only a displacement current due to time-varying electric fields.”