Now with near field calculations

3.1.0 (02/07/2026)

• add near-field E and H field APIs, fix boundary continuity/medium handling, and expand validation tests
• add field calculation utilities, field module cleanup/help text improvements, and precomputed E/H reference data (via scattnlay)
• improve performance: ~20% speedups in Mie backends and faster near-field calculations; add speed benchmarks
• documentation updates: new/updated notebooks (boundary conditions, 2D fields, performance), clarified conventions
• refresh docs/README visuals and assets; add custom CSS for docs images
• jupyterlite/RTD updates: config moves, build modernizations, and avoid numba install in JupyterLite
• packaging/CI: pyproject and requirements cleanup, improved PyPI workflow, updated citation automation/config
• misc cleanups: remove unused files/images, minor typos, Makefile and docs config tidy-ups, CITATION.cff refresh