Let be the material derivative, and write for specific enthalpy. The ideal magnetohydrodynamic induction equation and Gauss's law for magnetism give
Dotting the momentum equation with eliminates the Lorentz force density. Therefore the cross-helicity density satisfies
The first law of thermodynamics gives for specific entropy , without requiring uniform entropy. Consequently
Since , the first term on the right is a divergence. This proves the cross-helicity conservation law, with flux
For the perfect gas used here, .
Put . The noises required by a joint trajectory are and . Their independent Gaussian white noise weights give the joint path probability of an order parameter and its flux:
For the physically reversed path, is time-even and the transport flux is time-odd. Therefore , , and
The common factor includes the two noise normalizations and the midpoint Jacobian determinant. Its calculation must include both relaxation channels. On a finite spatial grid, let and represent the divergence and gradient, with the discrete Laplacian, and let be the Hessian matrix of at the midpoint of time step . Differentiating the two required noises with respect to the next configuration and the interval flux gives the Jacobian matrix
Using the Schur complement, its Jacobian determinant, apart from the path-independent power of , is
Reversal visits the same midpoint configurations in reverse order, so the product of these factors is unchanged. The joint time-reversal invariance of a path Jacobian therefore involves the complete relaxation operator .
Taking the action difference gives
Repeated component indices are summed. The second squared norm sums over both flux indices. This is mixed conserved and nonconserved order-parameter dynamics; reversing the order parameter history while leaving the flux unreversed would give the wrong probability ratio.
Writing and differentiating gives
Its symmetric second-rank tensor part and antisymmetric second-rank tensor part are
Taking the trace makes the two symmetric terms cancel, so the divergence is
Contracting the antisymmetric part with the Levi-Civita symbol gives the curl
For a velocity potential, . Writing gives
Its divergence is
Thus this potential flow is generally compressible.
Since , the vector field has cylindrical components
The divergence in cylindrical coordinates is therefore
Direct use of the curl in cylindrical coordinates gives
and
Thus, defining
we obtain
In the homogeneous background, and the physical velocity is the Hubble flow
The comoving coordinate is held fixed by the time derivative in the fluid equation, so
Moreover, spatial homogeneity gives . The Euler equation therefore reduces to
Taking the divergence in three spatial dimensions gives
Consistency with the Poisson equation,
then requires
This is the pressureless, zero-cosmological-constant Raychaudhuri equation, obtained by the Newtonian fluid derivation of the Raychaudhuri equation.
Each field has only an azimuthal component and is independent of and . The curl in spherical coordinates therefore reduces to
and its component vanishes. The half-angle identities
show in both cases that
Apply part (a) with . Then
away from the origin, explicitly confirming that each resulting curl has zero divergence.
Choose the polar axis along and write . Since
the velocity components are
Their divergence is
Thus the flow is incompressible for .
The magnetic field is . The magnetostatic Ampère-Maxwell equation is , so the curl of the curl identity gives
A gauge transformation does not change . We may therefore choose the Coulomb gauge by solving the Poisson equation . It follows component by component in a Cartesian coordinate system that
The free-space Green function of the Laplacian then gives
For a localized steady current density, conservation of electric charge gives ; integration by parts confirms directly that this integral has zero divergence and hence obeys the Coulomb gauge.
Let the displayed integrand be . Since it has no explicit dependence on or , the Euler-Lagrange equations for two fields are
Its derivatives are
Thus
Using the Laplacian, gradient, and divergence, these combine into the static Navier-Cauchy equation
For the displacement gradient tensor specified in the question,
while the divergence is . Hence the isotropic linear-elastic energy density is
Expanding the square and collecting terms yields
In the Cartesian basis, writing ,
defines the divergence, while the curl is
Equivalently,
In a magnetostatic equilibrium, inertia is absent and all forces balance. A force-free magnetic field is the limiting case in which the Lorentz force density vanishes:
Thus the current density is parallel to the magnetic field, so for some scalar force-free parameter ,
Using Ampère's law in magnetostatics gives
Taking the divergence and using both the divergence of a curl is zero and yields
so
The force-free parameter is therefore constant along every magnetic field line.
Write the flux as
After expanding the divergence, the principal symbol of a partial differential equation along a candidate solution is determined by
Only the symmetric part contributes to . The problem is elliptic along when for every , and it is strictly elliptic where this quantity is positive for every nonzero . It is uniformly elliptic on a set when constants , independent of the point, satisfy
These definitions separate pointwise positive definiteness from a quantitative lower and upper bound; a degenerate elliptic operator may lose strict ellipticity at some jets.
Taking the divergence of the linear Euler equation and defining the peculiar-velocity divergence gives
The assumption of negligible vorticity ensures that this longitudinal variable captures the velocity perturbation relevant to scalar density growth.
Phase-space flow Jacobian 2026-10-07
The Jacobian determinant of a differentiable characteristic flow map measures its change of volume. The variational equation and the Liouville formula for a fundamental matrix give the displayed formula for a complete smooth field . For kinetic advection with , its divergence is . A zero divergence preserves phase-space Lebesgue measure.
Photon number current 2026-10-06
In an orthonormal tetrad, is the photon number density and is its number flux. Integrating the Boltzmann equation gives when momentum-boundary terms vanish. Collisionless propagation and photon-number-conserving scattering give zero divergence. Photon emission, photon absorption, electron-positron annihilation in cosmology, bremsstrahlung and double Compton scattering generally do not. This is a number current, not an electric charge current: photons are neutral.
For a smooth divergence-free field on , the differential form is closed. The radial homotopy formula gives a global magnetic vector potential with curl . For constant , this reduces to .