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The magnetic helicity integrates the dot product of a magnetic vector potential and its magnetic field. It measures linkage and twisting of magnetic flux. For a solenoidal vector field $\mathbf{B}$ tangent to the boundary, it is unchanged by the gauge transformation $\mathbf{A}\mapsto \mathbf{A}+\nabla \chi$, since the change is ${\int }_V\nabla \cdot (\chi \mathbf{B})dV={\int }_{\partial V}\chi \mathbf{B}\cdot d\mathbf{S}=0$. If its density satisfies ${\partial }_{t}h=\nabla \cdot (f\mathbf{B}-h\mathbf{u})$ with both vector fields tangent to the boundary of a fixed volume, the divergence theorem gives conservation of its integral. This is an instance of helicity conservation by tangent boundary conditions.

Use suffix notation, with repeated indices summed. Contracting the two Levi-Civita symbols givesApplying the product rule to $h=A_i{B}_i$ and substituting the two evolution equations yieldsIn the second line we renamed dummy indices in $A_i{B}_j{\partial }_j{u}_i$ and then combined product derivatives. HenceNo zero-divergence assumption was used in this local identity.

When both fields are solenoidal vector fields, the product rule for divergence rewrites this as a conservation law:Because the volume is fixed, differentiation under its integral and the divergence theorem giveunder the two tangency conditions. Thus the volume integral is conserved. This is helicity conservation by tangent boundary conditions; when $\mathbf{B}=\nabla \times \mathbf{A}$, the density is the magnetic helicity density.

For the given axisymmetric field, the curl in spherical coordinates givesThere are no $\varphi$ derivatives and $A_r=0$. ConsequentlyThe volume form in spherical polar coordinates is $r^2\sin \theta drd\theta d\varphi$, soHere $B_r=0$ at $r=a$, as required for the magnetic-field tangency condition in the conservation argument; tangency of $\mathbf{u}$ is a separate hypothesis.

Using the product rule for directional derivatives,Thus $f=|u{|}^2/2-P$ and $g=-h$. If $\nabla \cdot u=0$ and $w=\nabla \times u$, then $\nabla \cdot w=0$. Integrating the two directional derivatives as divergences gives only boundary fluxes, which vanish because $u\cdot n=w\cdot n=0$. This is helicity conservation by tangent boundary conditions, so $dH/dt=0$.

For the stated field, direct use of the cylindrical curl gives $u\cdot w=-2a{\rho }^4{\sin }^{2}z$. Therefore