Kinetic helicity density 2026-10-05
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 314 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Write for the kinetic helicity density, and retain . Since is a curl, . Differentiating the density and using the equations from the preceding part givesThe divergence of a cross product givesThe first term on the right is zero, while . Thus the kinetic helicity conservation law has fluxThe last equality for the flux uses the vector triple product identity. Integrating and applying the divergence theorem gives for a fixed volume. Hence its total kinetic helicity is conserved when the boundary flux vanishes; for example, tangency of both velocity field and vorticity to the boundary is sufficient. The local conservation law does not by itself imply that its density follows each fluid particle unchanged.