Kinetic helicity density 2026-10-05
The local density of kinetic helicity is . Conservation of its volume integral does not imply that is a materially advected scalar.
Write for the kinetic helicity density, and retain . Since is a curl, . Differentiating the density and using the equations from the preceding part gives
The divergence of a cross product gives
The first term on the right is zero, while . Thus the kinetic helicity conservation law has flux
The 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.