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Magnetic helicity in multiply connected domains

Plasma Physics 2019-09-25 v1 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

Magnetic helicity is a fundamental quantity of magnetohydrodynamics that carries topological information about the magnetic field. By `topological information', we usually refer to the linkage of magnetic field lines. For domains that are not simply connected, however, helicity also depends on the topology of the domain. In this paper, we expand the standard definition of magnetic helicity in simply connected domains to multiply connected domains in R3\mathbb{R}^3 of arbitrary topology. We also discuss how using the classic Biot-Savart operator simplifies the expression for helicity and how domain topology affects the physical interpretation of helicity.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1908.03721,
  title  = {Magnetic helicity in multiply connected domains},
  author = {David MacTaggart and Alberto Valli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.03721},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

Accepted for Journal of Plasma Physics

R2 v1 2026-06-23T10:44:17.563Z