Generalized cross-helicity in non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics

Abstract

The objective of the present paper is to investigate the constancy of the topological invariant, denoted the non-barotropic generalized cross-helicity in the case of non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). Existing work considers only ideal barotropic MHD and ideal non-barotropic MHD. Here, we consider dissipative processes in the form of thermal conduction, finite electrical conductivity and viscosity and the effect of these processes on the cross-helicity conservation. An analytical approach has been adopted to obtain the mathematical expressions for the time derivative of the cross-helicity. Obtained results show that the generalized cross-helicity is not conserved in the non-ideal MHD limit and indicate which processes affect the helicity and which do not. Furthermore, we indicate the configurations in which this topological constant is conserved despite the dissipative processes. Some examples and applications are also given.