Magnetic helicity conservation and astrophysical dynamos

We construct a magnetic helicity conserving dynamo theory that incorporates a calculated magnetic helicity current. In this model the fluid helicity plays a small role in large-scale magnetic field generation. Instead, the dynamo process is dominated by a new quantity, derived from asymmetries in the second derivative of the velocity correlation function, closely related to the "twist and fold" dynamo model. The turbulent damping term is, as …