Magnetic Helicity and Large Scale Magnetic Fields: A Primer

Magnetic fields of laboratory, planetary, stellar, and galactic plasmas commonly exhibit significant order on large temporal or spatial scales compared to the otherwise random motions within the hosting system. Such ordered fields can be measured in the case of planets, stars, and galaxies, or inferred indirectly by the action of their dynamical influence, such as jets. Whether large scale fields are amplified in situ or a remnant from previous stages of an object’s history is often debated for objects without a definitive magnetic activity cycle. Magnetic helicity, a measure of twist and linkage of magnetic field lines, is a unifying tool for understanding large scale field evolution for both mechanisms of origin. Its importance stems from its two basic properties: (1) magnetic helicity is typically better conserved than magnetic energy; and (2) the magnetic energy associated with a fixed amount of magnetic helicity is minimized when the system relaxes this helical structure to the largest scale available. Here I discuss how magnetic helicity has come to help us understand the saturation of and sustenance of large scale dynamos, the need for either local or global helicity fluxes to avoid dynamo quenching, and the associated observational consequences. I also discuss how magnetic helicity acts as a hindrance to turbulent diffusion of large scale fields, and thus a helper for fossil remnant large scale field origin models in some contexts. I briefly discuss the connection between large scale fields and accretion disk theory as well. The goal here is to provide a conceptual primer to help the reader efficiently penetrate the literature.