Tracking magnetic helicity transport in the heliosphere

Magnetic helicity represents the three-dimensional topological strugture of magnetic field such as rotation sense, twisting, and winding. The helicity is a crucial concept for understanding turbulence and dynamos in space and astrophysical systems. The Sun, for example, is considered a generator of magnetic helicity through the dynamo mechanism. The helcity is then transported and released into the heliosphere (interplanetary space) by various plasma physical mechanisms such as convection, instabilities, wave couplings, and turbulence. The detailed picture of helicity transport is still missing inspite of its significance in space and astrophysics. The project reveals for the first time systematically the magnetic helicity transport in the heliosphere both in the spatial and temporal senses, such as the radial and latitudinal dependence to the Sun and the relationship with the solar activity. The research method is a combination of multi-spacecraft data analysis in situ in the heliosphere with numerical simulations. The project will give us a clear understanding of the role of helicity in plasma turbulence and its evolution scenario in astrophysical systems. The results will be used as a reference model of magnetic helicity transport in various stellar and interstellar phenomena (such as cosmic ray transport, stellar winds, and accretion disks) as well as laboratory plasmas.