Helicity is the only integral invariant of volume-preserving transformations

Abstract

We prove that any regular integral invariant of volume-preserving transformations is equivalent to the helicity. Specifically, given a functional $\mathcal I$ defined on exact divergence-free vector fields of class $C^1$ on a compact 3-manifold that is associated with a well-behaved integral kernel, we prove that $\mathcal I$ is invariant under arbitrary volume-preserving diffeomorphisms if and only if it is a function of the helicity.