Projecting a non-Abelian SU(2) vacuum gauge field - a pure gauge constructed
from the group element U - onto a fixed (electromagnetic) direction in isospace
gives rise to a nontrivial magnetic field, with nonvanishing magnetic helicity,
which coincides with the winding number of U. Although the helicity is not
conserved under Maxwell (vacuum) evolution, it retains one-half its initial
value at infinite time.Comment: Clarifying remarks and references added; 12 pages, 1 figure using
BoxedEPSF, REVTeX macros; submitted to Phys Rev D; email to
[email protected]
