On dynamical invariants of coadjoint orbits of 3D volume-preserving diffeomorphisms

Abstract: The helicity, or asymptotic linking number, is a functional of exact volume-preserving vector fields on 3-manifolds, invariant under volume-preserving transformations. It is known to exhibit remarkable uniqueness properties: many invariant functionals reduce to functions of helicity. We examine how severely this uniqueness can fail. On integral homology spheres with the $C^{1}$-topology, the failure is extreme: for every $C^{1}$-open set of nonvanishing exact fields of fixed helicity, some other global dynamical invariant is continuous and non-constant in that set; the Ruelle invariant if some field is non-Anosov, and topological entropy otherwise. In particular, on the three-sphere, the Ruelle invariant is everywhere independent of helicity. This implies, in a very strong sense, a negative answer to a question of Arnold and Khesin on the density of coadjoint orbits, when considered for the $C^1$-topology. On arbitrary three-manifolds, we also answer the question in the negative using local rather than global invariants.