[Math] the geometric reason of why is the divergence of the curl of a vector field equal to zero

differential-geometrymultivariable-calculusvector analysisvectors

What is the geometric reason of why is the divergence of the curl of a vector field equal to zero? I know how to prove it but I can't quite get some intuition behind it.

I have seen some arguments that treat the del operator as a vector function, but I think this is not so correct as in some cases this analogy fails.
This is described in http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_02.html in sections 2-7 and 2-8 but gives poor explanations on why thinking about the del operator as a normal vector works in some cases while does not work in other cases.

Best Answer

Remember that in the analogous case $\nabla \times \nabla f = 0$, some intuition for the result can be attained by integration: by Green's theorem this is equivalent to $\int \nabla f \cdot ds = 0$ around every closed loop, which is true because $\int_{\gamma} \nabla f \cdot ds = f(\gamma(1)) - f(\gamma(0)).$ Thus our intuition is that curl measures circulation, and $\nabla f$ cannot circulate because this would introduce a discontinuity in $f$ around a loop.

Let's try the same thing: by the divergence theorem, it suffices to show that $\int_\Sigma (\nabla \times V) \cdot \hat n\ dA = 0$ for every closed surface $\Sigma$. By Stokes' theorem we know $$\int_\Sigma (\nabla \times V) \cdot \hat n\ dA = \int_{\partial \Sigma}V\cdot ds,$$which vanishes because $\Sigma$ is closed (i.e. $\partial \Sigma = \emptyset$).

In more intuitive terms, the divergence measures flux through a small cube; but the flux of a curl through a closed surface must be zero because there is no boundary curve for the circulation to accumulate upon.

As Nameless alluded to in his comment, you can get a more unified understanding of what's going on here by studying differential forms. All these geometric differential operators $\nabla, \nabla \times, \nabla \cdot$ are exterior derivatives $d_0,d_1,d_2$, and the identity $d_{k+1} \circ d_k = 0$ can be seen either by expanding out the partial derivative expression and noting that everything cancels (what I assume you've done in your proof), but also by applying the general Stokes theorem twice and noting that the boundary of a boundary is always empty.