The ideal magnetohydrodynamic theorem on the conservation of the magnetic connections between plasma elements is extended to nonideal relativistic plasmas in curved spacetime. The existence of generalized magnetofluid connections that are preserved by the plasma dynamics is formalized by means of a covariant connection equation that includes different nonideal effects. These generalized connections are constituted by 2-dimensional hypersurfaces, which are linked to an antisymmetric tensor field that unifies the electromagnetic and fluid fields. They can be interpreted in terms of generalized magnetofluid vorticity field lines by considering a $3+1$ foliation of spacetime and a time resetting projection that compensates for the loss of simultaneity between spatially separated events. The worldsheets of the generalized magnetofluid vorticity field lines play a fundamental role in the plasma dynamics by prohibiting evolutions that do not preserve the magnetofluid connectivity.

• Received 20 December 2019
• Accepted 9 July 2020
• Corrected 30 July 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.102.023032