  We propose a qubit basis composed of transverse spin helices with kinks.
Unlike the usual computational basis, this chiral basis is well suited for
describing quantum states with nontrivial topology. Choosing appropriate
parameters the operators of the transverse spin components, $\sigma_n^x$ and
$\sigma_n^y$, become diagonal in the chiral basis, which facilitates the study
of problems focused on transverse spin components. As an application, we study
the temporal decay of the transverse polarization of a spin helix in the XX
model that has been measured in recent cold atom experiments. We obtain an
explicit universal function describing the relaxation of helices of arbitrary
wavelength.
