Microscopic understanding of NMR signals by dynamic mean-field theory for spins

Abstract

A recently developed dynamic mean-field theory for disordered spins (spinDMFT) is shown to capture the spin dynamics of nuclear spins very well. The key quantities are the spin autocorrelations. In order to compute the free induction decay (FID), pair correlations are needed in addition. They can be computed on spin clusters of moderate size which are coupled to the dynamic mean fields determined in a first step by spinDMFT. We dub this versatile approach non-local spinDMFT (nl-spinDMFT). It is a particular asset of nl-spinDMFT that one knows from where the contributions to the FID stem. We illustrate the strengths of nl-spinDMFT in comparison to experimental data for CaF₂. Furthermore, spinDMFT provides the dynamic mean fields explaining the FID of the nuclear spins of ¹³C in adamantane up to some static noise. The spin Hahn echo in adamantane is free from effects of static noise and agrees excellently with the spinDMFT results without further fitting.