Asking about Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

[docnet]

Hi, can anyone provide literature that explains nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in terms of a quantum mechanical theory?

Could QED explain NMR in its entire phenomenon?

 

[Vanadium 50]

What have you already found? Why do you find it unsatisfactory?

 

[docnet]

What have you already found? Why do you find it unsatisfactory?

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cmr.a.20166

this seems to be the only article that directly relates QED and NMR spectroscopy. Without knowing the author, I don't know if the information is credible or not. It is also a bit hard to read without a strong background in physics.

 

[Dr Transport]

I don't believe you need to go to QED to explain NMR, Slichter's classic text pretty much covers everything.

 

[Vanadium 50]

If you don't have a strong background in physics, it will be hard to find something that links two graduate-level topics.

@Dr Transport is correct that you don't need QED to explain NMR. I have heard of but am unfamiliar with people using NMR to study the Lamb Shift (a QED effect) in atoms and molecules, with NMR being part of the process.

 

[docnet]

I appreciate your responses. I just wanted to ask the question to satisfy my curiosity.

Feynman wrote a book called QED: Strange Theory of Light and Matter, which didn't explain all facets of electromagnetism. For example, the book didn't explain proton-proton repulsion or proton-electron attraction. Can anyone recommend a book about QED that isn't too time demanding?

 

[PeterDonis]

Could QED explain NMR in its entire phenomenon?

No, because QED only includes the EM field and electrons. It doesn't include anything else.

 

[Dale]

I don't believe you need to go to QED to explain NMR, Slichter's classic text pretty much covers everything.

I agree. You really do not need QED for NMR. The number of hydrogens you are dealing with is so large that NMR can be understood almost entirely in the classical approximation. The few instances where QM is important can be handled with non-relativistic QM. I cannot think of a single instance where QED is needed (but I am unfamiliar with the Lamb shift measurements mentioned by @Vanadium 50 above).