Quantum states and precession: The two discoveries of NMR

Abstract

Nuclear magnetic resonance in bulk matter was discovered independently by Purcell, Torrey, and Pound at Harvard and by Bloch, Hansen, and Packard at Stanford towards the end of 1945. Their experiments were so different that members of neither group were quick to recognize their own experiment in the other. The magnetic resonance phenomenon was conceptualized differently by the two groups, and the design of their experiments differed accordingly. The Purcell group thought of magnetic resonance in terms of transitions between quantum states while the Bloch group visualized magnetic moments being reoriented with respect to a magnetic field. The conceptual approach adopted by each group can be seen as a natural consequence of earlier influences.