New Perspectives on Heteronuclear Decoupling: Classical Rotational Dynamics Applied to NMR Systems

The dynamics of quantum N-level systems is equivalent to rotation of the state vector in a real, Euclidean vector space. The relevance of this result to general magnetic resonance systems is considered here, with a focus on heteronuclear decoupling. An exact general theory for spin-1/2 IS systems is presented. This article provides a vehicle for more comprehensive details on the derivation of the theoretical model, insights into its application, new visual representations, and computational efficiencies for simulations. The theory provides a unifying mechanism for decoupling and has clarified possibilities for developing improved decoupling sequences, unconstrained by former limitations of periodic and cyclic sequences.