Nuclear Magnetic Relaxation in Liquid Hydrogen

Abstract

A theory of nuclear relaxation time T1 in solid H2 given by the present author and Motizuki is simply extended to the liquid case. In liquid, the distinctive feature is the diffusional motion of the molecules (τc ∼ 10-12 sec.) which modulates the anisotropic intermolecular forces. The correlation functions of the rotational angular momentum, ≪J+(t)J->, etc...., which appear in the expression for T1 are calculated by using the Kubo-Tomita formalism for motional narrowing adopting some simplifying assumptions. The calculated values of T1 agree with Bloom's recent measurement in its order of magnitude and the qualitative character of the temperature and the concentration dependence.