On the long-time behavior of spin echo and its relation to free induction decay

Abstract

It is predicted that (i) spin echoes have two kinds of generic long-time decays: either simple exponential, or a superposition of a monotonic and an oscillatory exponential decays; and (ii) the long-time behavior of spin echo and the long-time behavior of the corresponding homogeneous free induction decay are characterized by the same time constants. This prediction extends to various echo problems both within and beyond nuclear magnetic resonance. Experimental confirmation of this prediction would also support the notion of the eigenvalues of time evolution operators in large quantum systems.