Visualizing electromagnetic vacuum by MRI
Chandrika S. Chandrashekar, Annadanesh Shellikeri, S. Chandrashekar,, Erika A. Taylor, Deanne M. Taylor

TL;DR
This paper demonstrates the first MRI visualization of an electromagnetic vacuum inside a bulk metal, revealing unexpected intensity patterns and surface-specific chemical shifts, which could advance noninvasive surface analysis.
Contribution
It presents the first visualization of EM vacuum inside bulk metal using MRI and introduces novel intensity pattern analysis and chemical shift imaging for metal surfaces.
Findings
Uncovered unexpected MRI intensity patterns on metal faces.
Derived formulas for intensity ratios revealing different effective voxel volumes.
Discriminated metal surface faces via chemical shift imaging.
Abstract
Based upon Maxwell's equations, it has long been established that oscillating electromagnetic (EM) fields incident upon a metal surface decay exponentially inside the conductor, leading to a virtual EM vacuum at sufficient depths. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) utilizes radiofrequency (r.f.) EM fields to produce images. Here we present the first visualization of an EM vacuum inside a bulk metal strip by MRI, amongst several novel findings. We uncover unexpected MRI intensity patterns arising from two orthogonal pairs of faces of a metal strip, and derive formulae for their intensity ratios, revealing differing effective elemental volumes (voxels) underneath these faces. Further, we furnish chemical shift imaging (CSI) results that discriminate different faces (surfaces) of a metal block according to their distinct nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shifts, which holds much…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAtomic and Subatomic Physics Research · Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications · Nuclear Physics and Applications
