For an exponentially correlated local field, a single-frequency illustrative relaxation rate is . Its derivative with respect to changes sign at . Slow motion gives , and fast motion gives ; an Arrhenius plot consequently has a minimum of between opposite-slope limits.
For identical spin-one-half nuclei with homonuclear dipolar relaxation, include both transition frequencies:
Writing , the maximum of the rate satisfies
Let be jump length, the total waiting time, , and the diffusion jump correlation factor. In three dimensions . Combining this with gives
The numerical constant is one for the single-frequency illustration and 0.616 for the homonuclear dipolar model. Assumptions are a single activated process, exponential field correlations, a temperature-independent prefactor and coupling amplitude, and an established relation between local correlation and translational motion. Defect creation can enter the measured activation energy; it cannot automatically be identified with a bare migration barrier. The fluctuation-spectrum approach originates in the relaxation theory of Nicolaas Bloembergen, Edward Mills Purcell and Robert Pound.[ref]