A Feasibility Analysis of Studies on Linen from the Shroud of Turin Using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

The possibility of developing future investigations on the Turin Shroud by means of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is discussed in the present article. Various traditional techniques such as the static spectroscopy in homogeneous or nonhomogeneous magnetic fields or the “Magic Angle Spinning (MAS)” technique and more innovative techniques such as “Cross-Polarisation”, that allows a better signal-to-noise ratio in C atoms, are here considered and discussed. These techniques are applied to recent linen samples to show the possibility of detecting the H and C atoms concentration in the Turin Shroud. Other investigation techniques, to be developed in future, are discussed; among them, the evaluation of other atoms such as N or a comparative analysis between NMR results and that obtained from the radioactivity mapping in the Shroud by means of a Geiger-Müller detector.