A Differentiable Physical Framework for Goal-Driven Spin-State Engineering in Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Quantum Physics [Submitted on 2 Apr 2026] A Differentiable Physical Framework for Goal-Driven Spin-State Engineering in Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Gaocheng Fu, Shiji Zhang, Kai Huang, Xue Yang, Huilin Zhang, Daxiu Wei, Ye-Feng Yao Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) offers a unique non-invasive window into metabolic processes, yet its potential remains strictly constrained by severe spectral congestion and intrinsic insensitivity. Traditional pulse sequence design, tethered to human intuition, predominantly targets simple quantum states, thereby overlooking the vast majority of the exponentially scaling operator space which consists of complex spin superpositions. Here, we introduce a spectrum-driven, end-to-end differentiable physical framework that transcends these heuristic limitations. By integrating physical laws with automatic differentiation algorithm, our approach directly navigates the high-dimensional spin dynamics space, bypassing the intractable inverse problem of state preparation. This enables the discovery of non-intuitive, complex mixed states that simultaneously satisfy the dual objectives of selective excitation and interferometric signal enhancement. We validate this paradigm by achieving the robust separation of Glutamate and Glutamine, which is a longstanding neuroimaging challenge, in the human brain at 3T, demonstrating spectral fidelity superior to conventional methods. By unlocking the "dark" informational content of nuclear spin ensembles, our work establishes a generalizable paradigm for goal-driven quantum state engineering in magnetic resonance and beyond. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Applied Physics (physics.app-ph); Medical Physics (physics.med-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2604.01722 [quant-ph]   (or arXiv:2604.01722v1 [quant-ph] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.01722 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Yefeng Yao [view email] [v1] Thu, 2 Apr 2026 07:39:47 UTC (1,576 KB) Access Paper: view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-04 Change to browse by: physics physics.app-ph physics.med-ph References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)