Extended Kalman smoothing of free spin precession signals for accurate magnetic field determination

Abstract We present a novel application of the extended Kalman smoother (EKS) for highly accurate frequency estimation from free spin precession signals of polarized 3 He. Traditional approaches often rely on nonlinear least-squares fitting, which can suffer from limited robustness to signal decay and time-dependent frequency shifts. By contrast, our EKS-based method captures both amplitude and frequency variations with minimal tuning, adapting automatically to fluctuations via an expectation-maximization algorithm. We benchmark the technique in extensive simulations that emulate realistic spin precession signals with exponentially decaying amplitudes and noisy frequency drifts. Compared to least-squares fits with fixed block lengths, EKS systematically reduces estimation errors, particularly when frequencies evolve or signal-to-noise ratios are moderate to high. We further validate these findings with experimental data from a free-precession decay 3 He magnetometer. Our results indicate that EKS-based analysis can substantially improve accuracy in nuclear magnetic resonance-based magnetometry, where accurate frequency estimation underpins absolute field determinations. This versatile approach promises to enhance the stability and accuracy of future high-precision measurements.