A displacement of the axis of a spinning body away from the simple cone-shaped figure, which would be traced by the axis during precession. In the rotating frame of reference, the nutation caused by a RF pulse appears as a simple precession, although the motion is more complex in the stationary frame of reference.

(DANTE) A technique used to place a saturation band over e.g. the myocardium. This technique includes spatial modulation of magnetization complementary and delays alternating with nutations for tailored excitation, followed by the application of a cine or real-time imaging. Because the saturated magnetization pattern moves with the atoms of the tissue, the cardiac motion shows up as deformations in the grid pattern in the resulting imaging sequence.

(FA) The flip angle a is used to define the angle of excitation for a field echo pulse sequence. It is the angle to which the net magnetization is rotated or tipped relative to the main magnetic field direction via the application of a RF excitation pulse at the Larmor frequency. It is also referred to as the tip angle, nutation angle or angle of nutation.
The radio frequency power (which is proportional to the square of the amplitude) of the pulse is proportional to a through which the spins are tilted under its influence. Flip angles between 0° and 90° are typically used in gradient echo sequences, 90° and a series of 180° pulses in spin echo sequences and an initial 180° pulse followed by a 90° and a 180° pulse in inversion recovery sequences.

(PMRFI) See Rotating Frame of Reference and Nutation.