  In metallic nanoparticles, the different electronic environment seen by each
magnetic nucleus produces a distribution of Knight shifts of the NMR
frequencies which is observed as an inhomogeneously broadened lineshape. We
study the fluctuations in the local density of states for s electrons at the
Fermi energy in a simple LCAO model. We resort to a Matrix Continued Fractions
calculation of the Green's functions. Results show that line broadens
asymmetrically and its shift decreases as the particle size or the temperature
diminish satisfying a universal scaling function. However, for very small
particles, surface states become relevant to determine a lineshape that departs
from the universal scaling behavior. These trends are consistent with the
observed tendencies in Cu and Pt particles.
