BCS-Universal Ratios within the Van Hove Scenario

The central result of BCS theory are the Universal Ratios which do not depend on physical parameters of the superconductor under study. Several attempts have been made to introduce the van Hove Scenario within BCS theory but in none of them the Universal Ratios of conventional superconductivity appear to be a number independent of parameters. This fact prevents the precise definition of a deviation from the BCS value for a particular superconductor. This concept is at the basis of several applications of BCS theory in characterizing conventional superconductors. We define a system that constitutes a weak coupling limit that retains the essential features of the high-Tc oxides and which does not differ in any essential way from other models widely used in generalizations of BCS theory to high-Tc superconductors. The difference is that we found a natural way of dealing with the mathematics of the problem so as to get Universal Ratios in the same sense as in conventional superconductivity.Comment: 11 PAGES, NO FIGURES, REVTEX 3.

Implementing quantum gates through scattering between a static and a flying qubit

We investigate whether a two-qubit quantum gate can be implemented in a scattering process involving a flying and a static qubit. To this end, we focus on a paradigmatic setup made out of a mobile particle and a quantum impurity, whose respective spin degrees of freedom couple to each other during a one-dimensional scattering process. Once a condition for the occurrence of quantum gates is derived in terms of spin-dependent transmission coefficients, we show that this can be actually fulfilled through the insertion of an additional narrow potential barrier. An interesting observation is that under resonance conditions the above enables a gate only for isotropic Heisenberg (exchange) interactions and fails for an XY interaction. We show the existence of parameter regimes for which gates able to establish a maximum amount of entanglement can be implemented. The gates are found to be robust to variations of the optimal parameters.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Effects of Al doping on the structural and electronic properties of Mg(1-x)Al(x)B2

We have studied the structural and electronic properties of Mg(1-x)Al(x)B2 within the Virtual Crystal Approximation (VCA) by means of first-principles total-energy calculations. Results for the lattice parameters, the electronic band structure, and the Fermi surface as a function of Al doping for 0<x<0.6 are presented. The ab initio VCA calculations are in excellent agreement with the experimentally observed change in the lattice parameters of Al doped MgB2. The calculations show that the Fermi surface associated with holes a the boron planes collapses gradually with aluminum doping and vanishes for x=0.56. In addition, an abrupt topological change in the sigma-band Fermi surface was found for x=0.3. The calculated hole density correlates closely with existing experimental data for Tc(x), indicating that the observed loss of superconductivity in Mg(1-x)Al(x)B2 is a result of hole bands filling.Comment: 4 pages (revtex) and 4 figures (postscript