Superconductivity in the Cuprates as a Consequence of Antiferromagnetism and a Large Hole Density of States

We briefly review a theory for the cuprates that has been recently proposed based on the movement and interaction of holes in antiferromagnetic (AF) backgrounds. A robust peak in the hole density of states (DOS) is crucial to produce a large critical temperature once a source of hole attraction is identified. The predictions of this scenario are compared with experiments. The stability of the calculations after modifying some of the original assumptions is addressed. We find that if the dispersion is changed from an antiferromagnetic band at half-filling to a tight binding coskx + cosky narrow band at < n >= 0.87, the main conclusions of the approach remain basically the same i.e. superconductivity appears in the dx2−y2 -channel and Tc is enhanced by a large DOS. The main features distinguishing these ideas from more standard theories based on antiferromagnetic correlations are here discussed.