Simple Pulses for Universal Quantum Computation with a Heisenberg ABAB Chain

Recently Levy has shown that quantum computation can be performed using an ABAB.. chain of spin-1/2 systems with nearest-neighbor Heisenberg interactions. Levy notes that all necessary elementary computational `gates' can be achieved by using spin-resonance techniques involving modulating the spin-spin interaction strength at high frequency. Here we note that, as an alternative to that approach, it is possible to perform the elementary gates with simple, non-oscillatory pulses.