Multicolor multipartite entanglement produced by vector four-wave mixing in a fiber.

Multipartite entanglement is a resource for quantum communication and computation. Vector four-wave mixing (FWM) in a fiber, driven by two strong optical pumps, couples the evolution of four weak optical sidebands (modes). Depending on the fiber dispersion and pump frequencies, the mode frequencies can be similar (separated by less than 1 THz) or dissimilar (separated by more than 10 THz). In this report, the discrete- and continuous-variable entanglement produced by vector FWM is studied in detail. Formulas are derived for the variances of, and correlations between, the mode quadratures and photon numbers. These formulas and related results show that the modes are four-partite entangled.