Quantum cloning of continuous-variable entangled states

We consider the quantum cloning of continuous variable entangled states. This is achieved by introducing two symmetric entanglement cloning machines (or e-cloners): a local e-cloner and a global e-cloner; where we look at the preservation of entanglement in the clones under the condition that the fidelity of the clones is maximized. These cloning machines are implemented using simple linear optical elements such as beam splitters and homodyne detection along with squeeze gates. We show that the global e-cloner out-performs the local e-cloner both in terms of the fidelity of the cloned states as well as the strength of the entanglement of the clones. There is a minimum strength of entanglement (3 dB using the inseparability criterion) of the input state of the global e-cloner that is required to preserve the entanglement in the clones.