Qutrits and ququarts in spontaneous parametric down-conversion, correlations and entanglement

We investigate features of biphoton qutrits and ququarts with the symmetry of biphoton wavefunctions fully taken into account. Entanglement quantifiers of such states are found as functions of qutrit and ququart parameters. For biphoton qutrits, a general relation between degrees of entanglement and polarization is established. In the case of biphoton ququarts, photon frequencies are considered as variables independent of polarization variables, with both polarization and frequency degrees of freedom equally contributing to the total ququart entanglement. Averaging over one of these two degrees of freedom is shown to reduce pure ququart states to mixed two-qubit states. The degree of polarization and degrees of correlations in mixed polarization states are investigated.