  Preparation of Schr\"odinger-cat-like states via conditional output
measurement on a beam splitter is studied. In the scheme, a mode prepared in a
squeezed vacuum is mixed with a mode prepared in a Fock state and photocounting
is performed in one of the output channels of the beam splitter. In this way
the mode in the other output channel is prepared in a Schr\"odinger-cat-like
state that is either a photon-subtracted or a photon-added Jacobi polynomial
squeezed vacuum state, depending upon the difference between the number of
photons in the input Fock state and the number of photons in the output Fock
state onto which it is projected. Two possible photocounting schemes are
considered, and the problem of monitoring cats that are ``hidden'' in a
statistical mixture of states is studied.

Quantum Physics