  We address the intrinsic multimode nature of the quantum state of light
obtained by pulsed spontaneous parametric downconversion and develop a
theoretical model based only on experimentally accessible quantities. We
exploit the pairwise entanglement as a resource for conditional multimode
measurements and derive closed formulas for the detection probability and the
density matrix of the conditional states. We present a set of experiments
performed to validate our model in different conditions that are in excellent
agreement with experimental data. Finally, we evaluate nonGaussianity of the
conditional states obtained from our source with the aim of discussing the
effects of the different experimental parameters on the efficacy of this type
of conditional state preparation.
