With the introduction of an auxiliary function, a genuine bilinear system (in contrast to the published trilinear forms) is obtained for the two-coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations with negative coherent coupling in the optical fiber communications. With symbolic computation, degenerate and nondegenerate vector solitons are derived associated with the corresponding phase-parameter constraints. In virtue of asymptotic analysis and graphical simulation, vector solitons of the single-hump, double-hump, or flat-top profiles are displayed, and the collision mechanisms of such vector solitons are revealed as well; namely, the collisions among degenerate solitons and among nondegenerate solitons are both elastic. The only possible inelastic collision, the collision in the degenerate-nondegenerate case, is pointed out, where a degenerate soliton interacts with a nondegenerate one. Results in this paper may be useful for the optical switching with the combined effects of self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulation, and negative coherent coupling.

• Received 23 September 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.85.026117