To understand the notion of a quantum eraser we need first to consider the interference produced when light falls on a pair of slits. As long as we think of light as being a wave phenomenon, there is no problem in understanding how the phase difference between the wave arriving at a point on the screen from one slit and the wave arriving from the second slit gives rise to the interference effects.
The problem arises when we learn that the wave consists of photons (► light quantum), a problem that becomes more acute when the incident beam consists only of a few photons arriving per second. If the photon is a localised packet of energy then the question as to which slit the photon passed through becomes inevitable. This question becomes even more pertinent when one realises that particles like ► electrons, neutrons and even atoms produce exactly the same interference patterns using pairs of slits of the appropriate size.
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Hiley, B.J. (2009). Quantum Eraser. In: Greenberger, D., Hentschel, K., Weinert, F. (eds) Compendium of Quantum Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70626-7_164
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