The Conceptual Basis for the Possible Use of a Quantum Eraser to Send Binary Data to a Remote Location

The possible use of a quantum eraser to send information to a remote location depends on the ability in quantum mechanics to separate a measurement into two pieces, one which can be called determining the value of a quantity and one which is making the result of this determination available to the environment. Schrodinger noted these two pieces in making a measurement in his cat gedankenexperiment. Later, Greenberger and YaSin showed how in the absence of making the information available to the environment one could ``reverse'' the ``result'' obtained in the first piece of a measurement. Scully and his colleagues developed the discussion further by allowing the possibility of developing which-way information concerning a particle and its subsequent loss in one sense without directly affecting the motion of this particle and by tying these measurement results to the manipulation of the first piece of a measurement of a distant entangled photon while this entangled photon remained ``hidden.'' The present extension of the quantum eraser assures one particle distribution upon erasure and another where there is no erasure, thus making information transmission reliable.