  A locally decodable code encodes n-bit strings x in m-bit codewords C(x), in
such a way that one can recover any bit x_i from a corrupted codeword by
querying only a few bits of that word. We use a quantum argument to prove that
LDCs with 2 classical queries need exponential length: m=2^{Omega(n)}.
Previously this was known only for linear codes (Goldreich et al. 02). Our
proof shows that a 2-query LDC can be decoded with only 1 quantum query, and
then proves an exponential lower bound for such 1-query locally
quantum-decodable codes. We also show that q quantum queries allow more
succinct LDCs than the best known LDCs with q classical queries. Finally, we
give new classical lower bounds and quantum upper bounds for the setting of
private information retrieval. In particular, we exhibit a quantum 2-server PIR
scheme with O(n^{3/10}) qubits of communication, improving upon the O(n^{1/3})
bits of communication of the best known classical 2-server PIR.
