  We prove that two-way probabilistic and quantum finite automata (2PFA's and
2QFA's) can be considerably more concise than both their one-way versions
(1PFA's and 1QFA's), and two-way nondeterministic finite automata (2NFA's). For
this purpose, we demonstrate several infinite families of regular languages
which can be recognized with some fixed probability greater than $ {1/2} $ by
just tuning the transition amplitudes of a 2QFA (and, in one case, a 2PFA) with
a constant number of states, whereas the sizes of the corresponding 1PFA's,
1QFA's and 2NFA's grow without bound. We also show that 2QFA's with mixed
states can support highly efficient probability amplification. The weakest
known model of computation where quantum computers recognize more languages
with bounded error than their classical counterparts is introduced.
