Formal Language & Automata

Theory
Prof. Prasann Barot, Assistant Professor
Computer Science & Engineering.
 CHAPTER-4
Turing machines
 Topics to be covered
• The basic model for Turing machines (TM)
• Turing-recognizable (recursively enumerable)
• Turing-decidable (recursive) languages and their
closure properties
• Variants of Turing machines
• Nondeterministic TMs and equivalence with
deterministic TMs
• Unrestricted grammars and equivalence with
Turing machines
• TMs as enumerators
Understanding of machines
Finite Automata Pushdown Automata Turing Machine
• Input Strings • Input Strings & Stack • Input Strings
a b b a Control Accept or • Magnetic Tape
I/p Reject
system • Special symbol
• Control system

Δa b a a b Δ
Stack

Tape
Head
Chomsky-hierarchy
e Requisites

Turing machine

Pushdown automata

Finite automata
Turing Machine
 A Turing Machine (TM) has finite-state control (like PDA), and an infinite read-
write tape.
 The tape serves as both input and unbounded storage device.
 The tape is divided into cells, and each cell holds one symbol from the tape
alphabet like 1 & 0.
 There is a special blank symbol B. At
any instant, all but finitely many cells
hold B.
 Tape head sees only one cell at any
instant. The contents of this cell and
the current state determine the next
move of the TM.
Contd.
• At any point of time, the head which is positioned over one of the squares on
the tape. With this head, the machine can execute three very simple
operations:
– Read the symbol under the head on the square.
– Edit the symbol by updating symbol or erasing it.
– Shift the head to left or right by only one square, So that the machine
can read and edit or erase the symbol of a neighboring square.
Definition of Turing machine
•Formally, a Turing machines a 7- tuple M= (Q,Σ,Γ, δ, q0, B, F) where
– Q is the finite set of states of the finite control
– Σ is the finite set of input symbols.
– Γ is the finite set of tape symbols; Σ⊂Γ.
– δ:Q × Γ → Q × Γ × {L, R} is the transition function, which is a partial
function.
– q ∈ Q is the start state.
– B ∈ Γ is the blank symbol; B ∈/ Σ.
– F ⊆ Q is the set of final or accepting states.
Examples
•TM that checks its third symbol is 0, accepts if so, and runs forever, if not
(note it never rejects).
– M=({p,q,r,s,t},{0,1,},{0,1,B},p,s,d)
• δ(p,X) = (q,X,R) for X=0,1
• δ(q,X) = (r, X , R) for X=0,1
• δ(r,0) = (s,0,L) Read Update
• δ(r,1) = (t,1,R)
• δ(t,X) = (t,X,R) for X=0,1,B Shift (L or R)
Examples
• TM for {0n1n : n >= 1}
– M = ({q0, q1, q2, q3, q4}, {0, 1}, {0, 1,X, Y,B}, ±, q0,B, {q4})
Examples
• A Turing machine accepting{xx|x∈{a, b}∗}
Examples
• A Turing machine accepting{aibaj|0≤i<j}
Examples
• A Turing machine computing the reverse function.
Examples
•A Turing machine to copy strings.
Turing Recognizable and Decidable
•A Turing machine M recognizes language L if L=L(M). We say L is Turing-
recognizable(or simply recognizable) if there is a TM M such that L=L(M).
•A Turing machine decides language L if L=L(M) and M halts on all inputs. We
say L is decidable if there is a TM M that decides L.
•Both types of machine halt in the Accept state on strings that are in the
language.
– A Decider also halts if the string is not in the language.
– A Recognizer MAY or MAY NOT halt on strings that are not in the
language.
•On all input:
– A Decider MUST halt (in Accept or Reject state)
– A Recognizer MAY or MAY NOT halt on some strings
Closure properties
-Union
Both decidable and Turing recognizable languages are closed under union.
•For decidable languages the proof is easy. Suppose L1 and L2 are two decidable
languages accepted by halting TMs M1 and M2 respectively. The machine for L1
∪ L2 is designed as follows:
•Given an input x, simulate M1 on x. If M1 accepts then accept, else simulate M2
on x. If M2 accepts then accept else reject.
•Now suppose L1 and L2 are two Turing recognizable languages accepted by TMs
M1and M2 respectively. Since L1 and L2 are Turing recognizable languages, there
fore for strings that do not belong to these languages, the corresponding
machines may not even halt. The previous strategy will not work because we can
have a scenario where M2 accepts x but M1 loops forever.
Contd.
•Concatenation
– Both decidable and Turing recognizable languages are closed under
concatenation.
– I will give the proof for Turing recognizable languages. The proof for decidable
languages is similar. Let L1and L2 be two Turing recognizable languages. Given
an input w, use non determinism and guess a partition w (say w=xy). Now run
the respective Turing machines of L1and L2 on x and y respectively. If both
accepts then accept else reject.
•Star
– Both decidable and Turing recognizable languages are closed under star
operation.
– This is also similar to concatenation. Non deterministically first guess a
number k, and then guess a k partition of the given input. Now for each string
in the partition, check whether it belongs to the original language.
Contd.
•Intersection
– Both decidable and Turing recognizable languages are closed under
intersection. Run the TMs of both the languages on the given input.
Accept if and only if both the machines accept. In the case of
intersection we can run the TMs of L1 and L2 one after the other (as
opposed to union).
•Complementation
– Decidable languages are closed under complementation. To design a
machine for the complement of a language L, we can simulate the
machine for L on an input. If it accepts then accept and vice versa.
Variants of Turing machines
1. Multiple track Turing Machine
2. Two-way infinite Tape Turing Machine
3. Multi-tape Turing Machine
4. Multi-tape Multi-head Turing Machine
5. Multi-dimensional Tape Turing Machine
6. Multi-head Turing Machine
7. Non-deterministic Turing Machine
Contd.
1. Multiple track Turing Machine:
– A k-tack Turing machine(for some k>0) has k-tracks and one R/W head
that reads and writes all of them one by one.
– A k-track Turing Machine can be simulated by a single track Turing
machine
2. Two-way infinite Tape Turing Machine:
– Infinite tape of two-way infinite tape Turing machine is unbounded in
both directions left and right.
– Two-way infinite tape Turing machine can be simulated by one-way
infinite Turing machine(standard Turing machine).
Contd.
3. Multi-tape Turing Machine:
– It has multiple tapes and controlled by a single head.
– The Multi-tape Turing machine is different from k-track Turing machine but
expressive power is same.
– Multi-tape Turing machine can be simulated by single-tape Turing machine.
4. Multi-tape Multi-head Turing Machine:
– The multi-tape Turing machine has multiple tapes and multiple heads
– Each tape controlled by separate head. Multi-Tape Multi-head Turing machine
can be simulated by standard Turing machine.
5. Multi-dimensional Tape Turing Machine:
– It has multi-dimensional tape where head can move any direction that is left,
right, up or down. Multi dimensional tape Turing machine can be simulated by
one-dimensional Turing machine
Contd.
6. Multi-head Turing Machine:
– A multi-head Turing machine contain two or more heads to read the
symbols on the same tape.
– In one step all the heads sense the scanned symbols and move or
write independently. Multi-head Turing machine can be simulated by
single head Turing machine.
7. Non-deterministic Turing Machine:
– A non-deterministic Turing machine has a single, one way infinite
tape. For a given state and input symbol has atheist one choice to
move (finite number of choices for the next move), each choice
several choices of path that it might follow for a given input string.
– A non-deterministic Turing machine is equivalent to deterministic
Turing machine.
Deterministic vs. non-determinism Turing Machines
• Deterministic TM’s owe their name to the fact that each computation can
be viewed as a linear ordered sequence (finite or infinite) of
configurations. The first element contains the initial state and each
configuration C′ follows directly configuration C in the sequence if the TM
can change C into C′ as a consequence of a legal move of the machine.
• Nondeterministic machines are not restricted to such ordered
computations. At each moment in time a non-deterministic TM may be
allowed to make several moves (or equivalently to choose among a
number of possibilities). Hence its computation may “branch” in many
possible ways. The resulting computation is best described therefore as a
rooted tree of configurations. Each deterministic computation
corresponding to a particular sequence of choices is called a computation
path.
Unrestricted grammars.
•Definition: an unrestricted grammar is a 4-tuple (T,N,P,S), consisting of:
– T = set of terminals (the legal "tokens" of the language)
– N = set of non-terminals (aka variables)
– P = as set of productions, each of the form:
v w
where v and w are strings consisting of non-terminals and terminals.
– S = a special nonterminal called the start symbol.
This type of grammar is also known as a Type 0 grammar. It is equivalent
to a Turing Machine. Given a Type 0 grammar, there exists a TM that can
"recognize" the same language as that grammar. And, conversely, a Type 0
grammar can always be found for the language recognized or generated
by any TM.
Example
•Example: Grammar for L={ ww : w∈(a, b)∗}

•S→S′Z
•S′→aS′A
•S′→bS′B
•S′→ ø
TMs Enumerator.
An enumerator is multi-tape Turing Machine, with a special output tape
which is write-only.
• Write only means (a) symbol on output tape does not affect transitions,
and (b) tape head only moves right.
• Initially all tapes blank (no input). During computation the machine adds
symbols to the output tape. Output considered to be a list of words
(separated by special symbol #).
• Definition: An enumerator M is said to enumerate a string W if and only if
at some point M writes a word W on the output tape.
Contd.
•Enumerate all the strings for L={an bn c n|n≥0}
Solution. The L can be generated by two-tape TM E with following steps:
(1) Write # # on tape 1 and 2 for ε.
(2) Add a on tape 2,
(3)Copy a equal to size of tape 2 on tape 1, then by same size the b is written
on tape 1, then by same size c is written tape 1, followed with #
(4) go to step 2.
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