Late 19th Century

Slide is inspired form https://www.cmi.ac.in/~sri/Courses/TOC2013/Slides/lecture0.pdf

The Hilbert Program
and

The Entscheidungs
problem

Aimed to formalize all of mathematics in a consistent, complete, and finite

system of axioms and rules of inference.

Slide is inspired form https://www.cmi.ac.in/~sri/Courses/TOC2013/Slides/lecture0.pdf

 Church-Turing Thesis

-Calculus Turing Machine

Alonzo Church Alan Turing

Formal definition of algorithm (computation)

 TURING MACHINE (TM)

FINITE
STATE
q10
CONTROL

AI N P U T

UNBOUNDED (on the right) TAPE

read write move

0 → 0, R  → , R
qaccept

0 → 0, R
 → , R
qreject 0 → 0, R
 → , L

A TM can loop forever

 TM versus PDA
TM can both write to and read from the tape

The head can move left and right

The input does not have to be read entirely

Accept and Reject take immediate effect

Infinite tape on the right, stick on the left

TM is deterministic (NTM is nondeterministic)

L11.6
 CONFIGURATIONS

11010q700110
q7

1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0
 x → x, L
2 n
0 → 0, L
{0 |n≥0}
q2
 → , R
 → , L
x → x, R x → x, R

q0 q1 q3
0 → , R 0 → x, R
x → x, R
 → , R 0 → 0, R
 → , R 0 → x, R

qreject qaccept q4

x → x, R
 → , R
 x → x, L
2 n q 0000
0 →0 0, L
{0 |n≥0}
q2 q1000
 → , R xq300
 → , L
x → x, R x0qx40→ x, R

q0 q1 x0xq
q 3
3
0 → , R 0 → x, R x0q2x
x → x, R xq 0x0, R
 → , R 0 2→
 → , R 0 → x, R
q2x0x
qreject qaccept q24 x0x
q

x → x, R
 → , R
MUL = {1i#1j#1k | ij = k and i, j, k ≥ 1}

11#111#111111
x1#111#111111
x1#yyy#zzz111
x1#111#zzz111
xx#yyy#zzzzzz
LP = {1i#x1#...#xn | n i and xi = x1}

111#101#11#101
x11#101#11#101
xx1#101#11#101
. . . . .. .. .. ..
xxx#101#11#101
 Formal Definition of a TM
A TM is a 7-tuple P = (Q, Σ, Γ, , q0, qaccept , qreject)
Q is a finite set of states
Σ is the input alphabet, where   Σ
Γ is the tape alphabet, where   Γ and Σ  Γ
 : Q  Γ → Q  Γ  {L,R} is the transition
q 0 , qaccept , qreject  Q are
function
the start, accept and reject states

04/07/2025 Sofya Raskhodnikova; based on slides by Nick Hopper L11.3

 Implementation-level Description of a TM

• Describe (in English) the instructions for a TM

– How to move the head
– What to write on the tape
• Example
1. Scan the tape from left to right and, for every 1 read
until non-1 symbol is encountered
• replace 1 with x,
• find the next on the right and replace it with .
• If no matching found, reject.

04/07/2025 Sofya Raskhodnikova; based on slides by Nick Hopper

 Accepting and rejecting
A TM on input sting w may
either halt (enter qaccept or qreject)
or never halt (loop)
A TM is a decider if it halts on every input.

Sofya Raskhodnikova; based on slides by Nick Hopper L11.4

 Language of a TM

A TM recognizes a language L if it accepts all

strings in L and no other strings.
• A language is called recognizable (or
enumerable) if some TM recognizes it.

A TM decides a language L if it accepts all

strings in L and rejects all strings not in L.
• A language is called decidable (or
recursive) if some TM decides it.

Sofya Raskhodnikova; based on slides by Nick Hopper L11.5

 Recognizable vs. decidable languages

• A language L is recognizable (enumerable) if

some TM
1. accepts strings in L and
2. does not accept strings not in L recognizable
by entering qreject or looping.

decidable
• A language L is decidable
(recursive) if some TM
1. accepts strings in L and
2. rejects strings not in L by entering qreject .

04/07/2025 Sofya Raskhodnikova; based on slides by Nick Hopper L11.6

 TM variant: Stay put TM
• is a TM that can stay on a same cell on a transition, i.e. it
has following transition function

 : Q  Γ → Q  Γ  {L,R,S}
Theorem. Every stay put TM can be transformed into a traditional TM (that
goes only L/R)
If  (q,x) = (p,y,S)
(q,x) = (q’,y,R)
(q’,z) = (p,z,L)
Transitions where machine move L/R will remain same
Slides have been taken from https://cs-people.bu.edu/sofya/cs332/
L11.17
 TM variant: multitape TM

FINITE STATE
CONTROL

Fixed number of tapes,

(can’t change during computation)

 : Q  Γk → Q  Γk 
{L,R,S}k L11.18
Slides have been taken from https://cs-people.bu.edu/sofya/cs332/
 Multitape TMs are equivalent to
single-tape TMs
Theorem. Every multitape TM can be transformed
into an equivalent single-tape TM.

1 0 0

FINITE STATE
CONTROL 0 1

FINITE STATE
CONTROL 𝑙 1 0 0 # 0 1 # 1 𝑟
Slides have been taken from https://cs-people.bu.edu/sofya/cs332/
 TM variant: multitape TM

FINITE STATE
CONTROL

Fixed number of tapes,

(can’t change during computation)

 : Q  Γk → Q  Γk 
{L,R,S}k Sofya Raskhodnikova; based on slides by Nick Hopper L11.20
 Multitape TMs are equivalent to
single-tape TMs
Theorem. Every multitape TM can be transformed into an
equivalent single-tape TM.

1 0 0
FINITE STATE
CONTROL

FINITE STATE
CONTROL 𝑙 𝑟
1 0 0 # #
Sofya Raskhodnikova; based on slides by Nick Hopper
 SIMULATING MULTIPLE TAPES
●● ● ●
100 00 ##□#R
L#100#□#□#R
L#100#
L#100# 1 #R
qqijjRSS
qi1 qi1□ qi1□□qj101RSS

1. “Format” tape.

2. For each move of the k-tape TM:

Scan left-to-right, finding current symbols
Scan left-to-right, writing new symbols
Scan left-to-right, moving each tape head.

3. If a tape head goes off right end, insert blank.

If tape head goes off left end, move back right.
 Multitape TMs are equivalent to
single-tape TMs
Theorem. Every multitape TM can be transformed
into an equivalent single-tape TM decider.

1 0 0
FINITE STATE
CONTROL

FINITE STATE
CONTROL 1 0 0 # # #
 To show one type of machine
can simulate another…
1. Explain how to initialize the new machine.
2. Explain how the new machine simulates each
step of the old machine.

04/07/2025
 Nondeterministic Turing Machine

𝑄  Γ { 𝐿 , 𝑅 , 𝑆}
:𝑄× Γ →2
Theorem: Every Nondeterministic Turing Machine has an
equivalent Deterministic Turing Machine
 Doubly unbounded TMs
A TM with doubly unbounded tape is like an ordinary TM
but
• Its tape is infinite on the left and on the right.
Initially, only the input is written on the tape and the head
is on the first nonblack symbol.

04/07/2025 L11.26
 TMs are equivalent to…

TMs are equivalent to multitape TMs

TMs are equivalent to nondeterministic TMs
TMs are equivalent to doubly unbounded TMs

L11.28