Chapter Five

Turing Machines

1
Turing Machines:

 A simple mathematical model of a general purpose

computer.

 It is capable of performing any calculation which can be

performed by any computing machine.

 Invented by Alan Turing in 1936.

2
A Turing Machine
Tape
...... ......

Read-Write head
Control Unit

3
The Tape
No boundaries -- infinite length
...... ......

Read-Write head

The head moves Left or Right

4
...... ......

Read-Write head
The head at each time step:

1. Reads a symbol
2. Writes a symbol
3. Moves Left or Right

5
Example:
Time 0
...... a b a c ......

Time 1
...... a b k c ......

1. Reads a
2. Writes k
3. Moves Left
6
 Time 1
...... a b k c ......

Time 2
...... a f k c ......

1. Reads b
2. Writes f
3. Moves Right
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The Input String

Input string Blank symbol

......   a b a c    ......

head
Head starts at the leftmost position
of the input string
 Are treated as left and right brackets for the
input written on the tape.
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9
States & Transitions

Read Write
Move Left

q1 a  b, L q2

Move Right

q1 a  b, R q2
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Determinism
Turing Machines are deterministic

Allowed Not Allowed

a  b, R q2 a  b, R q2

q1 q1
q3 a  d, L q3
b  d, L

No lambda transitions allowed

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Example:
......   a b a c    ......

a  b, R q2 q1

q1 No possible transition

b  d, L q3 HALT!!!

Halting
- the machine halts if there are no possible transitions to follow.

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Final States
q1 q2 Allowed

q1 q2 Not Allowed

 Final states have no outgoing transitions

 In a final state the machine halts
13
 Acceptance
If machine halts
Accept Input
in a final state

If machine halts
in a non-final state
Reject Input or
If machine enters
an infinite loop
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 Turing Machine Example
A Turing machine that accepts the
language: aa *

a  a, R

  , L
q0 q1

15
Time 0   a a a  

q0

a  a, R

  , L
q0 q1

16
Time 1   a a a  

q0

a  a, R

  , L
q0 q1

17
Time 2   a a a  

q0

a  a, R

  , L
q0 q1

18
Time 3   a a a  

q0

a  a, R

  , L
q0 q1

19
Time 4   a a a  

q1

a  a, R Halt & Accept

  , L
q0 q1

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Rejection Example

Time 0   a b a  

q0

a  a, R

  , L
q0 q1
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Time 1   a b a  

q0
No possible Transition
a  a, R Halt & Reject

  , L
q0 q1
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Infinite Loop Example

b  b, L
a  a, R

  , L
q0 q1

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Time 0   a b a  

q0

b  b, L
a  a, R

  , L
q0 q1

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Time 1   a b a  

q0

b  b, L
a  a, R

  , L
q0 q1

25
Time 2   a b a  

b  b, L q0
a  a, R

  , L
q0 q1

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 Another Turing Machine Example

Turing machine for the language n n

{a b }

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
27 x  x, R
 Time 0  a a b b  

q0

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
28 x  x, R
 Time 1  x a b b  

q1

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
29 x  x, R
 Time 2  x a b b  

q1

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
30 x  x, R
 Time 3  x a y b  

q2

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
31 x  x, R
 Time 4  x a y b  

q2

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
32 x  x, R
 Time 5  x a y b  

q0

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
33 x  x, R
 Time 6  x x y b  

q1

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
34 x  x, R
 Time 7  x x y b  

q1

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
35 x  x, R
 Time 8  x x y y  

q2

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
36 x  x, R
 Time 9  x x y y  

q2

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
37 x  x, R
 Time 10  x x y y  

q0

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
38 x  x, R
 Time 11  x x y y  

q3

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
39 x  x, R
 Time 12  x x y y  

q3

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
40 x  x, R
 Time 13  x x y y  

q4
Halt & Accept

q4 y  y, R y  y, L
y  y, R a  a, R a  a, L
  , L
y  y, R a  x, R b  y, L
q3 q0 q1 q2
41 x  x, R
Undecidability

 Turing Decidable
 Turing Acceptable
 Undecidable Problems

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Recognizability and Decidability
A language is recognizable if there is a Turing Machine that
recognizes it.
A language is decidable if there is a Turing Machine that
decides it.

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44
Cont….

45
Cont….

46
 Language Accepted by Turing Machine/ Turing Acceptable

 The T.M accepts all the language even though they are recursive
enumerable.
 Recursive means repeating same set of rules for any number of
times.
 Enumerable means a list of elements.
 TM also accepts the computable functions, such as addition,
multiplication, subtraction, division and many more.

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 Undecidable Problems

 In computability theory and computational complexity theory, an undecidable

problem is a decision problem for which it is proved to be impossible to construct
an algorithm that always leads to a correct yes-or-no answer.
 Its Undecidable Language:- there is no Turing Machine which accepts the
language and makes a decision for every input.
 Examples
 Halting Problem
 Mortality Problem
 Boolean Satisfiability Problem
 Are an example: they are proven that there is no algorithm that correctly
determines
48 whether arbitrary programs eventually halt when run.
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