Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In mathematics, logic and computer science, a formal language is called recursively enumerable (also recognizable, partially decidable, semidecidable, Turing-acceptable or Turing-recognizable) if it is a recursively enumerable subset in the set of all possible words over the alphabet of the language, i.e., if there exists a Turing machine which will enumerate all valid strings of the language.
The set of recursive languages is a subset of both RE and co-RE. [3] In fact, it is the intersection of those two classes, because we can decide any problem for which there exists a recogniser and also a co-recogniser by simply interleaving them until one obtains a result.
A recursively enumerable language is a computably enumerable subset of a formal language. The set of all provable sentences in an effectively presented axiomatic system is a computably enumerable set. Matiyasevich's theorem states that every computably enumerable set is a Diophantine set (the converse is trivially true).
Note that the set of grammars corresponding to recursive languages is not a member of this hierarchy; these would be properly between Type-0 and Type-1. Every regular language is context-free, every context-free language is context-sensitive, every context-sensitive language is recursive and every recursive language is recursively enumerable.
Thus the halting problem is an example of a computably enumerable (c.e.) set, which is a set that can be enumerated by a Turing machine (other terms for computably enumerable include recursively enumerable and semidecidable). Equivalently, a set is c.e. if and only if it is the range of some computable function.
A language over a finite alphabet is Turing Recognizable if and only if it can be enumerated by an enumerator. This shows Turing recognizable languages are also recursively enumerable. Proof. A Turing Recognizable language can be Enumerated by an Enumerator
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
Thus a language is computable just in case there is a procedure that is able to correctly tell whether arbitrary words are in the language. A language is computably enumerable (synonyms: recursively enumerable, semidecidable) if there is a computable function f such that f(w) is defined if and only if the word w is in the language.