CS 584: Assignment #1

Due date: February 6, 2018.

This problem set covers lectures 1 through 4; see also Chapters 3-6 of Sipser for reference. The
solutions must be typeset in LaTeX and are due at the beginning of class.
You may discuss with your classmates, but you have to write the solution individually. Acknowledge
the discussions.

Problem 1 (20 points). Show there exists a Turing machine to decide the language P AL =
{x1 x2 . . . xn ∈ {0, 1}∗ | x1 . . . xn = xn . . . x1 } that runs in O(n2 ) steps, where n is the length of
the input.

Problem 2 (20 points). A Turing machine with doubly infinite tape is similar to an ordinary
Turing machine, except its tape extends infinitely in both directions. You can assume that initially
the tape is filled with blanks everywhere except for the section containing the input. Computation
is done as usual except that the tape head never encounters an end of tape as it moves left. Show
this type of Turing machine recognizes precisely the class of Turing-recognizable languages.

Problem 3 (20 points). Is the following problem decidable:

• Given an integer n and a Turing machine M , does M halt in at least n steps when started
on the blank tape?

Problem 4 (20 points). Let A = {hM, wi | M accepts either h0wi or h1wi but not both}. Is A
decidable, recognizable, or neither? What about the complement of A? Justify your answers.

Problem 5 (20 points). Let A be a Turing-recognizable language consisting of descriptions of Tur-

ing machines {hM1 i, hM2 i, . . .}, where every Mi on the list is a decider. Show that some decidable
language D is not decided by any decider Mi whose description appears in A.

Problem 6 (20 points). Show there exists c > 0 such that for all n ∈ N, the Kolmogorov complexity
n
of the string xn = 12 is bounded by K(xn ) ≤ log n + c.

Problem 7 (Bonus, 20 points). Suppose f : {0, 1}∗ → Z+ is a computable function such that
f (x) ≤ K(x) for every string x ∈ {0, 1}∗ . Then show there exists b ≥ 0 such that f (x) ≤ b for all
x ∈ {0, 1}∗ .