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Turing Machines and Undecidability

GATE CSE 2018 · Q7

MCQ1 markEasy

Time

The set of all recursively enumerable languages is

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Solution

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Official answer: B) closed under intersection.

Turing Machines and Undecidability

Let us analyze the properties of the set of all Recursively Enumerable (RE) languages:

  • Closure under intersection: If L1L_1 and L2L_2 are recursively enumerable, there exist Turing machines M1M_1 and M2M_2 that recognize them. We can construct a Turing machine that runs M1M_1 and M2M_2 in sequence (or in parallel) on an input ww, accepting if and only if both accept. Thus, RE languages are closed under intersection (Option B is correct).

  • Option A is incorrect: RE languages are not closed under complementation (e.g., the Halting Problem language is RE, but its complement is not RE).

  • Option C is incorrect: Recursive languages are a proper subset of recursively enumerable languages, not the reverse (REC⊂REREC \subset RE).

  • Option D is incorrect: Every RE language is recognized by some Turing machine. Since the description of any Turing machine is a finite binary string, the set of all Turing machines is countably infinite. Therefore, the set of all RE languages is countably infinite, not uncountable.

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This Turing Machines and Undecidability previous year question is Q7 of the GATE CSE 2018 paper. Find more GATE CSE PYQs on Turing Machines and Undecidability in Theory of Computation, or browse all GATE CSE PYQs.

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Turing Machines and Undecidability in GATE CSE

Turing Machines and Undecidability has 30 GATE CSE PYQs across 20 papers from 2012 to 2026. 13 of them are 1-mark MCQs like this one, and it is the only one in GATE CSE 2018.

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GateAI solution cardGATE CSE 2018 · Q7 · MCQ

The set of all recursively enumerable languages is

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Independent practice explanation verified by the GateAI team. GATE is conducted by the IITs; question text follows the official paper.