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Turing Machines and Undecidability

GATE CSE 2020 · Q26

MCQ2 marksMedium

Time

Which of the following languages are undecidable? Note that ⟨M⟩\langle M \rangle indicates encoding of the Turing machine M. L1={⟨M⟩∣L(M)=∅}L_1 = \{\langle M \rangle \mid L(M) = \emptyset\} L2={⟨M,w,q⟩∣M on input w reaches state q in exactly 100 steps}L_2 = \{\langle M, w, q \rangle \mid M \text{ on input } w \text{ reaches state } q \text{ in exactly 100 steps}\} L3={⟨M⟩∣L(M) is not recursive}L_3 = \{\langle M \rangle \mid L(M) \text{ is not recursive}\} L4={⟨M⟩∣L(M) contains at least 21 members}L_4 = \{\langle M \rangle \mid L(M) \text{ contains at least 21 members}\}

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Solution

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Official answer: A) L1, L3, and L4 only

Turing Machines and Undecidability

To determine the decidability of each language:

  1. Language L1={⟨M⟩∣L(M)=∅}L_1 = \{\langle M \rangle \mid L(M) = \emptyset\}: This is the emptiness problem for Turing machines. By Rice's theorem, any non-trivial semantic property of the language recognized by a Turing machine is undecidable. Emptiness is non-trivial, so L1L_1 is undecidable.

  2. Language L2={⟨M,w,q⟩∣M on input w reaches state q in exactly 100 steps}L_2 = \{\langle M, w, q \rangle \mid M \text{ on input } w \text{ reaches state } q \text{ in exactly 100 steps}\}: Since the number of steps is strictly bounded by 100, we can simulate MM on input ww for 100 steps and check whether state qq is reached at the 100th100^{\text{th}} step. This simulation always halts in finite time, making L2L_2 decidable.

  3. Language L3={⟨M⟩∣L(M) is not recursive}L_3 = \{\langle M \rangle \mid L(M) \text{ is not recursive}\}: Testing whether the language of a Turing machine is recursive is a non-trivial property of recursively enumerable languages. By Rice's theorem, L3L_3 is undecidable.

  4. Language L4={⟨M⟩∣L(M) contains at least 21 members}L_4 = \{\langle M \rangle \mid L(M) \text{ contains at least 21 members}\}: Cardinality of the recognized language is a non-trivial semantic property. By Rice's theorem, L4L_4 is undecidable.

Therefore, the undecidable languages are L1,L3,L_1, L_3, and L4L_4 only, making A the correct option.

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This Turing Machines and Undecidability previous year question is Q26 of the GATE CSE 2020 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 2-mark MCQs like this one, and it is the only one in GATE CSE 2020.

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GateAI solution cardGATE CSE 2020 · Q26 · MCQ

Which of the following languages are undecidable? Note that M indicates encoding of the Turing machine M. L1 = { M L(M) = ∅} L2 = { M, w, q M on input w reaches state q in exactly 100 steps} L3 = { M L(M) is not recursive} L4 = { M L(M) contains at least 21 members}

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