Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2005/calculus-linear-algebra-discrete-mathematics-logic-and-proof-and-models-of-computation/9/b/iv/solution

Let , and suppose it were a regular language. The formal language is a regular language. By closure of regular languages under set difference,
would be a regular language. But the pumping lemma for regular languages rules this out: for pumping length , every permitted pumped block in consists of zeros, and deleting it produces , with unequal counts. This contradiction proves
The closure step can also be realized by a product automaton accepting when the automaton for accepts and the automaton for rejects. If the exponents are instead required to be positive, use ; the same argument applies.

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