Encode each -tuple of nonnegative integers by one nonnegative integer using a computable pairing function. Define a unary partial procedure on input as follows: use dovetailing on the computations of over all encoded -tuples, and halt as soon as one of them halts with output . Then
By the Church–Turing thesis, this effective procedure is implemented by a register machine with some fixed code , so
Thus is the domain of a partial computable function and is recursively enumerable.
No. The property
is an index set: it depends only on the domain of the partial function computed, not on the syntax of its program. It is nontrivial. For example, an index whose domain is a singleton belongs to , whereas an index whose domain has two elements does not. The Rice theorem therefore shows that is not a computable set, so no algorithm can decide the requested property for arbitrary .
Invoking the Church–Turing thesis, this also rules out any effective procedure in the informal sense, because such a procedure would be represented by a computable function.