Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 2 4H b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
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 . ThenBy the Church–Turing thesis, this effective procedure is implemented by a register machine with some fixed code , soThus is the domain of a partial computable function and is recursively enumerable.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 3 12H e Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
No. The propertyis 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.