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Rice theorem: every nontrivial extensional property of programs computing partial computable functions has an undecidable index set. More precisely, take an acceptable effective enumeration $({\phi }_e)$ of the unary partial computable functions. If $\mathcal{P}$ contains some but not all of these functions, then“Extensional” means that equality of partial functions, including their domains, preserves membership; no syntactic restriction on program codes is being considered.

We use two standard facts, stated explicitly. The diagonal halting set $K=\{e:{\phi }_e(e)\downarrow \}$ is undecidable. For the associated acceptable enumerations ${\phi }_e^{(r)}$ of $r$-ary partial computable functions, with ${\phi }_e={\phi }_e^{(1)}$, the S-m-n theorem says that for every $m,n\ge 1$ there is a total computable function $s_n^m$ such thatwhere $\simeq$ means equality of defined values and equality of undefinedness. Thus fixed parameters in a program can be compiled into its index effectively.

Let $\perp$ be the nowhere-defined partial computable function. Choose a partial computable function $h$ whose membership in $\mathcal{P}$ is opposite to that of $\perp$; this is possible by nontriviality. For each $e$, construct the programThis is a uniform partial computation. Take an index $d$ for the binary partial computable function $(e,y)\mapsto {\psi }_e(y)$. The S-m-n theorem gives the total computable function $q(e)=s_1^1(d,e)$ with ${\phi }_{q(e)}={\psi }_e$. Crucially,Even when $h(y)$ itself is undefined, the equality of partial functions remains correct. If $\perp \notin \mathcal{P}$, this gives a many-one reduction of $K$ to $I_{\mathcal{P}}$; if $\perp \in \mathcal{P}$, it gives a many-one reduction of $K$ to the complement of $I_{\mathcal{P}}$. A decision procedure for $I_{\mathcal{P}}$ would therefore decide $K$ in either case, a contradiction.

The equivalent language formulation says that every nontrivial property of computably enumerable languages depending only on the recognized language has an undecidable index set. Apply the function formulation to the property of a partial computable function that its domain has the specified language property: every computably enumerable language occurs as such a domain.

A formal language is decidable if a Turing machine halts on every input and correctly determines membership. Equivalently its encoded words form a recursive set. A computably enumerable language requires only a machine that eventually accepts every member; it may run forever on nonmembers.