Undergrad Enumerate all 1-state Turing Machines

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on the enumeration of 1-state Turing Machines (TMs) based on the Busy Beaver definition. A 1-state TM consists of one operational state 'a' and a Halt State 'h', utilizing a tape alphabet of 0 and 1, with an initial tape filled with zeros. The transition table for a 1-state TM can have 16 unique 5-tuples, leading to a total of 64 distinct 1-state TMs when considering all combinations of inputs. This conclusion aligns with the formula (4n + 4)^2n for n-state TMs, confirming the calculation for n=1.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of Turing Machine concepts
  • Familiarity with transition tables and 5-tuple notation
  • Knowledge of the Busy Beaver problem
  • Basic comprehension of computational theory
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  • Study the construction of transition tables for multi-state Turing Machines
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This discussion is beneficial for computer scientists, theoretical computer scientists, and students studying computational theory, particularly those interested in Turing Machines and their properties.

cobalt124
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Hi, using the definition of a TM from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busy_beaver a 1-state TM would have:

one "operational" state a, plus the Halt State h
a tape alphabet of 0,1
a tape initially all zeros
Given this the possible 5-tuples a 1-state TM transition table could have are:

(current state,current symbol,symbol to write,direction of shift,next state)

(a,0,0,L,a)
(a,0,0,L,h)
(a,0,0,R,a)
(a,0,0,R,h)
(a,0,1,L,a)
(a,0,1,L,h)
(a,0,1,R,a)
(a,0,1,R,h)
(a,1,0,L,a)
(a,1,0,L,h)
(a,1,0,R,a)
(a,1,0,R,h)
(a,1,1,L,a)
(a,1,1,L,h)
(a,1,1,R,a)
(a,1,1,R,h)

The Wikipedia article states that there are (4n + 4)^2n n-state Turing machines meeting this definition. For n=1 that means 64. How does the above definition result in 64 1-state TMs?
 
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It's OK I think I've worked it out. Each TM has a transition table with two 5-tuples, one with inputs a,0 and one with inputs a,1 in all possible combinations giving a total of 64 TMs.
 
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