Alphabeta Math
LemmaStatement: AI-adaptedProof: AI-generatedverified 2026-09-26 (gpt-6-sol)
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The standard one-tape simulation of a fixed multitape machine has quadratic overhead

Statement

Fix a deterministic k-tape Turing machine M and the standard one-tape simulator SM from Every fixed multitape Turing machine has an equivalent one-tape simulation. There is a constant cM>0 such that, for every input word w and every t≥0, after simulating t steps of M on w the simulator SM has used at most cM(∣w∣+t+1) tape cells and at most cM(∣w∣+t+1)2 time.

Facts & Assumptions

Given: A fixed deterministic k-tape Turing machine M, its standard one-tape simulator SM, an input word w, and an integer t≥0.

[L1]

The standard one-tape simulator stores the k simulated tapes as marked blocks separated by delimiters, scans those blocks to read one simulated step, and may shift a block right when a head first enters a fresh blank cell, by Every fixed multitape Turing machine has an equivalent one-tape simulation.

Proof

technique · direct
1.1L1given

After j steps of M, each simulated head has moved by at most j cells from its initial position, so tape i can have visited only the cells in an interval of length at most ∣w∣+j+1. Therefore the explicit block for tape i in the encoding from [L1] has length O(∣w∣+j+1), with an implied constant depending only on the fixed machine M.

2.1step 1.1

Summing over the fixed number k of tapes, and absorbing the fixed delimiter overhead, the whole one-tape encoding after j simulated steps has length at most cM′(∣w∣+j+1) for some constant cM′>0.

3.1L1step 2.1

One simulation cycle of SM at stage j performs a constant number of full sweeps across that length-O(∣w∣+j+1) encoding and, when needed, one local shift of a suffix of the same order. Hence the time for the jth simulated step is at most cM′′(∣w∣+j+1) for some constant cM′′>0.

4.1L1step 2.1step 3.1∎

The initial encoding from [L1] takes OM(∣w∣+1) time and space: the simulator makes a fixed number of sweeps over the input and writes a fixed number of blocks and delimiters. Adding this setup cost to the estimate from step 3.1 for j=0,1,…,t−1 gives OM(∣w∣+1)+∑j=0t−1cM′′(∣w∣+j+1)≤OM(∣w∣+1)+cM′′t(∣w∣+1)+cM′′t(t−1)2≤cM(∣w∣+t+1)2 for a suitable constant cM, including when t=0. Together with step 2.1, this proves the claimed linear space bound and quadratic time bound.

Depends on

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Sources