Alphabeta Math
TheoremStatement: Literature-sourcedProof: AI-generatedprecheck passaudited 2026-09-02
How statement and proof provenance work

The first chip identifies the source of the statement or construction; the second identifies the source of its local proof or verification.

  • Literature-sourced: the exact statement appears in a cited source; only wording and notation differ.
  • AI-adapted: a semantically identical restatement of literature-sourced material, modulo indexing, notation, and boundary cases adopted by the library.
  • AI-generated: a genuinely novel statement formulated by AI, with no source for the claim itself.

These labels describe origin, not correctness: citations and verification chips remain separate evidence.

The Turing-machine acceptance problem is undecidable

Statement

The language ATM of The Turing-machine acceptance problem ATM is not decidable.

Facts & Assumptions

Given: The acceptance language ATM.

[L1]

A language is decidable exactly when some deterministic Turing machine halts on every input and answers membership correctly, by Decidable and recognizable languages.

[L2]

If a deterministic Turing machine H decides ATM, then there exists a deterministic one-tape machine DH with input alphabet Σ2 such that, for every coded machine M whose input alphabet contains Σ2, DH accepts M    M does not accept M, by A hypothetical decider for ATM yields a diagonal self-application machine.

[L3]

Every coded deterministic one-tape machine has one definite chosen code M, by A fixed effective binary encoding of deterministic one-tape Turing machines.

Proof

technique · contradiction
1.1

Assume for contradiction that ATM is decidable. Then [L1] gives a deterministic decider H for ATM. Apply [L2] to that H and obtain the corresponding machine DH. Because DH itself has input alphabet Σ2, the diagonal equivalence from [L2] applies to M=DH.

assume-contraL1L2construct
2.1

Let d=DH, whose existence is guaranteed by [L3]. Substituting M=DH into [L2] yields DH accepts d    DH does not accept d. That is impossible.

L2L3step 1.1contradiction
3.1

The contradiction in step 2.1 discharges the assumption from step 1.1. Therefore ATM is undecidable.

step 2.1discharge-contradiction: the assumed decider for $A_{TM}$ cannot exist

Depends on

Used by

Dependency tree · two levels

10 results within two dependency steps of this one, each drawn at its shortest distance from it. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, so the chart reads left to right and ends at this result, which carries a heavier outline. Every node is a link to that result. Click elsewhere on the chart to enlarge it.

Sources