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A Simple and Efficient Universal Reversible Turing Machine

  • Conference paper
Language and Automata Theory and Applications (LATA 2011)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 6638))

Abstract

We construct a universal reversible Turing machine (URTM) from first principles. We take a strict approach to the semantics of reversible Turing machines (RTMs), under which they can compute exactly all injective, computable functions, but not non-injective ones. The natural notion of universality for RTMs is RTM-universality, where programs are considered part of both input and output of a URTM.

The machine described here is the first URTM which does not depend on reversibilizing any existing universal machine. The interpretive overhead of the URTM is limited to a (program dependent) constant factor slowdown, with no other complexity-wise cost wrt time and space. The URTM is also able to function as an inverse interpreter for RTMs at no asymptotic cost, simply by reversing the string representing the interpreted machine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DIKU, Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    Holger Bock Axelsen & Robert Glück

Authors
  1. Holger Bock Axelsen
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  2. Robert Glück
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Research Group on Mathematical Linguistics, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avinguda Catalunya, 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain

    Adrian-Horia Dediu  & Carlos Martín-Vide  & 

  2. Department of Informatics, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, 819–0395, Fukuoka, Japan

    Shunsuke Inenaga

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Axelsen, H.B., Glück, R. (2011). A Simple and Efficient Universal Reversible Turing Machine. In: Dediu, AH., Inenaga, S., Martín-Vide, C. (eds) Language and Automata Theory and Applications. LATA 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6638. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21254-3_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21254-3_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-21253-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-21254-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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