oracle Turing machine

(definition)

Definition: A Turing machine with an extra oracle tape and three extra states q_?, q_y, q_n. When the machine enters q_?, control goes to state q_y if the oracle tape content is in the oracle set; otherwise control goes to state q_n.

See also alternating Turing machine, nondeterministic Turing machine, probabilistic Turing machine, universal Turing machine.

Note: From Algorithms and Theory of Computation Handbook, pages 24-19 and 28-25, Copyright © 1999 by CRC Press LLC. Appearing in the Dictionary of Computer Science, Engineering and Technology, Copyright © 2000 CRC Press LLC.

Author: CRC-A

If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul E. Black.

Entry modified 17 December 2004.
HTML page formatted Fri Mar 25 16:20:34 2011.

Cite this as:
Algorithms and Theory of Computation Handbook, CRC Press LLC, 1999, "oracle Turing machine", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Paul E. Black, ed., U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. 17 December 2004. (accessed TODAY) Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/oracleTur.html