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Cook–Levin machines: concatenate output tapes in linear time

Proved
CookLevin.machine_concatenate_output_tapes

by Robertboy18 · Sep 22, 2026 · Mathlib 0df444a (Lean v4.33.1)

complexity-theorycook-levinturing-machines

For every n and alphabet G >= 4, there is a well-formed (n+4)-tape machine that concatenates two terminated source bit prefixes onto a fresh blank destination. Tape order is input, first source, destination, second source, then n saved tapes. All three active heads start at zero. If the sources encode xs and ys starting at cell one, each followed by a non-bit symbol, the machine halts within |xs|+|ys|+3 steps with the destination equal to the complete standard encoding contents(boolsToSymbols(xs++ys)). This specifies its start marker, all bits, and the entire blank tail. Both source contents are preserved, their heads advance to the terminating cells, and the input and saved tapes retain contents and heads.

Preamble
import Definitions.Def_CookLevin_Cost
open CookLevin
set_option autoImplicit false
Formal statement
theorem CookLevin.machine_concatenate_output_tapes {n G : Nat} (hG : 4 ≤ G) :
    ∃ R : Machine, TuringMachine (n + 4) G R ∧
      ∀ (xs ys : List Bool) (input : Tape) (f g : Nat → Symbol) (saved : List Tape),
        saved.length = n →
        (∀ j, (hj : j < xs.length) → f (1 + j) = boolSym (xs[j])) →
        (¬ (f (1 + xs.length) = zeroSymbol ∨ f (1 + xs.length) = oneSymbol)) →
        (∀ j, (hj : j < ys.length) → g (1 + j) = boolSym (ys[j])) →
        (¬ (g (1 + ys.length) = zeroSymbol ∨ g (1 + ys.length) = oneSymbol)) →
        Transforms R (input :: (f, 0) :: (contents [], 0) :: (g, 0) :: saved)
          (xs.length + ys.length + 3)
          (input :: (f, 1 + xs.length) ::
            (contents (boolsToSymbols (xs ++ ys)), 1 + xs.length + ys.length) ::
            (g, 1 + ys.length) :: saved) := by sorry
Source
Direct machine construction from CookLevin Basic/Cost: prepare three heads, copy the first prefix, then run a tape-permuted second copier. Composed using the accepted machine_sequence_preserves_turing_and_time theorem.

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