Computably enumerable set

In computability theory, a set S of natural numbers is called computably enumerable (c.e.), recursively enumerable (r.e.), semidecidable, partially decidable, listable, provable or Turing-recognizable if:

Or, equivalently,

The first condition suggests why the term semidecidable is sometimes used. More precisely, if a number is in the set, one can decide this by running the algorithm, but if the number is not in the set, the algorithm can run forever, and no information is returned. A set that is "completely decidable" is a computable set. The second condition suggests why computably enumerable is used. The abbreviations c.e. and r.e. are often used, even in print, instead of the full phrase.

In computational complexity theory, the complexity class containing all computably enumerable sets is RE. In recursion theory, the lattice of c.e. sets under inclusion is denoted ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {E}}}$.

A set S of natural numbers is called computably enumerable if there is a partial computable function whose domain is exactly S, meaning that the function is defined if and only if its input is a member of S.

The following are all equivalent properties of a set S of natural numbers:

The equivalence of semidecidability and enumerability can be obtained by the technique of dovetailing.

The Diophantine characterizations of a computably enumerable set, while not as straightforward or intuitive as the first definitions, were found by Yuri Matiyasevich as part of the negative solution to Hilbert's Tenth Problem. Diophantine sets predate recursion theory and are therefore historically the first way to describe these sets (although this equivalence was only remarked more than three decades after the introduction of computably enumerable sets).