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I assume no, because a Turing machine that can only move right feels like it is not a Turing machine. But, I wonder if I can add a Reset to the right moving Turing machine that resets the what head is pointing at all the way to the left of the TM. However, doesn't this make it left moving??

hmm...

Rick Decker
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Yawn
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1 Answers1

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The usual answer would be that they are indeed much less powerful, somewhat like a finite state automaton, if I am not mistaken.

But there is a catch. Imagine a TM with two heads, one which is reading, another which is writing. Both only move right! If the reading head is always left of the writing head, the part of the tape in between can act as a queue, which makes the machine Turing complete.

Hendrik Jan
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