Let $\Sigma$ be a finite alphabet. Let $L\subset \Sigma^*$ be a context-sensitive language containing a word of every length.
Can we always find $f:\Sigma^*\to L$ computable in polynomial time in length and such that $f(\Sigma^*)$ is infinite?
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1$\begingroup$ How would you certify for the input that $L$ indeed contains a word of every length? $\endgroup$– GamowJul 6 at 12:21
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$\begingroup$ Every nonempty recursively enumerable language $L$ is the image of a polynomial-time function $f\colon\Sigma^*\to L$. $\endgroup$– Emil JeřábekJul 6 at 17:08
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$\begingroup$ @EmilJeřábek Do you have a more detailed argument? $\endgroup$– deryllJul 7 at 5:27
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$\begingroup$ @Gamow I don't have an example right now but it probably should be possible to give a constructive proof with performance worse than polynomial $\endgroup$– deryllJul 7 at 5:36
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$\begingroup$ Fix $x_0\in L$, and a TM $M$ such that $M(x)$ halts iff $x\in L$. Define $f(w)$ as $x$ if $w$ is a sequence of configurations encoding a halting run of $M$ on an input $x$, and as $x_0$ if $w$ is not such a sequence. $\endgroup$– Emil JeřábekJul 7 at 7:58
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