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Lambda calculus is Turing complete, that is, it is a universal model of computation that can be used to simulate any Turing machine. [3] Its namesake, the Greek letter lambda (λ), is used in lambda expressions and lambda terms to denote binding a variable in a function.
The purpose of β-reduction is to calculate a value. A value in lambda calculus is a function. So β-reduction continues until the expression looks like a function abstraction. A lambda expression that cannot be reduced further, by either β-redex, or η-redex is in normal form. Note that alpha-conversion may convert functions.
In the 1930s Alonzo Church sought to use the logistic method: [a] his lambda calculus, as a formal language based on symbolic expressions, consisted of a denumerably infinite series of axioms and variables, [b] but also a finite set of primitive symbols, [c] denoting abstraction and scope, as well as four constants: negation, disjunction, universal quantification, and selection respectively ...
In mathematics, Church encoding is a means of representing data and operators in the lambda calculus. The Church numerals are a representation of the natural numbers using lambda notation. The method is named for Alonzo Church, who first encoded data in the lambda calculus this way.
Based on the operators within lambda calculus, application and abstraction, it is possible to develop an algebra whose group structure uses application and abstraction as binary operators. Application is defined as an operation between lambda terms producing a λ-term, e.g. the application of λ onto the lambda term a produces the lambda term λa.
Alonzo Church (June 14, 1903 – August 11, 1995) was an American computer scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher who made major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of theoretical computer science. [2]
A typed lambda calculus is a typed formalism that uses the lambda-symbol to denote anonymous function abstraction.In this context, types are usually objects of a syntactic nature that are assigned to lambda terms; the exact nature of a type depends on the calculus considered (see kinds below).
In mathematical logic, the De Bruijn notation is a syntax for terms in the λ calculus invented by the Dutch mathematician Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn. [1] It can be seen as a reversal of the usual syntax for the λ calculus where the argument in an application is placed next to its corresponding binder in the function instead of after the latter's body.