I have a homework that I can't solve can somebody help me?
If $\Sigma$ is an alphabet, $R$ is regular and $L$ is context-free. Is the language $$P = \{\alpha\in\Sigma^*\mid \alpha\beta\in L\text{ for some }\beta\in R\}$$ context-free?
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1Possible duplicate of How to prove that a language is context-free? – David Richerby Jul 03 '17 at 09:22
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1(or How to prove that a language is not context-free?, if it's not context-free.) What did you try? Where did you get stuck? We're happy to help you understand the concepts but just doing your homework for you is unlikely to really help you. – David Richerby Jul 03 '17 at 09:23
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3The operation is called quotient. Possible duplicate of If $L$ is context-free and $R$ is regular, then $L / R$ is context-free? – Hendrik Jan Jul 03 '17 at 13:24
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Let me prove that if $L$ is regular then so is $P$. The proof in your case is similar. Let $\Sigma' = \{ \sigma' : \sigma \in \Sigma \}$ be a copy of the alphabet $\Sigma$. Let $s$ be the $\Sigma$-substitution $s(\sigma) = \{\sigma,\sigma'\}$, let $t$ be the $\Sigma$-homomorphism $t(\sigma) = \sigma'$, and let $d$ be the $\Sigma \cup \Sigma'$-homomorphism $d(\sigma) = \sigma$, $d(\sigma') = \epsilon$. Then $$ P = d(s(L) \cap \Sigma^* t(R)). $$
As an aside, the class of languages obtained by dividing a context-free language by a context-free language consists of all r.e. languages. See for example The family of one-counter languages is closed under quotient by Latteux, Leguy and Ratoandromanana.
Yuval Filmus
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