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If a Turing machine halts for all rejects of L but might accept/loop otherwise, how is L's recognizability classified?

Recognizability Decidability ${\langle L\rangle}$ ${\langle \overline{L}\rangle}$
Turing-Unrecognizable Undecidable loop or reject loop or reject
Turing-Recognizable Undecidable accept reject or loop
Turing-Recognizable Decidable accept reject
Co-Turing-Recognizable Undecidable reject or loop accept
Turing-??? Undecidable accept or loop reject
Co-Turing-??? Undecidable reject accept or loop
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    $\begingroup$ I take it that by "loop" you mean "does not terminate"? A machine may fail to terminate without "entering a loop". $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 11, 2021 at 8:17
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    $\begingroup$ When starting a turing machine on an input, three outcomes are possible. The machine may accept, reject, or loop. By loop we mean.. never leading to a halting state -- Theory of Comp, Sipser $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 11, 2021 at 13:21
  • $\begingroup$ Loop means "not accept", i.e., reject. If it halts on all rejects, it halts on all inputs. $\endgroup$
    – vonbrand
    Commented Aug 14, 2021 at 16:38

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To answer the question

If a Turing machine halts for all rejects of L but might accept/loop otherwise, how is L's recognizability classified?

$L$ is Turing-unrecognizable, but $\overline{L}$ is Turing-recognizable.

To see this, let $L=\overline{A_{TM}}$ and $\overline{L}=A_{TM}$, where $A_{TM} = \{(M,w)|\space M \space \text{is a TM that accepts} \space w\}$.

We can create a TM $M_L$ for $L$ that simulates the execution of the input $M$ on $w$. This TM will always halt and rejects when $M$ accepts but it is not guaranteed to always halt when $M$ does not accept. This is still a valid TM but not a recognizer. In Sipser it was proven that $L$ is unrecognizable but $\overline{L} $ is recognizable.

I think your table is a little misleading since it somehow hides the possibility of $L$ or its complement being TM-recognizable but not TM-decidable. Or maybe you overlooked the possibility that there are TM that are not recognizers. I am not sure what is the proper term to be used for them, though.

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  • $\begingroup$ So basically we don't need to distinguish between reject and loop for recognizability, both are considered a fail to accept. Updated my table, but with this clarification I see that my accept/loop cases are invalid. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 12, 2021 at 13:13

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