Closure Properties of Regular Languages

We use the term “Closure” when we talk about sets of things.

If we have two regular languages L1 and L2, and L is obtained
by applying certain operations on L1, L2 then L is also regular.
Consider an Example: Let us take a set of candy. Each
member of the set contains an individual pieces of candy.
Suppose we have taken a candy from the set candy and
dropped it on the clean ground, now what happen? We can still
eat it, so it is still candy. The set candy is closed under the
operation called “drop”.
Closure Properties used in Regular Languages are as
follows:

 Union
 Concatenation
 Complementation
 Intersection
 Reversal
 Difference
 Homomorphism
 Inverse Homomorphism

Union
Theorem: If L1 and L2 are regular languages, then their
union L1 U L2 is also a regular language.
Proof: Let M1 and M2 are two finite automata accepting L1 and
L2 regular language. If we want to prove that the union of L1 U
L2 is also a regular language then we can perform following
steps:

 Create a new initial state.

 Make transitions from new state to each of the original
state of M1 and M2.
Concatenation
Theorem: The Concatenation operation of two regular
languages is also regular.
Proof: Let M1 and M2 are two finite automata, and L1, L2 are
the languages accepted by the M1 and M2 respectively. We
want to prove that L1L2 = L i.e. their concatenation results in
regular language. Let M is finite automata combining M1 and
M2.

Closure or Star
In this, the theorem depicts that the closure or star of any
regular languages is also regular.
Proof: Let L1 is regular language and we want to prove that
L1* is also regular language, the proof is given below:

 Create a new initial state connect it to original state start

with ?-transition.
 Create a new final. Connect the original final state to it
with ?-transitions. The original final state will be non-final
state.
 Connect the new initial state and new final state with a
pair of ?-transitions.

Let L1 is accepted by finite automata M. Now we have to prove

that M also accepts L1*.

Complementation
Theorem: The complement of two regular language is also
regular.
Proof: Let M be a deterministic finite automata accepting L,
then we can write L= L(M), then L’ = L(M1). The DFA M1 is
like M but the accepting states of M are now non-accepting
states of M1 and vice versa.
The complement of above langages is:

Intersection:
Theorem: The set of regular languages are closed
under intersection.
Proof: Let L1 and L2 are regular language and we want to
prove that the intersection of L1 ? L2 is also a regular
language. We can obtain the intersection of language L1 ? L2
by De Morgen’s Law.

Reversal
Theorem: The set of regular languages are closed
under reversal.
Proof: Let M be a deterministic finite automata accepting L,
from M we will construct M’ such that states of M and M’ are
same. Make final state of M as initial state of M’ and initial state
of M as accepting state of M’. The direction of edges in M’ is
reversed. It means that the string written backward i.e.
Reversal of abbc is cbba
Difference
Theorem: If L1 and L2 are regular languages then L1-L2 is
also regular
Proof:
L1-L2 = L1 ? L2’
As we know L2 is regular then its complement L2 is also
regular and L1 ? L2’ is also regular, so it proves that L1-L2 is
also regular.

Homomorphism
The Homomorphism theorem depicts that a single letter is
replaced with a string. If h is a homomorphism on alphabet and
w = a1a2……….an is a string of symbols
h(w) = h(a1) h(a2)…………………..h(an)
If L is a language over alphabet , then its homomorphism h is
defined as:
h(L) = {h(w): w is in L }is also a regular language.

Inverse Homomorphism
Let h be a homomorphism and L a language whose alphabet is the
output language of

h^-1 (L) = {w | h(w) is in L}.