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, 2020

Algebra Difficulty 7.3 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Belarus

Let R+\mathbb{R}_+ be the set of all positive integers. Find all functions g:R+R+g: \mathbb{R}_+ \to \mathbb{R}_+ such that numbers x,yR+x, y \in \mathbb{R}_+ satisfy the equality
xg(x+g(y))=g(g(xy)+1). xg(x + g(y)) = g(g(xy) + 1).

Solution

Denote xy=zxy = z, then the variables yy and zz can take all positive real values independently. For these variables the equality has the form
zyg(zy+g(y))=g(g(z)+1).(1) \frac{z}{y}g\left(\frac{z}{y} + g(y)\right) = g(g(z) + 1). \qquad (1)
Fix any value of zz and vary yy over R+\mathbb{R}_+, then g(g(z)+1)g(g(z) + 1) is fixed while zy\frac{z}{y} attains all positive real values, hence g(zy+g(y))g(\frac{z}{y} + g(y)) attains all positive real values, i.e. gg is surjective.
Suppose g(y2)g(y1)y2y1>0\frac{g(y_2) - g(y_1)}{y_2 - y_1} > 0 for some positive reals y2y1y_2 \neq y_1. Substitute z=y2y1g(y2)g(y1)y2y1z = y_2 y_1 \cdot \frac{g(y_2) - g(y_1)}{y_2 - y_1} into (1) firstly with y=y2y = y_2, secondly with y=y1y = y_1. In both cases g(zy+g(y))=g(y2g(y2)y1g(y1)y2y1)g(\frac{z}{y} + g(y)) = g(\frac{y_2 g(y_2) - y_1 g(y_1)}{y_2 - y_1}), hence we will obtain that y1=y2y_1 = y_2 – a contradiction. Thus g(y2)g(y1)y2y10\frac{g(y_2) - g(y_1)}{y_2 - y_1} \le 0 for all positive reals y2y1y_2 \neq y_1 which means that gg is non-strictly decreasing.
Since gg is surjective and non-strictly decreasing, it's continuous and, in particular limy+g(y)=0\lim_{y \to +\infty} g(y) = 0. Now consider the initial equation
xg(x+g(y))=g(g(xy)+1), xg(x + g(y)) = g(g(xy) + 1),
when y+y \to +\infty. Then g(x+g(y))g(x)g(x + g(y)) \to g(x) and g(xy)+11g(xy) + 1 \to 1. Hence xg(x)=g(1)xg(x) = g(1) and g(x)=cxg(x) = \frac{c}{x}, where c=g(1)c = g(1). Straightforward verification shows that such function satisfy the problem conditions for any cRc \in \mathbb{R}.

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