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Algebra Difficulty 7.8 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Japan

Determine all the real-valued functions ff defined on the real line, for which the following identity is satisfied for any pair of real numbers x,yx, y:
f(f(x)f(y))=f(f(x))2x2f(y)+f(y2). f(f(x) - f(y)) = f(f(x)) - 2x^2f(y) + f(y^2).

Solution

Let us label the equation given in the problem by ()(\star). We will show that the functions ff satisfying the equation ()(\star) are given by the following:
f(x)=0,x2,x2,x21,1x2. f(x) = 0, \quad x^2, \quad -x^2, \quad x^2 - 1, \quad 1 - x^2.
It is easy to check that all of these functions satisfy the equation ()(\star).
We will show in the sequel that there are no other function which satisfies the equation ()(\star).
So, let a function ff satisfy the equation ()(\star) and suppose for some tt, f(t)0f(t) \neq 0 is true. Suppose for some pair of real numbers a,ba, b the condition f(a)=f(b)f(a) = f(b) is satisfied. By comparing the results obtained by substituting into ()(\star) (x,y)=(a,t)(x, y) = (a, t) and (x,y)=(b,t)(x, y) = (b, t), we see that 2a2f(t)=2b2f(t)2a^2f(t) = 2b^2f(t) must hold, from which we get a=±ba = \pm b.
Let f(0)=kf(0) = k. Substituting (x,y)=(0,0)(x, y) = (0, 0) into the equation ()(\star), we see that
f(k)=0f(k) = 0 must be satisfied. Also, if we substitute (x,y)=(0,k)(x, y) = (0, k) into ()(\star) and use
the fact f(k)=0f(k) = 0, we get f(k2)=0f(k^2) = 0. Thus, we see that we must have k2=±kk^2 = \pm k,
and therefore k=0,±1k = 0, \pm 1. Finally, substituting (x,y)=(0,y)(x, y) = (0, y) into ()(\star), we get
f(kf(y))=f(y2)f(k - f(y)) = f(y^2), from which we can conclude that kf(y)=±y2k - f(y) = \pm y^2 for any yy,
i.e., for any yy, f(y){k+y2,ky2}f(y) \in \{k + y^2, k - y^2\} must hold.

(1) Let us consider the case k=0k=0.
Suppose there exist non-zero real numbers z,wz, w for which f(z)=z2f(z) = z^2, f(w)=w2f(w) = -w^2 are satisfied. By substituting (x,y)=(w,w)(x, y) = (w, w) into the equation ()(\star), we obtain 0=f(f(w))+2w4+f(w2)0 = f(f(w)) + 2w^4 + f(w^2). Since k=0k = 0, we have f(f(w))=±w4f(f(w)) = \pm w^4 and f(w2)=±w4f(w^2) = \pm w^4, and we can check that f(w2)=w4f(w^2) = -w^4 must hold, since w0w \neq 0. Finally, if we substitute (x,y)=(z,w)(x, y) = (z, w) into the equation ()(\star), we get
±(z2+w2)2=±z4+2z2w2w4. \pm(z^2 + w^2)^2 = \pm z^4 + 2z^2w^2 - w^4.
By simplifying each of the 4 cases arising from the combinations of ± signs,
we can check easily that there are no (z,w)(z, w)'s with z2>0z^2 > 0, w2>0w^2 > 0 which
satisfies the last equation. We can thus conclude that if k=0k = 0, then either
f(x)=x2f(x) = x^2 for all xx or f(x)=x2f(x) = -x^2 for all xx.

(2) Consider the cases when k=±1k = \pm 1.
By substituting (x,y)=(x,k)(x, y) = (x, k) into the equation ()(\star), we get
f(f(x)k)=f(f(x))2kx2+k. f(f(x) - k) = f(f(x)) - 2kx^2 + k.
From f(x)k=±x2f(x) - k = \pm x^2, we have f(f(x)k)=k±x4f(f(x) - k) = k \pm x^4, and since f(f(x))=k±f(x)2f(f(x)) = k \pm f(x)^2 we get
()±f(x)2=±x4+2kx2k. (\star\star) \qquad \pm f(x)^2 = \pm x^4 + 2kx^2 - k.
• Suppose k=1k = 1 holds.
If there exists a c0c \neq 0 for which f(c)=1+c2f(c) = 1 + c^2, then by substituting x=cx = c into the equation ()(\star\star) above, we get
±(1+c2)2=±c4+2c2=1. \pm(1 + c^2)^2 = \pm c^4 + 2c^2 = 1.
But we can check easily that this is impossible for any combination of ± signs, since c2>0c^2 > 0. Hence, if k=1k = 1 we must have f(x)=1x2f(x) = 1 - x^2 for all xx.

• Suppose k=1k = -1 holds.
If there exists a c0c \neq 0 for which f(c)=1c2f(c) = 1 - c^2, we get from the equation ()(\star\star) that
±(1c2)2=±c42c2+1. \pm(-1 - c^2)^2 = \pm c^4 - 2c^2 + 1.
But as for the case of k=1k = 1, this identity (for any combination of ± signs) does not hold since c2>0c^2 > 0. Thus we must have f(x)=1+x2f(x) = -1 + x^2 for all xx.

Putting together the arguments made above, we conclude that there are only 5 possibilities: 0,x2,x2,x21,1x20, x^2, -x^2, x^2 - 1, 1 - x^2 for ff satisfying the equation ()(\star).

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