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Algebra Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Prove it Croatia

Determine all functions f:RRf: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} such that
f(xf(y))=(1y)f(xy)+x2y2f(y) f(xf(y)) = (1-y)f(xy) + x^2y^2f(y)
holds for all real numbers xx and yy.

Solution

Let P(x,y)P(x,y) denote plugging xx and yy into the original equation. We have
P(0,1):f(0)=0,P(1,1):f(f(1))=f(1),P(1,f(1)):f(f(f(1)))=(1f(1))f(f(1))+f(1)2f(f(1)). \begin{aligned} P(0,1) &: f(0) = 0, \\ P(1,1) &: f(f(1)) = f(1), \\ P(1,f(1)) &: f(f(f(1))) = (1-f(1))f(f(1)) + f(1)^2 f(f(1)). \end{aligned}
By combining the second and the third equality we get
f(1)=(1f(1))f(1)+f(1)3,i.e.f(1)2=f(1)3. f(1) = (1 - f(1)) \cdot f(1) + f(1)^3, \quad \text{i.e.} \quad f(1)^2 = f(1)^3.
From this we have two options: f(1)=1f(1) = 1 or f(1)=0f(1) = 0.

If f(1)=1f(1) = 1, we get
P(x,1):f(x)=x2, P(x,1) : \quad f(x) = x^2,
so f(x)=x2f(x) = x^2 should hold for all real xx. By plugging this into the original equation we can conclude that this is not possible. Hence, f(1)=0f(1) = 0 must hold.

Let cc be an arbitrary root of the function ff. We have
P(x,c):0=(1c)f(xc). P(x,c) : \quad 0 = (1-c)f(xc).
Therefore, if c1c \ne 1, f(cx)=0f(cx) = 0 must hold for all xRx \in \mathbb{R}. If c0c \ne 0 this implies that f(x)=0f(x) = 0 for all xRx \in \mathbb{R}. We check directly that f0f \equiv 0 is indeed a possible solution of the original equation.

Now assume that ff is not identically equal to 0. Calculations above show in that case 0 and 1 are the only roots of the function ff. Now we have
P(1,y):f(f(y))=(1y)f(y)+y2f(y)=(1y+y2)f(y),(1) P(1,y) : \quad f(f(y)) = (1-y)f(y) + y^2 f(y) = (1-y+y^2)f(y), \quad (1)
and for x0x \ne 0
P(1x,x):f(f(x)x)=f(x),(2) P\left(\frac{1}{x}, x\right) : \quad f\left(\frac{f(x)}{x}\right) = f(x), \quad (2)
since f(1)=0f(1) = 0.

Let y1,y2R{0,1}y_1, y_2 \in \mathbb{R} \setminus \{0,1\} be such that f(y1)=f(y2)0f(y_1) = f(y_2) \ne 0. Then from (1) it follows that
1y1+y12=1y2+y22,i.e.(y1y2)(y1+y21)=0. 1 - y_1 + y_1^2 = 1 - y_2 + y_2^2, \quad \text{i.e.} \quad (y_1 - y_2)(y_1 + y_2 - 1) = 0.
We conclude that
f(y1)=f(y2)    y1=y2 or y1+y2=1.(3) f(y_1) = f(y_2) \implies y_1 = y_2 \text{ or } y_1 + y_2 = 1. \quad (3)
By combining (2) and (3) we get that for all x0,1x \ne 0,1 we have
f(x)x=x or f(x)x+x=1, \frac{f(x)}{x} = x \text{ or } \frac{f(x)}{x} + x = 1,
i.e.
f(x)=x2 or f(x)=xx2. f(x) = x^2 \text{ or } f(x) = x - x^2.
Let xR{0,1}x \in \mathbb{R} \setminus \{0,1\} be such that f(x)=x2f(x) = x^2. By plugging y=xy = x into (1) we get
f(x2)=(1x+x2)x2. f(x^2) = (1 - x + x^2)x^2.
Now we have two cases: f(x2)=x4f(x^2) = x^4 and f(x2)=x2x4f(x^2) = x^2 - x^4. In the first case, we get x4=(1x+x2)x2x^4 = (1-x+x^2)x^2, from which we can easily conclude that x=0x=0 or x=1x=1. Since we assumed x{0,1}x \notin \{0,1\}, this is not possible. In the second case, we get x2x4=(1x+x2)x2x^2 - x^4 = (1-x+x^2)x^2, from which we can conclude x=0x=0 or x=12x = \frac{1}{2}. Again, we can dismiss x=0x=0, and for x=12x = \frac{1}{2} we can note that f(12)=(12)2=14=12(12)2f(\frac{1}{2}) = (\frac{1}{2})^2 = \frac{1}{4} = \frac{1}{2} - (\frac{1}{2})^2. This shows that f(x)=xx2f(x) = x - x^2 holds for all x0,1x \ne 0,1. Since this formula holds for x=0,1x = 0,1 as well, we can conclude that
f(x)=xx2,xR. f(x) = x - x^2, \quad \forall x \in \mathbb{R}.
By plugging this directly into the original equation, we can confirm that this is indeed a solution. Therefore, the only solutions of the original equation are f=0,xRf = 0, \forall x \in \mathbb{R} and f(x)=xx2,xRf(x) = x - x^2, \forall x \in \mathbb{R}.

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