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Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it Estonia

Find all functions f:RRf : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} satisfying the equality f(2x+2y)=2yf(f(x))f(y)f(2^x + 2y) = 2^y f(f(x))f(y) for every x,yRx, y \in \mathbb{R}.

Solution

Substituting y=2x1y = -2^{x-1} into the original equation gives
f(0)=122x1f(f(x))f(2x1).(1) f(0) = \frac{1}{2^{2^{x-1}}} f(f(x)) f(-2^{x-1}). \quad (1)
So, if f(2x)=0f(-2^x) = 0 for at least one xx then also f(0)=0f(0) = 0. Then taking x=0x = 0 and arbitrary yy in the original identity gives f(1+2y)=0f(1+2y) = 0, i.e., f0f \equiv 0.

Assume in the rest that f(2x)0f(-2^x) \neq 0 for every xx. Substituting y=2xy = -2^x into the original equation gives f(2x)=122xf(f(x))f(2x)f(-2^x) = \frac{1}{2^{2^x}} f(f(x)) f(-2^x). Hence, for every xx,
f(f(x))=22x(2) f(f(x)) = 2^{2^x} \quad (2)
Substituting (2) into the original equation and taking y=0y = 0, we obtain
f(2x)=f(f(x))f(0)=22xf(0)f(2^x) = f(f(x))f(0) = 2^{2^x}f(0) for all xx, which implies
f(x)=2xf(0)(3) f(x) = 2^x f(0) \quad (3)
for all positive xx. On the other hand, applying (2) to (1) gives
f(2x1)=22x122xf(0)=22x1f(0) f(-2^{x-1}) = \frac{2^{2^{x-1}}}{2^{2^x}} \cdot f(0) = 2^{-2^{x-1}} f(0)
for all xx, which implies (3) also for all negative xx.

We have shown above that f(0)=0f(0) = 0 implies f(x)=0f(x) = 0 for all xx. Hence we may assume that f(0)f(0) is either positive or negative. By taking x=0x = 0 in (2) and applying (3), we obtain 2=220=f(f(0))=2f(0)f(0)2 = 2^{2^0} = f(f(0)) = 2^{f(0)} \cdot f(0). Both f(0)<1f(0) < 1 and f(0)>1f(0) > 1 would lead to contradiction, hence f(0)=1f(0) = 1 and the only non-zero solution is thus f(x)=2xf(x) = 2^x.

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