For a non-negative integer the -th iterate of a function is , and is the identity function. Determine the continuous functions , that satisfy simultaneously the conditions:
a) The function is increasing.
b) There is a positive integer such that the function is decreasing.
Solution
We shall prove that all such functions are of the form , where is a real constant. It is clear that such functions verify the given conditions.
We shall first prove that is one to one. Let and be real numbers such that and define , . Because is increasing, is decreasing. As , we get
The fact that is one to one and continuous implies that it is strictly monotonic, so all its iterates of the form are increasing. As is increasing, from the equality
is strictly increasing for even and increasing for odd . As is decreasing we deduce that is odd and is constant. Finally, as is increasing and all even iterates of are increasing, we conclude that is constant. This gives the result.
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