Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /25 of 72

Algebra Difficulty 6.3 National Olympiad Prove it Vietnam

Find all functions f:RRf : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} such that
f(xf(y)f(x))=2f(x)+xy f(xf(y) - f(x)) = 2f(x) + xy
for all real numbers x,yx, y.

Solution

By taking x=1x = 1 into (1), we get
f(f(y)f(1))=y+2f(1),yR.(2) f(f(y) - f(1)) = y + 2f(1), \quad \forall y \in \mathbb{R}. \quad (2)
Hence ff is bijection and so, there exists a unique real number aa such that f(a)=0f(a) = 0. Plugging x=ax = a into (1), we have
f(af(y))=ay,yR.(3) f(af(y)) = ay, \quad \forall y \in \mathbb{R}. \quad (3)
Plugging y=0y = 0 into (3), we have f(af(0))=0=f(a)f(af(0)) = 0 = f(a). Combined with ff is injective, we get af(0)=aaf(0) = a. Hence, a=0a = 0 or f(0)=1f(0) = 1.
Consider the case a=0a = 0, i.e f(0)=0f(0) = 0. Plugging y=0y = 0 into (1), we have f(f(x))=2f(x)f(-f(x)) = 2f(x). Since ff is surjective, we conclude that f(x)=2xf(x) = -2x for all xRx \in \mathbb{R}. But this function is not satisfying the equation (1). Hence, a0a \neq 0 and we get f(0)=1f(0) = 1.
Plugging x=0x = 0 into (1), we have f(1)=2f(-1) = 2. Plugging y=ay = a into (3), we have a2=f(0)=1a^2 = f(0) = 1, i.e a=1a = 1 (because f(1)=2f(-1) = 2), i.e f(1)=0f(1) = 0.
Since f(1)=1f(1) = 1, we can write the equation (2) as the form
f(f(y))=y,yR.(2) f(f(y)) = y, \quad \forall y \in \mathbb{R}. \quad (2')
By plugging f(y)f(y) instead of yy into (1) and using (2'), we get
f(xyf(x))=2f(x)+xf(y),x,yR. f(xy - f(x)) = 2f(x) + xf(y), \quad \forall x, y \in \mathbb{R}.
In this equation, consider x0x \neq 0 and putting y=f(x)xy = \frac{f(x)}{x}, we have
1=2f(x)+xf(f(x)x), 1 = 2f(x) + x f\left(\frac{f(x)}{x}\right),
hence
f(f(x)x)=12f(x)x,x0. f\left(\frac{f(x)}{x}\right) = \frac{1 - 2f(x)}{x}, \quad \forall x \neq 0.
By putting y=f(x)xy = \frac{f(x)}{x} into (1) and using the above result, we have
f(13f(x))=3f(x),x0. f(1 - 3f(x)) = 3f(x), \quad \forall x \neq 0.
Note that ff is bijective and f(0)=1f(0) = 1, so for all x0x \neq 0, we can see that 13f(x)1 - 3f(x) can get all real values, except 2-2. Therefore, from the above result, we conclude that f(x)=x+1f(x) = -x + 1 for all x2x \neq -2.
In particular, f(3)=2f(3) = -2. Plugging y=3y = 3 into (2'), we have f(2)=3f(-2) = 3. Therefore, f(x)=x+1f(x) = -x + 1 for all xRx \in \mathbb{R}. It is easy to see that this function satisfying the condition. ■

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.