Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

Find all functions f:ZZf : \mathbb{Z} \to \mathbb{Z} such that
f(f(a)+f(b))=a+b1 f(f(a) + f(b)) = a + b - 1
for all a,bZa, b \in \mathbb{Z}.

Solution

By taking b=1b=1, we get
f(f(a)+f(1))=a, f(f(a) + f(1)) = a,
for every integer aa.
Let nn be an arbitrary positive integer. For a=f(n)+f(1)a = f(n) + f(1) and b=2f(1)b = 2f(1), we get f(a)=nf(a) = n and f(b)=1f(b) = 1, and we have:
f(n+1)=f(n)+3f(1)1. f(n+1) = f(n) + 3f(1) - 1.
Let c=f(1)c = f(1). It is easy to prove by induction that for every integer nn
f(n)=(3n2)cn+1. f(n) = (3n - 2)c - n + 1.

Then f(0)=2c+1f(0) = -2c + 1, and by taking a=0a = 0 and b=1b = 1 the initial expression becomes:
f(f(0)+f(1))=0f(c+1)=0(3(c+1)2)c(c+1)+1=0c(3c+2)=0. \begin{aligned} f(f(0) + f(1)) &= 0 \\ f(-c + 1) &= 0 \\ (3(-c + 1) - 2)c - (-c + 1) + 1 &= 0 \\ c(-3c + 2) &= 0. \end{aligned}
Because cZc \in \mathbb{Z} we conclude c=0c = 0. Therefore, the only solution of the given equation is f(n)=n+1f(n) = -n + 1. We can directly check that this function satisfies the given equation.

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