AlgebraDifficulty 7.5National Olympiad, round 2Prove itSouth Korea
Find all functions f:R→[0,∞) such that, for all real a,b,c,d that satisfy ab+bc+cd=0, the following equality holds: f(a−b)+f(c−d)=f(a)+f(b+c)+f(d) (Here R is the set of real numbers and [0,∞) is the set of nonnegative real numbers.)
Solution
We prove the following Lemma For all real p,q,r that satisfy p2+q2=r2, the following equality holds. f(p)+f(q)=f(r) Proof Put a=2p−q+r, b=2p−q−r, c=2p+q+r. Then we have ab+bc+cd=21(p2+q2−r2). So if p2+q2=r2 then ab+bc+cd=0 and we have f(r)+f(2p−q−r)=f(2p−q−r)+f(p)+f(q) Thus we have f(p)+f(q)=f(r) and the proof is complete.
For (p,q,r)=(0,0,0), we have, by the Lemma, f(0)=0, and for (p,q,r)=(p,0,−p) we have f(−p)=f(p) and thus f is an even function.
Now for any t≥0 define g:[0,∞)→[0,∞) by g(t):=f(t). Then we have g(a+b)=g(a)+g(b). And for a≥b≥0 we have g(a)=g(a−b)+g(b)≥g(b). So
g is monotone increasing. So g(x)=g(1)⋅x (x≥0). Thus f(x)=f(1)⋅x2 (x≥0) and f is an even function. So f(x)=f(1)⋅x2 for any real x. And f(1)≥0 since f(x)≥0. Thus the functions satisfying given equality are of the form f(x)=λx2, (λ≥0) and it is easy to check that those functions satisfy the given equality. □
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