Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /38 of 42

Algebra Difficulty 7.3 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Ireland

Find all functions f:RRf : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} with the property that
f(x)f(y)=(xy1)2f(x+y1xy1) f(x)f(y) = (xy - 1)^2 f\left(\frac{x+y-1}{xy-1}\right)
for all real numbers x,yx, y with xy1xy \neq 1.

Solution

Letting x=0,y=1x = 0, y = 1 we get f(1)f(0)=f(0)f(1)f(0) = f(0), so f(0)=0f(0) = 0 or f(1)=1f(1) = 1.

Case 1: f(0)=0f(0) = 0
Letting y=0y = 0 and x=1tx = 1 - t we get f(t)=0f(t) = 0 in this case for all tt. Indeed, this is a valid solution for our equation.

Case 2: f(0)0f(0) \neq 0
In this case we have f(1)=1f(1) = 1. We first show that f(x)0f(x) \neq 0 for all xx. Suppose f(x)=0f(x) = 0 for some x0,1x \neq 0, 1, then
f(x+y1xy1)=0for all y1x.(6) f\left(\frac{x+y-1}{xy-1}\right) = 0 \quad \text{for all } y \neq \frac{1}{x}. \qquad (6)
But note that for any t1/xt \neq 1/x,
t=x+y1xy1    y=x+t1xt1 t = \frac{x+y-1}{xy-1} \iff y = \frac{x+t-1}{xt-1}
so by giving this value of yy in equation (6) we get f(t)=0f(t) = 0 for all t1/xt \neq 1/x provided that x+t1xt11x\frac{x+t-1}{xt-1} \neq \frac{1}{x}. In particular, when t=1t = 1 we have t1/xt \neq 1/x and xx11x\frac{x}{x-1} \neq \frac{1}{x} because x2x+1=(x12)2+34>0x^2 - x + 1 = (x - \frac{1}{2})^2 + \frac{3}{4} > 0, hence f(1)=0f(1) = 0, which is not true in the current case. Therefore f(x)0f(x) \neq 0 for all xx.
Letting y=0y = 0 in the original equation we get f(x)f(0)=f(1x)f(x)f(0) = f(1-x). Hence for x=12x = \frac{1}{2} we get f(12)f(0)=f(12)f(\frac{1}{2})f(0) = f(\frac{1}{2}) and so f(0)=1f(0) = 1 since f(12)0f(\frac{1}{2}) \neq 0.

One way to find an explicit expression for ff starts with the observation that f(0)=1f(0) = 1 and f(x)f(0)=f(1x)f(x)f(0) = f(1-x) imply f(x)=f(1x)f(x) = f(1-x) for all xx.
For any xx we let y=1xy = 1 - x in the original equation, which is possible since xy1=(x2x+1)0xy - 1 = -(x^2 - x + 1) \neq 0, and get
f(x)2=(x2x+1)2 f(x)^2 = (x^2 - x + 1)^2
which means that f(x)=±(x2x+1)f(x) = \pm(x^2 - x + 1) for all xx, where the choice of sign may depend on xx. If x±1x \neq \pm 1 then letting y=xy = x in the original equation we get
f(x)2=(x21)2f(2x1x21)hencef(2x1x21)0x±1. f(x)^2 = (x^2 - 1)^2 f\left(\frac{2x-1}{x^2-1}\right) \quad \text{hence} \quad f\left(\frac{2x-1}{x^2-1}\right) \ge 0 \quad \forall x \ne \pm 1.
We then note that y=2x1x21y = \frac{2x-1}{x^2-1} is equivalent to x2y2xy+1=0x^2y - 2x - y + 1 = 0, or x=1±y2y+1yx = \frac{1 \pm \sqrt{y^2 - y + 1}}{y}. Notice that for every yy, we have y2y+1>0y^2 - y + 1 > 0 and for each y0y \neq 0 there is an x±1x \neq \pm 1 satisfying the relation above. Hence f(y)0f(y) \ge 0 for all y0y \neq 0, which implies f(y)=y2y+1f(y) = y^2 - y + 1.

A second way to find this formula for ff starts with any x±1x \neq \pm 1 so that we can define
y=2x1x21.(7) y = \frac{2x - 1}{x^2 - 1}. \qquad (7)
We then have y(x21)=2x1y(x^2 - 1) = 2x - 1 which implies y2x22xy=y2yy^2x^2 - 2xy = y^2 - y after multiplication by yy. This can be rewritten as
(xy1)2=y2y+1.(8) (xy - 1)^2 = y^2 - y + 1. \qquad (8)
Moreover, using expression (7) for yy we obtain
x+y1xy1=(x1)(x21)+2x1x(2x1)(x21)=x(x2x+1)x2x+1=x \frac{x+y-1}{xy-1} = \frac{(x-1)(x^2-1) + 2x-1}{x(2x-1) - (x^2-1)} = \frac{x(x^2-x+1)}{x^2-x+1} = x
because x2x+1>0x^2 - x + 1 > 0 for all xx. Therefore, for any x±1x \neq \pm 1 and yy given by (7), the original equation becomes
f(x)f(y)=(y2y+1)f(x). f(x)f(y) = (y^2 - y + 1)f(x).
Since f(x)0f(x) \neq 0, we obtain f(y)=y2y+1f(y) = y^2 - y + 1 for each yy of the form (7). Finally, given y0y \neq 0 we can use (8) to find
x=1±y2y+1y x = \frac{1 \pm \sqrt{y^2 - y + 1}}{y}
such that xx and yy are related by (7). This means that each non-zero yy can be expressed in the form (7), hence f(y)=y2y+1f(y) = y^2 - y + 1 for all y0y \neq 0. As we know that f(0)=1f(0) = 1, this equation holds for all yy.
Finally we check that the function f(x)=x2x+1f(x) = x^2 - x + 1 satisfies the original functional equation.

f(x)f(y)=(x2x+1)(y2y+1)=(xy1)2(xy1)(x+y1)+(x+y1)2=(xy1)2((x+y1xy1)2(x+y1xy1)+1)=(xy1)2f(x+y1xy1).\begin{align*} f(x)f(y) &= (x^2 - x + 1)(y^2 - y + 1) \\ &= (xy - 1)^2 - (xy - 1)(x + y - 1) + (x + y - 1)^2 \\ &= (xy - 1)^2 \left( \left( \frac{x+y-1}{xy-1} \right)^2 - \left( \frac{x+y-1}{xy-1} \right) + 1 \right) \\ &= (xy - 1)^2 f \left( \frac{x+y-1}{xy-1} \right). \end{align*}

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 and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.