Find all functions f:R→R with the property that f(x)f(y)=(xy−1)2f(xy−1x+y−1) for all real numbers x,y with xy=1.
Solution
Letting x=0,y=1 we get f(1)f(0)=f(0), so f(0)=0 or f(1)=1.
Case 1:f(0)=0 Letting y=0 and x=1−t we get f(t)=0 in this case for all t. Indeed, this is a valid solution for our equation.
Case 2:f(0)=0 In this case we have f(1)=1. We first show that f(x)=0 for all x. Suppose f(x)=0 for some x=0,1, then f(xy−1x+y−1)=0for all y=x1.(6) But note that for any t=1/x, t=xy−1x+y−1⟺y=xt−1x+t−1 so by giving this value of y in equation (6) we get f(t)=0 for all t=1/x provided that xt−1x+t−1=x1. In particular, when t=1 we have t=1/x and x−1x=x1 because x2−x+1=(x−21)2+43>0, hence f(1)=0, which is not true in the current case. Therefore f(x)=0 for all x. Letting y=0 in the original equation we get f(x)f(0)=f(1−x). Hence for x=21 we get f(21)f(0)=f(21) and so f(0)=1 since f(21)=0.
One way to find an explicit expression for f starts with the observation that f(0)=1 and f(x)f(0)=f(1−x) imply f(x)=f(1−x) for all x. For any x we let y=1−x in the original equation, which is possible since xy−1=−(x2−x+1)=0, and get f(x)2=(x2−x+1)2 which means that f(x)=±(x2−x+1) for all x, where the choice of sign may depend on x. If x=±1 then letting y=x in the original equation we get f(x)2=(x2−1)2f(x2−12x−1)hencef(x2−12x−1)≥0∀x=±1. We then note that y=x2−12x−1 is equivalent to x2y−2x−y+1=0, or x=y1±y2−y+1. Notice that for every y, we have y2−y+1>0 and for each y=0 there is an x=±1 satisfying the relation above. Hence f(y)≥0 for all y=0, which implies f(y)=y2−y+1.
A second way to find this formula for f starts with any x=±1 so that we can define y=x2−12x−1.(7) We then have y(x2−1)=2x−1 which implies y2x2−2xy=y2−y after multiplication by y. This can be rewritten as (xy−1)2=y2−y+1.(8) Moreover, using expression (7) for y we obtain xy−1x+y−1=x(2x−1)−(x2−1)(x−1)(x2−1)+2x−1=x2−x+1x(x2−x+1)=x because x2−x+1>0 for all x. Therefore, for any x=±1 and y given by (7), the original equation becomes f(x)f(y)=(y2−y+1)f(x). Since f(x)=0, we obtain f(y)=y2−y+1 for each y of the form (7). Finally, given y=0 we can use (8) to find x=y1±y2−y+1 such that x and y are related by (7). This means that each non-zero y can be expressed in the form (7), hence f(y)=y2−y+1 for all y=0. As we know that f(0)=1, this equation holds for all y. Finally we check that the function f(x)=x2−x+1 satisfies the original functional equation. f(x)f(y)=(x2−x+1)(y2−y+1)=(xy−1)2−(xy−1)(x+y−1)+(x+y−1)2=(xy−1)2((xy−1x+y−1)2−(xy−1x+y−1)+1)=(xy−1)2f(xy−1x+y−1).
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