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Algebra Difficulty 6.6 National Olympiad Prove it Iran

Find all functions f:RRf : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} that satisfy the following conditions:
(a) x+f(y+f(x))=y+f(x+f(y))x + f(y + f(x)) = y + f(x + f(y)), x,yR\forall x, y \in \mathbb{R}
(b) The set I={f(x)f(y)xyx,yR,xy}I = \left\{\frac{f(x)-f(y)}{x-y} \mid x, y \in \mathbb{R}, x \neq y\right\} is an interval. (means for any two numbers u,vIu, v \in I with uvu \le v, we have w:wI\forall w \in : w \in I)

Solution

By changing x,yx, y, it is obvious that the given set is the same as {f(x)f(y)xyx,yR,x>y}\left\{\frac{f(x)-f(y)}{x-y} \mid x, y \in \mathbb{R}, x > y\right\}. Let's define F(x,y)=f(x)f(y)xyF(x, y) = \frac{f(x)-f(y)}{x-y}. First, we prove two lemmas:

Lemma. 0,1I0, 1 \notin I. So f(x)f(x) is an injective function.
Proof. Assume the contrary, so there is x,yx, y such that F(x,y)=1F(x, y) = 1, then y+f(x)=x+f(y)y + f(x) = x + f(y), so we find that x=yx = y which yields a contradiction. Now if F(x,y)=0F(x, y) = 0, for some x,yx, y, then we find that f(x)=f(y)f(x) = f(y) which leads to
f(y+f(x))f(x+f(x))=yx f(y + f(x)) - f(x + f(x)) = y - x
or F(y+f(x),x+f(x))=1F(y + f(x), x + f(x)) = 1, which is impossible.

Lemma. F(x,y)>1,xyF(x, y) > 1, \forall x \neq y. So f(x)f(x) is strictly increasing.
Proof. First, we rewrite the original equation as
f(x+f(y))f(y+f(y))=f(y+f(x))f(y+f(y))+xy f(x + f(y)) - f(y + f(y)) = f(y + f(x)) - f(y + f(y)) + x - y
Which, since ff is injective, is equivalent to
F(x+f(y),y+f(y))=F(y+f(x),y+f(y))F(x,y)+1,xy. F(x + f(y), y + f(y)) = F(y + f(x), y + f(y)) \cdot F(x, y) + 1, \forall x \neq y.
Now since 0I0 \notin I, we find that FF is either always positive or always negative, so the right-hand side of the above equality is strictly greater than 1 implying that F(x+f(y),y+f(y))>1F(x + f(y), y + f(y)) > 1. Since 1I1 \notin I, we find that F(x,y)>1F(x, y) > 1 for all xyx \neq y.
Now, if x<yx < y, given that f(x)f(y)xy>1\frac{f(x)-f(y)}{x-y} > 1, we have f(x)+y<x+f(y)f(x)+y < x+f(y), thus f(f(x)+y)<f(x+f(y))f(f(x) + y) < f(x + f(y)), resulting in x>yx > y, a contradiction. So there is no such function. ■

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