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Algebra Difficulty 8.6 Shortlist Prove it Netherlands

Find all functions f:RRf: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} for which
f(ab)f(cd)+f(ad)f(bc)(ac)f(bd) f(a - b)f(c - d) + f(a - d)f(b - c) \le (a - c)f(b - d)
for all real numbers aa, bb, cc and dd.
*Note that there is only one occurrence of ff on the right hand side!*

Solution

The solutions to the given functional inequality are f(x)=0f(x) = 0 for all xx and f(x)=xf(x) = x for all xx. For f(x)=0f(x) = 0, we easily find that equality always holds. For f(x)=xf(x) = x we check that
(ab)(cd)+(ad)(bc)=acadbc+bd+abacbd+cd=adbc+ab+cd=(ac)(bd), \begin{aligned} (a-b)(c-d) + (a-d)(b-c) &= ac - ad - bc + bd + ab - ac - bd + cd \\ &= -ad - bc + ab + cd \\ &= (a-c)(b-d), \end{aligned}
so equality holds in that case too. Now we show that these functions are the only two solutions.

Substituting a=b=c=d=0a = b = c = d = 0 gives us 2f(0)202f(0)^2 \le 0, and therefore f(0)=0f(0) = 0.
Then we substitute b=axb = a - x, c=ac = a, and d=ayd = a - y, which gives ab=xa - b = x, ac=0a - c = 0 and ad=ya - d = y. From this we deduce that
f(y)(f(x)+f(x))0(1) f(y)(f(x) + f(-x)) \le 0 \qquad (1)
Suppose there is a yy such that f(y)0f(y) \ne 0. If we then substitute x=yx = y in the equation above and move one of the terms to the right, we find that
0<f(y)2f(y)f(y). 0 < f(y)^2 \le -f(y)f(-y).
Therefore one of the two values f(y)f(y) and f(y)f(-y) is positive and the other is negative. Assume without loss of generality that f(y)f(y) is positive.
Now, given arbitrary aa and yy, substitute b=ab = a, c=0c = 0, and d=ayd = a - y. Then we find that f(y)f(a)af(y)f(y)f(a) \le af(y). Thus, if we divide both sides by the positive f(y)f(y), we get f(a)af(a) \le a. On the other hand, if we substitute b=ab = a, c=0c = 0, and d=a+yd = a + y, we find that f(y)f(a)af(y)f(-y)f(a) \le af(-y). Since f(y)f(-y) is negative, the sign flips when we divide by f(y)f(-y) so we deduce that f(a)af(a) \ge a. We conclude that f(a)=af(a) = a for all real aa.
Therefore a solution ff of the given functional inequality is either the zero function or f(a)=af(a) = a for all real aa, and we confirmed in the beginning that both are indeed solutions. \square

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