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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Taiwan

Suppose the functions ff and gg map real numbers to real numbers. Find all pairs of functions (f,g)(f, g) satisfying the following condition:
g(f(x+y))=f(x)+(2x+y)g(y), for all real numbers x,y. g(f(x + y)) = f(x) + (2x + y)g(y), \text{ for all real numbers } x, y.

Solution

All solutions satisfying the problem are f(x)=x2+c,g(x)=xf(x) = x^2 + c, g(x) = x, where cc is an arbitrary real number.

Observe that the left side of the original equation is symmetric in x,yx, y, so substituting (y,x)(y, x) gives
g(f(x+y))=f(y)+(2y+x)g(x) g(f(x + y)) = f(y) + (2y + x)g(x)
Subtracting this from the original equation yields
f(x)+(2x+y)g(y)=f(y)+(2y+x)g(x) f(x) + (2x + y)g(y) = f(y) + (2y + x)g(x)
Substituting (x,0),(1,x)(x, 0), (1, x) into this equation gives
f(x)+2xg(0)=f(0)+xg(x) f(x) + 2xg(0) = f(0) + xg(x)
f(1)+(2+x)g(x)=f(x)+(2x+1)g(1) f(1) + (2 + x)g(x) = f(x) + (2x + 1)g(1)
Adding these two equations and rearranging gives
g(x)=x(g(1)g(0))+g(1)+f(0)f(1)2 g(x) = x(g(1) - g(0)) + \frac{g(1) + f(0) - f(1)}{2}
Since g(0),g(1),f(0),f(1)g(0), g(1), f(0), f(1) are all constants, g(x)g(x) must be a constant or a first-degree polynomial. From
f(x)+2xg(0)=f(0)+xg(x) f(x) + 2xg(0) = f(0) + xg(x)
we can further see that f(x)f(x) must be a polynomial of degree at most two.

Let g(x)=Ax+Bg(x) = Ax + B and substitute back into the original problem to get
Af(x+y)+B=f(x)+(2x+y)(Ay+B) Af(x + y) + B = f(x) + (2x + y)(Ay + B)

Substituting (x,0)(x, 0) gives
(A1)f(x)=(2x1)B (A - 1)f(x) = (2x - 1)B
If A1A \neq 1, then
f(x)=(2x1)BA1 f(x) = \frac{(2x - 1)B}{A - 1}
Substituting this back into the original problem shows it does not work, a contradiction! Therefore A=1A = 1, and hence B=0B = 0, that is g(x)=xg(x) = x.

Substituting g(x)=xg(x) = x into
f(x)+2xg(0)=f(0)+xg(x) f(x) + 2xg(0) = f(0) + xg(x)
gives
f(x)=x2+f(0)=x2+c. f(x) = x^2 + f(0) = x^2 + c.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from zh; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.