Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2023

Algebra Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it Turkey

Find all functions f:RRf: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} such that
f(x+f(x))=f(x) f(x + f(x)) = f(-x)
for all real numbers xx and f(x)f(y)f(x) \le f(y) for all real numbers xyx \le y.

Solution

All constant functions.

Let a<ba < b be two arbitrary numbers. Consider a sufficiently large xx so that x>ax > -a and x>bf(a)x > b - f(-a), thus x<a-x < a and x+f(x)>bf(a)+f(a)=bx + f(x) > b - f(-a) + f(-a) = b (here we used f(x)f(a)f(x) \ge f(-a) since x>ax > -a). Now x<a<b<x+f(x)-x < a < b < x + f(x) while f(x)=f(x+f(x))f(-x) = f(x+f(x)), hence f(a)=f(b)f(a) = f(b), so ff is constant.

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