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Algebra Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it Belarus

Find all aR0a \in \mathbb{R}_{\ge 0} such that f(a)=0f(a) = 0 for any function f:R0R0f: \mathbb{R}_{\ge 0} \to \mathbb{R}_{\ge 0} satisfying the equality
f(f(x)+f(y))=yf(1+yf(x)) f(f(x) + f(y)) = y f(1 + y f(x))
for all nonnegative real numbers xx and yy.

Solution

Answer : a{0}[1,)a \in \{0\} \cup [1, \infty).
Let function f:R0R0f: \mathbb{R}_{\ge 0} \to \mathbb{R}_{\ge 0} satisfy the equality
f(f(x)+f(y))=yf(1+yf(x))(1) f(f(x) + f(y)) = y f(1 + y f(x)) \tag{1}
for all nonnegative real numbers xx and yy. Set f(0)=cf(0) = c and f(1)=bf(1) = b.
For y=0y = 0 from equality (1) we get
f(f(x)+c)=0.(2) f(f(x) + c) = 0. \tag{2}
for all x[0,)x \in [0, \infty).
For x=f(x)+cx = f(x) + c from equality (1) we get
f(f(y))=by.(3) f(f(y)) = b y. \tag{3}
for all y[0,)y \in [0, \infty).
Suppose b0b \neq 0. From equality (3) it follows that function ff is injective. Hence from equality (2) it follows that f(x)+c=f(0)f(x) + c = f(0), a contradiction.

Therefore b=0b = 0 and equality (3) is equivalent to
f(f(y))=0(4) f(f(y)) = 0 \tag{4}

For y=0y = 0 from equality (4) we get f(c)=0f(c) = 0 hence f(0)=f(f(c))=0f(0) = f(f(c)) = 0. So c=f(0)=0c = f(0) = 0.
For y=1y = 1 from equality (1) we get
f(1+f(x))=0(5) f(1 + f(x)) = 0 \qquad (5)
for all x[0,)x \in [0, \infty).
Suppose that f(a)=d0f(a) = d \neq 0 for some a>1a > 1. Substituting x=ax = a, y=a1dy = \frac{a-1}{d} to equality (1) we get
f(f(a1d)+d)=a1. f(f(\frac{a-1}{d}) + d) = a - 1.
which leads to a contradiction with equality (5) for x=f(a1d)+dx = f(\frac{a-1}{d}) + d.
Hence for any a{0}[1,)a \in \{0\} \cup [1, \infty) the equality f(a)=0f(a) = 0 is proved. The next example shows that there exists a function satisfying equality (1) such that f(x)0f(x) \neq 0 for any x(0,1)x \in (0, 1):
f(x)={0,x=0;1x,x(0,1);0,xa. f(x) = \begin{cases} 0, & x = 0; \\ \frac{1}{x}, & x \in (0, 1); \\ 0, & x \geq a. \end{cases}

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