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Algebra Difficulty 6.6 National olympiad Prove it South Korea

Find all functions f:R+Rf: \mathbb{R}^+ \to \mathbb{R} satisfying
(i) f(1)=2008f(1) = 2008,
(ii) f(x)x2+10042|f(x)| \le x^2 + 1004^2, and
(iii)f(x+y+1x+1y)=f(x+1y)+f(y+1x) (iii) \quad f\left(x + y + \frac{1}{x} + \frac{1}{y}\right) = f\left(x + \frac{1}{y}\right) + f\left(y + \frac{1}{x}\right)
for all x,y>0x, y > 0, where R\mathbb{R} is the set of all real numbers and R+\mathbb{R}^+ is the set of all positive real numbers.

Solution

Let u:=x+1yu := x + \frac{1}{y}, v:=y+1xv := y + \frac{1}{x} for x>0,y>0x > 0, y > 0. Then we have
f(u+v)=f(u)+f(v)(1) f(u+v) = f(u) + f(v) \quad (1)
Here uv=xy+2+1xy4uv = xy + 2 + \frac{1}{xy} \ge 4. First we show that for any u,v>0u, v > 0 with uv4uv \ge 4 can be represented as
u=x+1y,v=y+1x(2) u = x + \frac{1}{y}, v = y + \frac{1}{x} \quad (2)
for some x>0,y>0x > 0, y > 0. From (2), we deduce
u=x+1y    x=u1y=uy1y    v=y+1x=uy2uy1    uy2uvy+v=0. u = x + \frac{1}{y} \implies x = u - \frac{1}{y} = \frac{uy - 1}{y} \implies v = y + \frac{1}{x} = \frac{uy^2}{uy - 1} \implies uy^2 - uvy + v = 0.

The last quadratic equation has a real solution y>0y > 0 because D=(uv)24uv0D = (uv)^2 - 4uv \ge 0 and u,v>0u, v > 0. (Observe that there's no negative real solution for the equation.) Similarly, there exists real x>0x > 0, which satisfies (2) together with the above yy. Therefore, (1) holds for all u>0,v>0u > 0, v > 0 uv4uv \ge 4.
We verify that (1) is valid for all u,v>0u, v > 0. Indeed, for given u,v>0u, v > 0, we may choose a real number w>0w > 0 such that
(u+v)w4,u(v+w)4,vw4. (u + v)w \ge 4, \quad u(v + w) \ge 4, \quad vw \ge 4.
Then from
f(u+v+w)=f(u+v)+f(w)=f(u)+f(v+w)=f(u)+f(v)+f(w). \begin{aligned} f(u + v + w) &= f(u + v) + f(w) \\ &= f(u) + f(v + w) \\ &= f(u) + f(v) + f(w). \end{aligned}
we may conclude that f(u+v)=f(u)+f(v)f(u + v) = f(u) + f(v) for all u,v0u, v \ge 0.
Now we put h(x)=f(x)f(1)x=f(x)2008xh(x) = f(x) - f(1)x = f(x) - 2008x and show that h(x)h(x) is a zero function. It is clear that hh satisfies (1) and
h(x+1)=h(x)+h(1)=h(x)(3) h(x + 1) = h(x) + h(1) = h(x) \quad (3)
for all xR+x \in \mathbb{R}^+. It follows from the condition f(x)x2+10042|f(x)| \le x^2 + 1004^2 that
(x+1004)2h(x)(x1004)2, -(x + 1004)^2 \le h(x) \le (x - 1004)^2,
which implies that h(x)h(x) is bounded on (0,1](0,1] and hence h(x)h(x) is bounded on R+\mathbb{R}^+ according to (3). Since h(nx)=nh(x)h(nx) = nh(x) for all positive integer nn, we must have h0h \equiv 0. Therefore we have f(x)=2008xf(x) = 2008x. \square

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