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Algebra Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Find the answer

Determine all functions f:RRf: \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} such that

(y+1)f(x)+f(xf(y)+f(x+y))=y (y+1) f(x)+f(x f(y)+f(x+y))=y

for all x,yRx, y \in \mathbb{R}.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Substituting x=0x=0 gives (y+1)f(0)+f(f(y))=y(y+1) f(0)+f(f(y))=y, so f(f(y))=y(1f(0))f(0)f(f(y))=y \cdot(1-f(0))-f(0). If f(0)1f(0) \neq 1, the right-hand side is a bijective function in yy and the left-hand side is also bijective. Thus, in this case, ff is bijective.
We will now show that in the case f(0)=1f(0)=1, ff is also bijective. So let f(0)=1f(0)=1. Then we get f(f(y))=1f(f(y))=-1 for all yRy \in \mathbb{R}. Substituting y=0y=0 gives f(x)+f(x+f(x))=0f(x)+f(x+f(x))=0, so f(x+f(x))=f(x)f(x+f(x))=-f(x). Next, substitute x=f(z)x=f(z) and y=zy=z and replace f(f(z))f(f(z)) with -1:

(z+1)1+f(f(z)f(z)+f(z+f(z)))=z (z+1) \cdot-1+f(f(z) f(z)+f(z+f(z)))=z

so, using that f(z+f(z))=f(z)f(z+f(z))=-f(z),

f(f(z)2f(z))=2z+1 f\left(f(z)^{2}-f(z)\right)=2 z+1

This directly implies that ff is surjective. If there are aa and bb such that f(a)=f(b)f(a)=f(b), then substituting z=az=a and then z=bz=b into the last equation gives the same result on the left, while on the right it first gives 2a+12 a+1 and then 2b+12 b+1. Thus, a=ba=b, which means ff is injective. We see that ff is also bijective in this case.
We can now assume that ff is bijective, dropping the assumption f(0)=1f(0)=1. We know f(f(y))=y(1f(0))f(0)f(f(y))=y \cdot(1-f(0))-f(0) and thus find with y=1y=-1 that f(f(1))=1f(f(-1))=-1. Substituting y=1y=-1 into the original equation gives

f(xf(1)+f(x1))=1=f(f(1)) f(x f(-1)+f(x-1))=-1=f(f(-1))

Since ff is injective, it follows that xf(1)+f(x1)=f(1)x f(-1)+f(x-1)=f(-1), so f(x1)=f(1)(1x)f(x-1)=f(-1) \cdot(1-x). If we now take x=z+1x=z+1, we see that f(z)=f(1)zf(z)=-f(-1) z for all zRz \in \mathbb{R}. Thus, the function is of the form f(x)=cxf(x)=c x for xRx \in \mathbb{R}, where cRc \in \mathbb{R} is a constant. We check this function. It holds that
(y+1)f(x)+f(xf(y)+f(x+y))=(y+1)cx+c(xcy+cx+cy)=cxy+cx+c2xy+c2x+c2y(y+1) f(x)+f(x f(y)+f(x+y))=(y+1) c x+c(x c y+c x+c y)=c x y+c x+c^{2} x y+c^{2} x+c^{2} y.
This must be equal to yy for all x,yRx, y \in \mathbb{R}. With y=0y=0 and x=1x=1, we have c+c2=0c+c^{2}=0, so c=0c=0 or c=1c=-1. With x=0x=0 and y=1y=1, we have c2=1c^{2}=1, so c=1c=1 or c=1c=-1. We conclude that c=1c=-1 and then we see that this function indeed satisfies the equation. Thus, the only solution is f(x)=xf(x)=-x for xRx \in \mathbb{R}.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.