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Algebra Difficulty 7.8 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it

Find all functions f:RR f: \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} satisfying the equation
f(x+f(x+y))+f(xy)=x+f(x+y)+yf(x) f(x+f(x+y))+f(x y)=x+f(x+y)+y f(x)
for all real numbers x x and y y . (Albania) Answer. There are two such functions, namely the identity function and x2x x \mapsto 2-x .

Solution

Clearly, each of the functions xxx \mapsto x and x2xx \mapsto 2-x satisfies (1). It suffices now to show that they are the only solutions to the problem. Suppose that ff is any function satisfying (1). Then setting y=1y=1 in (1), we obtain
f(x+f(x+1))=x+f(x+1) f(x+f(x+1))=x+f(x+1)
in other words, x+f(x+1)x+f(x+1) is a fixed point of ff for every xRx \in \mathbb{R}. We distinguish two cases regarding the value of f(0)f(0).

Case 1. f(0)0\quad f(0) \neq 0. By letting x=0x=0 in (1), we have
f(f(y))+f(0)=f(y)+yf(0) f(f(y))+f(0)=f(y)+y f(0)
So, if y0y_{0} is a fixed point of ff, then substituting y=y0y=y_{0} in the above equation we get y0=1y_{0}=1. Thus, it follows from (2) that x+f(x+1)=1x+f(x+1)=1 for all xRx \in \mathbb{R}. That is, f(x)=2xf(x)=2-x for all xRx \in \mathbb{R}.

Case 2. f(0)=0\quad f(0)=0. By letting y=0y=0 and replacing xx by x+1x+1 in (1), we obtain
f(x+f(x+1)+1)=x+f(x+1)+1 f(x+f(x+1)+1)=x+f(x+1)+1
From (1), the substitution x=1x=1 yields
f(1+f(y+1))+f(y)=1+f(y+1)+yf(1) f(1+f(y+1))+f(y)=1+f(y+1)+y f(1)
By plugging x=1x=-1 into (2), we see that f(1)=1f(-1)=-1. We then plug y=1y=-1 into (4) and deduce that f(1)=1f(1)=1. Hence, (4) reduces to
f(1+f(y+1))+f(y)=1+f(y+1)+y f(1+f(y+1))+f(y)=1+f(y+1)+y
Accordingly, if both y0y_{0} and y0+1y_{0}+1 are fixed points of ff, then so is y0+2y_{0}+2. Thus, it follows from (2) and (3) that x+f(x+1)+2x+f(x+1)+2 is a fixed point of ff for every xRx \in \mathbb{R}; i.e.,
f(x+f(x+1)+2)=x+f(x+1)+2 f(x+f(x+1)+2)=x+f(x+1)+2
Replacing xx by x2x-2 simplifies the above equation to
f(x+f(x1))=x+f(x1) f(x+f(x-1))=x+f(x-1)
On the other hand, we set y=1y=-1 in (1) and get
f(x+f(x1))=x+f(x1)f(x)f(x) f(x+f(x-1))=x+f(x-1)-f(x)-f(-x)
Therefore, f(x)=f(x)f(-x)=-f(x) for all xRx \in \mathbb{R}. Finally, we substitute (x,y)(x, y) by (1,y)(-1,-y) in (1) and use the fact that f(1)=1f(-1)=-1 to get
f(1+f(y1))+f(y)=1+f(y1)+y f(-1+f(-y-1))+f(y)=-1+f(-y-1)+y
Since ff is an odd function, the above equation becomes
f(1+f(y+1))+f(y)=1f(y+1)+y -f(1+f(y+1))+f(y)=-1-f(y+1)+y
By adding this equation to (5), we conclude that f(y)=yf(y)=y for all yRy \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.