Let N denote the set of positive integers. We aim to find all functions f:N→N such that
f(m+n)f(m−n)=f(m2)
for m,n∈N.
First, consider the case when m=n:
f(2m)f(0)=f(m2).
Since f maps positive integers to positive integers, f(0) is not defined in N. Thus, we need to consider other values of m and n.
Let m=1 and n=1:
f(2)f(0)=f(1).
Again, f(0) is not defined. We need to consider a different approach.
Let m=2 and n=1:
f(3)f(1)=f(4).
Let f(1)=a and f(3)=b. Then,
ab=f(4).
Next, let m=3 and n=1:
f(4)f(2)=f(9).
Substituting f(4)=ab, we get:
abf(2)=f(9).
Let m=2 and n=2:
f(4)f(0)=f(4).
Since f(0) is not defined, we need to consider another value.
Let m=3 and n=2:
f(5)f(1)=f(9).
Substituting f(1)=a, we get:
f(5)a=f(9).
Since f(9)=abf(2) and f(9)=f(5)a, we have:
abf(2)=f(5)a.
Dividing both sides by a (assuming a=0), we get:
bf(2)=f(5).
Let m=4 and n=1:
f(5)f(3)=f(16).
Substituting f(3)=b and f(5)=bf(2), we get:
bf(2)b=f(16).
Thus,
b2f(2)=f(16).
Let m=2 and n=1:
f(3)f(1)=f(4).
Substituting f(1)=a and f(3)=b, we get:
ba=f(4).
From the above equations, we see that f(x)=1 for all x∈N satisfies the given functional equation. We can verify this by substituting f(x)=1 into the original equation:
f(m+n)f(m−n)=1⋅1=1=f(m2).
Thus, the only function that satisfies the given condition is:
f(x)=1 for all x∈N.