Functional equations $f(4x) = f(3x) f(x) - f(2x)$ and $g(4x) = g(3x) g(x)^3 - g(2x)$

87 Views Asked by At

Consider the following functional equation over the reals :

$$f(4x) = f(3x) f(x) - f(2x)$$

Apart from $f(x) = 2, f(x) = 0, f(x) = 2 \cos(x), f(x) = 2 \cosh(x)$ are there other continu solutions ?

Are all solutions periodic or constant ?


Notice $f(0) = 2$ for every nonconstant solution of $f(x)$. Ok that needs some explaining and I do not have a full proof but ...

I can almost show that for analytic near $0$ solutions.

$$f(x) = 0 + a x + b x^2 + ...$$

then

$$f(4x) = f(3x)f(x) - f(2x)$$

implies

$$ 4 a x + 4 b x^2 + ... = (3 a x + 3 b x^2 + ...)(a x + b x^2 + ...) - 2 a - 2 b x^2 + ...$$

So $4 a = - 2 a$. so $a$ must be $0$.

Also $4b = 3 a^2 - 2b$ so $b = 0$

I think with some work we can show all coefficients must be $0$.


Second question :

$$g(4x) = g(3x) g(x)^3 - g(2x)$$

What are the continu solutions to this ?

Notice $g(0) = 2^{1/3}$

Is $g$ related to the cube root of the cosine ?


This reminds me of this question :

Solution of $f(3x)=\frac{f(x)f(4x)}{2f(2x)}+\frac{f^2(2x)}{2f(x)}$?


edit : I added the 2cosh example. Thanks to user Gonçalo for pointing it out.

edit

The related generalized equation $$f(n x) = f((n-1) x) f(x) - f((n-2) x)$$

valid for all integer $n$ has as solutions

$f(x) = 2, f(x) = 0, f(x) = 2 \cos(x), f(x) = 2 \cosh(x)$

And I believe these are the only ones. Probably provable by induction and/or pigeonhole.

The original question is thus a variant on this.

Another variant could be for instance the system of equations

$$f(4x) = f(3x) f(x) - f(2x)$$

$$f(7x) = f(6x) f(x) - f(5x)$$

For which again we know at least $4$ solutions and we wonder if the equations force $f$ to be one of those.

Im not sure if this helps but just for background or so.