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Composition of function

Source: Romania TST 1991 Test 2 P4

February 20, 2014
functionnumber theorygreatest common divisorDiophantine equationalgebra proposedalgebra

Problem Statement

Let n,a,bn, a, b be integers with n2n \geq 2 and a{0,1}a \notin \{0, 1\} and let u(x)=ax+bu(x) = ax + b be the function defined on integers. Show that there are infinitely many functions f:ZZf : \mathbb{Z} \rightarrow \mathbb{Z} such that fn(x)=f(f(fn(x)))=u(x)f_n(x) = \underbrace{f(f(\cdots f}_{n}(x) \cdots )) = u(x) for all xx. If a=1a = 1, show that there is a bb for which there is no ff with fn(x)u(x)f_n(x) \equiv u(x).