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Given $3$-vectors $A$ and $B$ and an unknown function $f:\mathbb{R^3}\to \mathbb{C}$, are there any solutions to this functional equation? $$f(A)f(B)=f(A+B+A\times B)$$ apart from the trivial solutions $f(A)=1$ or $f(A)=0$.

Edit: As a simpler example a solution to $f(A)f(B)=f(A+B)$ is $f(A)=e^{k\cdot A}$ for some $3$-vector $k$.

zooby
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1 Answers1

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The functional equation has no non-trivial solution.

For any $a, b \in \mathbb{R}^3$ such that $|a| = |b|$ and $a \ne -b$. Let

$$A = \frac{a+b}{4} + \frac{2}{|a+b|^2}(a \times b) \quad\text{ and }\quad B = \frac{a+b}{4} - \frac{2}{|a+b|^2}(a \times b) $$ Notice $$\begin{align}A + B + A \times B &= \frac{a+b}{2} - \frac12(A+B)\times(A-B)\\ &= \frac{a+b}{2} - \frac{1}{|a+b|^2} (a+b)\times(a \times b)\\ &= \frac{a+b}{2} - \frac{1}{|a+b|^2}\left((a\cdot b + |b|^2)a - (|a|^2+b\cdot a)b\right)\\ &= \frac{a+b}{2} - \frac{a-b}{2}\\ &= b \end{align} $$ and similary, $A +B - A \times B = a$. We have

$$\begin{align} f(a) &= f(A+B-A\times B) = f(A+B+B\times A) = f(B)f(A)\\ f(b) &= f(A+B+A\times B) = f(A)f(B)\\ \implies f(a) &= f(b) \end{align} $$ For any $a \in \mathbb{R}^3$ such that $a \ne 0$, take a $b\in \mathbb{R}^3$ with $|b| = |a|$ and $b \ne a, -a$. This leads to

$$f(a) = f(b) = f(-a)$$ Combine these, we can deduce $f(a)$ depends only on $|a|$.

For any $a \in \mathbb{R}^3$, we have

$$f(a)^2 = f(a)f(-a) = f(a - a - a \times a) = f(0)$$

This forces $f(a)$ to be a constant function.

Since $f(0)^2 = f(0+0+0\times 0) = f(0)$, the constant can only be $0$ or $1$.
i.e. the functional equation has no non-trivial solution.

achille hui
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  • That's a very elegant proof! I'm not sure of the step $f(a)=f(-a)$ means that $f$ depends on $|a|$. Is that true for 3-vectors? Sure this just means $f$ is symmetric by refletion. – zooby Sep 01 '19 at 03:59
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    @zooby $|a| = |b|$ implies $( |a| = |b|, b \ne -a) $ or $b = -a$. Combine these two cases, you get $f(a)$ depends only on $|a|$. – achille hui Sep 01 '19 at 04:08