Mean-type mappings and invariant curves (Q719578)

The main result of the paper is given by the following theorem. Let \( J\subset I\subset \mathbb{R}\) be intervals. Suppose that \( M,N:I^{2}\rightarrow I\) are continuous means such that, for all \(x,y\in I,x\neq y,\) \[ \max \left( M(x,y),N(x,y)\right) -\min \left( M(x,y),N(x,y)\right) <\max (x,y)-\min (x,y). \] If a function \(\varphi :J\rightarrow I\) is such that \[ \varphi \left[ M\left( x,\varphi (x)\right) \right] =N(x,\varphi (x)),\qquad x\in J, \] then \(\varphi \) satisfies the functional equation \[ \varphi \left[ K\left( x,\varphi (x)\right) \right] =K(x,\varphi (x)),\qquad x\in J, \] where \(K\) is the unique continuous \(\left( M,N\right) -\) invariant mean, thus \[ K\left[ M\left( x,y\right) ,N\left( x,y\right) \right] =K\left( x,y\right) ,\qquad x,y\in I. \] Applications in solving some functional equations in a single variable are also given.