On a functional equation related to roots of translations of positive integers (Q2354664)

Given a function \(f\) and a positive integer \(q\), let \(f^q = \overbrace{f \circ f \circ \cdots \circ f\, }^{q \text{ times}}\). The author studies the functional equation \(f^q (n) = f(n+1) + k \), where \(q \geq 2\) and \(k \in \mathbb{Z}\) are given, and \(f : \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N}\) is the unknown function to be determined. The main result of this paper is the following: Given \(q \geq 2\) and \(k \in \mathbb{Z}\), the above functional equation holding for \(n \in \mathbb{N}\) has a solution \(f : \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N}\) if and only if either \(k=0\) or \(k \geq -1\) and \(q-1 \,\big | \, k+1\). The author also gives an example showing that there exists two functions that satisfy the functional equation \(f(f(f(n))) = f(n+1) + 1\), namely \(f(n) = n\) or all \(n \in \mathbb{N}\) or \(f(n) = n+1\) for \(n\equiv 1, 3 \pmod 4\); \(f(n) = n+5\) for \(n \equiv 2 \pmod 4\); \(f(n) = n-3\) for \(n \equiv 0 \pmod 4\).