Sections in functional equations (Q2198309)

The main aim of this paper is to depelope a method (based on the notion of sections) for composite functional equations. To illustrate this, let us consider the so-called radical functional equation, that is, \[ f\left(\sqrt[n]{x^{n}+y^{n}}\right)= f(x)+f(y) \quad \left(x, y\in \mathbb{R}\right). \] Observe that this equation can be written as \[ \left(f\circ g'\right)\left(g(x)+g(y)\right) = f(x)+f(y)\quad \left(x, y\in \mathbb{R}\right), \] where \(g\colon \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\) is the function \[ g(x)= x^{n}\quad\left(x\in \mathbb{R}\right) \] and \[ g'(x^{n})= \sqrt[n]{x^{n}}\quad\left(x\in \mathbb{R}\right) \] The main idea of the authors is to associate to every such functional equation a Cauchy equation for the composition of the involved functions and their inverses. The last section of the paper contains some applications and examples.