On regular solutions of the generalized Dhombres equation (Q2340855)

The authors investigate the so-called generalized Dhombres functional equation \[ f(xf(x))=\phi(f(x)), \quad x \in (0,+\infty), \] where \(\phi\) is a continuous map from \(\mathbb R_+\) into \(\mathbb R_+\); \(\mathcal S(\phi)\) denotes the set of all continuous solutions of the previous equation. It is known that there are two classes of continuous solutions: \(f \in \mathcal S(\phi)\) is singular if there are \(0<a \leq b< \infty\) such that \(f(x)>1\) for \(x<a\), \(f(x)<1\) for \(x>b\), and \(f(x)=1\) otherwise. A solution is regular if it is not singular. In previous papers it has been proved that the range \(R_f\) of a singular solution \(f\) can contain periodic points of \(\phi\) of arbitrary periods. This is no more true for regular solutions, indeed the following theorem is proved: Theorem. Let \(f \in \mathcal S(\phi)\) be a regular solution, and let \(P \subset R_f\) be a periodic orbit of \(\phi\). Then \(P\) has period \(2^n\) for some \(n \in \mathbb N\).