D'Alembert's functional equation on restricted domains (Q2563681)

The author studies the D'Alembert functional equation \[ f(x+y) + f(x-y) = 2f(x)f(y) \tag{*} \] in the class of functionals \(f:X \mapsto \mathbb{R}\), where \(X\) is a real pre-Hilbert space with \(\dim X \geq 3\). It is proved that the equation (*) restricted to \(X_1 = \{(x,y) \in X^2\); \(\langle x,y \rangle = \emptyset\}\) is not equivalent to (*) on the whole space \(X\) except in the case when \(f(2x)= 2f^2(x)-1\) for all \(x\in X\). On the other hand the equivalence between (*) restricted to \(X_2= \{(x,y) \in X^2\); \(|x |= |y |\}\) and (*) on the whole space \(X\) is shown.