Functional equations and the Cauchy mean value theorem (Q304010)

Suppose that \(\alpha,\beta \in (0, 1)\) and \(\alpha + \beta = 1\). The following problem is investigated. Problem 1. Find all pairs \((F, G)\) of differentiable functions \(F, G: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}\) satisfying the equation \[ [F(b) - F(a)]G'(\alpha a + \beta b) = [G(b) - G(a)]F'(\alpha a + \beta b) \] for all \(a, b \in \mathbb{R}\). Among other theorems, it is proved that: Let \((F, G)\) be a solution of Problem 1 with \(\alpha \neq \frac{1}{2}\). If \(F, G\) are two continuously differentiable functions on \(\mathbb{R}\), then \(\{F, G, 1\}\) are linearly dependent. The main result for \(\alpha = \beta = \frac{1}{2}\) is the following. Assume that \(F,G: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}\) are three times differentiable functions such that \[ [F(b) - F(a)]G'\left(\frac{a + b}{2}\right) = [G(b) - G(a)]F'\left(\frac{a + b}{2}\right) \] for all \(a, b \in \mathbb{R}\). Then one of the following possibilities holds: (a) \(\{1, F, G\}\) are linearly dependent on \(\mathbb{R}\); (b) \(F,G \in \text{span} \{1,x, x^2 \}\), \(x \in \mathbb{R}\); (c) there exists a number \(\mu \neq 0\) such that \(F,G \in \text{span} \{1, e^{\mu x}, e^{-\mu x} \}\), \(x \in \mathbb{R}\); (d) there exists a number \(\mu \neq 0\) such that \(F,G \in \text{span} \{1, \sin(\mu x), \cos(\mu x) \}\), \(x \in \mathbb{R}\).