On additive solutions of a linear equation (Q532085)

The main point of this paper is the investigation of the following functional equation: \[ \sum_{i=1}^{n}\alpha_iA(\beta_ix)=0\qquad (x\in\mathbb{R}), \] where \(\alpha_i,\beta_i\) are given parameters and \(A:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}\) is an unknown additive function. In the main theorem of the paper (Theorem \(3.1\)), it is proved that this functional equation has only a trivial solution when the ratios \(\frac{\beta_i}{\beta_n},\;i=1,\dots,n\) are algebraically independent and \(\frac{\alpha_i}{\alpha_n},\;i=1,\dots,n\) are algebraic. In Theorem \(3.2\), it is proved that the role of the parameters can be interchanged. At last, it is proved that there exists a nontrivial solution if both collections of the previous ratios are algebraically dependent.