Remarks on the functional equation \(f(x+1) = g(x)f(x)\) and a uniqueness theorem for the gamma function (Q6114134)

The main result of the paper is the following statement. Theorem. Let \(g:\mathbb{R}^+\to\mathbb{R}^+\) be a given function satisfying \[ \lim_{x\to\infty}\frac{g(x+w)}{g(x)}=1 \,\text{ for all }w>0. \] If \(f:\mathbb{R}^+\to\mathbb{R}^+\) is an eventually log-convex (or log-concave) function of order two satisfying the gamma-type functional equation \[ f(x+1)=g(x)f(x) \] for \(x>0\), with the initial condition \(f(1)=1\), then \(f\) is uniquely determined by \(g\) by means of the equation \[ f(x)=\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{g(n)\cdots g(1)g(n)^x}{g(n+x)\cdots g(x)}, \qquad x>0. \] This implies a new uniqueness theorem for the gamma function stating that the log-convexity condition in the Bohr-Mollerup theorem can be replaced by log-concavity of order two.