Exponential rationals (Q6183854)

Let \(M_d(\mathbb{R})\) be the algebra of all \(d\times d\) matrices with real entries and denote by \(\mathrm{Inv}\) the group of all invertible elements of it. Scalar-valued functions \(\varphi_1,\dots ,\varphi_N\) on \(\mathbb{R}^d\) are called \textit{polynomially dependent up to an exponential polynomial} if there exists a nontrivial \(N\)-tuple of polynomials \(p_1,\dots,p_N\) such that \(p_1\varphi_1+\cdots+p_N\varphi_N\) is an exponential polynomial. The main result of the paper is the following: Theorem. Assume that the continuous functions \(f_{ji}\,(1\le j\le n, 1\le i\le r_j)\) on \(\mathbb{R}^d\) satisfy the equation \[ \sum\limits_{j=1}^n\sum\limits_{i=1}^{r_j} f_{ji}(a_jx-c_jy)P_{ji}(x,y)= \sum\limits_{j=1}^N u_j(x)v_j(y),\qquad x,y\in \mathbb{R}^d, \] where \(P_{ji}\) are polynomials on \(\mathbb{R}^d\times \mathbb{R}^d\) and the matrices \(a_i,c_i\), \(i=1,\dots,n,\) satisfy \[ a_i,c_i\in \mathrm{Inv} \hbox{ and } a_i^{-1}c_i-a_j^{-1}c_j\in \mathrm{Inv} \hbox{ for }i\ne j. \] Then each family \(f_{k1},\dots,f_{kr_k}\) is polynomially dependent up to an exponential function. Specializing the above equation several classical functional equations can be obtained, thus characterizing exponential polynomials.