Using Aichinger's equation to characterize polynomial functions (Q6185251)

Given a commutative semigroup \((S,+)\) and a commutative group \((H,+)\), a function \(f:S\to H\) is called \textit{polynomial function} of degree not greater than \(m\) if it is a solution of the Fréchet equation \[ \bigtriangleup_{h_1}\bigtriangleup_{h_2}\cdots \bigtriangleup_{h_{m+1}}f(x)=0, \] for all \(h_1, h_2, \dots, h_{m+1}, x\in S\). \textit{E. Aichinger} and \textit{J. Moosbauer} [J. Algebra 569, 30--66 (2021; Zbl 1508.20062)] (for functions defined on abelian groups) and the author of the paper under review [``Aichinger equation on commutative semigroups'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2201.07797}] (for functions defined on commutative semigroups \(S\) which satisfy that \(S+S=S\) and \(0\in S\)), proved that \(f\) is a polynomial function of degree not greater than \(m\) if and only if it solves Aichinger's equation: \[ f(x_1+\cdots +x_{m+1}) =\sum_{i=1}^{m+1}g_i(x_1,x_2,\dots,\hat{x}_i,\dots,x_{m+1}) \] for certain functions \(g_i:S_m \to H\), \(i=1,2,\dots, m+1\), where \(\hat{x}_i\) means that \(g_i\) does not depend on \(x_i\). The main goal of this paper is to use these results to give simple proofs of several well-known characterizations of polynomial functions as solutions of certain functional equations. The main result of the paper is the following statement: Theorem. Assume that \((S,+\)) is a commutative semigroup such that \(S+S=S\), \((R,+,\cdot)\) is a commutative ring, \(c:S \to S\) is an automorphism, and \(f:(S,+)\to (R,+)\) is a map that satisfies \[ f(x+c(y))=\sum_{j=1}^M p_j(x)a_j(y)+\sum_{k=1}^N q_k(y)b_k(x), \] where \(p_j, q_k:(S,+)\to (R,+)\) are polynomial functions with degree of \(p_j\) not greater than \(r\), degree of \(q_k\) not greater than \(s\) for all \(j,k\). Then \(f:(S,+) \to (R,+)\) is a polynomial function with degree of \(f\) not greater than \(r+s+1\). This result is then used to investigate the Ghurye-Olkin functional equation, the Wilson functional equation, the Kakutami-Nagumo-Walsh functional equation and the linearized Skitovich-Darmois functional equation.