On an identity of Ramanujan over finitely generated domains (Q858094)

The authors investigate the conditional functional equation \[ f(a+b+c)+f(b+c+d)+f(a-d)=f(a+b+d)+f(a+c+d)+f(b-c), \leqno (1) \] motivated by Ramanujan's identity, under the restrictions \[ ad+da=bc+cb\,\,\text{and}\,\,(uv+vu)^{2}-2(u^{2}v^{2}+v^{2}u^{2})=(pq+qp)^{2}-2(p^{2}q^{2}+q^{2}p^{2}) \leqno (2) \] where \(u=a+b+c\), \(v=a-d\), \(p=a+b+d\), and \(q=b-c.\) If the domain of \(f\) is a commutative ring then \((2)\) goes over into the much simpler restriction \(ad=bc.\) In the paper the maximal number of independent solutions \(f:R\to S\) is determined supposing that \(S\) is finitely generated \(\mathbb{Z}\)-algebra and \(S\) is a finite dimensional linear space over an arbitrary field. The method is constructive and provides an efficient tool to get all solutions in particular cases like \(R=\mathbb{Q}(i)\) or \(R=\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{2})\) and \(S=\mathbb{C}.\) In these two cases \((1)\) with \((2)\) is completely solved.