Are there other solutions to the functional equation $f(x^t) = t f(x)$ besides logarithms

functional-equationsfunctionslogarithmsreal-analysis

Are there other solutions to the functional equation $f(x^t) = t f(x)$ besides logarithms? Here $x$ and $t$ are real variables with $x>0$.

I know that given the property of logarithms $\log(x^t) = t\log x$ that these functions fulfill the functional equation.
But I don't know if there are any other solutions to the functional equation $f(x^t) = t f(x)$ (or equivalently to $f(x^{1/t}) = \frac{f(x)}{t}$), maybe some that don't fulfill the equation $f(xy)=f(x)+f(y)$. I hope you could give explicit examples in this case.

Best Answer

Suppose that $f(x^t) = t f(x)$ for all $x>0$ and all $t\in\Bbb R$. In particular, $f(x) = f(e^{\log x}) = (\log x)f(e)$ for all $x>0$. Therefore $f(x)$ must be a logarithm function, namely $f(x) = \log_bx$ with $b=e^{1/f(e)}$. (One exception: if $f(e)=0$ then $f(x)=0$ identically.)

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