Find all functions that satisfy the functional equation: $ \exp\big(f(\log x)\big)=\log\big(f(\exp x)\big) $

functional-equationsfunctionssolution-verification

Find all functions that satisfy the functional equation: $$ \exp\big(f(\log x)\big)=\log\big(f(\exp x)\big) $$

I found that $f(x)=\log x, \exp x$ are solutions. And I think $\exp(x+1)$ also works. I think there are infinitely many solutions: $f(x+s)$ and $f(x)+s$ for $s \in \Bbb R.$

Are these all the solutions?

Best Answer

It might be helpful to standardize the functions and inputs to the functions. In other words, get rid of the $\exp$ and make things on the left and right look kind of similar:

$$ \begin{align*} &\exp \left( f (\log x )\right ) = \log \left( f(\exp x) \right) \\ \iff &f (\log x ) = \log \log \left( f(\exp x) \right) \\ \iff &f (\log \log x ) = \log \log f(x). \end{align*} $$

Let $g(x)$ be the function $g(x) = \log \log x$. Then the equality holds iff $f \circ g = g \circ f$.

Simple examples of $f$ that satisfy this is the identity $f(x) = x$ or the inverse of $g$ i.e. $f(x) = \exp \exp x$.

In a little more generality, $f$ can be the function that repeatedly exponentiates $k$ times, denoted $f(x) = \exp_k (x)$ since

$$ \begin{align*} \exp_k (\log \log x ) &= \exp_{k-2} (x) \\ &= \log \log \exp_k (x). \end{align*} $$

In fact you can allow $k$ to be $0$ or negative so that e.g. $\exp_0$ is the identity and $\exp_{-3}$ is $\log$ applied $3$ times, and the statement would still hold.

Structurally speaking $f = \exp_k$ works for any integer $k$ because $g(x) = \log \log x$ can be written as $g(x) = \exp_{-2}(x)$ and the question is asking for functions $f$ where $f \circ \exp_{-2} = \exp_{-2} \circ f$. The $\exp_k$ family of functions is closed under composition and also commutative since $\exp_a \circ \exp_b = \exp_b \circ \exp_a = \exp_{a + b}$.

I'm not sure if there is a more general characterization of functions that are commutative with $\log \log x$ but I can think about it.

Related Question