It is really well known that if f:R→R is continuous and
∀x,y∈R,f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y)
then f is linear, i.e., there exists a∈R such that f(x)=ax for all x∈R.
More generally, it is known that if f:K→R is continuous, where K⊆R is a non-empty open connected set with K+K⊆K, then the functional equation
∀(x,y)∈K2,f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y)(⋆)
implies that f is linear.
Here a related question:
Question. Does there exist a set S⊆R2 which is not dense in R2, not containing an open connected set, and such that if f:R→R is continuous function satisfying (⋆) for all (x,y)∈S then f is linear?
Easy observation: S cannot be bounded (see also the comment of TheoBandit below). Indeed, in the opposite, we could set f(x)=0 for all x in a ball with sufficiently large radius; then, any continuous extension will work.
Answer
Yes, there is such a domain. Consider,
S=⋃n∈Z{(x,nx):x∈R}.
Note that S is not dense and has empty interior. I claim that, if f:R→R is continuous and satisfies
f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y)
for all (x,y)∈S, then f is scalar homogeneous. First, note that (0,0)∈S, hence
f(0+0)=f(0)+f(0)⟹f(0)=0.
Next, suppose n≥1 is an integer. I wish to show that f(nx)=nf(x) for all x. We proceed by induction.
The base case is clear. Suppose f(nx)=nf(x) for some n. Then, because (x,nx)∈S, we have
f((n+1)x)=f(x+nx)=f(x)+f(nx)=f(x)+nf(x)=(n+1)f(x).
The claim holds by induction.
Similarly, this holds for n<0. If we assume n≤0 is such that f(nx)=nf(x), then
f(x)+f((n−1)x)=f(x+(n−1)x)=f(nx)=nf(x),
which implies f((n−1)x)=(n−1)f(x) as required. By induction,
f(nx)=nf(x)∀n∈Z,x∈R.
Next, as you might guess, we establish rational scalar homogeneity. However, this follows directly from the integer scalar homogeneity. We have
qf(pqx)=f(qpqx)=f(px)=pf(x)⟹f(pqx)=pqf(x)
where p,q∈Z and q≠0.
Since the rationals are dense in R, we must have f(λx)=λf(x) for any real λ, hence f is linear.
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