Invariant decomposition of functions with respect to commuting invertible transformations

Consider a_1,a_2,...,a_n, arbitrary elements of R. We characterize those real functions f that decompose into the sum of a_j-periodic functions, i.e., f=f_1+...+f_n with D_{a_j}f(x):=f(x+a_j)-f(x)=0. We show that f has such a decomposition if and only if for all partitions to B_1, B_2,... B_N of {a_1,a_2,...,a_n} with B_j consisting of commensurable elements with least common multiples b_j, one has D_{b_1}... D_{b_N}f=0. Actually, we prove a more general result for periodic decompositions of real functions f defined on an Abelian group A, and, in fact, we even consider invariant decompositions of functions f defined on some abstract set A, with respect to commuting, invertible self-mappings of the set A. We also extend our results to functions between torsion free Abelian groups. As a corollary we also obtain that on a torsion free Abelian group the existence of a real valued periodic decomposition of an integer valued function implies the existence of an integer valued periodic decomposition with the same periods.