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Added a remark about the extension of the solutions with contracting fixed point at $x=0$.
Robert Bryant
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Actually, there are lots of local solutions of this equation. For example, suppose that we start with a $C^2$ function $f$ on an interval $I\subset\mathbb{R}$ such that $f'$ is positive on $I$ and $f(I)$ is disjoint from $I$. Then an inverse $g:f(I)\to I$ of $f:I\to f(I)$ exists and is $C^2$. Now define $f$ on the interval $f(I)$ so that $f(y) = f''(g(y))$ for $y\in f(I)$. Then for $x\in I$, we will have $x = g(y)$ for some $y\in f(I)$ and, of course, $y = f(x)$. Then $f''(x) = f''(g(y)) = f(y) = f(f(x))$ for all $x\in I$.

These sorts of 'rough' solutions are constructed without any fixed points. Solutions with fixed points are much more rigid. A $C^2$ solution on an open domain $D$ such that $f(D)\subset D$ must be smooth on $D$, since $f''=f\circ f$, implying that if $f$ is $C^k$, then $f$ must be $C^{k+2}$. In fact, with a little effort, one can show that a $C^2$ solution with an attracting fixed point must be real-analytic in a neighborhood of the fixed point, since the equation $f''=f\circ f$ allows one to prove an estimate of the form $|f^{(k)}|\le C^k\,k!$ for some constant $C$ on a neighborhood of the fixed point.

Note 1: As an interesting aside, for every constant $b\in\mathbb{C}$, there is (unique) formal power series with lowest order term $bz$ of the form $$ f(z) = bz+\frac{{b}^{2}}{3!}\,{z}^{3} +{\frac {{b}^{3} \left( {b}^{2}{+}1 \right)}{5!}}\,{z}^{5} +{\frac {{b}^{4} \left( {b}^{6}{+}{b}^{4}{+}11\,{b}^{2}{+}1\right)}{7!}}\,{z}^{7}+\cdots\tag1 $$ that satisfies $f''(z) = f(f(z))$. When $|b|<1$, this series converges absolutely and uniformly on the disk $|z|^2\le 6\bigl(1{-}|b|\bigr)$. (This is likely to be strictly less than the actual radius of convergence, as my method for proving convergence is not sharp. In fact, my method shows that $|f(z)|\le |z|$ when $|z|^2\le 6\bigl(1{-}|b|\bigr)$, but this is probably not sharp either.)

Though I don't (yet) have a proof, numerical calculations suggest that, when $b$ is a sufficiently small negative real number, the above function $f$ extends real analytically to the entire real line and gives a solution $f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$.

Addendum to Note 1: One can show that, when $0<b<1$, the real-analytic function $f$ defined by the power series (1) on its interval of convergence extends real-analytically to a finite interval $\bigl(-R(b),R(b)\bigr)\subset\mathbb{R}$ on which $|f(x)|<|x|$ and $\lim_{x\to\pm R(b)}f(x)=\pm R(b)$. In particular, $f:\bigl(-R(b),R(b)\bigr)\to\bigl(-R(b),R(b)\bigr)$ is a real-analytic diffeomorphism with a single contracting fixed point at $x=0$. Moreover, $f$ cannot be extended real-analytically to any larger interval, although there are some indications that $f$ may extend smoothly beyond $x = R(b)$, in which case, $R(b)$ becomes a repelling fixed point of $f$. Also, $R:(0,1)\to(0,\infty)$ is a continuous, decreasing bijection.

Note 2: More generally, for any two constants $a,b\in\mathbb{C}$, there is a formal power series $$ f(z) = a+b\,(z{-}a) +\frac{a}{2!}\,(z{-}a)^2 +\frac{b^2}{3!}\,(z{-}a)^3 +\frac{ab(b{+}1)}{4!}\,(z{-}a)^4 +\cdots\tag2 $$ that has $a$ as a formal fixed point, i.e., $f(a) = a$, so that the composition $f(f(z))$ makes sense as a power series centered at $z = a$ and, formally, $f'(a) = b$, that satisfies $f''(z) = f(f(z))$ as formal power series centered at $z = a$. Moreover, this is the unique power series centered at $z=a$ that has $f(a) = a$ and $f'(a) = b$ and satisfies $f''(z) = f(f(z))$ as formal power series.

As in the case $a=0$, when $|b|<1$, so that $f$ is a 'formal contraction' on a neighborhood of $a$, it turns out that the series converges absolutely and uniformly on a disc of the form $|z-a| \le R(a,b)$ for some $R(a,b)>0$, so this gives a two-parameter family of local solutions with a contracting fixed point. It remains to be seen whether there are values of $(a,b)$ (other than $(0,0)$) for which the corresponding $f$ extends to an entire holomorphic function on $\mathbb{C}$, or even nontrivial values of $(a,b)\in\mathbb{R}^2$ for which $f$ extends analytically to a neighborhood of $\mathbb{R}\subset\mathbb{C}$.

One interesting point is that the (two) multivalued solutions described by Michael Engelhardt have fixed points and hence are (analytic continuations of) solutions of the type (2). One can see this as follows: These (multivalued) solutions can be written in the form $$ f(x) = i\sqrt{2}\,\left(\frac{x}{i\sqrt{2}}\right)^b,\qquad \text{where}\ b = \tfrac12(1\pm i\sqrt{7}). $$ Clearly, $a\in\mathbb{C}$ will be a fixed point, i.e., $f(a) = a$ if and only if $$ 1 = \left(\frac{a}{i\sqrt{2}}\right)^{b-1}, $$ and this happens (for $b = \tfrac12(1+i\sqrt7)$) when, for some integer $k$, $$ a = a_k = i\sqrt{2}\, e^{i\pi k(1+i\sqrt7)/2} = i^{k+1}\sqrt{2}\,\left(e^{-\pi\sqrt7}\right)^{k/2}. $$ Moreover, we have $$ f'(a_k) = b\left(\frac{a_k}{i\sqrt2}\right)^{b-1} = b, $$ so $|f'(a_k)| = |b| = \sqrt 2>1$, which implies that the fixed point is a repelling fixed point. This is interesting because it implies that the formal power series given above for $(a_k,b)$ must have a positive radius of convergence, even though $|b|>1$. This led me to speculate that maybe the formal power series (2) might have a positive radius of convergence for any $(a,b)\in\mathbb{C}$, but Will Sawin (in a comment below) pointed out that this cannot be true.

Robert Bryant
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