Representations of forms by forms in a finite field (Q1897203)

The author considers representations of a form by another form of the same type over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\). As an example of the results obtained the author studies the following problem for representations of bilinear forms: Let \(A\) be an \(m \times n\) matrix and \(B\) a \(t \times u\) matrix over \(\mathbb{F}_q\). The author deduces formulas for the number of pairs of \(m \times t\) and \(n \times u\) matrices \((X,Y)\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\) such that \(^tXAY = B\). Formulas on the number of representations are obtained in many cases including bilinear forms, alternate bilinear forms, hermitian forms, quadratic forms, and symmetric bilinear forms. The results extend previous results by Carlitz and Hodges, who previously have considered some of the problems above for finite fields with odd characteristics.