Representations of definite binary quadratic forms over \(\mathbb F_q[t]\) (Q2267697)

Let \(\mathbb{F}_q [t]\) be the polynomial ring in the indeterminate \(t\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\), where \(\mathbb{F}_q\) is the field of order \(q\) and where \(q\) is odd. The authors of the paper under review prove that a binary definite quadratic form over \(\mathbb{F}_q [t]\) is completely determined, up to equivalence, by the polynomials it represents up to degree \(3m-2\), where \(m\) is the degree of its discriminant, and they show that this is far from being true for ternary definite forms. They also characterize, when \(q > 13\), all the binary definite quadratic forms over \(\mathbb{F}_q [t]\) that have class number one.