The class number of cyclotomic function fields

Let k be a rational function field over a finite field. Carlitz and Hayes have described a family of extensions of k which are analogous to the collection of cyclotomic extensions {Q(ζm)| m ≥ 2} of the rational field Q. We investigate arithmetic properties of these “cyclotomic function fields.” We introduce the notion of the maximal real subfield of the cyclotomic function field and develop class number formulas for both the cyclotomic function field and its maximal real subfield. Our principal result is the analogue of a classical theorem of Kummer which for a prime p and positive integer n relates the class number of Q(ζpn + ζpn?1), the maximal real subfield of Q(ζpn), to the index of the group of cyclotomic units in the full unit group of Z[ζpn].