The classifications of o-monomials and of 2-to-1 binomials are equivalent

We observe that on the binary finite fields the classification of 2-to-1 binomials is equivalent to the classification of o-monomials, which is a well-studied and elusive problem in finite geometry. This connection implies a complete classification of 2-to-1 binomials \(b=x^d+ux^e\) $b=x^d+u{x}^e$ for a large set of values of (d, e). Further, we show that a number of the known infinite families of 2-to-1 maps can be traced back to o-polynomials or to difference maps of APN maps. We also provide some connections between 2-to-1 maps and hyperovals in non-desarguesian planes.