Generalizing the notion of split graphs to uniform hypergraphs, we prove that the class of these hypergraphs can be characterized by a finite list of excluded induced subhypergraphs. We show that a characterization by generalized degree sequences is impossible, unlike in the well-known case of split graphs. We also give an algorithm to decide whether a given uniform hypergraph is a split hypergraph. If it is, the algorithm gives a splitting of it; the running time is $O(N\log N)$. These answer questions of Sloan, Gy. Tur��n and Peled.

13 pages