Invariants of ideals generated by pfaffians

Abstract

Ideals generated by pfaffians are of interest in commutative algebra and algebraic geometry, as well as in combinatorics. In this article we compute multiplicity and Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of pfaffian ideals of ladders. We give explicit formulas for some families of ideals, and indicate a procedure that allows to recursively compute the invariants of any pfaffian ideal of ladder. Our approach makes an essential use of liaison theory.