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.