Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mathematics The determinant of a skew-symmetric matrix, capable of being written as the square of a polynomial in the matrix entries.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Pfaff +‎ -ian, after Johann Friedrich Pfaff.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Pfaffian.

Examples

  • One example that I do understand, since I’ve read the paper many times, is Hori and Tong’s “proof” of Rodland’s Conjecture: that the Pfaffian in the Grassmannian G (2,7) lives on the same kahler moduli space as a hypersurface Calabi Yau in a Grassmannian.

    What is String Theory Good For (Part I)? « Imaginary Potential 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.