Let A
be a skew-symmetric endomorphism of a vector space V
(hence A
can also be view as a tensor: A∈Λ2V
) and N=dimV
is even, the Pfaffian of A
is the number PfA
defined as the constant factor in the tensor equality:
(PfA)e1∧⋯∧eN=(N/2)!1N/2timesA∧⋯∧A
where {e1,…,eN}
is an orthonormal basis of V
.
The sign of Pfaffian depends on the orientation of the orthonormal basis.