Unitary tridiagonalization in \(M(4,\mathbb{C})\) (Q1348752)

The question is studied whether or not for quadratic \((n,n)\)-matrices \(A\) over the field of complex numbers, there exists a unitary matrix \(U\) sucht hat \(UAU^*\) is tridiagonal. For matrices of dimension \(n\geq 5\) counterexamples are to be found in the literature, as well as proofs for the affirmative answers for the case \(n=3\) and for some special cases of \(n=4\). The author closes this gap by proving that such a unitary matrix \(U\) exists for all matrices \(A\) with \(n\leq 4\).