Minimal matrix representations of four-dimensional Lie algebras (Q2376925)

By Ado's theorem, every finite-dimensional Lie algebra over a field of characteristic zero has a faithful linear representation of finite degree. The question about the minimal possible degree of such a faithful representation for a given Lie algebra has been studied a lot. It has applications in the theory of affine manifolds, affine crystallographic groups, pre-Lie algebra structures and other topics, see \textit{D. Burde} [Cent. Eur. J. Math. 4, No. 3, 323-357 (2006; Zbl 1151.17301)]. In this article, minimal matrix representations for all \(4\)-dimensional Lie algebras (over the complex and real numbers) are computed. The minimal degree for the indecomposable algebras can be either \(3\) or \(4\). Similar work has been done before in [\textit{Y.- F. Kang} and \textit{C.- M. Bai}, Commun. Algebra 36, No. 1, 82--93 (2008; Zbl 1185.17007)]. The proof here does not use pre-Lie algebra structures.