Tridiagonal forms in low dimensions (Q2568394)

\textit{V. Pati} [Proc. Indian. Acad. Sci, Math. Sci. 111, No. 4, 381--397 (2001; Zbl 0999.15012)] has shown that every complex \(4\times 4\) matrix is unitarily tridiagonalizable. The authors give a simple proof of this result and show that there exist rank three \(5\times 5\) matrices which are not tridiagonalizable. In the second half of the paper they demonstrate that their twelve solutions of Pati's theorem are generically the only ones. The authors feel that there should be a direct way to see this, but their arguments are, in their own words, somewhat involved as opposed to their short and illuminating proof of the main result.