su(3) — compact special unitary Lie algebra

The special unitary Lie algebra $\mathfrak{su}(3)$ is the real vector space

\mathfrak{su}(3)=\{X\in M_{3}(\mathbb C):X^*+X=0,\ \operatorname{tr}X=0\}.

with commutator bracket $[X,Y]=XY-YX$ . Here $X^*$ means conjugate transpose.

Dimension and scalar field

A skew-Hermitian diagonal has one real parameter per entry, while each off-diagonal pair has two. The trace-zero condition removes one real parameter. Consequently the real dimension is $8$ .

This object is a real Lie algebra. Multiplication by $i$ does not generally preserve the defining skew-adjoint condition; there is no inherited complex-linear category membership.