(special) unitary Lie algebra
Let be a vector space over a field admitting an involution
, and let be a http://planetmath.org/node/SesquilinearFormsOverGeneralFieldshermitian form
relative to . Then the unitary Lie algebra , or just , consists of the linear transformations satisfying
for all . This is a Lie algebra over , but not over in the case that (because is linear in the first, but not in the second variable).
The special unitary Lie algebra , or just , consists of those linear transformations in with trace zero.