Diameter of the commuting graph of $\mathbb{R}^{n\times n}$

Abstract

The vertices of commuting graph of $\mathbb{R}^{n\times n}$ are non-scalar matrices; the edges are defined as pairs $(u, v)$ satisfying $uv = vu$. For $n\geqslant 3$, the diameter of this graph is at least four; we give a short proof that it is exactly four.