An elementary method to compute the algebra generated by some given matrices and its dimension

Abstract

We give an efficient solution to the following problem: Given $X_1, \ldots X_d$ and $Y$ some $n$ by $n$ matrices can we determine if $Y$ is in the unital algebra generated by $X_1, \ldots, X_d$ as a subalgebra of all $n$ by $n$ matrices? The solution also gives an easy method for computing the dimension of this algebra.