We denote by $\mathscr { R }$ the set of totally real numbers and we admit that there exists a function $t : \mathscr { R } \rightarrow \mathbb { Q }$ satisfying the following two properties: (i) for $x , y \in \mathscr { R }$ and $\lambda , \mu \in \mathbb { Q }$, we have $t ( \lambda x + \mu y ) = \lambda t ( x ) + \mu t ( y )$ (ii) for $x$ totally positive, we have $t ( x ) \geqslant 0$ and the equality is strict if $x \neq 0$.
We consider a non-zero totally real number $z$. By definition, there exists a monic polynomial $Z ( X ) \in \mathbb { Q } [ X ]$ that annihilates $z$. We write $Z ( X )$ in the form: $$Z ( X ) = X ^ { d } - \left( a _ { d - 1 } X ^ { d - 1 } + \cdots + a _ { 1 } X + a _ { 0 } \right)$$ with $d \in \mathbb{N} ^ { * }$ and $a _ { i } \in \mathbb { Q }$ for all $i \in \{ 0 , \ldots , d - 1 \}$. We further assume that $Z ( X )$ is chosen so that $d$ is minimal among the degrees of monic polynomials $P ( X ) \in \mathbb{Q} [ X ]$ such that $P ( z ) = 0$.
Construct a symmetric matrix with rational coefficients for which $z$ is an eigenvalue.