A real symmetric tridiagonal matrix with a given characteristic polynomial (Q1318198)

Given a polynomial \(u(x)=x^ n+a_{n-1}x^{n-1}+\cdots+a_ 0\), \(a_ i\in\mathbb{R}\), \(i=0,1,\dots,n-1\), having only real zeros, the author constructs a real symmetric tridiagonal matrix whose characteristic polynomial is equal to \((-1)^ nu(x)\). This is a complete solution to a problem raised and partly solved by \textit{M. Fiedler} [ibid. 141, 265-270 (1990; Zbl 0721.15005)].