Short introduction to LaTeX symbols and commands Page 1 of 8

INTRODUCTION TO LATEX SYMBOLS AND COMMANDS

Common expressions 
What follows in this and next sections is but a very concise collection of most common
and useful symbols available in LaTeX (and hence Aurora). It is primarily based on the
material of:
(Not so) short introduction to LaTeX ,
Short Math Guide for LaTeX , and the
TeX Reference Card .
If you cannot find some symbol here or in the documents above, The Comprehensive
LaTeX Symbol List —the reference to over 3300 symbols that can be used in LaTeX
(and thus, again, Aurora)—will most definitely have whatever it is you need.
Aurora’s default preamble includes both amsmath and amssymb; therefore, the
examples below use symbols and commands from these packages indiscriminately. All
these examples should be used in math mode unless noted otherwise.

Operations 
square root \sqrt{x+\sqrt{y}}
higher order
\sqrt[mn]{x+y} \quad \sqrt[3]{2}
roots
root sign \surd[x+y]

fractions \frac{a+b}{x+\log\frac{Y}{Z}}

force large
(display) \frac{a+b}{x+\log\dfrac{Y}{Z}}
fraction
1+\cfrac{2}{
continued 3+\cfrac{4}{
fraction 5+\cfrac{6}{7+\dotsb}}} =
\frac{1}{\sqrt e - 1}

binomial \binom{n+1}{k}

prime y'' + y' + y = u

\begin{array}{l}
a\bmod n=b \\
a\equiv b\pmod n \\
“mod”
a\equiv b\mod n \\
a\equiv b\pod n
\end{array}

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Subscripts and superscripts 
subscripts x_1, x_2 \quad a_{ij}
x^y \quad e^{2j\pi t}
superscripts \quad
a_{ij}^2
\sum_{\substack{
multilevel 1 \le m \le N, \\
subscripts m\text{ odd}}} P
(m)
nested
a_{b_j} \quad e^{x^2}
sub/superscripts
sub- and
superscripts
{}_n C_k
before the
symbol
subscripts and
\sideset{^a_b}{'_c}
superscripts for
\sum
large symbols

Sums, integrals, and products 

sum \sum_{i=1}^{+\infty}

product \prod_{\alpha \in U}

integral \int_{x_0}^{x_1}

contour integral \oint_C

double and triple

\iint_S \quad \iiint_S
integrals
even more
\iiiint_S \quad \idotsint_S
integrals
integrals with
\int\limits_\alpha^\beta \quad
alternative limit
\iint\limits_S
placement
unions and \bigcup_{\alpha\in S} \quad
intersections \bigcap_{V\in\mathfrak{V}}

\bigodot \quad \bigoplus

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\bigotimes \quad \bigsqcup

direct sums, co-
products, and so \biguplus \quad \coprod
on
\bigvee \quad \bigwedge

Brackets 
( \; ), [ \; ], \{ \; \}
\lvert\;\rvert, \lVert\;\rVert
pairing brackets
\lceil\;\rceil, \lfloor\;\rfloor
\langle\;\rangle

Aurora also defines the following two commands in its default preamble:

absolute value \abs{u(t)}

norm \norm{\hat{G}}_\infty

To make the brackets scale to the size of the enclosed expression, use \left and \right
commands:
\left(
\left
\sum_{i=1}^{n} e^{2\pi j i^2}
\right
\right)
( \sum_{i=1}^{n} e^{2\pi j i^2} )
plain

Alternatively, the bracket size can be specified explicitly using the following commands:

\Biggl( \biggl( \Bigl( \bigl( \quad

\Biggr\} \biggr\} \Bigr\} \bigr\}

This may be necessary when \left and \right commands create delimiters that are
visually too large:

\left[ \sum_j
\left
\left|\sum_i x_{ij}\right|^2
\right
\right]^{1/2}
\biggl[ \sum_j
manually-sized \Bigl|\sum_i x_{ij}\Bigr|^2
\biggr]^{1/2}

or when \left and \right create brackets of the same size in nested expressions:
\left O\left(\left(
\right m^2+n^2\right)\log n\right)

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manually-sized O\bigl((m^2+n^2)\log n\bigr)

Multiline formulas and piecewise functions 
a_k = \begin{cases}
k & \text{for $k \le n/2$} \\
piecewise
n & \text{for $k=n/2$} \\
functions/cases
k-1 & \text{otherwise}
\end{cases}
\begin{split}\tan^2 x
multiline
&= \sin^2 x/\cos^2 x \\
equations
&= 1/\cos^2 x - 1
(aligned at &) \end{split}
\left\{\begin{array}{l}
systems of ax+by=r_1 \\
equations cx+dy=r_2
\end{array}\right.

Arrows 
implication x^2=4 \implies x=\pm 2
“if and only if” x^2=4 \iff x=\pm 2
“tends to” x\to+\infty
“gets” A\gets B+C
A\xleftarrow{\rm today}B
B\xrightarrow{\rm tomorrow}C
sizable single
horizontal arrows C \xrightarrow
[\text{(except Fridays)}]
{\text{every day}} D
sizable single \left\uparrow\sum \right\downarro
vertical arrows \Big\updownarrow
sizable double \left\Uparrow\sum \right\Downarr
vertical arrows \Big\Updownarrow

A large collection of arrows can be found in the symbols section.

Over­ and underbraces and other embellishments 
overline \overline{A+B}
underline \underline{A+B}
hat \widehat{A+B}
tilde \widetilde{A+B}

\overrightarrow{AB} \text{ and }

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vector markers \overleftarrow{BA}

\overbrace{x_1+x_2+\cdots+x_k}^
overbrace
{k \text{ in total}}

underbrace m^n=\underbrace{m\cdot m\cdots m

affixing arbitrary
x\overset{?}{\ge}y
symbols

Function names 
To get correct font and spacing around the names of mathematical functions, prefix the
function name with \. For example, writing cos 2\pi\alpha gives (incorrect),
whereas \cos 2\pi\alpha gives (correct). Full list of function names defined in
LaTeX is given below:

\arccos \exp \log

\arcsin \gcd \max
\arctan \hom \min
\arg \inf \Pr
\cos \injlim \projlim
\cosh \varinjlim \varprojlim
\cot \ker \sec
\coth \lg \sin
\csc \lim \sinh
\deg \liminf \sup
\det \varliminf \tan
\dim \limsup \tanh
\ln \varlimsup

To declare additional function names that behave like the ones above, use the
\DeclareMathOperator command in the preamble: \DeclareMathOperator{\rank}
{rank}, after which \rank A will produce . Alternatively, using \operatorname
{rank} A inline will also produce .

Matrices 
\begin{bmatrix}
\lambda \\
matrix (square- 1 & \lambda \\
bracketed) & \ddots & \ddots \\
& & 1 & \lambda
\end{bmatrix}_{n\times n}

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\begin{pmatrix}a\\b\\c\end{pmatrix
\begin{Bmatrix}a\\b\\c\end{Bmatrix
alternative
\begin{vmatrix}a\\b\\c\end{vmatrix
delimiters
\begin{Vmatrix}a\\b\\c\end{Vmatrix
\begin{matrix}a\\b\\c\end{matrix}
(\begin{smallmatrix}1 && 2 \\
inline matrices
3 && 4\end{smallmatrix})

Punctuation 
dots between
x_1, x_2, \dotsc, x_n
commas
dots between x_1 + x_2 + \dotsb + x_n
binary operations
dots between
\int\dotsi\int
integrals
dots between
multiplication x(x+1)\dotsm(x+n)
signs
colon (meaning
“such that” or f\colon \mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{R}
when defining
domains)
vertical and \vdots \quad \ddots
diagonal

Fonts 
Normally, everything typed in math mode is considered to be a part of the formula and
is typeset as such—spaces are ignored, most symbols come out in medium-weight
italics, and so on. If you want to use a different mathematical font or to enter a few
words of regular text in math mode like in the piecewise example above, the following
commands can help:
x+\frac{1}{x} \ge 2
\text{ for all $x>0$}
(note that this is one of the rare cases
normal text
when spaces matter in LaTeX; also note
that you can switch back to math mode in
\text)
bold text, upright \textbf{I am Jack's bold text.}
bold math,
AB\mathbf{CD}EF
upright
bold math, italic AB\boldsymbol{C}\boldsymbol{D}EF

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AB\pmb{C}\pmb{D}EF
“poor man’s bold” (overlays several copies of a symbol with
slight offsets on top of each other)
\begin{array}{c}
calligraphic
\mathcal{ABCDEFGHIJKLM} \\
(uppercase Latin
\mathcal{NOPQRTSUVWXYZ}\end
letters only) {array}
\begin{array}{c}
blackboard bold
\mathbb{ABCDEFGHIJKLM} \\
(uppercase Latin
\mathbb{NOPQRTSUVWXYZ}\end
letters only) {array}
\begin{array}{c}
\mathfrak{ABCDEFGHIJKLM} \\
Fraktur \mathfrak{NOPQRTSUVWXYZ} \\
(Latin letters and \mathfrak{abcdefghijklm} \\
digits only) \mathfrak{nopqrtsuvwxyz} \\
\mathfrak{0123456789}\end
{array}
\begin{array}{c}
\mathsf{ABCDEFGHIJKLM} \\
\mathsf{NOPQRTSUVWXYZ} \\
sans-serif font
\mathsf{abcdefghijklm} \\
\mathsf{nopqrtsuvwxyz} \\
\mathsf{0123456789}\end{array}
\begin{array}{c}
\mathtt{ABCDEFGHIJKLM} \\
\mathtt{NOPQRTSUVWXYZ} \\
typewriter
\mathtt{abcdefghijklm} \\
\mathtt{nopqrtsuvwxyz} \\
\mathtt{0123456789}\end{array}

Spacing 
The following commands can be used to fine-tune spacing in math mode:

default (none) xy
quad (width of
x\quad y
)
quad x\,y
quad x\:y
quad x\;y
quad x\ y
double quad x\qquad y
x\!y

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ve quad
custom spacing
x\mspace{-19mu}y
(1 mu = quad)
virtual space \Gamma_{ij}^{\phantom{ij}k}

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