Symbols[edit]

Name

Symbol

Symbol

in HTML

in TeX

Explanatio

Read as

Category

equality

is equal to;
equals

means

and

represent the same thing or v

everywhere

inequality
means that

and

do not represent the sam

is not equal to;

does not equal

(The forms !=, /= or <> are generally used in programm

and use of ASCII text is preferred.)

everywhere

<

strict inequality
is less than,

>

is greater than

means

is less than

means

is greater than

order theory

proper subgroup

means

is a proper subgroup of

is a proper subgroup of
group theory

significant (strict) inequality

is much less than,
is much greater than

x y means x is much less than y.

x y means x is much greater than y.

order theory

asymptotic comparison

f g means the growth of f is asymptotically bounded

is of smaller order than,
is of greater order than

(This is I. M. Vinogradov's notation. Another notation i

O(g).)

analytic number theory

x y means x is less than or equal to y.

inequality
is less than or equal to,

x y means x is greater than or equal to y.

is greater than or equal to

(The forms <= and >= are generally used in programm

order theory and use of ASCII text is preferred.)

subgroup
is a subgroup of

H G means H is a subgroup of G.

group theory

reduction

A B means the problem A can be reduced to the pro

is reducible to
computational complexity

to indicate what kind of reduction.

theory

congruence relation

... is less than ... is

7k 28 (mod 2) is only true if k is an even inte

greater than ...

requires k to be non-negative; the domain is d

modular arithmetic

vector inequality
... is less than or
equal... is greater
than or equal...
order theory

x y means that each component of vector x

corresponding component of vector y.

x y means that each component of vector x

corresponding component of vector y.
It is important to note that x y remains true

the operator is changed, x y is true if and on

Karp reduction

is Karp reducible to;

is polynomial-time
many-one reducible

L1 L2 means that the problem L1 is Karp red

to
computational
complexity theory

proportionality
is proportional to;

y x means that y = kx for some constant k.

varies as
everywhere

Karp reduction[2]
is Karp reducible to;
is polynomial-time
many-one reducible

A B means the problem A can be polynomia

to
computational
complexity theory

addition
plus;
add

4 + 6 means the sum of 4 and 6.

arithmetic

+
disjoint union
the disjoint union
of ... and ...

A1 + A2 means the disjoint union of sets A1 an

set theory

subtraction
minus;
take;
subtract

9 4 means the subtraction of 4 from 9.

arithmetic

negative sign
negative;
minus;

3 means the negative of the number 3.

the opposite of
arithmetic

set-theoretic
complement

A B means the set that contains all the elem

minus;
without

( can also be used for set-theoretic complem

set theory

plus-minus
plus or minus

6 3 means both 6 + 3 and 6 3.

arithmetic

plus-minus
plus or minus

10 2 or equivalently 10 20% means the ra

measurement

minus-plus
minus or plus

6 (3 5) means 6 + (3 5) and 6 (3 + 5).

arithmetic

multiplication
3 4 means the multiplication of 3 by 4.
times;
multiplied by

(The symbol * is generally used in programmi

use of ASCII text is preferred.)

arithmetic

Cartesian product
the Cartesian
product of ... and ...;

X Y means the set of all ordered pairs with t

the direct product of

from X and the second element selected from

... and ...

set theory

cross product
cross

u v means the cross product of vectors u an

linear algebra

group of units

R consists of the set of units of the ring R, alo

the group of units of

This may also be written R as described belo

ring theory

convolution
convolution;

f g means the convolution of f and g.

convolved with
functional analysis

complex conjugate
z means the complex conjugate of z.
conjugate

( can also be used for the conjugate of z, as

complex numbers

group of units

R consists of the set of units of the ring R, al

the group of units of

This may also be written R as described abo

ring theory

hyperreal numbers
the (set of)
hyperreals

R means the set of hyperreal numbers. Othe

non-standard
analysis

Hodge dual
Hodge dual;

v means the Hodge dual of a vector v. If v is

Hodge star

dimensional oriented inner product space, the

linear algebra

multiplication
times;

3 4 means the multiplication of 3 by 4.

multiplied by
arithmetic

dot product
dot

u v means the dot product of vectors u and

linear algebra

placeholder
(silent)

A means a placeholder for an argument o

nature of an expression without assigning a s

functional analysis

tensor
product, tensor

product of modules
tensor product of

means the tensor product of V and U

of modules V and U over the ring R.

linear algebra

KulkarniNomizu
product

Derived from the tensor product of two symm

KulkarniNomizu
product
tensor algebra

algebraic symmetries of the Riemann tensor.

components

division (Obelus)
divided by;
over

6 3 or 6 3 means the division of 6 by 3.

arithmetic

quotient group
mod

G / H means the quotient of group G modulo

group theory

quotient set
mod

A/~ means the set of all ~ equivalence classe

set theory

square root
the (principal)

means the nonnegative number whose s

square root of
real numbers

complex square
root
the (complex)
square root of
complex numbers

if
then

is represented in polar c
.

mean
overbar;
... bar

(often read as "x bar") is the mean (average

statistics

complex conjugate
means the complex conjugate of z.
conjugate

(z can also be used for the conjugate of z, as

complex numbers

finite
sequence, tuple

finite sequence,

means the finite sequence/tuple

tuple
model theory

algebraic closure
algebraic closure of

is the algebraic closure of the field F.

field theory

topological closure
(topological) closure
of

is the topological closure of the set S.

This may also be denoted as cl(S) or Cl(S).

topology

unit vector
hat

(pronounced "a hat") is the normalized vers

geometry

estimator
estimator for

is the estimator or the estimate for the para

statistics

|...|

absolute value;
modulus
absolute value of;
modulus of

|x| means the distance along the real line (or a

between x and zero.

numbers

Euclidean norm or
Euclidean length or
magnitude
|x| means the (Euclidean) length of vector x.
Euclidean norm of
geometry

determinant
determinant of
matrix theory

|A| means the determinant of the matrix A

cardinality
cardinality of;

|X| means the cardinality of the set X.

size of;
order of

(# may be used instead as described below.)

set theory

norm
norm of;
length of

...

x means the norm of the element x of a no

linear algebra

nearest integer
function

x means the nearest integer to x.

nearest integer to
numbers

(This may also be written [x], x, nint(x) or Ro