Disclaimer: I searched the TEX.SE before deciding to post this question since, despite having see several question addressing the spacing behavior of the \overline
and \underline
operators, no one of them seems giving me some advice on how to solve the problem described below. However, due to tight timing, I may have missed to find the right Q&A.
I want to define a set of symbols for the integral analogues of usual vector operators \DeclareMathOperator{\nabla}
, \DeclareMathOperator{\nabla\cdot}
, \DeclareMathOperator{\nabla\times}
and finally \DeclareMathOperator{\Delta}
that Claus Müller used in his1969 monograph Foundations of the Mathematical Theory of Electromagnetic Waves (pp. 20-22): since they are integral analogues, I thought to \overline
the usual del operator and \underline
the Laplace operator symbols, in order to construct all other these basic symbols by vaguely recalling a "mean value" concept. So I tried the following, simple code
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
%\usepackage{fouriernc}
%\usepackage{stix}
\DeclareMathOperator{\inabla}{\overline\nabla}
\DeclareMathOperator{\privalov}{\underline\Delta}
\begin{document}
\[
\inabla\quad\privalov
\]
\end{document}
However, while being nearly satisfied of the result when using the Computer Modern fonts,
I would like to reduce further the spacing between the symbols and the lines over/below them, in order to make them appear as unique symbol, not merely the juxtaposition of two, and
I noticed that the above defined operators does not behave well under font changes from the point of view of point 1, as shown in the following picture
since the spacing increases too much (obviously fro my aesthetic point of view)
Thus my question is: is it possible to reduce the spacing between \overline
and \underline
operators and the \nabla
and \Delta
symbols while maintaining the triangular shape and expressing the spacing as a fraction of the symbol height, in order to maintain the feel "font change invariant"?
\DeclareMathOperator
?\DeclareMathOperator{\yyy}{\nabla\cdot}
or\DeclareMathOperator{\zzz}{\nabla\times}
, you get the wrong spacing. I’d suggest something along the lines of\newcommand*{\xxx}[1]{\nabla #1}
(no space), or\newcommand*{\zzz}[1]{\nabla \times #1}
(the\times
gets correctly spaced as a binary operator).\newcommand
declaration. Thank you for sharing your insight.