covering map arrow

Question

I am trying to draw an arrow going down similar to these we usually see in topolgy books. For example, when we study covering spaces we usually put the covering space and then an arrow and then the base space.

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Here's a pretty quick option using tikz

Note in particular the use of the positioning library, which allows you to specify nodes in terms of relative positions to other nodes- see Section 5.2 of the tikz & pgf documentation for more details. I also set the arrows as stealth which is short for 'stealth fighter jets'.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}

% set arrows as stealth fighter jets
\tikzset{>=stealth}

\begin{document}

\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \node (E) at (0,0) {$E$};
    \node[right=of E] (F) {$F$};
    \node[below=of F] (N) {$N$};
    \node[below=of E] (M) {$M$};
    \draw[->] (E)--(F) node [midway,above] {$\tilde{f}$};
    \draw[->] (F)--(N) node [midway,right] {$\pi_F$};
    \draw[->] (M)--(N) node [midway,below] {$f$};
    \draw[->] (E)--(M) node [midway,left] {$\pi_E$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}

\end{document}

Answer 2

I support the use of TikZ for diagrams, but if you are looking for something slightly simpler, you could try the amscd package.

@>>> and @VVV make right and down arrows, respectively. You can also use @<<< and @AAA for left or up arrows. The arrow labels go between the first and second characters or between the second and third characters, depending on whether you want them above/left or below/right.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amscd}
\begin{document}

\[
  \begin{CD}
    E @>\tilde{f}>> F\\
    @V\pi_{E}VV @VV\pi_{F}V\\
    M @>>f> N
  \end{CD}
\]

\end{document}

Answer 3

Old fashioned way with Xy-pic:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[all,cmtip]{xy}

\begin{document}
\xymatrix{
  E \ar[r]^{\tilde{f}} \ar[d]_{\pi_{E}} & F \ar[d]^{\pi_{F}} \\
  M \ar[r]_{f} & N
}
\end{document}