Formatting of \bigwedge in display math mode

Question

I posted an answer on math.se here and in there I used double dollar mode. Now in that mode, I had

\bigwedge^ \hspace{1mm} k V

but upon rendering it looks weird like

enter image description here

How can I bring the k closer to the big wedge so that it looks more normal like in single dollar mode? In single dollar mode, we have $\bigwedge^k V$ looking a lot more natural.

Does this concern a document printed with TeX, LaTeX, ConTeXt or just MathJax? — egreg, Oct 12 '12 at 22:45
@egreg I am not sure, on math.se it is printed with MathJax but when I type up latex documents I get the same problem too, so it's probably a latex wide problem. — David Benjamin Lim, Oct 12 '12 at 22:46
You should never use $$ in LaTeX; probably \[\bigwedge\nolimits^{\!k}V\] is what you're looking for. — egreg, Oct 12 '12 at 22:48
@egreg Ahhh that works in gedit for me! However, in math.se I have to use $$ as \[ ..\] does not work. — David Benjamin Lim, Oct 12 '12 at 22:52
Recall that MathJax (used in Math.SE) is not LaTeX, while it uses some of its conventions. — egreg, Oct 12 '12 at 22:53
@egreg What's the difference between double dollar and \[..\]? — David Benjamin Lim, Oct 12 '12 at 22:54
@egreg Grazie. Thanks for your help! Now I'll change from double dollar. — David Benjamin Lim, Oct 12 '12 at 23:03
nobody has mentioned that in your example, you have a positive value for \hspace which would push the ^k away from the wedge. but this shouldn't work anyhow, since the superscript, which consists of multiple parts (the \hspace and the k) needs to be wrapped in braces. — barbara beeton, Oct 13 '12 at 13:39

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

10

Choose one among the following inputs, in LaTeX:

\[
\bigwedge^k V
\]

\[
\bigwedge\nolimits^k V
\]

\[
\bigwedge\nolimits^{\!k} V
\]

The respective results are shown below

enter image description here

The first is widely used, the second appears faulty. The command \! inserts a small backspacing.

Why not using $$ in LaTeX is explained here: Why is \[ ... \] preferable to $$ ... $$?

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Community

1

answered Oct 12 '12 at 22:58

egreg

1,121,712

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 04 '12 at 12:32

3

did you try the following?

\newcommand{\mybigwedge}[1]{\bigwedge^{\kern{-3pt}#1}}

(where the -3 can be fine tuned to your taste)

edited Nov 04 '12 at 12:32

Mensch

65,388

answered Nov 04 '12 at 12:04

user21741

41

I get error "illegal unit of measure (pt inserted)" – Mathy Mar 11 '21 at 14:28

Formatting of \bigwedge in display math mode

2 Answers2