\vec{x} but with arrow from right to left?

I have two variables: \vec{x} and another one which is somehow dual to the first. Therefore I would like to symbolize the second with something similar but a leftarrow on top of the x. I already tried \stackrel{leftarrwo}{x} but it looks to different (too big gap between x and the arrow, and too big arrow).

Is there a way to define a \cev command which does what I want?

-
It's not usual to have a 'greeting' in your question: I've edited slightly to follow the house style we've adopted! –  Joseph Wright Apr 6 '11 at 19:15

This may not be the best way, but two \reflectbox commands will do the trick:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand{\cev}[1]{\reflectbox{\ensuremath{\vec{\reflectbox{\ensuremath{#1}}}}}}
\begin{document}
$\vec{a} \quad \cev{a} \quad \vec{b} \quad \cev{b}$
\end{document}

-

The \vec is an accent (and its own symbol; hence all \leftarrow and similar constructs look different), and the default Computer Modern font doesn't have a symbol which would be its mirror.

In addition to rotating/mirroring the vec accent symbol, as shown by Ian, you could make use of one provided by, say, STIX/XITS (if you use XeTeX). Then you could define:

\def\cev{\XeTeXmathaccent"0"1"20D6}
% The first number ("0) denotes the math type (0=Ord,1=Op,2=Bin,3=Rel,etc.)
% The second number ("1) denotes the math family (0=Roman,1=Italic,etc.)
% The last number ("20D6) denotes the actual glyph slot
$\cev a \qquad \vec a$


Which could look like:

-

The extensible \overleftarrow might do the trick. The problem is that the arrow is bigger than the one used for \vec, as shown by $\overleftarrow{a}\overrightarrow{a}\vec{a}$ . To have consistent arrows, you should redefine $\vec$ :

\documentclass{minimal}
\renewcommand\vec[1]{\overrightarrow{#1}}
\newcommand\cev[1]{\overleftarrow{#1}}

\begin{document}
$\cev{a}\vec{a}$
\end{document}


Another solution is the \overset command from amsmath, used with \leftarrow. However, the arrow is still bigger than the one from the \vec command.

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
$\overset{\leftarrow}{v}\overset{\rightarrow}{v}\vec{v}$
\end{document}


*Edited to add * Using \shortleftarrow from the stmaryrd package slightly improves the above construction.

-
\usepackage{stmaryrd}