# Hat accent on bold greek letters in math mode

I would like to insert an hat accent on bold letters/symbols in math mode.

For latin letters, e.g. the q char, I insert this commands in my preamble

\newcommand{\paramhat}[1]{\boldsymbol{\hat{\textbf{#1}}}}
\newcommand{\param}[1]{\textbf{\text{#1}}}


And then \param{q} and \paramhat{q} in the text and everything work as expected.

But the question is: how to make this to work with greek letters/symbols?

I need to use it on a \theta symbol. I've tried $\boldsymbol{\hat{\theta}}$ but I think that the hat accent has slightly shifted to the right, as shown in the following image.

There is a way to move the hat accent slightly to the left?

Notes:

• amsmath package loaded
• euler font for math
• \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
• \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

Plain TeX, and LaTeX, have a \skew macro which is described in the TeXBook.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb,amsfonts,amsthm}
\usepackage{eulervm}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{ll}
Normal: & a$\boldsymbol{\hat{\theta}}$b \\
\textbackslash skew-.5:   & a$\boldsymbol{\skew{-.5}\hat\theta}$b \\
\textbackslash skew-1:   & a$\boldsymbol{\skew{-1}\hat\theta}$b \\
\end{tabular}

\end{document}


with \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} the hat moves: it is lowered and shifted a bit to the left of its non-T1 position.

This also works great for moving the hat in beamer when the math mode font is italicized. For my quantum mechanics work, I define:

\newcommand{\op}[1]{\skew{4}\hat{#1}}

Which puts the hats in the right place, not too far to the left, with the new command \op{H}. YMMV.

It doesn't look shifted to me, but you can use \hskip:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{euler}

\begin{document}

\Huge
\begin{tabular}{ll}
Normal: & a$\boldsymbol{\hat{\theta}}$b \\
.1pt:   & a$\hskip-.1pt\boldsymbol{\hat{\hskip.1pt\theta}}$b \\
1mm:    & a$\hskip-1mm\boldsymbol{\hat{\hskip1mm\theta}}$b
\end{tabular}

\end{document}


For me, this produces the following output:

• note that the original question asks about theta using the euler font, in which the greek is upright. – barbara beeton Jun 21 '13 at 15:45
• @barbarabeeton It's the same principle, but you're right. I've edited the answer. – Vedran Šego Jun 21 '13 at 16:12