# The difference between $\alpha _1$ and $\alpha_1$

Many people would edit my $\alpha _1$ into $\alpha_1$, do you know whether there are any reasons for the default space?

Which is better?

Since I generate the .tex by Mathematica, the spaces are generated by default. That's why they are there in the first place.

• Do you also have a backslash before the initial as of alphas? And the default is without the whitespace. Why do you think there should be a space? Sep 1 '13 at 12:43
• @percusse I think they have, since I use them in Math.SE Sep 1 '13 at 12:49
• @HyperGroups your question isn't very clear really, but note that Math.SE doesn't use TeX it uses MathJax which is an entirely different rendering system (and off topic for this site) although spaces before _ are ignored by mathjax as well. Sep 1 '13 at 12:55
• @DavidCarlisle Hi, the spaces will also be kept in my .tex file, I don't only use that in Math.SE. Is space needed to remove? Sep 1 '13 at 13:06
• @HyperGroups The space is irrelevant it does nothing, most people would not add it but if you've added it you don't need to remove it Sep 1 '13 at 13:23

Space tokens in math mode have no effect so $alpha_1$ and $alpha _1$ are equivalent, however alpha is very strange input in math mode. If you intended to compare $\alpha_1$ and $\alpha _1$ then again they are equivalent, but for a different reason in that case. There the space character is just absorbed while parsing the the \alpha command name and does not produce a token at all.