# plus-minus symbol with parenthesis around the minus sign

I need one (or maybe two) LaTeX symbols that I don't find in the comprehensive list of symbols. The symbol is like the normal plus-minus sign \pm, but with parenthesis around the minus sign. Is such a symbol available somewhere? And if not, what is the best way to construct it from (, \pm and )?

Preferably I would also want the opposite: \mp with parenthesis around the plus.

Any ideas?

• please provide a citation to where these symbols can be found in published material, and also say what they are used for and provide a meaningful name. they are not in unicode. send this information also to tech-support@ams.org; i am the representative of the stix project to unicode, and if suitable documentation is provided, i will communicate uncoded symbols to them for consideration. May 6, 2011 at 12:34
• @barbara: I actually asked because a friend asked me about it, so I'm not sure of the context in which is was needed. I'll check if he has any references. I think I've seen such a symbol in basic math or physics textbooks, eg, to indicate that a quadratic equation has two roots of different signs, but only the positive root is of (say physical) interest.
– Olof
May 6, 2011 at 13:32
• I did a web search for this symbol and found this discussion. This kind of a symbol is very useful when neglecting, say, negative (or positive) solutions to quadratic equations because of known constraints. I use it often in my teaching. How extensive would the list of pointers to literature have to be in order for the symbol to be considered to be added?
– user11079
Jan 23, 2012 at 14:17

I once proposed the following definitions

\newcommand\varpm{\mathbin{\vcenter{\hbox{%
\oalign{\hfil$\scriptstyle+$\hfil\cr
\noalign{\kern-.3ex}
$\scriptscriptstyle({-})$\cr}%
}}}}
\newcommand\varmp{\mathbin{\vcenter{\hbox{%
\oalign{$\scriptstyle({+})$\cr
\noalign{\kern-.3ex}
\hfil$\scriptscriptstyle-$\hfil\cr}%
}}}}


Example

\documentclass{article}
\newcommand\varpm{\mathbin{\vcenter{\hbox{%
\oalign{\hfil$\scriptstyle+$\hfil\cr
\noalign{\kern-.3ex}
$\scriptscriptstyle({-})$\cr}%
}}}}
\newcommand\varmp{\mathbin{\vcenter{\hbox{%
\oalign{$\scriptstyle({+})$\cr
\noalign{\kern-.3ex}
\hfil$\scriptscriptstyle-$\hfil\cr}%
}}}}

\begin{document}
$a\varpm b\varmp c$
\end{document}


• Is this still the 'best' solution out there? I find the vertical gap between + and - too large, and would like the parentheses to be smaller and somewhat denser.
– Jost
Nov 26, 2014 at 15:10
• @Jost You can reduce the spacing with \kern-0.5ex. About the parentheses, it would be possible to reduce them too, but I'm not sure it's worth trying. Nov 26, 2014 at 15:23
• You can add \hspace{-0.1ex} between the + sign to make the parentheses denser.
– yoki
Nov 26, 2014 at 15:27
• @yoki \mkern-3mu or so. Nov 26, 2014 at 15:28