# How can I typeset those three mathematical symbols? [duplicate]

I need to typeset (in one of my post on Mathematics.SX) the following three mathematical symbols but I don't know how:

1. the symbol for the Heaviside function,
2. the symbol for "not equal", as in "x not equal to 0",
3. the symbol for a partial derivative.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

## marked as duplicate by Werner, Mico, Martin Schröder, Guido, ChrisSAug 25 '14 at 23:38

• You really need to be more precise about what you want. However, for finding concrete symbols try tex.stackexchange.com/q/14/15925 – Andrew Swann Aug 25 '14 at 9:43
• Partial derivative operator symbol: \partial ;-) Heaviside function symbol is normally the upcase \Theta . Not equal: \neq. I don't know, whether they work in Math.SX – user31729 Aug 25 '14 at 9:45
• Hi and welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look at our starter guide. Please note that Math.SE uses MathJaX, which is not exactly LaTeX. I believe that most relevant stuff is available in Math.SE's MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference, the list includes all of greek letters, \neq and \partial :) – yo' Aug 25 '14 at 9:50
• @Jubobs: I can't add an example with esdiff as the post has been closed and the mentioned link is not relevant to include it. Do you know how one can ask for re-opening it? – Bernard Aug 25 '14 at 11:47
• I think this question should be deleted. The title is useless and I don't see a way to fix it. Eventually you could open 3 new questions, one for each symbol with a better title. But I don't think that makes sense. In future, you might eventually want to try chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/41/tex-latex-and-friends – Martin Thoma Aug 25 '14 at 15:46

As far as I know (unless there are several Heaviside functions) the most common notation is simply H, others include u (unit step function) or θ (\theta). Never seen Θ (\Theta). For partial derivatives, I would recommend the esdiff package, which has handy macros for typesetting partial derivatives of any order.

Here is an example with the esdiff package:

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage[thinc]{esdiff}

\DeclareMathOperator{\Heavi}{H}

\begin{document}

$\diff{(\Heavi(x))}{x} = \delta(x) ,\qquad \diff[2]{(\sin x)}{x} = -\sin x , \qquad \diff*{\mathrm{e}^x}{x}{0} = 1$%

$\diffp{f}{{x^2}{y^3}},\qquad \diffp*{f}{{x^2}{y^3}}{(0,0)}$%

\end{document}