# Enforce continuous math environment when concatenating multiple math environments

I have a non-standard setup for my symbols. Instead of defining them explicitly in every equation, e.g.:

$$a_i={\bf b}^{(est)}_i \cdot {\bf c}^{(obs)}_i$$


I define acronyms (with the acronym package):

\acro{a}[$a$]{scalar quantity a}
\acro{b}[${\bf b}$]{vector quantity b}
\acro{c}[${\bf c}$]{vector quantity c}
\acro{epoch.i}[$_i$]{epoch $i$}
\acro{dot}[$\cdot$]{dot product}
\acro{est}[$^{(est}}$]{estimated}
\acro{obs}[$^{(obs}}$]{observed}


... and use the short form in the equations:

$$\acs{a}\acs{epoch.i}=\acs{b}\acs{est}\acs{epoch.i}\acs{dot}\acs{c}\acs{obs}\acs{epoch.i}$$


The motivation to do things in this way is do that I can relate a symbol to its meaning textually, such as:

The \acl{obs} \acl{b} is represented by \acs{b}\acs{obs}.

The problem is when there are superscript mixed with subscripts, e.g.:

{\bf b}^{(est)}_i;


... what I effectively get is:

${\bf b}$$^{(est)}$$_i$


... which means that there is a concatenation of math environments instead of a continuous one, resulting that the subscript appears after the superscript and not under it, as in the usual way.

Any suggestions to fix this without destroying my nice acronym setup?

• Welcome to TeX.SX!. When asking questions it is better to provide a full minimal working example (MWE) both in order to demonstrate what you are trying to do and to help others help you. The MWE should like like \documentclass...\begin{document}...\end{document}, it should compile and contain close to the minimal amount of code needed to explain/demonstrate what you are asking. This saves a lot of time for everyon – Andrew Oct 27 '14 at 12:22
• This must surely generate errors in any display math environment not just in superscripts, also it will generate poorer spacing than would otherwise be the case your _i for example, will always superscript a null atom and so will not take account of the size of the thing being subscripted or of any font specified kerning: compare $P_i$ with $P{}_i$ – David Carlisle Oct 27 '14 at 12:47
• @Andrew, thanks for the heads up. I forgot about the MWE. My bad. I focused on explaining the issue but that's no substitute, I understand. – Joao Encarnacao Oct 27 '14 at 13:31

I don't really know how much can go wrong with this; for instance it doesn't work with hyperref, but is a starting point.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[printonlyused,withpage]{acronym}

\protected\def\EM#1{\relax\ifmmode#1\else$#1$\fi}
\makeatletter
\newcommand\acsm[1]{%
\@ifundefined{fn@#1}
{\underline{#1}}
{\expandafter\expandafter\expandafter\@firstoftwo\csname fn@#1\endcsname}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{acronym}
\acro{a}[\EM{a}]{scalar quantity a}
\acro{b}[\EM{\mathbf{b}}]{vector quantity b}
\acro{c}[\EM{\mathbf{c}}]{vector quantity c}
\acro{epoch.i}[\EM{_i}]{epoch $i$}
\acro{dot}[\EM{\cdot}]{dot product}
\acro{est}[\EM{^{(est)}}]{estimated}
\acro{obs}[\EM{^{(obs)}}]{observed}
\acro{sum}[\EM{\sum}]{sum}
\end{acronym}

$$\acsm{a}\acsm{epoch.i}=\acsm{b}\acsm{est}\acsm{epoch.i}\acsm{dot}\acsm{c}\acsm{obs}\acsm{epoch.i}$$

$\acsm{b}\acsm{est}\acsm{epoch.i}\acsm{sum}_{1\le k\le n}a_k$

\end{document}


Seems like a strange way to write TeX to me:) Nonetheless, I think that you can do what you want if you just use \ensuremath instead of explicitly entering math-mode with $...$ inside your acronyms:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[printonlyused,withpage]{acronym}

\begin{document}

\begin{acronym}
\acro{a}[\ensuremath{a}]{scalar quantity a}
\acro{b}[\ensuremath{{\mathbf b}}]{vector quantity b}
\acro{c}[\ensuremath{{\mathbf c}}]{vector quantity c}
\acro{epoch.i}[\ensuremath{{}_i}]{epoch $i$}
\acro{dot}[\ensuremath{\cdot}]{dot product}
\acro{est}[\ensuremath{{}^{(est)}}]{estimated}
\acro{obs}[\ensuremath{{}^{(obs)}}]{observed}
\end{acronym}

$$\acs{a}\acs{epoch.i}=\acs{b}\acs{est}\acs{epoch.i}\acs{dot}\acs{c}\acs{obs}\acs{epoch.i}$$

$\acs{b}\acs{est}\acs{epoch.i}$

\end{document}

• I know you copied from the OP, but \bf b should be \mathbf{b} and (est) should be \mathrm(est) and same for obs – David Carlisle Oct 27 '14 at 12:41
• @DavidCarlisle, you are correct. I posted the question quickly and overlooked that. Thank you for the correction. – Joao Encarnacao Oct 27 '14 at 13:28
• @Andrew, thank you. Your example is very useful because of things like \ensuremath{{}^{(est}}. – Joao Encarnacao Oct 27 '14 at 13:30
• I'm afraid I was too quick to identify this as the correct answer. In fact, the sub/superscript appear one after the other, not flushed to the left next to the main symbol. Compare: $\ensuremath{{\mathbf b}}\ensuremath{{}^{(est)}}\ensuremath{{}_i}$ (not good) with $\ensuremath{{\mathbf b}}\ensuremath{^{(est)}}\ensuremath{_i}$. Unfortunately, even defining the acronyms without the {} particle does not help. For this reason, I removed the green tick mark from this answer. – Joao Encarnacao Oct 30 '14 at 9:41