Consider this MWE
\documentclass[border=10mm,varwidth=true]{standalone}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
%\usepackage{mathptmx}
\begin{document}
\[
\sqrt{n+1}\sqrt{2+(n+2)^2}
\]
\end{document}
As it stands with CM fonts we get
Adding mathptmx
we get
Which is really horrible, especially it it scales like that in the text.
Any ideas on how to better control \sqrt
with mathptmx
(and no we cannot change the font package, it is what the publisher is using). Note that I'd like to not have to deal with a lot of messing with phantoms.
\sqrt
-sizing threshold. try using (top)\smash
on the superscript. (haven't tried it myself, so don't know if there will be side effects.) – barbara beeton Jun 28 '16 at 13:59