# The best way to draw this branching diagram figure in an equation

What is the simple and the best way to draw this figure in an equation?

Thank you! (tikz is fine.)

(Hopefully, such that $\simeq$ sign in between PDIFF and PL is formulated nicely. My version I shared above the $\simeq$ sign is not very good looking.)

It is not up to me to decide what the "best" way is, but the following is simple IMHO.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{forest}
\begin{document}
\begin{forest}
[TOP
[PDIFF
[DIFF]
[PL,edge label={node [midway,above,sloped] {$\sim$} } ]
]
]
\end{forest}
\end{document}


• thank you +1, this is one of the best way"s" -- I did not know the "forest" \usepackage{forest} before! – wonderich Jun 28 '19 at 22:37
• @wonderich You're welcome. forest is IMHO one of the most amazing TikZ-based packages that I am aware of. – user121799 Jun 28 '19 at 22:40

Here another proposal using tikz-cd package:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
\usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath}
\usepackage{tikz-cd}
\tikzset{close/.style={outer sep=-7pt}}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzcd}[column sep=0cm]
&\\
& \text{PDIFF} \arrow[ld, no head] \arrow[rd, close, "{\rotatebox{-40}{\scalebox{2.5}{$\sim$}}}", no head] & \\
\text{DIFF} &   & \text{PL}
\end{tikzcd}
\end{document}

• thank you +1, this is one of the best way"s" since I like tikzcd. :-) – wonderich Jun 29 '19 at 23:28
• @wonderich Welcome always for me :). I am happy to have help you. My regards. – Sebastiano Jun 30 '19 at 10:04

I draw by this simple way:

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\path (0,0) node (top) {TOP}
++(-90:1) node (pdiff) {PDIFF}
+(-130:1.5) node (diff) {DIFF}
+(-50:1.5) node (pl) {PL};

\draw (top)--(pdiff)--(diff)
(pdiff)--(pl) node[midway,sloped,above,yscale=.6]{$\sim$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}