# Symbol for Gaussian distribution

What is the symbol for the normal density function in LaTeX?

• When I went to look it up I realised that it is \mathcal{N}. Sorry. – asdf123 Dec 12 '10 at 16:46
• @asdf123: It would be nice if you just note the solution you found below as an answer and mark it as "accepted". This way everybody can see that the question is answered resp. closed and not open any more. – Stefan Kottwitz Dec 12 '10 at 16:58
• For such things it's always worth to take a look at »Wikipedia«. – Thorsten Donig Dec 12 '10 at 17:30
• @asdfl123 @Thorsten ... and if you look under the edit tag in the Wikipedia you will see the actual LaTeX command! – Yiannis Lazarides Dec 12 '10 at 20:06
• FWIW, LaTeX doesn't attach any particular meaning to symbols, so asking what symbol is used for a particular function is not a question about LaTeX, it's a question about math. Only once you know what the symbol looks like does it become a LaTeX question ("how do I create this glyph in LaTeX"). – David Z Dec 13 '10 at 17:00

asdf123 wrote:

...I realised that it is \mathcal{N}.


From Wikipedia:

where code for the displayed equation is:

$X \sim \mathcal{N}(\mu,\,\sigma^{2})\,.$

• What i really wanted was \sigma^2, not mathcal{N}, so thanks for writing the full form. – cgnorthcutt Oct 2 '19 at 4:05
X \hookrightarrow  \mathcal{N}(\mu,\,\sigma^{2})


this one is better I think :p