Trying to identify mathematical symbol

Question

I encountered this symbol in an old Adobe mathematical character set, and I'm trying to identify it. I can't find it on Wikipedia's list of mathematical symbols, and it's difficult to describe it for the purposes of a Google search.

Here is an image:

enter image description here

I've been trying to draw it at http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html but with no luck so far. — Qiaochu Yuan, Dec 28 '11 at 20:35
It would possibly be easier if you could provide some context that you have seen this symbol in. — hmakholm left over Monica, Dec 28 '11 at 20:38
@HenningMakholm, unfortunately I simply found the symbol in an old mathematical character set from Adobe (Universal-GreekMathWithPi). The character set includes Greek letters and various mathematical symbols. This was the only symbol I didn't recognize. — Channel72, Dec 28 '11 at 20:41

hmakholm left over Monica · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-28T21:01:43.883

3

This looks like U+03D0 GREEK BETA SYMBOL. See the unicode chart containing it.

Apparently it's just a typographical variant of $\beta$ that someone may have used for some particular purpose, like some distinguish $\phi/\varphi$, $\epsilon/\varepsilon$, $\theta/\vartheta$.

See also this mailing list thread. It seems to be unknown whether this symbol ever had any mathematical use.

edited Dec 28 '11 at 21:01

answered Dec 28 '11 at 20:54

hmakholm left over Monica

286,031

Good eye, @Henning :-) – robjohn Dec 28 '11 at 20:59

robjohn · Answer 2 · 2011-12-28T21:07:59.130

1

According to this PDF, the unicode for this character is 0x3D0, which is The Greek Beta Symbol (an alternate).

Here it is in $\LaTeX$: $\Huge\unicode{x3d0}$.

edited Dec 28 '11 at 21:07

answered Dec 28 '11 at 20:57

robjohn

345,667

This looks like a third form of beta to me. =) – Srivatsan Dec 30 '11 at 11:54
@Srivatsan: $\unicode{x0392}$, $\unicode{x03B2}$, and $\unicode{x03D0}$? – robjohn Dec 30 '11 at 14:25
Ah, it's my computer's fault. My laptop and desktop machine render the symbol in your answer differently. – Srivatsan Dec 30 '11 at 18:15

Trying to identify mathematical symbol

2 Answers2