X-like symbol for Cartesian Product (Blyth)

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on the use of a large 'times' symbol, resembling a capital X, for representing the Cartesian Product in LaTeX, as referenced in T. S. Blyth's book on Module Theory. Participants noted that while the \bigotimes command works with MathJax, the \bigtimes command does not function as intended. A workaround using a custom command \xprod was shared, which allows users to create a large sans-serif capital X for the Cartesian Product. Ultimately, the consensus suggests that sticking with the standard product symbol \prod is advisable for clarity.

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In T. S. Blyth's book on Module Theory, the author uses a large 'times' symbol (similar to a capital X) for the Cartesian Product as seen in the text below (taken from Blyth page 58)
View attachment 3458Can someone help me with the Latex code for such a symbol?Peter
 
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Hmm, I've been reading up on this for a little bit now and it might be that this isn't possible with the normal AMS package.

There is a \bigotimes command that works with Mathjax but \bigtimes doesn't.

$$\bigotimes$$

Here is a SE post about this topic. Maybe someone else can find a solution. :)
 
Jameson said:
Hmm, I've been reading up on this for a little bit now and it might be that this isn't possible with the normal AMS package.

There is a \bigotimes command that works with Mathjax but \bigtimes doesn't.

$$\bigotimes$$

Here is a SE post about this topic. Maybe someone else can find a solution. :)

Thanks Jameson ... yes, I experimented with \bigtimes as well ...

Pity that there appears to be no solution to this ...

Peter
 
Using MathJax, the best I can do is $$\mathop{\vcenter{\huge\times}}_{i=1}^n x_i$$. If you are using a complete implementation of LaTeX, I found a useful post here showing how to use a Maltese cross as a large operator symbol. I adapted that to use with a large sansserif capital X, and I found that this works very well. The code
Code:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\newcommand{\xprod}{%
  \mathop{ %
    \mathchoice{\dobigx\huge}
               {\dobigx\Large}
               {\dobigx\normalsize}
               {\dobigx\small}
    }
}
\newcommand{\dobigx}[1]{%
  \vcenter{\kern.2ex\hbox{\sffamily#1X}\kern.2ex}}
Here it is in text, with the usual product symbol for comparison: $\xprod_{i=1}^n x_i$, $\prod_{i=1}^n x_i$. In display style, it looks like
\[
\xprod_{i=1}^n x_i \qquad \prod_{i=1}^n x_i
\]
\end{document}
produced this output:

View attachment 3465

In practice, I think it is much better to stick with the usual product symbol $$\prod.$$
 

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