# Math notation - Can we please have it enabled?

Thrilled to see this site start.

Could we please have math notation (mathjax) enabled? Quantum gates, states and many other things are represented by matrices and vectors. So we'll need it.

• This is indeed a crucial feature. I hope it will be added shortly. – Gabriel Romon Mar 12 '18 at 17:22
• @GabrielRomon I think we'll have it added soon after RC sees this, assuming he hasn't already – ItamarG3 Mar 12 '18 at 17:31
• I am nearly sure they will turn it on ASAP. Hopefully this meta post accelerates it. :-) – peterh says reinstate Monica Mar 12 '18 at 17:52
• I don't doubt the need for math markup, but we ask that communities demonstrate an actual need before we enable it. Mathjax is quite dependency heavy and can slow down the system, so we just want to assure it will be needed/used before we enable it. Posting a handful of question that would benefit substantially linked below would be enough for me to get it enabled. – Robert Cartaino Mar 12 '18 at 18:07
• Scanning through the questions so far, I don't see any that really need MathJax just yet. As @RobertCartaino said, we tend to wait for the site to demonstrate a need first. (See also: my answer to a similar question on Blender.) – Jon Ericson Mar 12 '18 at 18:14
• @RobertCartaino Perfectly reasonable. I'll reiterate when the need is clear – ItamarG3 Mar 12 '18 at 18:16
• @JonEricson We definitely need MathJax as soon as possible. There are already a few questions on the main site to which I want to write answers using the proper Dirac notations. As jknappen mentions below, we can't fake it long enough. – Sanchayan Dutta Mar 12 '18 at 18:31
• As a site about the intersection of theoretical computing and quantum mechanics, $\TeX$ is so obviously necessary that I'm just going to use it for now under the assumption that it'll be enabled soon. – Nat Mar 12 '18 at 19:08
• Mathjax has now been enabled. – Robert Cartaino Mar 12 '18 at 19:43
• @RobertCartaino Thanks! – ItamarG3 Mar 12 '18 at 19:44

Nice Job. Math/Latex support is clearly needed here, so…

$$\Huge MathJax: ACTIVATED$$

in record time, too!

<original post>

I don't doubt the need for math markup, but we ask that communities demonstrate an actual need before we enable it. Mathjax is quite dependency heavy and can slow down the system, so we just want to assure it will be needed/used before we enable it.

Please post a handful of questions that would benefit substantially from the addition of Mathjax markup so I can get it enabled.

Thank you.

I wanted to use math notation for the quantum states in this answer and I think faking them by using the code markup is inferior. Faking will also quickly fail when the states become a little bit more interesting.

• Yeah, qubit states, logical operations, etc., really need $\TeX$. – Nat Mar 12 '18 at 18:58

Since Robert Cartaino requested, here's an example where MathJax is needed:

Daniel Sank has pointed out here, in the comment section of this answer to the question Measurement of qubits after quantum gates:

I think this answer would be better with some basic mathematics, but that's difficult without mathjax enabled.

Indeed what he says is true. It's necessary that the site members can use proper MathJax notations to denote quantum gates, qubits, matrices, etc, to convey their points in a better manner and frame more complete answers.

• This doesn't seem like much of an answer. Can you edit this into the main question, maybe as a (growing) list of links showing our need (as Robert requests?) – Riker Mar 12 '18 at 18:50
• Yeah, I know it's not an answer. I was just giving an example as Robert requested. He didn't mention anything about "editing it into the main question". I don't think he actually wants us to edit the main question and add links to questions which need MathJax to answer properly. @Riker – Sanchayan Dutta Mar 12 '18 at 18:52