[Tex/LaTex] How to selectively substitute a letter with another symbol representing the same letter

fontsmath-modesymbols

First of all, sorry for the vague title, feel free to edit if you have a better one.

I have two mathematical entities represented by the same symbol, say the letter a, that should be used only in math-mode. As both entities are usually represented with a, I would like to keep the same letter for both of them, but making them appear a little different.

How would you achieve that?

  1. Finding an alternative symbol (preferred way; I tried using \mathcal but it supports only capital letters—otherwise the result would be satisfactory)
  2. Loading another font altogether and print one of them in the second font
  3. Another option

Requirements:

  1. Support for both math-mode and bold face
  2. No superscripts, hats, tildes etc.

Here is what both symbols should be able to do:
enter image description here

\documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\begin{document}
$a$ $\boldsymbol{a}$ $\hat{\boldsymbol{a}}$
\end{document}

Best Answer

You could use \mathsf. But are you sure this is a good idea? I think it could be very hard for the reader to distinguish the two.

\documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}

\usepackage{mathtools}
\def\symbola{a}
\def\symbolb{\mathsf a}

\begin{document}
$\symbola\symbolb%
\boldsymbol{\symbola}\boldsymbol{\symbolb}%
\hat{\symbola}\hat{\symbolb}%
\hat{\boldsymbol\symbola}\hat{\boldsymbol\symbolb}$
\end{document}

enter image description here

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