[Tex/LaTex] How to write greek letters in BibTeX entry

Question

I'm a LyX user.

I have an article title with the following text:

β-glucosidase

I have this entry in BibTeX so I tried to type \beta-glucosidase or {\beta}-glucosidase but they don't work. I tried many research on internet and this website, I can't find out why the command \beta does not work. I do not want that it appears in italic like {$\beta$}

Any suggestion?

Answer 1

\beta is a math-mode only macro, so it cannot be used in text mode. There are a couple packages which provides upright Greek letters.

• upgreek defines \upalpha, \upbeta etc. which are meant to be used in math mode, i.e. $\upbeta$.

• textgreek defines \textalpha, \textbeta etc. which are meant to be used in text mode.

In your .lyx file, go to Document --> Settings --> LaTeX preamble, add

\usepackage{textgreek}

and in the .bib file, write \textbeta. Alternatively, add \usepackage{upgreek} and write \upbeta.

The latter option has a heavier beta, so use whichever you prefer:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{upgreek,textgreek}
\begin{document}
$\beta$ -- \verb|\beta|

$\upbeta$ -- \verb|\upbeta|

\textbeta{} -- \verb|\textbeta|

\end{document}