[Tex/LaTex] Typesetting: Footnotes in math mode – confusable with exponents

footnotesmath-modesymbols

Consider the following text sample:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}

The fermion fields consist of two different chiral components, which
are by convention called left- and right-handed. Chiral theories like
the theory of electroweak interaction treat the chiral field
components differently. The most prominent example of this asymmetry
is the right-handed neutrino (or left-handed antineutrino) which, if
assumed massless
\footnote{The observation of neutrino oscillations requires non-zero
  neutrino masses. However, the numerical value of these masses is
  still unknown.  So far, only upper bounds have been measured,
  proving the neutrino masses to be several orders of magnitude
  smaller than masses of other fermions.}, does not
couple to any known type of interaction and is hence unobservable.

The complete gauge group of the standard model is
$SU\left(3\right)_{C}\otimes SU\left(2\right)_{T} \footnote{The
  \ensuremath{SU\left(2\right)} group is commonly displayed with the index
  \ensuremath{L} in the literature. However, to keep consistency with
  the choice of \ensuremath{T} for the weak isospin, the latter is
  used for identification throughout this thesis.}  \otimes
U\left(1\right)_{Y}$.  From this, particle interactions can be derived.

\end{document}

The footnote in math mode works as expected – maybe apart form the fact that it's a little too far from the right, but I could cope with that with some \hspace{-1ex} or alike.

What is more of the issue here is that I find that the footnote superscript might be confusing to the reader, since it looks like the expression is being squared instead. While for anybody familiar with the topic, there is no real confusion possible, the whole point of the footnote is clarifying the notation. Hence, I feel a strong desire to achieve a maximum of readability and well-definedness at this particular spot.

Any suggestions on how to treat this problem? I wouldn't mind switching to other footnote symbols (like letters), since I don't have that many footnotes – but since almost any thinkable symbol has already been used for mathematical purposes at some point, I don't feel this buys me anything…

Best Answer

I would say that footnote in equations is not really a good practice, and you should find another way to do that...

However, perhaps you could change the mark to get a less ambiguous symbol (dagger etc.)

\renewcommand\thefootnote{\fnsymbol{footnote}}

Edit:

As pointed out in a comment, using symbols can also be confusing (since \dagger can typically be a Hermitian conjugate in quantum mechanics...); another possibility would be to use circled numbers (as proposed in an answer of this question) with the pifont package

% circled number: ①②③④⑤⑥⑦⑧⑨
\usepackage{pifont}
\renewcommand\thefootnote{\ding{\numexpr171+\value{footnote}}}
Related Question