Thursday, December 12, 2013

hyphenation - hyphen in adjectives with mathematical symbols

In mathematics and physics (and other fields of science), it is quite common to use symbols in lieu of names. For instance an object can have a symmetry G, i.e. the name of the symmetry is G.



I am wondering what are the rules for hyphenation when using the adjective version. Does one say that an object is G-symmetric or G symmetric?



In scientific papers, I've seen versions with and without hyphens, sometimes in the same document.



I would expect that the rule should be as for any compound adjective, i.e. hyphenated if attributive and not if predicative. However, to my non-native eyes, saying "this object is G symmetric" doesn't look correct. Is there any rule or at least partial consensus on this?

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