Left Harpoon Down in LaTeX (\leftharpoondown)

Where it is used

Draws a left-pointing harpoon with its barb below, the lower half of a split arrowhead.

\leftharpoondown is the bottom half of the equilibrium symbol \rightleftharpoons, where it sits under \rightharpoonup. On its own it appears rarely, in some reaction diagrams or as a reversed weak-convergence marker. If you want an equilibrium arrow, use \rightleftharpoons directly instead of stacking harpoons by hand. Note that harpoons are distinct from \leftarrow and should not be swapped casually. It has relation spacing like ordinary arrows. Its siblings are \leftharpoonup, \rightharpoonup, and \rightharpoondown. In most papers you will not need it at all, since a plain arrow says the same thing more clearly.

Minimal compilable example

Paste this into an empty .tex file and compile it with pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Left Harpoon Down: $\leftharpoondown$

\[ \mathrm{A} \rightleftharpoons \mathrm{B}, \quad x \leftharpoondown y \]
\end{document}

Related symbols

• Right Harpoon Down\rightharpoondown
• Southwest Arrow\swarrow
• Northwest Arrow\nwarrow
• Right Harpoon Up\rightharpoonup
• Left Harpoon Up\leftharpoonup
• Southeast Arrow\searrow

Frequently asked questions

How do I write Left Harpoon Down in LaTeX?

Type \leftharpoondown in math mode, for example $\mathrm{A} \rightleftharpoons \mathrm{B}, \quad x \leftharpoondown y$. It works in plain LaTeX without loading any package.

Which package do I need for \leftharpoondown?

None. \leftharpoondown is part of standard LaTeX, so it compiles with nothing in the preamble but the document class.

Can I use \leftharpoondown in text mode, or only in math mode?

Only in math mode. Outside $...$ LaTeX stops with "Missing $ inserted", so write $\leftharpoondown$ in running text. If you only need the glyph in text, paste the Unicode character ↽ instead (with XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX and a font that has it).