usm-thesis

This is an attempt to create a LaTeX template for Thesis presented at the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria (or USM or UTFSM).

Initial Steps

This class is based on the standard book class of LaTeX, so it accept structure given by parts, chapters, sections, subsections, paragraphs and subparagraphs.

Packages

This class was born in the physics department, so it loads many mathematical packages, such as:

• xparse
• amsmath
• amstext
• amsfonts
• amssymb
• amsthm
• mathrsfs
• dsfont
• stmaryrd

Additionally, some useful packages are load:

• graphicx: allow the inclusion of figures

• xcolor: allows the use of colours (even their mixing)

• hyperref: allows the use of hyperlinks

  Options: linktocpage,colorlinks=true,urlcolor=blue,linkcolor=blue,citecolor=red

• caption: allows customisation of captions

  Options: margin=20pt,format=hang,font=small,labelfont=sc,textfont=sl

• tikz: useful to draw using code

  • pgfplots: allows the creation of scientific plots using tikz
  • pgfplotstable:allows the creation of tables (with ease) from data files, using tiks and pgfplots
  • mdframed: uses tikzfor drawing coloured boxes

• array: allows the use of extra column behaviours in tables

• siunitx: defines commands for different physical units, numerical quantities and tables.

• subfigure

• titlesec: Redefines the sectioning typography. It uses tikz in the design.

Title Page

For defining the title page one uses a couple of commands:

• In the preamble: a command called \definethesis which accepts two arguments, the title and the author.

    \definethesis{The title  %Here the title
       }{The Author   %Here the Author
       }
  

• In the body: a command called \thesistitlepage which takes three arguments:

  • Name of the advisor,

  • The thesis statement, and

  • the date

      \thesistitlepage{Advisor: Iv\'an Schmidt % Name of the advisor
         }{Trabajo de tesis presentado en cumplimiento parcial de los requisitos para el grado de Magister en Ciencias, menci\'on f\'isica, de la Universidad T\'ecnica Federico Santa Mar\'ia. %The thesis statement
         }{August, 2014 %The date
         }
    

Front Matter

After generating the title page, as customary in the book class, the front-matter can be declared using the command \frontmatter.

• For the front matter, page style special. That is achieved with the command \pagestyle{special}

• In order to generate the committee page (where the members of the committee sign the thesis), the class provides the command \committee with accepts arguments in the form of a comma separated list, containing the name and affiliation of each member of the committee.

    \committee{
      {Iv\'an Schmidt}{USM},
      {Jorge Zanelli}{CECS},
      {Claudio Dib}{USM},
      {Stanley Kubrick}{Bates}
    }
  

• There is a \Dedication command which takes one argument. It places the dedicatory is placed in the lower part of the page and flushed right.

• The class also provides a command to create a creative commons box. The command is \CC. By default the box creates a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License (by-sa) logo.

Main Matter

In this part of the document one should call the \chapters composing the thesis.

• The first command after the \mainmatter is \pagestyle{main}, which changes the numeration of the pages and the format for the new chapters.

• For the sake of clarity, the plain LaTeX files should be saved in the folder called Documents, and to insert their content into the thesis one uses the command \input{Documents/xxxxxxxx}, where xxxxxxxx is the name of the file. Note: since only tex files are supposed to be on the folder, no extension is needed. Example:

    \input{Documents/ch1}
    \input{Documents/ch2}
    \input{Documents/ch3}
  

• As in a standard book, appendices can be included after the command \appendix. Notice that the chapter numeration changes to capitalised alphabet letters. Example:

    \appendix
    \input{Documents/ap1}
    \input{Documents/ap2}
  

Back Matter

The \backmatter command denotes the ending of the body of the thesis, and at this stage one should add the bibliography.

Since the best way of generating the bibliography is to use bibtex, in the Base.tex file a line of reference-calling was added.

\nocite{IAS1,IAS2,Gilmore,...,CY-friends}

Notice that this is for the sake of completeness in the example... Please, remove this line when you start writing your manuscript!!!

The bibtex style used by the class is utphys, which is compatible with arXiv citations and DOI hyper-reference.

\bibliographystyle{utphys}
\bibliography{References}
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{\bibname}

• Since utphys.bst is not included in the standard LaTeX distribution, it has been included in the bundle of files.
• A (huge) exaple of bibfile called References.bib has been included as well. It is highly recommended that you start your own bibfile.
• If you start your new bibfile, and you call it YYYYYYYY.bib, then you should change the command \bibliography{References} to \bibliography{YYYYYYYY}.