Absolute value's vertical bar symbol in Text cell formula

Question

I want to typeset Gielis's superformula using the DisplayFormula cell style. The result should look like $$\rho = R \left(\varphi \right) \left[ \left| \frac{1}{a} \cos \left( \frac{m}{4} \varphi\right)\right| ^{p_2} + \left| \frac{1}{b} \sin \left( \frac{m}{4} \varphi \right) \right| ^{p_3} \right] ^{{-}\frac{1}{p_1}}$$

If I don't write $p_2$ and $p_3$, the result is quite fine, as

\[Rho]=R (\[CurlyPhi])[|1/a cos(m/4 \[CurlyPhi])|+|1/b sin(m/4 \[CurlyPhi])|]^(-(1/Subscript[p, 1]))

produces this:

However, if I try to add $p_2$ and $p_3$ to this formula, the result is quite confusing, as the | becomes smaller for I don't know what reason:

\[Rho]=R (\[CurlyPhi])[|1/a cos(m/4 \[CurlyPhi])(|^Subscript[p, 2])+|1/b sin(m/4 \[CurlyPhi])(|^Subscript[p, 3])]^(-(1/Subscript[p, 1]))

I see that a simple pipe | is not what I need to typeset an expression like mine. Which character is the correct one to use in this case?

Answer 1

If you want to type the expression into a cell, use Esc l | Esc instead of just | for the left side of the absolute value expression, and similarly Esc r | Esc instead of | for the right side. Here is an animation where I enter your expression into a Text cell style:

If your question is actually about how to create an expression that formats in the way you want, you should clarify this.