\usetikzlibrary{patterns} \begin{tikzpicture} % fill the overlap area \draw[black!0, pattern=north east lines, pattern color=black!15] (0cm, 0cm) rectangle (2cm, 2cm); \node[anchor=base, text width=2cm, align=center] at (1cm, 1.4cm) {\textsc{Overlap Region}}; \node[anchor=base, text width=3cm, align=center, scale=0.5] at (1cm, 0.5cm) {\textsc{inconsistent theories}}; % draw the horizontal axis \draw[thick, ->] (-3cm, 0cm) -- (4cm, 0cm) node[anchor=south west] {$n$}; % draw points \node[anchor=north] at (-3cm, 0cm) {$\cdots$}; \filldraw[fill=white, draw=black] (-2cm,0cm) circle (2pt) node[anchor=north] {$-1$}; \filldraw[fill=white, draw=black] (-1cm,0cm) circle (2pt) node[anchor=north] {$0$}; \filldraw[fill=white, draw=black] (0cm,0cm) circle (2pt) node[anchor=north] {$1$}; \node[anchor=north] at (1cm, 0cm) {$\cdots$}; \filldraw[fill=white, draw=black] (2cm,0cm) circle (2pt) node[anchor=north] {$\rL$}; \filldraw[fill=white, draw=black] (3cm,0cm) circle (2pt) node[anchor=north] {$\rL+1$}; \node[anchor=north] at (4cm, 0cm) {$\cdots$}; % draw limits \draw[->] (0cm, 2pt) -- (0cm, 2cm) -- (4cm, 2cm) node[midway, anchor=south west] {in-annihilators} node[anchor=north east] {$b_{n}$}; \draw[->] (2cm, 2pt) -- (2cm, 1.8cm) -- (-3cm, 1.8cm) node[midway, anchor=south east] {out-annihilators} node[anchor=north west] {$b^*_{\rL + 1 - n}$}; \end{tikzpicture} % vim: ft=tex