In this paper, we address a class of problems in unitary ensembles. Specifically, we study the probability that a gap symmetric about 0, i.e. (−a,a) is found in the Gaussian unitary ensembles (GUE) and the Jacobi unitary ensembles (JUE) (where in the JUE, we take the parameters α=β). By exploiting the even parity of the weight, a doubling of the interval to (a2,∞) for the GUE, and (a2,1), for the (symmetric) JUE, shows that the gap probabilities maybe determined as the product of the smallest eigenvalue distributions of the LUE with parameter α=−1/2, and α=1/2 and the (shifted) JUE with weights x1/2(1−x)β and x−1/2(1−x)β. The σ function, namely, the derivative of the log of the smallest eigenvalue distributions of the finite-n LUE or the JU...