Horizontal Alignment When Using Overset with Superscript

Question

I have the following problem. In the latex snippet below the superscript "(+)" is slighty higher for the complex conjugate c (c with star on top) than with the normal c. How can I align this so both are at the same height?
documentclass[8pt,handout]{beamer}
usepackage{amsmath}
    
begin{document}

begin{equation} label{eq:distribution_fn}
f_r(bar{p},t) ~=~ langle ~ 0_{text{in}} ~ | ~ overset{*}{c}^{(+)}_{bar{p}r}(t) ~ c^{(-)}_{bar{p}r}(t) ~ | ~ 0_{text{in}} ~ rangle
end{equation}
    
end{document}

egreg · Answer

I suggest using accents:
documentclass[8pt,handout]{beamer}
usepackage{amsmath}
usepackage{accents}

newcommand{cstar}{accentset{*}{c}}

begin{document}

begin{equation} label{eq:distribution_fn}
f_r(bar{p},t) =
langle 0_{mathrm{in}}
mid
cstar^{(+)}_{bar{p}r}(t) , c^{(-)}_{bar{p}r}(t)
mid
0_{mathrm{in}} rangle
end{equation}

end{document}

I removed all ~ commands and used mid for spacing the vertical bars. Between the two big symbols I inserted ,. On the other hand, this doesn't seem really necessary. Here's the output without manual spacing.

Horizontal Alignment When Using Overset with Superscript

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