I need to place footnotes on tables as in the following example, taken for Physical Review B:

Since Phys. Rev. B is written in LaTeX (RevTeX), I belive this should be possible with any class. I am using Classic Thesis with the ArsClassica package. I already achieved something very similar using a minipage:

\begin{table}
\begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c}
\toprule
& $a$ (\si{\angstrom}) & $c/a$ & $u$ & $B_0$ (\si{\giga\pascal}) & $B_0'$ & $E_g$ (\si{\electronvolt})\\
\midrule
GGA & \num{3.126} & \num{1.602} & \num{0.382} & \num{191} & \num{3.67} & \num{4.10}\\
GGA\footnote{\cite{Stampfl1999}.} & \num{3.113} & \num{1.619} & \num{ 0.380} & \num{192} & \num{3.69} & \num{4.25}\\
GGA\footnote{\cite{Zoroddu2001}.} & \num{3.110} & \num{1.606} & \num{0.382} & - & - & - \\
Exp.\footnote{\cite{Stampfl1999}.} & \num{3.111} & \num{1.601} & \num{0.385} & \num{185}-\num{212} & \num{5.7}-\num{6.3}& \num{6.28} \\
Exp.\footnote{\cite{Schulz1977}.} & \num{3.110} & \num{1.601} & \num{0.382} & \num{202} & - & - \\

\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{minipage}

\caption{Caption on top.}

\end{table}


This is the result:

However, here you can spot a big problem: since I used a minipage of width \textwidth, the footnotes are not aligned with the table (as in the example). It is possible to achieve this alignement? How?

Following Bernard's answer I used this:

\begin{table}
\centering
\begin{threeparttable}
\caption{Comparison of calculated binding energy and bond lengths for \ce{O2} and \ce{N2} with experimental and other theoretical values.}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c}
\toprule
& $E_b^\text{\ce{O2}}$ (\si{\electronvolt}) & $d_\text{\ce{O}-\ce{O}}$ (\si{\angstrom})& $E_b^\text{\ce{N2}}$ (\si{\electronvolt}) & $d_\text{\ce{N}-\ce{N}}$ (\si{\angstrom})\\
\midrule
GGA & \num{-5.855} & \num{1.215} & \num{-10.138} & \num{1.096} \\
GGA\tnote{a}& - & - & \num{-9.867}& \num{1.105}\\
GGA\tnote{b} & - & - & \num{-10.558} & \num{1.113}\\
Exp.\tnote{c} & \num{-5.12} & \num{1.21} & - & - \\
Exp.\tnote{a} & - & - & \num{-9.9}& \num{1.10}\\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}

\begin{tablenotes}
\item[a] \cite{Stampfl1999}.
\item[b] \cite{Zoroddu2001}.
\item[c] \cite{Wang2008}.
\end{tablenotes}
\end{threeparttable}
\end{table}


However, it seems to me that there is a problem with the caption, which is apparently constrained to the same length of the table:

You can do that with threeparttable, which defines an eponymous environment, and a tablenotes environment. If you put the caption betweentable and threeparttable environments, the caption will have a width of textwidth; if you put it inside threeparttable, its width will be the actual width of the table:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[showframe]{geometry}
\usepackage{booktabs, caption}
\captionsetup{labelfont=sf, width =\textwidth}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage[flushleft]{threeparttable}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[!htbp]
\centering
\caption{Caption on top. A long long long and very very silly caption . A long long long and very very silly caption.}
\begin{threeparttable}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c}
\toprule
& $a$ (\si{\angstrom}) & $c/a$ & $u$ & $B_0$ (\si{\giga\pascal}) & $B_0'$ & $E_g$ (\si{\electronvolt}) \\
\midrule
GGA & \num{3.126} & \num{1.602} & \num{0.382} & \num{191} & \num{3.67} & \num{4.10} \\
GGA\tnote{a} & \num{3.113} & \num{1.619} & \num{ 0.380} & \num{192} & \num{3.69} & \num{4.25} \\
GGA\tnote{b} & \num{3.110} & \num{1.606} & \num{0.382} & -- & -- & -- \\
Exp.\tnote{c} & \num{3.111} & \num{1.601} & \num{0.385} & \num{185}-\num{212} & \num{5.7}-\num{6.3} & \num{6.28} \\
Exp.\tnote{d} & \num{3.110} & \num{1.601} & \num{0.382} & \num{202} & -- & -- \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\begin{tablenotes}
\item[a]\cite{Stampfl1999}
\item[b]\cite{Zoroddu2001}
\item[c]\cite{Stampfl1999}
\item[d]\cite{Schulz1977}
\end{tablenotes}
\end{threeparttable}
\label{table2}
\end{table}

\begin{table}[!htbp]
\centering
\begin{threeparttable}
\caption{Caption on top. A long long long and very very silly caption . A long long long and very very silly caption.}

\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c}
\toprule
& $a$ (\si{\angstrom}) & $c/a$ & $u$ & $B_0$ (\si{\giga\pascal}) & $B_0'$ & $E_g$ (\si{\electronvolt}) \\
\midrule
GGA & \num{3.126} & \num{1.602} & \num{0.382} & \num{191} & \num{3.67} & \num{4.10} \\
GGA\tnote{a} & \num{3.113} & \num{1.619} & \num{ 0.380} & \num{192} & \num{3.69} & \num{4.25} \\
GGA\tnote{b} & \num{3.110} & \num{1.606} & \num{0.382} & -- & -- & -- \\
Exp.\tnote{c} & \num{3.111} & \num{1.601} & \num{0.385} & \num{185}-\num{212} & \num{5.7}-\num{6.3} & \num{6.28} \\
Exp.\tnote{d} & \num{3.110} & \num{1.601} & \num{0.382} & \num{202} & -- & -- \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\begin{tablenotes}
\item[a]\cite{Stampfl1999}
\item[b]\cite{Zoroddu2001}
\item[c]\cite{Stampfl1999}
\item[d]\cite{Schulz1977}
\end{tablenotes}
\end{threeparttable}
\label{table2}
\end{table}

\end{document}


• This is a good solution, but it seems to me there is a problem with long captions: the caption is (apparently) constrained to the same lenght of the table (I would like a caption of \textwidth) and the result is not appealing when the table is centered... Surely I am doing something wrong!
– user17895
Feb 12 '16 at 18:15
• If you put the caption inside the threeparttable environment, it has the actual width of the table. If you put it between table and threeparttable, its width is \textwidth, unless you set it to another value, with captionsetup{width=…}. Please see my updated answer. Feb 12 '16 at 20:37
• Now it looks exactly how I wanted, thank you!
– user17895
Feb 12 '16 at 22:09

The OP commented that he like my answer at Using \footnote in a figure's \caption, though he/she was interested in automating the calculation of the minipage width. Here I show how that might be done. I place the tabular content into a \def for easy recall, and then place it in a temporary \hbox. I then can use \wd0 as the minipage width, and just recall the tabular content with the def'ed macro therein.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{boxhandler}
\begin{document}
This is an alternate way to do a footnote in a table, with the minipage
environment.
\begin{table}[ht]
\def\tblcontent{\footnotesize\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|}
\hline
Title & Column 1 & Column 2\\
\hline
First Test & 1.234 & 5.389\footnote{\scriptsize This is the
footnote text blah blah blah blahty blah}\\
\hline
Second Test & 3.894 & 1.586~~\\
\hline
\end{tabular}}
\setbox0=\hbox{\tblcontent}
\centering
\caption{Caption goes here}
\begin{minipage}{\wd0}   % GUESS (OR CALCULATE) MINIPAGE WIDTH
\renewcommand\footnoterule{}     % ELIMINATE LITTLE LINE SEPARATER
\tblcontent
\vspace{-2ex}                    % SHIFT FOOTNOTE UP
\end{minipage}
\end{table}
\end{document}


• Thank you very much for the help, but I find Bernard's solution slightly simpler! ; )
– user17895
Feb 12 '16 at 22:09