The revtex4-1
document class do not offer an option to switch the unwanted behavior off, i.e. short captions are always centered. And since the caption
package is not adapted to revtex
yet one need to patch the responsible code for yourself, e.g.:
\long\def\@makecaption#1#2{%
\par
\vskip\abovecaptionskip
\begingroup
\small\rmfamily
\sbox\@tempboxa{%
\let\\\heading@cr
\@make@capt@title{#1}{#2}%
}%
\@ifdim{\wd\@tempboxa >\hsize}{%
\begingroup
\samepage
\flushing
\let\footnote\@footnotemark@gobble
\@make@capt@title{#1}{#2}\par
\endgroup
}{%
\global \@minipagefalse
\hb@xt@\hsize{\hfil\unhbox\@tempboxa\hfil}%
}%
\endgroup
\vskip\belowcaptionskip
}%
could be patched to:
\long\def\@makecaption#1#2{%
\par
\vskip\abovecaptionskip
\begingroup
\small\rmfamily
\begingroup
\samepage
\flushing
\let\footnote\@footnotemark@gobble
\@make@capt@title{#1}{#2}\par
\endgroup
\endgroup
\vskip\belowcaptionskip
}
As complete example document:
\documentclass[%
reprint,
amsmath,amssymb,
aps,nofootinbib,
]{revtex4-1}
\makeatletter
\renewcommand\@makecaption[2]{%
\par
\vskip\abovecaptionskip
\begingroup
\small\rmfamily
\begingroup
\samepage
\flushing
\let\footnote\@footnotemark@gobble
\@make@capt@title{#1}{#2}\par
\endgroup
\endgroup
\vskip\belowcaptionskip
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
Some text...
\begin{table}
Test
\caption{Test}
\end{table}
Some text...
\end{document}
A more elegant solution using \patchcmd
offered by the etoolbox
package [1]:
\documentclass[%
reprint,
amsmath,amssymb,
aps,nofootinbib,
]{revtex4-1}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@makecaption}{\@ifdim{\wd\@tempboxa >\hsize}}{\@firstoftwo}{}{}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
Some text...
\begin{table}
Test
\caption{Test}
\end{table}
Some text...
\end{document}
But please be aware that patching internals of document classes or packages is usually a bad idea since internals are subject of change in future versions of the patched document class or package.
[1] See also: Please tutor the usage of patchcmd and xpatch