To have abstract in the document class revtex?

Question

I had to change my document class to revtex4-1 to be able to have \widetext parameter for one of my equation, discussion about implementation. However, the abstract \begin{abstract}...\end{abstract} is not supported by this class.

My minimal code

\documentclass[twocolumn]{revtex4-1}
\begin{document}
\title{Hello world}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract} % abstract
The maximal
\end{abstract}

\end{document}

I get the errors

./article.tex:84: LaTeX Error: Environment abstract undefined.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.6 \begin{abstract}
                      % abstract

./article.tex:8: LaTeX Error: \begin{document} ended by \end{abstract}.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.8 \end{abstract}

How can you have abstract in revtex4-1? or How can you have widetext in article document class?

Answer 1

revtex4-1 loads, amongst other packages, ltxfront to set up the front matter of the document. The following is taken from the Author's guide for revtex4-1 (section IV.4. The abstract, p 7; part of section IV. The Front Matter):

IV.4. The abstract

An abstract for a paper is specified by using the abstract environment:

\begin{abstract}
Text of abstract
\end{abstract}

Note that in REVTeX 4.1 the abstract must be specified before the \maketitle command and there is no need to embed it in an explicit minipage environment.

So, use

\documentclass[twocolumn]{revtex4-1}% http://ctan.org/pkg/revtex4-1
\begin{document}
\title{Hello world}
\begin{abstract} % abstract
The maximal
\end{abstract}
\maketitle
\end{document}

It becomes apparent that abstract doesn't exist after a call to \maketitle when viewing the definition of \frontmatter@maketitle in ltxfront.dtx:

\def\frontmatter@maketitle{%
  \@author@finish
  \title@column\titleblock@produce
  \suppressfloats[t]%
  \let\and\relax
  \let\affiliation\@gobble
  \let\author\@gobble
  \let\@AAC@list\@empty
  \let\@AFF@list\@empty
  \let\@AFG@list\@empty
  \let\@AF@join\@AF@join@error
  \let\email\@gobble
  \let\@address\@empty
  \let\maketitle\relax
  \let\thanks\@gobble
  \let\abstract\@undefined\let\endabstract\@undefined% ABSTRACT definitions removed
  \titlepage@sw{%
   \vfil
   \clearpage
  }{}%
}%