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biblatex seems to be not compatible with RevTeX. As RevTeX automatically loads natbib, I load biblatex with the option natbib=true, but still LaTeX compiler complains that lot of commands are already defined. I make them undefined as follows:

\let\bibhang=\undefined
\let\citename=\undefined
\let\textcite=\undefined
\let\bibfont=\undefined
\let\Citeauthor=\undefined
\let\citet=\undefined
\let\citep=\undefined
\let\citealt=\undefined
\let\citealp=\undefined
\let\Citet=\undefined
\let\Citep=\undefined
\let\Citealt=\undefined
\let\Citealp=\undefined
\let\citefullauthor=\undefined
\let\citetext=\undefined
\let\defcitealias=\undefined


but still obtain various errors such as

! Package biblatex Error: Incompatible package 'natbib'.

See the biblatex package documentation for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.78 \begin{document}

? 

I've checked that natbib compatibility mode is switched on:

Package biblatex Info: Trying to load natbib compatibility...
Package biblatex Info: ... file 'blx-natbib.def' found.
 ("C:\Program Files (x86)\MiKTeX 2.9\tex\latex\biblatex\blx-natbib.def"
File: blx-natbib.def 2011/02/13 v1.2a biblatex natbib compatibility

So, it looks as if that trouble comes from RevTeX. I tried both RevTeX4 and more recent RevTeX4-1. No difference.

lockstep
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    The biblatex manual states that natbib is incompatible with biblatex. The natbib option is unrelated to the package (it emulates it, but doesn't make it compatible). – Philipp Feb 25 '11 at 17:21
  • Since you have a response below that seems to answer your question, please consider marking it as ‘Accepted’ by clicking on the tickmark below its vote count. This shows which answer helped you most if there's more than one answer, and it assigns reputation points to the author of the answer (and to you!). – lockstep Feb 27 '11 at 16:16
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    Does anyone have any ideas on how difficult implementing a fork of RevTeX 4.1 that would be compatible with biblatex would be? I'd be prepared to put a bounty on it. As Igor mentions in the comment in the answer by Lockstep, this class dominates physics. – qubyte Nov 24 '11 at 04:13
  • This answer gives a hack to use biblatex under RevTeX. (Answerd by Joseph Wright, the author of biblatex-phys.) You probably want to augment it by biblatex-phys package in CTAN, as pointed out by minmax. – y-watarino Feb 26 '24 at 11:52

1 Answers1

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Since biblatex "reimplements the bibliographic facilities of LaTeX from the ground up, [it] naturally conflicts with all packages modifying the same facilities" (manual, section 1.5.4). Specifically, biblatex is incompatible with natbib. biblatex' natbib option only provides aliases for natbib's citation commands.

From a look into the manual of RevTeX 4.1, natbib is a required package, and multiple custom options and commands are defined on top of natbib. So no, I'm afraid biblatex is incompatible with RevTeX.

lockstep
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    That's pity. RevTeX is obligatory document class for all APS journals and most journals on physics wolrdwide. – Igor Kotelnikov Feb 25 '11 at 15:43
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    http://tug.ctan.org/macros/latex/exptl/biblatex-contrib/biblatex-phys/biblatex-phys.pdf seems to be a solution. – Simd Apr 03 '15 at 11:26
  • @simd the link is broken; could you update it? – Our Dec 29 '22 at 11:17
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    https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/biblatex-contrib/biblatex-phys – minmax Jun 13 '23 at 13:47
  • Appreciate the help and creation of biblatex-phys, but this is inoffical to use with RevTeX, or in other words, it looks like a good hack. –  Jul 28 '23 at 19:14