[Tex/LaTex] Suppress unnecessary line breaks in affiliation by revtex4-1

Question

For some reason, the affiliation in revtex4-1 (APL) has an unnecessary line break in the affiliation. Here is an example:

As you can see, affiliation #1 goes about 2 cm more than affiliation #2. There is so much extra space, that I can scratch "USA" in huge letters in the space. But – as you can see in the circle on the left – it breaks the line!

Why does it do this, and more importantly, how can I stop it?

Here is the mwe code:

\documentclass[aip,apl,reprint,amsmath,amssymb,amsfonts, floatfix, showpacs,intlimits]{revtex4-1}

\begin{document}
\title{Excellent Title - Short, Concise, and to the Point}
\author{Author 1}
\email[]{Author1@fake.edu}
\affiliation{Really really really really long department name, University of really long name, really long city name, really long province name, 12345, PikuPikuPik}
\author{Author 2}
\affiliation{Department of Psychics, University of Coolness State, Fake City, Emu Emu, 12345, USA}
\date{\today}

\begin{abstract}
Abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract 
\end{abstract}
\maketitle
\end{document}

Again, the big question: how do I suppress the line breaks?

Answer 1

The revtex4-1 class does a few strange things. This is one of them.

Their idea is that affiliation lines are split only at commas, so when an affiliation is absorbed the comma becomes an active character whose meaning is

typeset a comma and insert a -300 penalty

Such penalty will make TeX prefer commas for splitting lines (in a ragged right context). However, this has some undesired effect, like in your case.

Solution: append \looseness=-1, so the penalties will have no real effect in this case.

\documentclass[aip,apl,reprint,amsmath,amssymb,amsfonts, floatfix, showpacs,intlimits]{revtex4-1}

\begin{document}

\title{Excellent Title - Short, Concise, and to the Point}

\author{Author 1}
\email[]{Author1@fake.edu}
\affiliation{Really really really really long department name,
  University of really long name, really long city name,
  really long province name, 12345, PikuPikuPik}

\author{Author 2}
\affiliation{Department of Psychics, University of Coolness State, Fake City, Emu Emu, 12345, USA\looseness=-1}

\date{\today}

\begin{abstract}
Abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract
abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract abstract
\end{abstract}
\maketitle

\end{document}