Embodiments are directed to using object serialization to communicate references to shim objects and to managing memory on worker processes of a distributed software application. In one scenario, a computer system instantiates shim objects on one or more ranks of a distributed application. The shim objects are configured to store a reference to an instance of a native partitioned array, where the reference includes a unique identifier for the native partitioned array instance. The computer system then serializes the shim objects for communication of the stored references from the master rank of the distributed application to various other worker ranks of the distributed application. Then, upon serializing the shim objects, the computer system communicates the shim object's stored references to the other worker ranks of the distributed application.