Mathematical Physicist (PhD)

About the work CritPt is a public benchmark of research-level physics challenges, built to test whether frontier AI models can carry out genuine physics research reasoning rather than textbook problem solving.

Pay

Firm hourly pay: $80-$110 per hour

Location

Remote

Eligibility

Remote, applicant location not specified

Qualification difficulty

Selective

What this role involves

About the work CritPt is a public benchmark of research-level physics challenges, built to test whether frontier AI models can carry out genuine physics research reasoning rather than textbook problem solving. The benchmark paper is arXiv:2509.26574 and we recommend reading it before applying. It will tell you quickly whether this work interests you. We are engaging physicists to work on research-level physics problems in their own subfield.

Depending on where your publication record fits, that can mean creating problems, solving them, reviewing completed work, or auditing it. We agree the specific assignment with you once you are matched to an area. This is research-grade work rather than volume work. Whatever you produce has to be complete enough for another specialist in your subfield to follow and verify independently, so written reasoning is part of every assignment. In this panel the standard of proof sits closer to mathematics than to physics.

Research areas in this panel Four areas. We match narrowly: you need to have published on one of these specific phenomena, not in mathematical physics broadly. Each area lists the methods it requires. 1. Special functions: hypergeometric identities and analytic continuation: Gaussian hypergeometric functions, parameter differentiation of special functions, quadratic transformation identities for hypergeometric series, analytic continuation in a series index, digamma-function series, asymptotic and series expansions of special functions. 2.

Integrable systems: half-wave maps, Lax pairs, Haldane-Shastry and Calogero-Moser: Half-wave maps equation, Lax pair formalism and isospectral flows, Hilbert transform and singular integral operators, classical Haldane-Shastry spin chain, Calogero-Moser systems, hierarchies of conserved charges, solitons of integrable spin-field equations, numerical quadrature of singular integrals. 3.

Permutation combinatorics for random tensor network entanglement (Cayley distance, Weingarten): Cayley distance and geodesics in the symmetric group, minimal factorizations of permutations, non-crossing partitions, replica permutation spin models, random tensor network entanglement entropy, Weingarten calculus, multipartite entanglement measures, combinatorial enumeration of configurations. 4.

Conformal geometry: Fefferman-Graham ambient metric, obstruction tensors: Fefferman-Graham ambient metric construction, conformal geometry and Weyl covariance, extended obstruction tensors, Schouten and Weyl curvature tensors, order-by-order solution of Ricci-flatness conditions, poles and residues under dimensional continuation, Poincare-Einstein asymptotic expansions.

Methods we expect to find in your own publications You should be able to point to your own papers demonstrating at least one of the following families: Special function analysis: Gaussian hypergeometric functions, parameter differentiation, quadratic transformation identities, analytic continuation in a series index, asymptotic expansions Integrability: Lax pair formalism, isospectral flows, Hilbert transform and singular integral operators, hierarchies of conserved charges, numerical quadrature of singular integrals Combinatorial: Cayley distance and geodesics in the symmetric group, minimal factorizations of permutations, non-crossing partitions, Weingarten calculus, multipartite entanglement measures Geometric: Fefferman-Graham ambient metric construction, Weyl covariance, Schouten and Weyl curvature tensors, order-by-order solution of Ricci-flatness conditions, Poincare-Einstein asymptotic expansions Who we are looking for A PhD in mathematical physics, theoretical physics or mathematics.