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. 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.

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. Research areas in this panel Four areas, three in torsionful gravity and axion inflation and one in high-energy astrophysics.

We match narrowly: you need to have published on one of these specific phenomena, not in gravitation broadly. First-order Palatini formulation of gravity, tetrad and spin-connection variables, Einstein-Cartan gravity with torsion, Nieh-Yan topological term, axionic natural inflation potential, FRW background cosmological dynamics, numerical integration of background field equations. First-order Palatini and Einstein-Cartan formulations of gravity, tetrad and spin-connection variables, spacetime torsion and contorsion decomposition, gravitational Chern-Simons coupling of a pseudoscalar to the Pontryagin density,



parity violation in the gravitational sector, FRW background cosmology and slow-roll inflation, numerical integration of coupled cosmological field equations.

Relativistic jet beaming and Doppler boosting, photopion production at the Delta resonance, photohadronic interaction optical depth, electromagnetic cascade emission, synchrotron target photon fields, one-zone blazar emission modeling, variability-based causality constraints, multimessenger X-ray constraints.

Numerical cosmology: integration of coupled background field equations in modified gravity A PhD in gravitation, cosmology, astroparticle physics or a closely related field. Postdoctoral researchers, research scientists and junior faculty are the strongest fit.

Senior

PhD students with a robust first-author record are welcome to apply. This is the single most common reason we decline otherwise excellent physicists. Every paper you list will be checked against the public record.

Working proficiency with LaTeX, Python, SymPy and Jupyter. Some familiarity with an agentic coding extension in VS Code is useful. English at B2 or above , including written reasoning. 10 hours per week , sustained across an 8 to 10 week window, starting immediately.

Remote and asynchronous with no fixed hours. $80 to $110 per hour , set by depth of subdomain match. #

📌 Cosmology Physicist - Fully Remote (Calgary)
🏢 Mercor
📍 Calgary