Condensed Matter Physicist (PhD)

What you'll do

This is work on CritPt, a public benchmark of research-level physics problems built to test whether frontier AI models can reason like a working physicist rather than solve textbook exercises. The benchmark paper is arXiv:2509.26574, and Mercor suggests reading it before you apply; it is the quickest way to tell whether the work suits you.

Depending on where your publications fit, you create problems, solve them, review finished work or audit it. Mercor agrees the exact assignment once you are matched to an area. Every piece has to be complete enough for another specialist in your subfield to follow and check on their own, so written reasoning is part of every task.

Who qualifies

The condensed matter panel is the widest of Mercor's CritPt panels, with nineteen research areas, but the matching is narrow: you need papers on one of the specific phenomena, not condensed matter in general. The areas the listing opens with include:

• One-dimensional field theory: bosonization, Majorana and Ising-Luttinger sectors, renormalization-group flows
• Parafermion zero modes, non-Abelian braiding and fractional quantum Hall-superconductor heterostructures
• Rational CFT, Verlinde lines and non-Abelian quantum Hall edge theories
• SPT and Haldane phases, matrix product states, decoherence of topological order
• Flat-band Hubbard models, flat-band ferromagnetism, Hartree-Fock and determinant quantum Monte Carlo
• The SYK model, large-N disordered fermions and Schwinger-Dyson thermodynamics
• Correlated electron transport with the Kubo formalism and diagrammatic perturbation theory

Across Mercor's CritPt panels the bar is the same: a PhD in a relevant field is required, a verifiable publication record is checked paper by paper, and you work in LaTeX, Python, SymPy and Jupyter. English at B2 or above is required, since the written argument is much of what you deliver.

What it pays

$80–110 per hour, Mercor's published figure and the same band as its other CritPt physics panels. That sits well above most AI evaluation work and suits postdocs and junior faculty looking for remote research-level side work. The listing does not state weekly hours or payment terms.

Worth knowing

Good:

• Real research problems in your own subfield, not generic grading
• A public benchmark you can read before committing
• No country restriction published

Less good:

• Narrow matching: strong condensed matter researchers outside the listed areas will be declined
• Every listed paper is checked against the public record
• Hours and payment schedule not on the listing

About this listing

Posted by Mercor as a remote hourly contract, confirmed open on 27 September 2026 and flagged as a new opportunity. See Mercor.