At a Glance
- Tasks: Engage in cutting-edge research on cosmology and gravitation, solving complex physics problems.
- Company: CritPt, a pioneering platform for AI-driven physics research.
- Benefits: Flexible remote work, competitive pay, and the chance to contribute to groundbreaking research.
- Other info: Join a dynamic team and enhance your research skills in a supportive environment.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in the field of cosmology while working with top-tier physicists.
- Qualifications: PhD in gravitation or related field, with a strong publication record.
The predicted salary is between 110 - 110 $ per hour.
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.
Research areas in this panel:
- Einstein-Cartan and Nieh-Yan axion inflation: perturbations and power spectrum
- Einstein-Cartan and Nieh-Yan axion inflation: FRW background dynamics
- Dynamical Chern-Simons gravity in Palatini formalism, parity-violating inflation
- High-energy astrophysics: blazar jets, photohadronic emission, multimessenger constraints
Methods we expect to find in your own publications:
- First-order gravity: Einstein-Cartan-Palatini formalism, tetrad and spin-connection variables, spacetime torsion and contorsion decomposition
- Topological terms in gravity: Nieh-Yan topological invariant, gravitational Chern-Simons coupling to the Pontryagin density
- Cosmological perturbation theory: Mukhanov-Sasaki mode equation, primordial curvature power spectrum, slow-roll approximation
- Numerical cosmology: integration of coupled background field equations in modified gravity
- Astroparticle modelling: relativistic beaming and Doppler boosting, photohadronic processes, electromagnetic cascades, one-zone emission models
Who we are looking for:
- A PhD in gravitation, cosmology, astroparticle physics or a closely related field. This is a hard requirement.
- Published work on the specific phenomenon above, not the adjacent one.
- A verifiable publication record. Three to five representative papers with arXiv IDs or DOIs, ideally from the last five years.
- Sign-convention discipline.
- Working proficiency with LaTeX, Python, SymPy and Jupyter.
- English at B2 or above, including written reasoning.
Application steps:
- We verify your papers and authorship against the public record.
- Then one of two things happens: either we onboard you directly, or we invite you to a short live alignment call to agree the area and the assignment with you.
- A brief 30 to 45 minute assessment may be added, but only where we need it.
Commitment and rate:
- 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 – Remote in Toronto employer: Mercor
Mercor is an exceptional employer that fosters a dynamic and innovative work culture, connecting top-tier talent with leading AI research labs. With the flexibility of remote work, employees enjoy a supportive environment that encourages professional growth and collaboration across diverse teams. The competitive compensation and the opportunity to engage in high-impact projects make Mercor a rewarding place for legal experts looking to make a meaningful contribution.
