We introduce PHYSICS, a comprehensive benchmark for university-level physics problem solving. It contains 1297 expert-annotated problems covering six core areas: classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, electromagnetism, atomic physics, and optics. Each problem requires advanced physics knowledge and mathematical reasoning. We develop a robust automated evaluation system for precise and reliable validation. Our evaluation of leading foundation models reveals substantial limitations. Even the most advanced model, o3-mini, achieves only 59.9% accuracy, highlighting significant challenges in solving high-level scientific problems. Through comprehensive error analysis, exploration of diverse prompting strategies, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)-based knowledge augmentation, we identify key areas for improvement, laying the foundation for future advancements.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2503.21821,
title = {PHYSICS: Benchmarking Foundation Models on University-Level Physics Problem Solving},
author = {Kaiyue Feng and Yilun Zhao and Yixin Liu and Tianyu Yang and Chen Zhao and John Sous and Arman Cohan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.21821},
year = {2026}
}