PHYSICS: Benchmarking Foundation Models on University-Level Physics
  Problem Solving
Authors: name: Kaiyue Feng, name: Yilun Zhao, name: Yixin Liu, name: Tianyu Yang, name: Chen Zhao, name: John Sous, name: Arman Cohan

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.