What the work involves

You are assigned to one of seven AMO subareas — strong-field/HHG and structured light, levitated optomechanics (optical binding, or torsional/librational modes), Penning-trap precision QED, ultracold atoms in optical lattices, cavity QED open systems, or Efimov few-body physics — and work on research-level problems within it. Depending on where your publication record sits, that means authoring new problems, producing reference solutions, reviewing another physicist's completed work, or auditing it. The specific assignment is agreed with you after matching, sometimes on a short live alignment call.

This is research-grade output, not volume labelling. Everything you submit has to be complete enough for another specialist in your subfield to follow the derivation and verify it independently, so written reasoning in LaTeX — with the analytic steps, approximations and their validity conditions spelled out — is part of every assignment. Symbolic and numerical checks in Python/SymPy/Jupyter are expected alongside. The organisers recommend reading the benchmark paper (arXiv:2509.26574) before applying; it is the fastest way to tell whether the work suits you.

What the platform screens for

  • A PhD in AMO physics or closely adjacent — stated as a hard requirement. Postdocs, research scientists and junior faculty are the strongest fit; senior PhD students with a strong first-author record are considered.
  • Published work on the named phenomenon, not the neighbouring one. This is explicitly the most common reason strong physicists are declined. You select up to five areas and must attach an arXiv ID or DOI of your own paper as proof for each, with author position and the methods it demonstrates. Selections without proof are not scored, and every paper is checked against the public record.
  • Method self-attestation against five families: light-matter, trap and oscillator dynamics, open quantum systems, precision QED, lattice and few-body.
  • Tooling and language: working LaTeX, Python, SymPy and Jupyter; some familiarity with an agentic coding extension in VS Code is useful but not required. English at B2 or above, including written argument. Declared gaps are acceptable — overstated ones are not.

Logistics

Remote, asynchronous, no fixed hours. The expectation is 10 hours per week sustained over an 8–10 week window, starting immediately. Observed pay is $80–110/hr, set by how closely your subdomain matches the assigned area; rates are as reported by the platform and not guaranteed. A 30–45 minute assessment may be added where the reviewers need one, but most applicants will not see it.