mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

PhysicsArena: The First Multimodal Physics Reasoning Benchmark Exploring Variable, Process, and Solution Dimensions

arXiv 2505.15472 ↗First posted 21 May 2025cs.CLcited by 9

On the map: LLM reasoning → Spatial and embodied reasoning

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in diverse reasoning tasks, yet their application to complex physics reasoning remains underexplored. Physics reasoning presents unique challenges, requiring grounding in physical conditions and the interpretation of multimodal information. Current physics benchmarks are limited, often focusing on text-only inputs or solely on problem-solving, thereby overlooking the critical intermediate steps of variable identification and process formulation. To address these limitations, we introduce PhysicsArena, the first multimodal physics reasoning benchmark designed to holistically evaluate MLLMs across three critical dimensions: variable identification, physical process formulation, and solution derivation. PhysicsArena aims to provide a comprehensive platform for assessing and advancing the multimodal physics reasoning abilities of MLLMs.

Key facts. Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Spatial and embodied reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 31 of its 49 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 21 May 2025.

Builds on

31 of 49 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025PHYBench: Holistic Evaluation of Physical Perception and Reasoning in Large Language Models22 Apr
  2. 2025PhysReason: A Comprehensive Benchmark towards Physics-Based Reasoning17 Feb
  3. 2025UGPhysics: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Undergraduate Physics Reasoning with Large Language Models1 Feb

Other references · 28

  1. 2023GPT-4 Technical Reportcited by 18,396
  2. 2023Visual Instruction Tuningcited by 7,869
  3. 2025Qwen2.5-VL Technical Reportcited by 5,587
  4. 2023InternVL: Scaling up Vision Foundation Models and Aligning for Generic Visual-Linguistic Taskscited by 2,565
  5. 2023Qwen-VL: A Versatile Vision-Language Model for Understanding, Localization, Text Reading, and Beyondcited by 2,224
  6. 2024Expanding Performance Boundaries of Open-Source Multimodal Models with Model, Data, and Test-Time Scalingcited by 1,599
  7. 2024OlympiadBench: A Challenging Benchmark for Promoting AGI with Olympiad-Level Bilingual Multimodal Scientific Problemscited by 1,136
  8. 2024DeepSeek-VL: Towards Real-World Vision-Language Understandingcited by 733
  9. 2024Yi: Open Foundation Models by 01.AIcited by 719
  10. 2023Visual ChatGPT: Talking, Drawing and Editing with Visual Foundation Modelscited by 668
  11. 2025Towards Reasoning Era: A Survey of Long Chain-of-Thought for Reasoning Large Language Modelscited by 384
  12. 2025From System 1 to System 2: A Survey of Reasoning Large Language Modelscited by 320
16 more
  1. 2023SciBench: Evaluating College-Level Scientific Problem-Solving Abilities of Large Language Modelscited by 256
  2. 2024The Revolution of Multimodal Large Language Models: A Surveycited by 137
  3. 2024Exploring the Reasoning Abilities of Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs): A Comprehensive Survey on Emerging Trends in Multimodal Reasoningcited by 136
  4. 2025Can MLLMs Reason in Multimodality? EMMA: An Enhanced MultiModal ReAsoning Benchmarkcited by 134
  5. 2025LLM4SR: A Survey on Large Language Models for Scientific Researchcited by 83
  6. 2024Web2Code: A Large-scale Webpage-to-Code Dataset and Evaluation Framework for Multimodal LLMscited by 74
  7. 2024MME-Survey: A Comprehensive Survey on Evaluation of Multimodal LLMscited by 72
  8. 2024A Survey of Mathematical Reasoning in the Era of Multimodal Large Language Model: Benchmark, Method & Challengescited by 55
  9. 2024ErrorRadar: Benchmarking Complex Mathematical Reasoning of Multimodal Large Language Models Via Error Detectioncited by 37
  10. 2025Position: Multimodal Large Language Models Can Significantly Advance Scientific Reasoningcited by 33
  11. 2025Physics: Benchmarking Foundation Models on University-Level Physics Problem Solvingcited by 31
  12. 2024MMNeuron: Discovering Neuron-Level Domain-Specific Interpretation in Multimodal Large Language Modelcited by 26
  13. 2025MathAgent: Leveraging a Mixture-of-Math-Agent Framework for Real-World Multimodal Mathematical Error Detectioncited by 24
  14. 2025Mind with Eyes: from Language Reasoning to Multimodal Reasoningcited by 22
  15. 2025Reasoning Beyond Limits: Advances and Open Problems for LLMscited by 16
  16. 2024E-EVAL: A Comprehensive Chinese K-12 Education Evaluation Benchmark for Large Language Modelscited by 13

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 2; 2026: 7.

9 papers.

  1. 2025PhysUniBench: A Multi-Modal Physics Reasoning Benchmark at Undergraduate Levelcited by 16
  2. 2026Cognitive Mismatch in Multimodal Large Language Models for Discrete Symbol Understandingcited by 7
  3. 2025From Diagnosis to Improvement: Probing Spatio-Physical Reasoning in Vision Language Modelscited by 3
  4. 2026SeePhys Pro: Diagnosing Modality Transfer and Blind-Training Effects in Multimodal RLVR for Physics Reasoningcited by 1
  5. 2026Decoupled Physical Modeling and Execution for Physics Reasoningcited by 1
  6. 2026Discovering High Level Patterns from Simulation Tracescited by 0
  7. 2026OmniPhys: A Unified Multimodal Benchmark for Physics Understanding and Generation from Chinese Educational Corporacited by 0
  8. 2026ScienceArena: Benchmarking LLMs on Latest Scientific Olympiad Competitionscited by 0
  9. 2026PhysAlign: A Benchmark for Evidence-Grounded Role Alignment in Multimodal Physics Reasoningcited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026PhysMent: An Interactive Approach For LLM Reasoning In Physics Problems
  2. 2025Multi-Physics: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Multimodal LLMs Reasoning on Chinese Multi-Subject Physics Problems
  3. 2025ABench-Physics: Benchmarking Physical Reasoning in LLMs via High-Difficulty and Dynamic Physics Problems
  4. 2025PhysicsEval: Inference-Time Techniques to Improve the Reasoning Proficiency of Large Language Models on Physics Problems
  5. 2026Integrating Simulation and Chain-of-thought Reasoning in Multimodal-Language Models For Physical Reasoning
  6. 2023NEWTON: Are Large Language Models Capable of Physical Reasoning?
  7. 2025Symbolic or Numerical? Understanding Physics Problem Solving in Reasoning LLMs
  8. 2026PhysElite: How Far Are LLMs from Solving Olympiad-Level Physics Problems?