Multimodal AI

P1-VL: Bridging Visual Perception and Scientific Reasoning in Physics Olympiads

YYun LuoFFuting WangQQianjia ChengFFangchen YuHHaodi LeiJJianhao YanCChenxi LiJJiacheng ChenYYufeng ZhaoHHaiyuan WanYYuchen ZhangSShenghe ZhengJJunchi YaoQQingyang ZhangHHaonan HeWWenxuan ZengLLi ShengCChengxing XieYYuxin ZuoYYizhuo LiYYulun WuRRui HuangDDongzhan ZhouKKai ChenYYu QiaoLLei BaiYYu ChengNNing DingBBowen ZhouPPeng YeGGanqu Cui
Published
February 10, 2026
Authors
31
Word Count
12,682

P1-VL bridges visual perception and reasoning to solve physics olympiad problems at gold-medal level.

Abstract

The transition from symbolic manipulation to science-grade reasoning represents a pivotal frontier for Large Language Models (LLMs), with physics serving as the critical test anchor for binding abstract logic to physical reality. Physics demands that a model maintain physical consistency with the laws governing the universe, a task that fundamentally requires multimodal perception to ground abstract logic in reality. At the Olympiad level, diagrams are often constitutive rather than illustrative, containing essential constraints, such as boundary conditions and spatial symmetries, that are absent from the text. To bridge this visual-logical gap, we introduce P1-VL, a family of open-source vision-language models engineered for advanced scientific reasoning. Our method harmonizes Curriculum Reinforcement Learning, which employs progressive difficulty expansion to stabilize post-training, with Agentic Augmentation, enabling iterative self-verification at inference. Evaluated on HiPhO, a rigorous benchmark of 13 exams from 2024-2025, our flagship P1-VL-235B-A22B becomes the first open-source Vision-Language Model (VLM) to secure 12 gold medals and achieves the state-of-the-art performance in the open-source models. Our agent-augmented system achieves the No.2 overall rank globally, trailing only Gemini-3-Pro. Beyond physics, P1-VL demonstrates remarkable scientific reasoning capacity and generalizability, establishing significant leads over base models in STEM benchmarks. By open-sourcing P1-VL, we provide a foundational step toward general-purpose physical intelligence to better align visual perceptions with abstract physical laws for machine scientific discovery.

Key Takeaways

  • 1

    Physics problem-solving requires visual-linguistic integration because diagrams contain essential information absent from text alone.

  • 2

    P1-VL's 235B model achieved 12 gold medals on HiPhO, becoming the leading open-source vision-language model for physics.

  • 3

    Curriculum reinforcement learning with progressive difficulty and agentic augmentation enable advanced multimodal reasoning for complex scientific tasks.

Limitations

  • Previous physics AI approaches treated diagrams as secondary rather than foundational to problem-solving.

  • The script cuts off before fully explaining the Markov Decision Process formulation and complete methodology.

Keywords

vision-language modelscurriculum reinforcement learningagentic augmentationmultimodal perceptionscientific reasoningphysical consistencyHiPhO benchmarkP1-VL-235B-A22BGemini-3-Pro

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P1-VL: Bridging Visual Perception and Scientific Reasoning in Physics Olympiads | Paperchime