Docs / Changes

Changes

What changed on PubPhys, newest first. A date is the day a change reached the site (UTC) where that is known, otherwise the day it was made. Some features are on the site but not yet switched on; they are marked deployed, not yet enabled until they open.

  • Seed revision 2 is published. The notation of 808 seed problems and 19 topics is repaired in new signed revisions, approved as one batch with its approver's ORCID signature; revision 1 of each stays in the log, unchanged. More
  • Launch staffing begins. While PubPhys starts, results, contests and comments open in a field once it has one editor (the chief editor counts); a solution is still verified only after two referees recommend it. More
  • What no editor may decide yet says so on its page and waits, with no deadline, until an editor who may is appointed or lent. A contest's 14 days for triage start only once an editor may triage it. More
  • A contact form replaces the contact address. Only the admin reads the messages; they are kept 180 days and never published or mailed on. More
  • A held or reported comment that only its own author could moderate can be removed by the administrator, for the same reasons as an editor's removal. More
  • The forms that ask for your password allow 30 tries an hour from one connection, so the account's pause after 10 wrong passwords always comes first; the account page says until when a pause lasts. More
  • The terms of use draft names how to ask for removal of content or deletion of data, and that the admin first checks it is yours. More

  • The buttons on pages opened from a link in an email ("This was not me", resuming paused mail, confirming an address or a registration) work again; current browsers had them refused. More
  • Password reset mails have limits of their own, so a reset asked for right after "This was not me" is sent at once. More

  • Email digests. A daily or weekly email lists your unread notifications, naming only public items, with a one-click unsubscribe; mail to an address that bounces or reports spam is paused until you confirm it again. More
  • Password resets use the part of the site's mail cap kept for security notices, so a reset link still goes out when the day's mail is nearly used up. More
  • Registration with an ORCID iD. Anyone with an iD can make an account by signing in with ORCID and accepting the terms, and link an iD to a password account without an invitation; registration has a daily limit. Deployed, not yet enabled. More
  • Registration with an email address. An account made with an address and a password reads and, as those features are turned on, saves and follows problems; it links an ORCID iD to write. Deployed, not yet enabled. More
  • Password resets follow the same rules as a change from the account page. A new password has at least 12 characters and is not the account's address, and a reset ends every session of the account. More
  • A Limits page lists every limit on what one account can do, with the current values. More
  • Deleting your own account. An account that has signed, sealed or been appointed to nothing deletes itself from the account page at once; others still ask the admin. More
  • Addresses on accounts. ORCID accounts can add a contact address for notices about the account, and password accounts can change their sign-in address and password, each confirmed by a link, with a "This was not me" link in every notice. More
  • Wrong passwords are counted per account. After 10 wrong passwords within an hour when confirming an address or password change, a deletion or a link of an ORCID iD, these checks pause for an hour; a password reset ends the pause. More
  • Each "This was not me" link works once, and a fresh ORCID sign-in before an address change is good for one try. More
  • Follow topics, fields and people, to be told of new problems published under a topic or in a field, topics accepted in a field, and a person's new problems and results. More
  • Save problems to a private Saved list. More
  • Appeals of editors' decisions on new problems are open. They no longer wait for results to open, and appeals on revisions and topics open with revisions and topics. If appeals of a kind are closed when a decision is made, or close during its 30 days, the 30 days start again in full when they reopen. More
  • Editors' changes to seed problems and topics wait while a seed revision batch is prepared, approved, or written and not yet anchored; removals for copyright or personal data never wait. More
  • Sealing. A draft of a new problem or a result can be sealed, signed and logged now but private until you reveal it, dated by its first Bitcoin confirmation. More
  • Standalone verifier 0.2.0. It checks sealed records and a reveal together with the sealed record it reveals; earlier releases report a sealed record's structure as not checked. More

  • Drafts. The forms of a new problem, a revision, a topic and a result save what you type as a private draft, listed on a Drafts page. More
  • Problems built on other problems. A new problem can name the problems it is a special case, generalization, combination or variant of, and a problem page offers "Make a variant". More
  • Revisions by authors. Authors revise their own problems by signing new revisions; wording changes carry over at once, other changes wait for an editor's decision. More
  • Topic proposals. Anyone with an ORCID iD can propose a new topic, alone or together with a new problem; the field's editors decide, and decisions can be appealed. More

  • Editors sign their decisions on submitted problems. Each decision is a public, signed record with its reasons. More
  • Follow a problem to be told what happens on it, on a new Notifications page.
  • Results on problems (progress, solutions and disproofs), signed by their authors, with source files, checked by editors and referees, and withdrawable by their authors. More
  • Contests of a result or of a decision on it, and appeals by the party a decision went against. More
  • Comments on public problems and results. More
  • The review process is documented stage by stage, with who may decide what. More
  • Long problem pages are split into pages.

  • A problem page says which revision you are reading.
  • The seed collection page describes revision 2 of the seed, a reviewed set of corrections (typeset formulas, clearer titles), published only after a named reviewer approves it with an ORCID signature. More
  • During maintenance the site stays readable while changes are paused. More
  • Emails from PubPhys, such as the password reset, have a new layout in the site's style.

  • After a new problem is published, it is compared with the problems already published to find duplicates and close relatives; its author and the field's editors see the report. More
  • The new-problem form has a "Check for similar problems" button that searches published problems by their words, without AI.

  • Invited physicists with an ORCID iD can submit new problems, uploaded as a PDF or typed on the site. With the author's consent, AI proposes the form's fields and screens the signed problem first; editors decide the rest. More
  • How PubPhys uses AI, and what it never does, is documented on its own page. More
  • Pages of submitted problems show their author, review state, references, what AI did and the original file.
  • The submission form has writing hints under every field, and a writing guide. More
  • A new design in white and navy, with new fonts, a new front page and an About page. More
  • An account menu (the circle with your initials) and a full menu on phones.
  • Search finds words across a problem, its topic and its field, without formula markup getting in the way. More
  • Roles are called Chief editor, Editor and Referee.
  • Formulas are rendered by a copy of KaTeX served by PubPhys itself, and every page has a strict content security policy.
  • Seed problems and topics are labelled "Compiled by AI, not yet reviewed by an editor" until an editor reviews them. More

  • The Verify page checks a record's proof bundle in your browser, says the verdict in plain words, and never sends the proof to the server. More
  • A standalone verifier, released and signed on its own, checks records without the site. More
  • A public mirror of the log, with no personal data and no documents. More
  • You can ask for your account to be deleted from the account page.
  • The Editors page lists current appointments. More

  • Sign in with ORCID. Editors are appointed by ORCID-signed appointments, and signed records come with receipts. More
  • The Keys page lists the keys that sign PubPhys's records, with independent captures of ORCID's keys. More
  • The trust model and the protocol are illustrated in the docs. More
  • The MCP server is served over Streamable HTTP at /mcp. More

  • The seed collection replaces the demonstration data. Every topic and problem is a signed record in a public log, dated by Bitcoin. More
  • The PubPhys protocol, version 1, is published with its schemas and test vectors. More

  • The site is renamed PubPhys and moves to pubphys.com, with a light theme for reading.

  • Problems and results could be dated in Bitcoin through OpenTimestamps, at their author's request, and checked on the web. The public log of 2026-10-02 replaced this.

  • First version of the site, then called PhysicsDB, with a read-only JSON API and an MCP server for AI agents, documented on the site. More