All things being equal how would a good US graduate physics admissions weigh these paths.
Scenario 1: 4 year Bachelor of Science. And then direct application to graduate school.
Scenario 2: 4 year Bachelor of Science. 2-3 years work at a government department doing mathematics (not research). And then application to graduate school.
Scenario 3: 4 year Bachelor of Science. 2-3 years work at a government department doing mathematics (not research), whilst doing a part-time 1 year Masters spread over 2 years. And then application to graduate school.
Assume scenario 1 & 2 have same number of published papers, and scenario 3 adds one more paper of higher quality.