A phollow-up to my April 1st post: The winners in the Higgs boson lottery!!

[DreamGypsy]

Just when you might be pheeling that Physics is not much phun, the brilliant and charming particle physicist Pauline Gagnon of CERN reaffirms the principle that humor is a fundamental force in the universe.

You may recall that on April 1st I posted Win your own Higgs boson, reporting on a lottery to win one of ten Higgs boson donated by the Atlas and CMS groups at CERN - a rare opportunity to own a very rare particle! I am embarrassed to admit that I lied in that post ... twice. First, I said I owned two fermions and wanted a boson to complete my pack. Actually I have two dogs...who are, mind you, made largely of fermions...but I do not keep any individual fermions as pets, so my reason for wanting a boson was unsubstantiated. Worse, I indicated that I had submitted an entry to the Higgs lottery and I had not...I suspected that CERN was, as one respondent to the post intimated, 'tugging at my leg'.

Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, I was very wrong. CERN and Pauline Gagnon just announced the winners of the lottery.

For April first, (Pauline) wrote that CERN was to give away ten Higgs bosons in a gesture to thank the public for its incredible interest in CERN’s scientific research. About 1500 people eagerly entered the lottery. Most of them wrote very enthusiastic notes, explaining how much they would love one and how much it would mean to them. <snip> Entries came from places as diverse as Pakistan, Rwanda, Finland, Canada, Australia, China and Portugal. This shows the incredible interest the Higgs boson has generated on all continents.

(Pauline) used a random number generator to select the winners who are from Mexico, UK, USA, Belarus (3), Russia (3), Kazakhstan and The Netherlands. Nearly half the entries came from Belarus or Russia, where a popular news agency ran the story, saying ... as everyone knows: “Первого апреля никому не верю!” .

Even some physics students <entered> ... one tried to bribe me with a magnetic monopole, while another promised to feed it only the best particles. Another woman said she already had lots of antimatter and would know how to properly care for a Higgs boson. One physics student said that given the short lifetime of a Higgs boson, he might end up with just two W or Z bosons. One person expressed how great it was for CERN to share. Some asked for a Higgs bosun, bozzon or bison. A guy told me how much this would help him win his girlfriend’s heart as he was about to propose to her.

Custom-made Higgs bosons recently escaped from the Particle Zoo and are on their way to their new home, where all the winners said they would warmly welcome them.

You may note that there were apparently 11 Higgs winners, not the advertised 10. This discrepancy may be just a quantum fluctuation...or may be evidence for the conjecture that any group of Higgs has a prime number cardinality???

Here's a Happy Higgs on its way to a new Home:

Well, I didn't get a God particle, but at least I still have my two Dog particles - one of which is resting on my feet under the desk...and there must be a Higgs in the vicinity because I am definitely feeling the 57.1526 Kg warming my toes.

Thanks to Pauline:

[longship]

1. One of the best DU posts in a long while.

A well earned R&K.

I only wish any of my posts would have as much mass as this one. Sadly, they don't. Gladly, there are other DUers to take up the slack.

Thanks. I'll keep trying. But you've set the bar pretty damned high here.

[Surya Gayatri]

2. Love the mix of whimsy and science. Thanks for posting, DG!