(There are so many that only a few are mentioned here.)
Fairies or their kin have traditionally been known as agents creating phenomena when other explanations fail. In the instances which follow, I apologize for any possible insult to any real fairies that either myself or the fairy-minded physicists have inadvertently invoked.
Ever since the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887, the "particle pushers" of theoretical physics have apparently been enlisting fairies - and they watch for those fairies to appear. Their belief in fairies began when they could not realistically comprehend wave theory and followed Isaac Newton, who had insisted that photons are particles even though Huygens had a better theory. So the particle pushers now use fairies as necessary agents of their version of certain phenomena that cannot be explained otherwise. Remember the little guy who turns on the light in your refrigerator when you open it?
When the particle pushers had set their sights on the notion that there is no medium for light to use as a wave, they gladly pounced upon the MM experiment as proof that ether could not exist. Yet, even in those days the most fundamental courses in logic taught that the apparent absence of something is not proof that it does not exist. So the first fairy that the "particle pushers" created is the "Lacklogic Fairy". The Lacklogic Fairy is invoked more frequently than the other fairies so it is always rather tired from overwork. Yet, it cannot be allowed a vacation because that might cause the collapse of the whole current framework of theoretical physics. Therefore, it must be pitied and given more attention than the other fairies.
Actually, the Lacklogic Fairy was probably first conceived when physicists decided to attribute their own preconceived qualities to the medium they called "ether". When the medium failed to conform to their dictates, the particle pushers decided to invoke the Lacklogic Fairy - which by then had finished its gestation period and was ready to be born.
The invocation of the Lacklogic Fairy, was followed by the full manifestation of the "Great Photon Fairy". The Great Photon Fairy had been merely a dim, misty, creation of ectoplasm until the Lacklogic Fairy was able to persuade the gullible that there was no medium for light to use, thus showing light to be particulate in nature. The Great Photon Fairy has little clones of itself called Photon Fairies - which are necessary to be sure that the "Photon Pollywogs" speed up after moving from a dense medium to a less dense medium (such as from a lens to the air surrounding it). The Photon Fairies are apparently able to goose or spur the little pollywogs - each of which wiggle at a particular frequency - and thus cause them to accelerate. The Photon Fairies and the Photon Pollywogs together are the "Photon Cavalry".
The Great Photon Fairy and her little clones are responsible for other phenomena regarding the Photon Pollywogs. There are a number of so-called paradoxes which they create, such as the entanglement of Photon Pollywogs to create instantaneous reaction at a distance, known as the EPR experiment (Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen - 1935 - confirmed in 1980).
Einstein created the Special Relativity Fairy (SR Fairy) to fix the "twin paradox" in his theory of Special Relativity. The SR Fairy allows a twin moving near lightspeed to age less than a twin which is not moving very fast at all - so sometimes people call the SR Fairy the Fountain of Youth. The SR Fairy diverts peoples' minds so that they will not ask the question: "Since things are supposed to be relative to one another, why is the twin of lesser apparent motion not considered the one who is moving faster while the other twin moves more slowly?" The SR Fairy along with the Lacklogic Fairy also prevents people from asking about the problem of rotary motion as opposed to linear motion in Einstein's theory. "If all is relative, why cannot the spinning object be stationary while the universe spins around it? Einstein's Spacetime Fairy (ST Fairy) actually joins space and time together in a membrane without any real logic for having done so - which means that the Lacklogic Fairy is not even needed. But the most wonderful fairy that Einstein created was the Leadenrear Fairy and her clones that are so heavy that when they sit down on the spacetime trampoline, they create depressions leading to the phenomenon we call "gravity" - because we roll around on that trampoline and sometimes bounce.
The "Great Electron Fairy" was conceived and eventually born as the idea of electron spin was established. Once again, we have a fairy with many small clones, and each small clone must do its job flawlessly or answer to the Great Electron Fairy. Each little Electron Fairy that is at work stays beside each moving electron and hits it on the side with a small stick so that the electron spins at the same rate as every other electron. These Electron Fairies are always busy because they must check to see just how fast the other Fairies are making their electrons spin - and they must follow the moving electron regardless of how quickly or abruptly that it is moving. Yet, the Electron Fairies do not tire as does the Lacklogic Fairy because there are more of them than there are electrons and they can spell each other as long as they are fast enough to trade off without any electron slowing down. Although not yet proven, it is believed that there is a very stiff penalty imposed upon any Electron Fairy that allows her electron to slow its rate of spin. At first, it was believed that there were no more Electron Fairies than there were electrons, but obviously these fairies would tire too quickly if there were not second and third teams of them to help out - after all, they must work very hard to overcome the laws of conservation of momentum and conservation of energy - and for these two tasks, they must enlist the Lacklogic Fairy as well.
As time passed, the "Expansion Fairy" (E Fairy) was introduced because the universe had to have something that made it expand. This Fairy lasted for a time, but was replaced with the "Accelerated Expansion Fairy" (AE Fairy). The AE Fairy took over to make the universe's expansion go faster. Both of these Fairies are very strong. The E fairy must overcome all the gravity in the universe, and the AE Fairy must overcome all the gravity as well as all the inertia in the universe. However, it appears that the E Fairy has retired and is now basking in the light and fishing on a cosmic lake from a cosmic rowboat. There is a possibility that the "Dark Energy Fairy" will soon take over completely from the AE Fairy, and then the AE Fairy can retire with the E Fairy and one can steer their rowboat while the other rows. No one knows which will do what in this regard - maybe they will take turns.
Every time a new particle is theorized, the particle pushers create a great fairy and small clones of itself to make the particle do things what it is supposed to do. Some examples are the "Great Neutrino Fairy", the "Great Gluon Fairy", the "Great Graviton Fairy", the "Great Acceleron Fairy", the "Great Axion Fairy", and the "Great God-Particle Fairy". These fairies need not be authenticated by any authority, so anyone with a degree in theoretical physics can create one. However, this policy did create the "Elite Idiot Fairy" to prevent anyone other than the anointed theoretical physics PhDs from explaining their fairies' antics to the public.
The "Great Dark Matter Fairy" (DM Fairy) is like the "Shadow" who can "cloud men's minds". Just like Lamont Cranston, this fairy and her product or products are invisible. Dark matter cannot be found and thus tends to tease the Lacklogic Fairy into play, but it most certainly exists because most theoretical physicists say so. It is rumored that the Great Dark Matter Fairy is a ghost and that dark matter is cosmic ectoplasm that was left over when a lot of anti-matter was destroyed. This would explain why there appears to be more matter than anti-matter.
All of this ultimately leads to a the greatest fairy of all, the "Great Bovine Excremental Fairy", that causes certain theoretical physicists to con the public while maintaining their dignity as they frolick with their fairies.
Our older cat, a Siamese named "T'Purr", figured out long ago what Misty's fairy is - but
Misty is not yet educated enough to understand T'Purr's explanation. Perhaps most
theoretical physicists are at Misty's mental level ... No, that cannot be true because
Misty has no large ego to bruise, no pet theory to champion, and no job to be in jeopardy
if she accepts a logical theory in lieu of her fairy. Misty merely follows her
scientific curiosity wherever it may lead her - and this puts her at a
much higher intellectual level than the particle pushers, the dark matter manipulators,
the dark energy espousers, and the other fabricated fairies who fear the consequences of real
truth entering the realm of theoretical physics. Isn't it amusing to watch
those who are scrambling so hard to catch a fairy at the end of a beam of light?