Recently it has been understood that certain soft factorization theorems for scattering amplitudes can be written as Ward identities of new asymptotic symmetries. This relationship has been established for soft particles with spins s > 0, most notably for soft gravitons and photons. Here we study the remaining case of soft scalars. We show that a class of Yukawa-type theories, where a massless scalar couples to massive particles, have an infinite number of conserved charges. This raises the question as to whether one can associate asymptotic symmetries to scalars. Contents

We study asymptotic charges associated with a spin-zero analog of Weinberg's soft photon and graviton theorems in even dimensions. Simple spacetime expressions for the charges are given, but unlike gravity or electrodynamics, the symmetry interpretation for the charges remains elusive. This work is a higher dimensional extension of the four-dimensional case studied by Campiglia et al. [Phys. Rev. D 97, 046002 (2018)].

We propose a semianalytical method to compute the strengths on each of the three massive bodies participating in a three body mean motion resonance (3BR). Applying this method we explore the dependence of the strength on the masses, the orbital parameters and the order of the resonance and we compare with previous studies. We confirm that for low eccentricity low inclination orbits zero order resonances are the strongest ones; but for excited orbits higher order 3BRs become also dynamically relevant. By means of numerical integrations and the construction of dynamical maps we check some of the predictions of the method. We numerically explore the possibility of a planetary system to be trapped in a 3BR due to a migrating scenario. Our results suggest that capture in a chain of two body resonances is more probable than a capture in a pure 3BR. When a system is locked in a 3BR and one of the planets is forced to migrate the other two can react migrating in different directions. We exemplify studying the case of the Galilean satellites where we show the relevance of the different resonances acting on the three innermost satellites.

We study the case of a pseudo-scalar dark matter candidate which emerges from a complex scalar singlet, charged under a global U(1) symmetry, which is broken both explicitly and spontaneously. The pseudo-scalar is naturally stabilized by the presence of a remnant discrete symmetry: dark CP. We study and compare the phenomenology of several simplified models with only one explicit symmetry breaking term. We find that several regions of the parameter space are able to reproduce the observed dark matter abundance while respecting direct detection and invisible Higgs decay limits: in the resonances of the two scalars, featuring the known as forbidden or secluded dark matter, and through non-resonant Higgs-mediated annihilations. In some cases, combining different measurements would allow one to distinguish the breaking pattern of the symmetry. Moreover, this setup admits a light DM candidate at the sub-GeV scale. We also discuss the situation where more than one symmetry breaking term is present. In that case, the dark CP symmetry may be spontaneously broken, thus spoiling the stability of the dark matter candidate. Requiring that this does not happen imposes a constraint on the allowed parameter space. Finally, we consider an effective field theory approach valid in the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson limit and when the U(1) breaking scale is much larger than the electroweak scale.

Stringent constraints on the interactions of dark matter with the Standard Model suggest that dark matter does not take part in gauge interactions. In this regard, the possibility of communicating between the visible and dark sectors via gauge singlets seems rather natural. We consider a framework where the dark matter talks to the Standard Model through its coupling to sterile neutrinos, which generate active neutrino masses. We focus on the case of Majorana dark matter, with its relic abundance set by thermal freeze-out through annihilations into sterile neutrinos. We use an effective field theory approach to study the possible sterile neutrino portals to dark matter. We find that both lepton-number-conserving and lepton-number-violating operators are possible, yielding an interesting connection with the Dirac/Majorana character of active neutrinos. In a second step, we open the different operators and outline the possible renormalisable models. We analyse the phenomenology of the most promising ones, including a particular case in which the Majorana mass of the sterile neutrinos is generated radiatively.