This thesis studies the symmetries and phenomenologies of the massive vector fields of indefinite spin with both scalar and spin-one degrees of freedom and Elko. The investigation is conducted by using and extending the quantum field theory formalism developed by Wigner and Weinberg. In particular, we explore the possibility that the W± and Z bosons have an additional scalar degree of freedom and show that Elko is a fermionic dark matter candidate. We show that the massive vector fields of indefinite spin are consistent with Poincaré symmetry and have physically desirable properties that are absent for their pure spin-one counterpart. Using the new vector fields, the decay of the W± and Z bosons to leptons at tree-level are in agreement with the Standard Model (SM) predictions. For higher order scattering amplitudes, the theory has better convergent behaviour than the intermediate vector boson model and the Fermi theory. Elko has the unusual property that it satisfies the Klein-Gordon but not the Dirac equation and has mass dimension one instead of three-half. We show that the Elko fields are local only along a preferred axis and that they violate Lorentz symmetry. Motivated by the results obtained by Ahluwalia and Horvath that the Elko spin-sums are covariant under very special relativity (VSR) transformations, we derive the VSR particle states and quantum fields. We show that the VSR particles can only interact with the SM particles through gravity and massive scalar particles thus making them and hence Elko dark matter candidates.

This thesis deals with two classes of space-time symmetries: emergent symmetries in the near-horizon region of rapidly rotating Kerr black holes and residual gauge symmetries. The main aim of the thesis is to investigate consequences and effects of these symmetries on black holes and gravitational radiation. The first class of symmetries is exploited to address questions of astrophysical relevance for force-free magnetospheres, thin accretion discs, and strong magnetic fields around Kerr black holes. We investigate how the dynamics of electromagnetic and matter fields is constrained by global conformal symmetries of the near-horizon geometry. In the context of force-free electrodynamics, we find exact solutions and classify them according to the highest weight representation of the isometry group. We introduce novel criteria to distinguish physical solutions and deduce bounds on conformal weights of electromagnetic fields. For thin accretion discs, within the Novikov-Thorne model, new properties arise in the high spin regime of the Kerr black hole. We find a novel self-similar solution and we explain the critical behaviour of the observables by symmetry arguments. Afterwards, we study an exact analytic solution to the Einstein-Maxwell theory. It describes a black hole immersed in a strong magnetic field and it shares the same near-horizon geometry of extreme Kerr black holes. We compute its total conserved mass by means of the covariant phase space formalism and study its thermodynamics. The second class of symmetries is considered in order to provide a new definition of gravitational multipole moments by means of Noether charges and by adopting the covariant phase space formalism. We show that such a definition in terms of Noether charges reproduces multipole moments in General Relativity. We propose to apply it to an arbitrary generally covariant metric theory of gravity. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished