Maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing from texture zeros and quasi-degenerate neutrino masses

It is well known that, in the basis where the charged-lepton mass matrix is diagonal, there are seven cases of two texture zeros in Majorana neutrino mass matrices that are compatible with all experimental data. We show that two of these cases, namely B₃ and B₄ in the classification of Frampton, Glashow and Marfatia, are special in the sense that they automatically lead to near-maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing in the limit of a quasi-degenerate neutrino mass spectrum. This property holds true irrespective of the values of the solar and reactor mixing angles because, for these two cases, in the limit of a quasi-degenerate spectrum, the second and third row of the lepton mixing matrix are, up to signs, approximately complex-conjugate to each other. Moreover, in the same limit the aforementioned cases also develop a maximal CP-violating CKM-type phase, provided the reactor mixing angle is not too small.     

Lepton family symmetries for neutrino masses and mixing

I review some of the recent progress (up to December 2005) in applying non-Abelian discrete symmetries to the family structure of leptons, with particular emphasis on the tribimaximal mixing ansatz of Harrison, Perkins and Scott.     

Seesaw neutrino masses and mixing with extended democracy

In the context of a minimal extension of the Standard Model with three extra heavy right-handed neutrinos, we propose a model for neutrino masses and mixing based on the hipothesis of a complete alignment of the lepton mass matrices in flavour space. Considering a uniform quasi-democratic structure for these matrices, we show that, in the presence of a highly hierarchical right-handed neutrino mass spectrum, the effective neutrino mass matrix, obtained through the seesaw mechanism, can reproduce all the solutions of the solar neutrino problem.     

Phenomenological relations for neutrino masses and mixing parameters

Phenomenological relations for masses, angles, and CP phases in the neutrino mixing matrix are proposed with allowance for available experimental data. For the case of CP violation in the lepton sector, an analysis of the possible structure of the neutrino mass matrix and a calculation of the neutrino mass features and the Dirac CP phase for the bimodal-neutrino model are performed. The values obtained in this way can be used to interpret and predict the results of various neutrino experiments.     

Low energy threshold corrections to neutrino masses and mixing angles

We compute the low energy threshold corrections to neutrino masses and mixing in the standard model (SM) and its minimal supersymmetric version, using the effective theory technique. We demonstrate that they stabilize the results for neutrino masses and mixing with respect to the choice of the scale to which the renormalization group (RG) equation is integrated. (This confirms the correctness of the recent re-derivation of the RGE for the SM in hep-ph/0108005.) Since, as is known, those corrections are potentially very important for phenomenology we derive for them the explicit formulae that can be applied to specific models of neutrino masses and mixing. Received: 24 October 2001 / Revised version: 19 November 2001 / Published online: 25 January 2002     

Understanding neutrino masses and mixings

We discuss ways to understand large neutrino mixings using new symmetries of quarks and leptons beyond the standard model for the three allowed patterns of neutrino masses: normal, inverted hierarchy and degenerate masses.     

Hierarchical neutrino masses and large mixing angles from the Fritzsch texture of lepton mass matrices

We show that the Fritzsch texture of lepton mass matrices can naturally lead to the bi-large flavor mixing pattern, if three neutrinos have a normal but weak mass hierarchy (typically, m₁:m₂:m₃1:3:10). The effective mass of the tritium beta decay and that of the neutrinoless double beta decay are too small to be observable in this ansatz, but CP violation at the percent level is allowed and could be measured in long-baseline neutrino oscillations.     

Models of neutrino masses and mixings

I discuss models of neutrino masses that could lead to a large mixing angle for the atmospheric neutrino oscillations.     

Models of neutrino masses and baryogenesis

Majorana masses of the neutrino implies lepton number violation and is intimately related to the lepton asymmetry of the universe, which gets related to the baryon asymmetry of the universe in the presence of the sphalerons during the electroweak phase transition. Assuming that the baryon asymmetry of the universe is generated before the electroweak phase transition, it is possible to discriminate different classes of models of neutrino masses. While see-saw mechanism and the triplet Higgs mechanism are preferred, the Zee-type radiative models and the R-parity breaking models requires additional inputs to generate baryon asymmetry of the universe during the electroweak phase transition.     

Unconventional model of neutrino masses

Gelmini and Roncadelli have proposed a model of neutrino masses in which B?L symmetry is spontaneously broken by a small vacuum expectation value of a Higgs triplet. We give an exegesis of this model. We show that the massive neutrinos in this model cannot be cosmologically relevant today and that conflicting analyses of double beta decay experiments can be reconciled.     

Lepton mixing and neutrino oscillations

The present article is a review of phenomena connected with neutrino oscillations. Mixing of two neutrinos (Majorana as well as Dirac) with masses m₁ and m₂ is considered in detail. It is shown that the hypothesis of lepton mixing is not in contradiction with the existing data if |m₁²?m₂²| ? 1 (eV)². Possible experiments designed to reveal neutrino oscillations at reactor, meson factory and high energy accelerator facilities are considered. In such experiments oscillation might be found if $\text{|m}{}_1{}^2\text{?m}{}_2{}^2\text{| ? 0.01}\text{(eV)}{}^2$. The possibilities of searching for oscillations by experiments on cosmic ray neutrinos and especially on solar neutrinos are discussed in detail. The last experiments have an incredible high sensitivity from the point of view of testing the lepton mixing hypothesis (oscillation effects might be observable if $\text{|m}{}_1{}^2\text{?m}{}_2{}^2\text{| ? 10}{}^{\mathrm{?12}}\text{(eV)}{}^2$). The “solar neutrino puzzle” is also discussed from the point of view of lepton mixing. Neutrino oscillations are considered then in the case where in nature there exist N ? 2 neutrino types.In conclusion the case of heavy lepton mixing is considered. It is shown that in a concrete scheme with right-handed currents, the probabilities of such processes as μ → eγ, μ → 3e etc. can be close to existing experimental upper limits, provided the heavy lepton masses are of an order of a few GeV, whereas the probabilities of the above processes are entirely negligible if only neutrinos are mixed.     

Parametrizing and rephasing neutrino mixing

Neutrino mixing in Standard Model extensions, both renormalizable and effective, with arbitrary numbers of singlet and left-handed doublet neutrinos is investigated in a systematic fashion. The charged and neutral (Z-boson-and Higgs-boson-mediated) lepton currents are written under a general Majorana condition, and the independence of observables from the choice of condition, rephasing invariance, is studied. A parametrization of the neutrino mixing matrices in the doublet-singlet factorized form is developed. Its relationship with the see saw mechanism is shown in the limit of small doublet-singlet mixing. The structure of the mixing matrices relevant to neutrino-oscillation experiments is explicated.     

The superlight axion and neutrino masses

Zeitschrift für Physik C Particles and Fields - It is argued that the Peccei—QuinnU(1) PQ symmetry, needed to solve the strong CP-problem, and the localB−L symmetry of weak...