Neutrino flavor mixing with approximate $\mu$-$\tau$ symmetry within the low-scale minimal linear seesaw model

TL;DR

This paper explains neutrino flavor mixing using a low-scale minimal linear seesaw model with approximate mu-tau symmetry, deriving mixing patterns without complex flavor symmetries.

Contribution

It introduces a variant of the linear seesaw model with a GeV-scale sterile neutrino and demonstrates how mu-tau symmetry explains mixing patterns.

Findings

Derives tri-bimaximal mixing and deviations from mu-tau symmetry

Proposes a low-scale seesaw model with sterile neutrinos at GeV scale

Explains neutrino mixing without non-abelian discrete symmetries

Abstract

Neutrino flavor mixing is explained within the recently proposed low-scale minimal linear seesaw model of neutrino mass generation, a variant of the standard linear seesaw led by a Dirac pair of extra sterile neutrinos which is odd under a discrete $Z_2$ symmetry and has a mass at or below the GeV scale. The tri-bimaximal mixing and its deviations are derived straightforwardly on the basis of the symmetry between $\mu$ and $\tau$ flavors, without introducing non-abelian discrete flavor symmetries in the first place.