The T2K Indication of Relatively Large theta_13 and a Natural Perturbation to the Democratic Neutrino Mixing Pattern

The T2K Collaboration has recently reported a remarkable indication of the \nu_\mu -> \nu_e oscillation which is consistent with a relatively large value of \theta_{13} in the three-flavor neutrino mixing scheme. We show that it is possible to account for such a result of \theta_{13} by introducing a natural perturbation to the democratic neutrino mixing pattern, without or with CP violation. A testable correlation between \theta_{13} and \theta_{23} is predicted in this ansatz. We also discuss the Wolfenstein-like parametrization of neutrino mixing, and comment on other possibilities of generating sufficiently large \theta_{13} at the electroweak scale.Comment: RevTeX 8 page

Can the Lepton Flavor Mixing Matrix Be Symmetric?

Current neutrino oscillation data indicate that the 3x3 lepton flavor mixing matrix V is likely to be symmetric about its V_{e3}-V_{\mu 2}-V_{\tau 1} axis. This off-diagonal symmetry corresponds to three pairs of {\it congruent} unitarity triangles in the complex plane. Terrestrial matter effects can substantially modify the genuine CP-violating parameter and off-diagonal asymmetries of V in realistic long-baseline experiments of neutrino oscillations.Comment: RexTex 14 pages (4 PS figures). More discussions adde

Quark Mass Matrices in Superstring Models

Four simple but realistic patterns of quark mass matrices are derived from orbifold models of superstring theory in the absence of gauge symmetries. Two of them correspond to the Ramond-Roberts-Ross types, which have five texture zeros in up and down quark sectors. The other two, with four texture zeros, preserve the structural parallelism between up and down sectors. The phenomenological consequences of these mass matrices on flavor mixings and CP violation are analyzed at the weak scale. With the same input values of quark mass ratios, we find that only one or two of the four patterns can be in good agreement with current experimental data

Is the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa Matrix Symmetric at the GUT Scale?

By use of the one-loop renormalization group equations and current experimental data, we study the off-diagonal asymmetries of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix at the GUT scale in the framework of the standard model as well as its two Higgs and supersymmetric extensions. It is concluded that the possibility of a symmetric CKM matrix at the GUT scale has almost been ruled out.Comment: Latex 6 pages plus PS 2 pages. This tiny work would not have been put into this archive if I had not noticed an interesting work by P. Kielanowski et al (hep-ph/9703292), whose conclusion seems to be opposite to mine. (Accepted for publication in J. Phys. G

Updated Values of Running Quark and Lepton Masses

Reliable values of quark and lepton masses are important for model building at a fundamental energy scale, such as the Fermi scale M_Z \approx 91.2 GeV and the would-be GUT scale \Lambda_GUT \sim 2 \times 10^16 GeV. Using the latest data given by the Particle Data Group, we update the running quark and charged-lepton masses at a number of interesting energy scales below and above M_Z. In particular, we take into account the possible new physics scale (\mu \sim 1 TeV) to be explored by the LHC and the typical seesaw scales (\mu \sim 10^9 GeV and \mu \sim 10^12 GeV) which might be relevant to the generation of neutrino masses. For illustration, the running masses of three light Majorana neutrinos are also calculated. Our up-to-date table of running fermion masses are expected to be very useful for the study of flavor dynamics at various energy scales.Comment: 23 pages, 6 tables, 2 figures; version published in PR

Massive and Massless Neutrinos on Unbalanced Seesaws

The observation of neutrino oscillations requires new physics beyond the standard model (SM). A SM-like gauge theory with p lepton families can be extended by introducing q heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos but preserving its SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y gauge symmetry. The overall neutrino mass matrix M turns out to be a symmetric (p+q) x (p+q) matrix. Given p>q, the rank of M is in general equal to 2q, corresponding to 2q non-zero mass eigenvalues. The existence of (p-q) massless left-handed Majorana neutrinos is an exact consequence of the model, independent of the usual approximation made in deriving the Type-I seesaw relation between the effective p x p light Majorana neutrino mass matrix M_\nu and the q x q heavy Majorana neutrino mass matrix M_R. In other words, the numbers of massive left- and right-handed neutrinos are fairly matched. A good example to illustrate this seesaw fair play rule is the minimal seesaw model with p=3 and q=2, in which one massless neutrino sits on the unbalanced seesaw.Comment: RevTex 8 pages, 1 PS figure. Two crucial references adde

A new measurement of thermal conductivity of amorphous ice and its implications for the thermal evolution of comets

Very slowly deposited amorphous ice has a thermal conductivity about four orders of magnitude or more smaller than hitherto estimated. Using the exceedingly low value of the thermal conductivity of comets deduced from the properties of amorphous ice leads to the expectation that internal heating of comets is negligible below the outer several tens of centimeters

More Straightforward Extraction of the Fundamental Lepton Mixing Parameters from Long-Baseline Neutrino Oscillations

We point out the simple reversibility between the fundamental neutrino mixing parameters in vacuum and their effective counterparts in matter. The former can therefore be expressed in terms of the latter, allowing more straightforward extraction of the genuine lepton mixing quantities from a variety of long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. In addition to the parametrization-independent results, we present the formulas based on the standard parametrization of the lepton flavor mixing matrix and give a typical numerical illustration.Comment: RevTex 10 pages. Minor changes. Phys. Rev. D in printin