Type I seesaw mechanism for quasi-degenerate neutrinos

Abstract

We discuss symmetries and scenarios leading to quasi-degenerate neutrinos in type I seesaw models. The existence of degeneracy in the present approach is not linked to any specific structure for the Dirac neutrino Yukawa coupling matrix yD and holds in general. Basic input is the application of the minimal flavour violation principle to the leptonic sector. Generalizing this principle, we assume that the structure of the right-handed neutrino mass matrix is determined by yD and the charged lepton Yukawa coupling matrix yl in an effective theory invariant under specific groups GF contained in the full symmetry group of the kinetic energy terms. GF invariance also leads to specific structure for the departure from degeneracy. The neutrino mass matrix (with degenerate mass m0) resulting after seesaw mechanism has a simple form Mν≈m0(I−pylylT) in one particular scenario based on supersymmetry. This form is shown to lead to correct description of neutrino masses and mixing angles. The thermal leptogenesis after inclusion of flavour effects can account for the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe within the present scenario. Rates for lepton flavour violating processes can occur at observable levels in the supersymmetric version of the scenario.