https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2004-01896-y
theoretical physics
Symmetry realization of texture zeros
1
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Wien, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090, Wien, Austria
2
Physical Research Laboratory, 380009, Ahmedabad, India
3
Centro de Física das Interacções Fundamentais, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, 1049-001, Lisboa, Portugal
4
Department of Physics, Niigata University, Ikarashi 2-8050, 950-2181, Niigata, Japan
* e-mail: walter.grimus@univie.ac.at
We show that it is possible to enforce texture zeros in arbitrary entries of the fermion mass matrices by means of Abelian symmetries; in this way, many popular mass-matrix textures find a symmetry justification. We propose two alternative methods which allow one to place zeros in any number of elements of the mass matrices that one wants. They are applicable simultaneously in the quark and lepton sectors. They are also applicable in grand unified theories. The number of scalar fields required by our methods may be large; still, in many interesting cases this number can be reduced considerably. The larger the desired number of texture zeros is, the simpler are the models which reproduce the texture.
© Springer-Verlag, 2004
