Eur. Phys. J. C (2012) 72: 1859
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-012-1859-7

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Neutrino mixing and masses in a left–right model with mirror fermions

¹ Departamento de Física, Escuela Superior de Física y Matemática, I.P.N., U.P. Adolfo L. Mateos, México D.F., 07738, Mexico
² Centro de Investigaciones Teóricas, FES, UNAM, Apartado Postal 142, Cuatitlán-Izcalli, México, 54700, Mexico
³ Instituto de Matemática Pura y Aplicada, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, 46022, Spain

^* e-mail: rgaitan@servidor.unam.mx

Received: 1 July 2011
Revised: 18 November 2011
Published online: 31 January 2012

Abstract

In the framework of a left–right model containing mirror fermions with gauge group SU(3) _C ⊗SU(2) _L ⊗SU(2) _R ⊗U(1) _Y′, we estimate the neutrino masses, which are found to be consistent with their experimental bounds and hierarchy. We evaluate the decay rates of the Lepton Flavor Violation (LFV) processes μ→eγ, τ→μγ and τ→eγ. We obtain upper limits for the flavor-changing branching ratios in agreement with their present experimental bounds. We also estimate the decay rates of heavy Majorana neutrinos in the channels N→W ^± l ^∓, N→Zν _l and N→Hν _l , which are roughly equal for large values of the heavy neutrino mass. Starting from the most general Majorana neutrino mass matrix, the smallness of active neutrino masses turns out from the interplay of the hierarchy of the involved scales and the double application of seesaw mechanism. An appropriate parameterization on the structure of the neutrino mass matrix imposing a symmetric mixing of electron neutrino with muon and tau neutrinos leads to tri-bimaximal mixing matrix for light neutrinos.