https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-11654-0
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Revisiting the universal texture zero of flavour: a Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis
1
Institute for Astroparticle Physics (IAP), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
2
Institute for Theoretical Particle Physics (TTP), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Engesserstrasse 7, 76128, Karlsruhe, Germany
3
CFTP, Departamento de Física, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais 1, 1049, Lisbon, Portugal
4
DAMTP, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Rd., CB3 0WA, Cambridge, UK
Received:
8
January
2023
Accepted:
22
May
2023
Published online:
8
June
2023
We revisit the phenomenological predictions of the Universal Texture Zero (UTZ) model of flavour originally presented in [1], and update them in light of both improved experimental constraints and numerical analysis techniques. In particular, we have developed an in-house Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm to exhaustively explore the UTZ’s viable parameter space, considering both leading- and next-to-leading contributions in the model’s effective operator product expansion. We also extract – for the first time – reliable UTZ predictions for the (poorly constrained) leptonic CP-violating phases, and ratio observables that characterize neutrino masses probed by (e.g.) oscillation, 
-decay, and cosmological processes. We therefore dramatically improve on the proof-in-principle phenomenological analysis originally presented in [1], and ultimately show that the UTZ remains a minimal, viable, and appealing theory of flavour. Our results also further demonstrate the potential of robustly examining multi-parameter flavour models with MCMC routines.
This work is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Graham Garland Ross, FRS: 1944-2021.
© The Author(s) 2023
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Funded by SCOAP3. SCOAP3 supports the goals of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.
