Maximal zero textures of the inverse seesaw with broken $μτ$ symmetry

Abstract

The inverse neutrino seesaw, characterised by only one source of lepton number violation at an ultralight $O$(keV) scale and observable new phenomena at TeV energies accessible to the LHC, is considered. Maximal zero textures of the $3\times 3$ lighter and heavier Dirac mass matrices of neutral leptons, appearing in the Lagarangian for such an inverse seesaw, are studied within the framework of $μτ$ symmetry in a specified weak basis. That symmetry ensures the identity of the positions of maximal zeros of the heavy neutrino mass matrix and its inverse. It then suffices to study the maximal zeros of the lighter Dirac mass matrix and those of the inverse of the heavier one since they come in a product. The observed absence of any unmixed neutrino flavour and the assumption of no strictly massless physical neutrino state allow only eight $4$-zero $\times$ $4$-zero, eight $4$-zero $\times$ $6$-zero and eight $6$-zero $\times$ $4$-zero combinations. The additional requirement of leptogenesis is shown to eliminate the last sixteen textures. The surviving eight $4$-zero $\times$ $4$-zero textures are subjected to the most general explicit $μτ$ symmetry breaking terms in the Lagrangian in order to accommodate the nonzero value of $θ_{13}$ in the observed range. A full diagonalisation is then carried out. On numerical comparison with all extant and relevant neutrino (antineutrino) data, seven of these eight combination textures in five neutrino matrix forms are found to be allowed, leading to five distinct neutrino mass matrices. Two of these permit only a normal (and the other three only an inverted) mass ordering of the light neutrinos.