Quasi-degenerate neutrinos and leptogenesis from L_mu-L_tau

Abstract

We provide a framework for quasi-degenerate neutrinos consistent with a successful leptogenesis, based on the L_mu-L_tau flavor symmetry and its breaking pattern. In this scheme, a fine-tuning is needed to arrange the small solar neutrino mass splitting. Once it is ensured, the atmospheric neutrino mass splitting and the deviation from the maximal atmospheric mixing angle are driven by the same symmetry breaking parameter lambda~0.1, and the reactor angle is predicted to be slightly smaller than lambda, while the Dirac CP phase is generically of order one. Given that the pseudo-Dirac nature of right-handed neutrinos is protected from the flavor symmetry breaking, a small mass splitting can be generated radiatively. For moderate values of tan(beta)~10, this allows for low-scale supersymmetric leptogenesis, overcoming a strong wash-out effect of the quasi-degenerate light neutrinos and evading the gravitino overproduction.