Deviations from tribimaximal neutrino mixing in the type-II seesaw model and leptogenesis

Abstract

Current experimental data allow the zero value for one neutrino mass, either m1=0 or m3=0. This observation implies that a realistic neutrino mass texture can be established by starting from the limit (a) m1=m2=0 and m3≠0 or (b) m1=m2≠0 and m3=0. In both cases, we may introduce a particular perturbation which ensures the resultant neutrino mixing matrix to be the tribimaximal mixing pattern or its viable variations with all entries being formed from small integers and their square roots. We find that it is natural to incorporate this kind of neutrino mass matrix in the minimal type-II seesaw model with only one heavy right-handed Majorana neutrino N in addition to the SU(2)L Higgs triplet ΔL. We show that it is possible to account for the cosmological baryon number asymmetry in the m3=0 case via thermal leptogenesis, in which the one-loop vertex correction to N decays is mediated by ΔL and the CP-violating asymmetry of N decays is attributed to the electron flavor. © 2007 The American Physical Society.