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# Constructing the large mixing angle MNS matrix in see-saw models with right-handed neutrino dominance

## 1 Introduction

Recent SNO results on the neutral current (NC) flux  and the day-night effects , when combined with other solar neutrino data especially that of Super-Kamiokande  strongly favour the large mixing angle (LMA) MSW solar solution  with three active light neutrino states, and $`\theta _{12}\pi /6`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^25\times 10^5\mathrm{eV}^2`$ , , . The atmospheric neutrino data is consistent with maximal $`\nu _\mu \nu _\tau `$ neutrino mixing  with $`|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2|2.5\times 10^3\mathrm{eV}^2`$ and the sign of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2`$ undetermined. The CHOOZ experiment limits $`\theta _{13}\stackrel{<}{_{}}0.2`$ over the favoured atmospheric range . The combined neutrino data is well described by an MNS matrix  with $`\theta _{23}\pi /4`$, $`\theta _{12}\pi /6`$, $`\theta _{13}\stackrel{<}{_{}}0.2`$, which we refer to as the LMA MNS matrix. It is clear that neutrino oscillations, which only depend on $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{ij}^2m_i^2m_j^2`$, gives no information about the absolute value of the neutrino mass eigenvalues $`m_i`$. Recent results from the 2df galaxy redshift survey indicate that $`m_i<1.8\mathrm{eV}(95\%C.L.)`$ under certain mild assumptions . Combined with the solar and atmospheric oscillation data this brackets the heaviest neutrino mass to be in the approximate range 0.04-0.6 eV. The fact that the mass of the heaviest neutrino is known to within an order of magnitude represents remarkable progress in neutrino physics over recent years.

The basic possible patterns of neutrino mass consistent with this data are: (i) hierarchy (full $`m_1m_2m_3`$, or partial $`m_1\stackrel{<}{_{}}m_2m_3`$), (ii) inverted hierarchy ($`m_1m_2m_3`$, or the pseudo-Dirac form $`m_1m_2m_3`$), or (iii) degenerate $`m_1^2m_2^2m_3^2`$ . Although oscillation data does not distinguish between these possibilities, the theoretical requirement that the neutrino spectrum is generated in a technically natural way, does provide an additional guiding principle. For example it is clear that a degenerate mass scale $`m^2|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{ij}^2|`$ implies very small fractional neutrino mass splittings. For example, if $`m_3=0.500\mathrm{eV}`$ then atmospheric oscillations require neutrino masses $`m_2=0.497\mathrm{eV}`$. The problem is one of tuning, both to set up the small mass splitting at the high energy scale, and to preserve it in the presence of radiative corrections . In general such a neutrino spectrum is not technically natural, since small perturbations in the high energy input parameters will violate the low energy degeneracy. One can envisage a technically natural mechanism which would lead to a degenerate pair of neutrinos with opposite sign masses $`m_1m_2`$, but to achieve the full three-fold degeneracy is much more difficult ,. A similar objection can be raised against the inverted hierarchical spectrum in which the almost degenerate neutrinos have the same sign masses $`m_1m_2`$ where for $`m_1=0.0500\mathrm{eV}`$ we require $`m_2=0.0497\mathrm{eV}`$ for the LMA MSW solution. In these kinds of inverted hierarchy models there is no natural mechanism that can set and preserve such mass splittings, however as we shall see, in the inverted hierarchy model with a pseudo-Dirac neutrino pair corresponding to opposite sign masses $`m_1m_2`$, a natural mechanism is possible.

Assuming the LMA MNS matrix plus naturalness implies that there are then just two leading order forms for the light physical effective Majorana neutrino mass matrix $`m_{LL}^\nu `$ (where LL means that it couples left-handed neutrinos to left-handed neutrinos) corresponding to either a hierarchical spectrum with $`mm_3m_1,m_2`$ arising from:

$$m_{LL}^\nu \left(\begin{array}{ccc}0& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 1\\ 0& 1& 1\end{array}\right)\frac{m}{2}$$
(1)
or an inverted hierarchical spectrum with a pseudo-Dirac pair of neutrinos with $`mm_2m_1m_3`$ arising from:

$$m_{LL}^\nu \left(\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill 0& \hfill 1& \hfill 1\\ \hfill 1& \hfill 0& \hfill 0\\ \hfill 1& \hfill 0& \hfill 0\end{array}\right)\frac{m}{\sqrt{2}}$$
(2)
where in both cases $`m\sqrt{|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2|}5\times 10^2\mathrm{eV}`$. It is remarkable that only by assuming the LMA MNS matrix plus naturalness arguments we are led to only two possible leading order structures for the neutrino mass matrix, both of which have a zero in the 11 element corresponding to a small $`\beta \beta _{0\nu }`$ rate corresponding to $`|m_{ee}|=0`$ at leading order.

For the hierarchical case the experimental requirement $`|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2||\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^2|`$ implies that $`m_3^2m_2^2`$ which again looks technically unnatural since we would expect two roughly equal eigenvalues once the lower block is diagonalised. For the LMA MSW solution we only require a mild hierarchy, $`|m_2|/|m_3|0.1`$, and this will require accidental cancellations of order 10% to take place in the diagonalisation of the lower block of the neutrino mass matrix. Although the degree of tuning necessary to achieve the hierarchy is not large, it does imply that the radiative corrections of the matrix elements will be competetive with the amount by which they need to be tuned, and hence that radiative corrections will be very important in determining the low energy spectrum. In the case of see-saw models  the radiative corrections may be sufficient to destroy (or create) the cancellations necessary to achieve the desired hierarchy ,. 111The one-loop beta function coefficients in the Standard Model have recently been corrected in , . The two loop result for the MSSM is given in . In all cases radiative corrections will be important and the neutrino masses and mixings calculated in a given high energy unified theory will not be simply related to the low energy ones.

The above situation could be improved if it were possible to make the neutrino mass hierarchy completely natural. If the hierarchy $`m_3m_2`$ could emerge without any tuning at all, not even at the level of 10% accidental cancellations, then the low energy spectrum would faithfully preserve the nature of the spectrum calculated at high energy, without being severely affected by radiative corrections. If this could be achieved then the low energy measurements would provide a direct window into the nature of the high energy theory. Therefore it is interesting to ask whether it is possible for the neutrino mass hierarchy to arise in a completely natural way? Indeed this is possible if the see-saw mechanism  is supplemented by a mechanism known as single right-handed neutrino dominance , , . According to single right-handed neutrino dominance one of the right-handed neutrinos makes the dominant contribution to the lower block of $`m_{LL}^\nu `$ causing its determinant to approximately vanish, and thereby leading to $`|m_2||m_3|`$ without relying on accidental cancellations which are subject to important radiative corrections. Single right-handed neutrino dominance does not mean that there is only a single right-handed neutrino, only that one of the right-handed neutrinos is making the dominant contribution. If the dominant right-handed neutrino is denoted $`\nu _{R3}`$ with a heavy Majorana mass $`Y`$ and Dirac couplings $`d,e,f`$ to the weak eigenstate neutrinos $`\nu _e,\nu _\mu ,\nu _\tau `$ given by $`\nu _{R3}(d\nu _e+e\nu _\mu +f\nu _\tau )`$ then according to the see-saw mechanism this will result in a light physical neutrino $`\nu _3d\nu _e+e\nu _\mu +f\nu _\tau `$ of mass $`m_3(d^2+e^2+f^2)/Y`$  together with two light orthogonal combinations of neutrinos which would be massless in the limit that there is only a single right-handed neutrino. The requirements of a maximal atmospheric angle $`\theta _{23}\pi /4`$ and a small CHOOZ angle $`\theta _{13}1`$ imply the relation $`def`$ .

In order to account for the solar data we must consider the effect of the sub-leading right-handed neutrinos. These perturb the spectrum leading to a small second neutrino mass $`m_2^2m_3^2`$. The strength of the hierarchy is controlled by the relative importance of the sub-leading right-handed neutrinos, rather than relying on accidental cancellations. If the sub-leading contribution is dominated by a single sub-leading right-handed neutrino $`\nu _{R2}`$ with mass $`X`$ and couplings $`\nu _{R2}(a\nu _e+b\nu _\mu +c\nu _\tau )`$, then this leads to a second neutrino mass of order $`m_2(1/2)(bc)^2/X`$ which only depends on the subleading parameters because we must have $`m_2=0`$ in the limit of there being only a single right-handed neutrino . The solar angle was given by $`\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}\sqrt{2}a/(bc)`$ . Note that the solar angle is completely determined by the sub-leading couplings, due to a natural cancellation of the leading contributions . The lightest neutrino mass $`m_1`$ is generated by the sub-sub-leading couplings due to the right-handed neutrino $`\nu _{R1}`$ with mass $`X^{}`$ leading to a full neutrino mass hierarchy $`m_1m_2m_3`$ . We shall refer to this as sequential sub-dominance.

The sub-leading contribution may alternatively result from two equally contributing sub-dominant right-handed neutrinos in which case only a partial neutrino mass hierarchy results $`m_1\stackrel{<}{_{}}m_2m_3`$ and the results above will be different . While the full hierarchy results from an approximately diagonal right-handed neutrino mass matrix, a partial hierarchy may result from three possible textures for the right-handed neutrino mass matrix namely diagonal, democratic or off-diagonal where the nomenclature refers to the upper block :

$$M_{RR}^{\mathrm{diag}}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}X^{}& 0& 0\\ 0& X& 0\\ 0& 0& Y\end{array}\right)$$
(3)
$$M_{RR}^{\mathrm{dem}}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}X& X& 0\\ X& X& 0\\ 0& 0& Y\end{array}\right)$$
(4)
$$M_{RR}^{\mathrm{off}\mathrm{diag}}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}0& X& 0\\ X& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& Y\end{array}\right)$$
(5)
where the heavy Majorana neutrino mass matrices $`M_{RR}`$ couple right-handed neutrinos to right-handed neutrinos. Note that though the right-handed neutrinos in Eq.5 have a common pseudo-Dirac mass $`X`$, this may or may not lead to the lighter two physical neutrinos arising from the matrix in Eq.1 having a pseudo-Dirac mass. As discussed  Eq.3 can lead to either a full or a partial hierarchy, while Eqs.4 and 5 only lead to partial hierarchies. We shall refer to the cases where partial hierarchies result from the structures in Eqs.3,4 and 5 as diagonal sub-dominance, democratic sub-dominance and off-diagonal sub-dominance. We shall continue to refer the case where a full hierarchy results from the diagonal structure in Eq.3 as sequential sub-dominance. Clearly they are all sub-classes of single right-handed neutrino dominance since in all cases the dominant contribution to the neutrino mass matrix comes from the single right-handed neutrino with mass $`Y`$. The radiative corrections in such an approach would be expected to be small since the hierarchy is now completely natural, and this has been verified explicitly by a study of each of the cases in Eqs.3,4,5 the result of which shows that radiative corrections typically change the physical predictions by only a few per cent .

The neutrino mass matrix in Eq.2 corresponding to an inverted hierarchy with opposite sign masses $`m_1m_2`$ and $`m_1m_2m_3`$, can be reproduced by three right-handed neutrinos with the texture in Eq.5 . However an important difference is that now it is the off-diagonal pair of right-handed neutrinos with pseudo-Dirac mass $`X`$ that dominates the neutrino mass matrix leading to the pseudo-Dirac structure of neutrino masses in Eq.2, with the right-handed neutrino of mass $`Y`$ now giving the sub-dominant contributions . We shall refer to this as off-diagonal right-handed neutrino dominance. As in the hierarchical cases based on single right-handed neutrino dominance, the resulting inverted hierarchical spectrum does not rely on any accidental cancellations and is technically natural. The radiative corrections arising to the inverted neutrino mass spectrum arising from off-diagonal right-handed neutrino dominance have been studied and shown to be only a few per cent .

In this paper we consider neutrino mass matrices with the leading order structures in Eqs.1,2, and diagonalise each of them to leading order in $`\theta _{13}`$ to extract the neutrino masses, mixing angles and phases. The MNS matrix is then constructed to leading order in the small angle $`\theta _{13}`$ including the neutrino and charged lepton mixing angles and phases, the latter playing a crucial rôle for allowing the inverted hierarchy solution to be consistent with the LMA MSW solution. We then go on to show how the neutrino mass matrix structures in Eqs.1,2 may be constructed naturally from the see-saw mechanism with right-handed neutrino dominance, with no tuning and with small radiative corrections, leading to a full, partial or inverted neutrino mass hierarchy. In each case we derive approximate analytic relations between the input see-saw mass matrices and the resulting neutrino masses, mixing angles and phases. The goal of this analysis is to provide a useful and reliable guide for constructing the LMA MNS matrix in unified models .

The analysis builds on that in  and , by including the effects of phases and the charged lepton mixing angles, which we did not previously consider. It is sufficient in a top-down approach to work to order $`\theta _{13}`$, since although the radiative corrections are only a few per cent (due to right-handed neutrino dominance), this is sufficient to wash out the order $`\theta _{13}^2`$ corrections. 222By contrast in a bottom-up approach the order $`\theta _{13}^2`$ corrections may be considered . However the effect of charged lepton mixing angles was not considered in  and this can significantly affect the conclusions based on naturalness arguments. The leading order results which we present here give the simple relations between the see-saw parameters necessary in order to obtain the phenomenologically successful LMA MNS matrix. Ultimately the masses and mixing angles in unified models must be calculated numerically, including the radiative corrections. The purpose of the analytic results we present here is to provide insight into the construction of unified models which must then be studied numerically.

The paper is organised as follows. In section 2 we review the construction of the MNS matrix starting from general complex neutrino and charged lepton mass matrices, with equivalence of different parametrisations of the MNS matrix discussed in appendix A. We also discuss the charged lepton contributions to the MNS matrix, where the natural expectation is that the charged lepton mixing angles are all small, and give an expansion of the MNS matrix to leading order in the small angles, with details relegated to appendix B. In section 3 we construct the successful neutrino mass matrix structures in a natural way using the see-saw mechanism with right-handed neutrino dominance. In section 3.1 we derive results for single right-handed neutrino dominance with sequential sub-dominance, corresponding to a full neutrino mass hierarchy. In section 3.2 we derive results for single right-handed neutrino dominance with off-diagonal sub-dominance, corresponding to a partial neutrino mass hierarchy. In section 3.3 we derive results for off-diagonal right-handed neutrino dominance, corresponding to an inverted neutrino mass hierarchy, which we show is consistent with the LMA MSW solution once the effect of charged lepton mixing angles is taken into account. For each type of right-handed neutrino dominance we derive useful analytic expressions for neutrino masses and mixing angles in terms of the see-saw mass matrices, and show that for the hierarchical cases the LMA MSW solution gives a soft lower bound $`|U_{e3}|\stackrel{>}{_{}}0.1`$, just below the curent CHOOZ limit. The results obtained in section 3 rely on analytic diagonalisation methods discussed in appendices C, D, E. In section 4 we give two physical application of the results. In section 4.1 we consider $`\beta \beta _{0\nu }`$, and show that both hierchical and inverted hierarchical cases predict small $`\beta \beta _{0\nu }`$ with $`|m_{ee}|0.007`$ eV within the sensitivity of future proposals such as GENIUS. In section 4.2 we discuss leptogenesis, and show that successful leptogenesis is possible if the dominant right-handed neutrino is the heaviest one, but the leptogenesis phase is unrelated to the MNS phases. Section 5 concludes the paper.

## 2 Constructing the MNS matrix

The charged lepton masses and the neutrino masses are given by the eigenvalues of the complex charged lepton mass matrix $`m_{LR}^E`$ and the complex symmetric neutrino Majorana matrix $`m_{LL}^\nu `$, obtained by diagonalising these mass matrices,

$$V^{E_L}m_{LR}^EV_{}^{E_R}{}_{}{}^{}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_e& 0& 0\\ 0& m_\mu & 0\\ 0& 0& m_\tau \end{array}\right)$$
(6)
$$V^{\nu _L}m_{LL}^\nu V_{}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_1& 0& 0\\ 0& m_2& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3\end{array}\right)$$
(7)
where $`V^{E_L}`$, $`V^{E_R}`$, $`V^{\nu _L}`$ are unitary tranformations on the left-handed charged lepton fields $`E_L`$, right-handed charged lepton fields $`E_R`$, and left-handed neutrino fields $`\nu _L`$ which put the mass matrices into diagonal form with real eigenvalues.

The MNS matrix is then constructed by

$$U_{MNS}=V^{E_L}V_{}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}$$
(8)
In appendix A we discuss the relationship between different parametrisations of the MNS matrix. In this paper we find it convenient to parametrise the MNS matrix as

$$U_{MNS}=U_{23}U_{13}U_{12}$$
(9)
which involves just three irremoveable physical phases $`\delta _{ij}`$. In this parametrisation the Dirac phase $`\delta `$ which enters the CP odd part of neutrino oscillation probabilities is given by

$$\delta =\delta _{13}\delta _{23}\delta _{12}.$$
(10)
where the phases are defined in appendix A.

The MNS matrix is constructed in Eq.8 as a product of a unitary matrix from the charged lepton sector $`V^{E_L}`$ and a unitary matrix from the neutrino sector $`V_{}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}`$. Each of these unitary matrices may be parametrised by the parametrisation of $`V^{}`$ in Eq.140. Thus we write

$$V_{}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}=P_2^{\nu _L}R_{23}^{\nu _L}R_{13}^{\nu _L}P_1^{\nu _L}R_{12}^{\nu _L}P_3^{\nu _L}$$
(11)
$$V_{}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}=P_2^{E_L}R_{23}^{E_L}R_{13}^{E_L}P_1^{E_L}R_{12}^{E_L}P_3^{E_L}$$
(12)
where the Euler angles and phases are defined as in Eqs.141-146 but now there are independent angles and phases for the left-handed neutrino and charged lepton sectors distinguished by the superscripts $`\nu _L`$ and $`E_L`$. As shown in appendix B the MNS matrix can be expanded in terms of neutrino and charged lepton mixing angles and phases to leading order in the charged lepton mixing angles which we argue must be small. By comparing Eq.183 to Eq.175 we have:

$`s_{23}e^{i\delta _{23}}`$ $``$ $`s_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}}\theta _{23}^{E_L}c_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{23}^{E_L}}`$ (13)
$`\theta _{13}e^{i\delta _{13}}`$ $``$ $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{13}^{\nu _L}}\theta _{13}^{E_L}c_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{13}^{E_L}}+\theta _{12}^{E_L}s_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}\delta _{12}^{E_L})}`$ (14)
$`s_{12}e^{i\delta _{12}}`$ $``$ $`s_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{12}^{\nu _L}}+\theta _{23}^{E_L}s_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{12}^{\nu _L}}+\theta _{13}^{E_L}c_{12}^{\nu _L}s_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}\delta _{13}^{E_L})}\theta _{12}^{E_L}c_{23}^{\nu _L}c_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{12}^{E_L}}`$ (15)
Clearly the large atmospheric and solar angles $`\theta _{23}`$ and $`\theta _{12}`$ arise mainly from the neutrino sector with small corrections from the charged lepton angles. However $`\theta _{13}`$ receives important contributions not just from $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$, but also from the charged lepton angles $`\theta _{12}^{E_L}`$, and $`\theta _{13}^{E_L}`$. In models where $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ is extremely small, $`\theta _{13}`$ may originate almost entirely from the charged lepton sector, since for example $`\theta _{12}^{E_L}`$ may be roughly equal to the Cabibbo angle in some models. Charged lepton contributions could also be important in models where $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}=\pi /4`$ very accurately, since corrections from the charged lepton mixing angles may allow consistency with the LMA MSW solution which requires $`\theta _{12}`$ to be somewhat less than maximal. Such effects will be important for the inverted hierarchy model, for example, as we discuss in more detail later.

## 3 See-saw models with right-handed neutrino dominance

In this section we specialise to the case of the see-saw mechanism, with right-handed neutrino dominance. A particular high energy theory will involve a charged lepton Yukawa matrix $`Y^E`$, a neutrino Yukawa matrix $`Y^\nu `$ and a right-handed neutrino Majorana matrix $`M_{RR}`$. The Higgs vacuum expectation values (vevs) may be absorbed in the Yukawa matrices to give mass matrices $`m_{LR}^E=v_1Y^E`$ and $`m_{LR}^\nu =v_2Y^\nu `$, where we allow for two different vevs $`v_1,v_2`$ as is the case in supersymmetric models, while in the standard model $`v_1=v_2`$, and LR means that these are Dirac mass matrices in the left-right basis where the rows correspond to left-handed fields and the columns to right-handed fields. At high energies these mass matrices $`m_{LR}^E`$, $`m_{LR}^\nu `$ and $`M_{RR}`$ are “born” in a particular basis which is defined by the particular unified theory. In general $`m_{LR}^E`$ and $`m_{LR}^\nu `$ are general complex matrices, while $`M_{RR}`$ is complex symmetric.

In this “theory” basis the light effective Majorana neutrino mass matrix is given, up to an overall irrelevant sign, from the see-saw formula ,, :

$$m_{LL}^\nu =m_{LR}^\nu M_{RR}^1m_{LR}^{\nu T},$$
(16)
ignoring the effects of radiative corrections.

In order for our results to be maximally useful for top-down model building we must work in the “theory” basis defined by the high energy theory. In this basis all the mass matrices are in general off-diagonal, and in particular the charged lepton mass matrix will be off-diagonal, although according to our naturalness arguments we would expect it to yield small charged lepton mixing angles. Right-handed neutrino dominance should be applied in this theory basis, and questions of naturalness must be addressed within this defining basis. However it may happen that in specific theories certain simplifications naturally appear. For example the right-handed neutrino mass matrix may take one of the approximate forms in Eqs.3, 4, 5.

The general proceedure for diagonalising a general complex matrix is discussed in appendix C. The strategy is to diagonalise the charged lepton and neutrino mass matrices $`m_{LR}^E`$ and $`m_{LL}^\nu `$ using,

$$P_{3}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}R_{12}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{T}P_{1}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}R_{13}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{T}R_{23}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{T}P_{2}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}m_{LR}^EP_2^{E_R}R_{23}^{E_R}R_{13}^{E_R}P_1^{E_R}R_{12}^{E_R}P_3^{E_R}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_e& 0& 0\\ 0& m_\mu & 0\\ 0& 0& m_\tau \end{array}\right)$$
(17)
$$P_{3}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}R_{12}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}P_{1}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}R_{13}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}R_{23}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}P_{2}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}m_{LL}^\nu P_{2}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}R_{23}^{\nu _L}R_{13}^{\nu _L}P_{1}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}R_{12}^{\nu _L}P_{3}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_1& 0& 0\\ 0& m_2& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3\end{array}\right)$$
(18)
The specific case of a hierarchical neutrino mass matrix is discussed in appendix D, while the inverted hierarchical case is discussed in appendix E.

### 3.1 Full hierarchy from sequential sub-dominance

In this sub-section we shall consider the case where the right-handed neutrino mass matrix takes an approximately diagonal form as in Eq.3. If it is approximately diagonal, then it may easily be rotated to exactly diagonal form with real eigenvalues, to give

$$M_{RR}^{\mathrm{diag}}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}X^{}& 0& 0\\ 0& X& 0\\ 0& 0& Y\end{array}\right)$$
(19)
In the theory basis we shall write the complex Dirac mass matrix as

$$m_{LR}^\nu =\left(\begin{array}{ccc}a^{}& a& d\\ b^{}& b& e\\ c^{}& c& f\end{array}\right)$$
(20)
Then using the see-saw formula 16 (valid for complex couplings) we find the complex symmetric neutrino mass matrix,

$$m_{LL}^\nu =\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{a^2}{X^{}}+\frac{a^2}{X}+\frac{d^2}{Y}& \frac{a^{}b^{}}{X^{}}+\frac{ab}{X}+\frac{de}{Y}& \frac{a^{}c^{}}{X^{}}+\frac{ac}{X}+\frac{df}{Y}\\ .& \frac{b^2}{X^{}}+\frac{b^2}{X}+\frac{e^2}{Y}& \frac{b^{}c^{}}{X^{}}+\frac{bc}{X}+\frac{ef}{Y}\\ .& .& \frac{c^2}{X^{}}+\frac{c^2}{X}+\frac{f^2}{Y}\end{array}\right)$$
(21)
The condition for single right-handed neutrino dominance with sequential sub-dominance was given as

$$\frac{|e^2|,|f^2|,|ef|}{Y}\frac{|xy|}{X}\frac{|x^{}y^{}|}{X^{}}$$
(22)
where $`x,ya,b,c`$ and $`x^{},y^{}a^{},b^{},c^{}`$, and now we are dealing with complex matrices we must consider the absolute value of the elements. For sequential subdominance we can essentially ignore the contributions from the right-handed neutrino with mass $`X^{}`$, so that the problem reduces to the simpler case of two right-handed neutrinos  with

$$m_{LL}^\nu \left(\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{a^2}{X}+\frac{d^2}{Y}& \frac{ab}{X}+\frac{de}{Y}& \frac{ac}{X}+\frac{df}{Y}\\ .& \frac{b^2}{X}+\frac{e^2}{Y}& \frac{bc}{X}+\frac{ef}{Y}\\ .& .& \frac{c^2}{X}+\frac{f^2}{Y}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}^\nu & m_{12}^\nu & m_{13}^\nu \\ m_{12}^\nu & m_{22}^\nu & m_{23}^\nu \\ m_{13}^\nu & m_{23}^\nu & m_{33}^\nu \end{array}\right)$$
(23)
where we have made contact with the notation of Eq.204. In order that Eq.23 resembles the leading order form of the matrix in Eq.1 we require

$$|d||e||f|$$
(24)
as first shown in , although in the complex case here we have taken the absolute values of the complex couplings. It is straighforward to diagonalise the matrix in Eq.23 by following the proceedure in appendix D. According to Eq.204 there is a complex phase $`\varphi _{ij}^\nu `$ associated with each element of the mass matrix. In our previous results the effect of phases was ignored . Here we include them, and discuss their effect on our previous results.

We first focus on the lower block of Eq.23,

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}m_{22}^\nu & m_{23}^\nu \\ m_{23}^\nu & m_{33}^\nu \end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}\frac{b^2}{X}+\frac{e^2}{Y}& \frac{bc}{X}+\frac{ef}{Y}\\ \frac{bc}{X}+\frac{ef}{Y}& \frac{c^2}{X}+\frac{f^2}{Y}\end{array}\right)$$
(25)
This matrix may then be diagonalised by the $`P_2^{\nu _L}`$ re-phasing followed by the 23 rotation

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu & 0\\ 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)R_{23}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{cc}m_{22}^\nu e^{2i\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}& m_{23}^\nu e^{i(\varphi _2^{\nu _L}+\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\\ m_{23}^\nu e^{i(\varphi _2^{\nu _L}+\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}& m_{33}^\nu e^{2i\varphi _3^{\nu _L}}\end{array}\right)R_{23}^{\nu _L}$$
(26)
The 23 mixing angle may readily be obtained from Eq.206, which is accurate to order $`\theta _{13}`$. We shall find that in the hierarchical cases $`\theta _{13}\stackrel{>}{_{}}m_2/m_3`$ and that this bound must be saturated for the LMA MSW solution. Therefore in this case the results will be accurate to order $`m_2/m_3`$. From Eq.206 we find

$$\mathrm{tan}2\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}\frac{2e^{i(\varphi _2^\nu +\varphi _3^\nu )}\frac{ef}{Y}(1+ϵ_1ϵ_2)}{(e^{2i\varphi _3^\nu }\frac{f^2}{Y}e^{2i\varphi _2^\nu }\frac{e^2}{Y})}$$
(27)
where

$$ϵ_1=\frac{\frac{bc}{X}}{\frac{ef}{Y}},ϵ_2=\frac{e^{2i\varphi _3^\nu }\frac{c^2}{X}e^{2i\varphi _2^\nu }\frac{b^2}{X}}{e^{2i\varphi _3^\nu }\frac{f^2}{Y}e^{2i\varphi _2^\nu }\frac{e^2}{Y}}$$
(28)
In the leading approximation, in which the corrections of order $`ϵ_i`$ are neglected, the phases arise solely from the complex Dirac couplings $`e=|e|e^{i\varphi _e}`$, $`f=|f|e^{i\varphi _f}`$, and we have the elegant leading order result

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}\frac{|e|}{|f|}.$$
(29)
where the phases are fixed by

$$\varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L}=\varphi _e\varphi _f$$
(30)
This leading order result was first written down without phases in . The result in Eq.29 demonstrates that the phases on $`e,f`$ are not important in determining $`\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}`$ at leading order, only their absolute values matter.

It is instructive to take the determinant of both sides of Eq.26,

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu m_3^{}=m_{22}^\nu e^{2i\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}m_{33}^\nu e^{2i\varphi _3^{\nu _L}}(m_{23}^\nu )^2e^{2i(\varphi _2^{\nu _L}+\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}=e^{2i(\varphi _2^\nu +\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\frac{(bfce)^2}{XY}$$
(31)
where the leading order terms proportional to $`1/Y^2`$ have cancelled in constructing the determinant. This is no accident: it happens because the determinant vanishes in the limit of a single right-handed neutrino. The fact that the determinant is small implies that

$$|m_3^{}||\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu |$$
(32)
The natural origin of Eq.32 is crucial both in obtaining a natural hierarchy $`m_2m_3`$ and in obtaining a large solar angle. The naturally small 23 subdeterminant is the main consequence of single right-handed neutrino dominance, as emphasised in .

If we take the trace of both sides of Eq.26, using Eq.32, then we may obtain the third neutrino mass to leading order

$$m_3^{}e^{i(2\varphi _e^\nu 2\varphi _2^{\nu _L})}\frac{[|e|^2+|f|^2]}{Y}$$
(33)
$$m_3\frac{[|e|^2+|f|^2]}{Y}$$
(34)
A more accurate expression for $`m_3^{}`$ including the $`m_2/m_3`$ corrections can be readily obtained from Eq.LABEL:m3p, using Eqs.25,27. However the result is not very illuminating, and so is not worth displaying explicitly, although it may be readily constructed if required. The same comments apply to the remaining parameters, which we only display explicitly to leading order.

The leading order result for $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu `$, then follows from Eqs.33, 31,29,30

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu e^{2i\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\frac{(c_{23}^{\nu _L}bs_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})^2}{X}$$
(35)
The leading order results for $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu `$, $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu `$ follow from Eq.212, which we write here as

$$\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu \\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu \end{array}\right)=R_{23}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{c}m_{12}^\nu e^{i\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\\ m_{13}^\nu e^{i\varphi _3^{\nu _L}}\end{array}\right)$$
(36)
We find to leading order using Eqs.36, 23,29,30

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu e^{i\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\frac{a(c_{23}^{\nu _L}bs_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}$$
(37)
$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu e^{i\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\left[\frac{a(s_{23}^{\nu _L}b+c_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}+e^{i\varphi _e}\frac{d\sqrt{|e|^2+|f|^2}}{Y}\right]$$
(38)
Note that the $`1/Y`$ terms have cancelled to leading order in Eq.37 as in the real case .

The 13 neutrino angle is given from Eq.213

$$\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}\frac{\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu }{m_3^{}}$$
(39)
where the leading order form for $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu `$ is given in Eq.38, and for $`m_3^{}`$ in Eq.33. In the large $`d`$ limit

$$\frac{|de|}{Y},\frac{|df|}{Y}\frac{|ab|}{X},\frac{|ac|}{X}$$
(40)
we find the simple leading order result ,

$$\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}\frac{|d|}{\sqrt{|e|^2+|f|^2}}$$
(41)
with the phase $`\varphi _2^{\nu _L}`$ fixed by

$$\varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _e\varphi _d$$
(42)
Ignoring phases, this was the result previously quoted . On the other hand in the small $`d`$ limit

$$\frac{|de|}{Y},\frac{|df|}{Y}\frac{|ab|}{X},\frac{|ac|}{X}$$
(43)
we obtain the leading order result

$$\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}\frac{1}{m_3^{}}e^{i\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\frac{a(s_{23}^{\nu _L}b+c_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}$$
(44)
where the phase $`\varphi _2^{\nu _L}`$ is fixed by Eq.214.

After the 13 rotation the neutrino mass matrix is in block diagonal form

$$\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu & 0\\ 0& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(45)
where the leading order form for $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu `$ is given in Eq.37, for $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu `$ in Eq.35. We need to find $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^\nu `$ from Eq.216

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^{\nu _L}m_{11}^{\nu _L}\frac{(\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^{\nu _L})^2}{m_3^{}}$$
(46)
Using the leading order form for $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^{\nu _L}`$ in Eq.38, and for $`m_3^{}`$ in Eq.33, and $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^{\nu _L}`$ in Eq.23, we find

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^{\nu _L}\frac{a^2}{X}e^{i\varphi _e^\nu }\frac{2d}{\sqrt{|e|^2+|f|^2}}.\frac{a(s_{23}^{\nu _L}b+c_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}$$
(47)
where the leading $`1/Y`$ dependence in $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^{\nu _L}`$ has cancelled, as in the real case .

In the leading order, valid up to corrections of order $`m_2/m_3`$, we may ignore the second term in Eq.47 since this cannot be larger than order $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$, as shown in Eq.41. Then the upper block which remains to be diagonalised in Eq.45 is given from Eqs.47, 37, 35, and after the phase transformations $`P_1^{\nu _L}`$ it is:

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}A^2& AB\\ AB& B^2\end{array}\right)$$
(48)
where

$$A=\frac{a}{\sqrt{X}},B=e^{i(\varphi _2^{\nu _L}+\chi ^{\nu _L})}\frac{(c_{23}^{\nu _L}bs_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{\sqrt{X}}$$
(49)
The leading order form in Eq.48 clearly has a vanishing determinant

$$m_1^{}m_2^{}0.$$
(50)
This is no surprise since sequential sub-dominance corresponds approximately to the case of two right-handed neutrinos, and hence the lightest neutrino mass is approximately zero, as in the case of a full hierarchy. The situation is analagous to the case of the lower block with single right-handed neutrino dominance discussed above. The second neutrino mass is simply given at leading order from the trace of Eq.48,

$$m_2^{}A^2+B^2$$
(51)
The leading order 12 neutrino mixing angle is given from Eq.217,48

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}\frac{A}{B}\frac{ae^{i(\varphi _2^{\nu _L}+\chi ^{\nu _L})}}{(c_{23}^{\nu _L}bs_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}$$
(52)
which is analagous to the real result in . The phase $`\chi ^{\nu _L}`$ is fixed to give a real 12 angle as in Eq.218

$$c_{23}^{\nu _L}|b|\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _b^{})s_{23}^{\nu _L}|c|\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _c^{})$$
(53)
and then

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}\frac{|a|}{c_{23}^{\nu _L}|b|\mathrm{cos}(\varphi _b^{})s_{23}^{\nu _L}|c|\mathrm{cos}(\varphi _c^{})}$$
(54)
where

$`\varphi _b^{}`$ $``$ $`\varphi _b\varphi _a\varphi _2^\nu \chi ^{\nu _L},`$ (55)
$`\varphi _c^{}`$ $``$ $`\varphi _c\varphi _a+\varphi _e\varphi _f\varphi _2^\nu \chi ^{\nu _L}`$ (56)
Eq.54 shows that a large solar angle $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}\pi /6`$ requires $`|a|/(|b|\mathrm{cos}(\varphi _b^{})|c|\mathrm{cos}(\varphi _c^{}))1`$, which is the complex analogue of the real condition $`\sqrt{2}a/(bc)1`$ derived in . The effect of phases is now quite important since the denominator of Eq.54 may involve phase-dependent cancellations. In the absence of such cancellations, the basic physical requirement for a large mixing angle, namely that the sub-dominant Dirac coupling $`a`$ be of order $`b,c`$ remains as in .

From Eqs.33,51,50, we see that sequential sub-dominance has generated a full neutrino mass hierarchy

$$m_1m_2m_3$$
(57)
and hence

$$\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2m_3^2,\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^2m_2^2.$$
(58)
Sequential sub-dominance naturally leads to the LMA MSW solution by assuming a mild hierarchy of couplings in Eq.22.

We now discuss an order of magnitude lower bound on the 13 neutrino mixing angle. Clearly such a bound can only be order of magnitude since it is always possible to arrange vanishingly small values of this angle by tuning parameters. However, in the absence of tuning, it is possible to make some general statements about the expected magnitude of this angle. The question is therefore, in the absence of unnatural cancellations, how small can the 13 neutrino angle be? Clearly from Eqs.39,38, in the absence of tuning, the smallest values of $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ correspond to setting $`d=0`$, and hence the limit will be saturated by Eq.44. The 13 neutrino angle in Eq.44 cannot be made arbitrarily small by setting $`a=0`$ since we have just seen that a large solar angle requires $`a`$ be of order $`b,c`$. Therefore the numerator of Eq.44 is expected to be of a similar order of magnitude to $`m_2`$ in Eq.51, and for a large solar angle we therefore obtain the order of magnitude lower bound

$$|\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}|\stackrel{>}{_{}}|m_2/m_3|$$
(59)
From Eq.183, since the charged lepton angles are all required to be small due to the naturalness arguments $`\theta _{12}^{E_L},\theta _{13}^{E_L}\stackrel{<}{_{}}\theta _{13}`$, and using Eq.58, we may elevate Eq.59 to a bound on the MNS element, 333Similar bounds have been obtained previously in somewhat different frameworks in , ,

$$|U_{e3}|^2\stackrel{>}{_{}}|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^2/\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2|$$
(60)
The bound is roughly proportional to $`\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}`$, by eliminating $`a`$. Interestingly Eq.60 predicts that for the LMA solution $`|U_{e3}|`$ should be just below the current CHOOZ current limit, which raises the prospect that it could be measured at the forthcoming long baseline (LBL) experiments. We emphasise again, however, that the bound is a soft one since it is based in the premise of there being no cancellations in the construction of the MNS matrix, and so is really only approximate to within an order of magnitude.

### 3.2 Partial hierarchy from off-diagonal sub-dominance

We now turn the case where at high energies the upper block of the right-handed neutrino mass matrix has the approximate off-diagonal form as in Eq.5. By small angle rotations it may then be rotated into the form below with real mass parameters $`X,Y`$,

$$M_{RR}^{\mathrm{off}\mathrm{diag}}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}0& X& 0\\ X& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& Y\end{array}\right)$$
(61)
Using the same notation for the Dirac couplings as in Eq.20, the see-saw formula in Eq.16 then gives in this case,

$$m_{LL}^\nu =\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{2aa^{}}{X}+\frac{d^2}{Y}& \frac{a^{}b}{X}+\frac{ab^{}}{X}+\frac{de}{Y}& \frac{a^{}c}{X}+\frac{ac^{}}{X}+\frac{df}{Y}\\ .& \frac{2bb^{}}{X}+\frac{e^2}{Y}& \frac{b^{}c}{X}+\frac{bc^{}}{X}+\frac{ef}{Y}\\ .& .& \frac{2cc^{}}{X}+\frac{f^2}{Y}\end{array}\right)$$
(62)
The condition for single right-handed neutrino dominance with off-diagonal sub-dominance was given as

$$\frac{|e^2|,|f^2|,|ef|}{Y}\frac{|xx^{}|}{X}$$
(63)
where $`xa,b,c`$ and $`x^{}a^{},b^{},c^{}`$, and now we are dealing with complex matrices we must consider the absolute value of the elements.

As before, for the neutrino mass matrix to resemble the leading order form in Eq.1 we also require the condition in Eq.24. Then the discussion of the leading order 23 neutrino mixing angle follows exactly as in the sequential sub-dominance case, with the lower block replaced by

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}m_{22}^\nu & m_{23}^\nu \\ m_{23}^\nu & m_{33}^\nu \end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}\frac{2bb^{}}{X}+\frac{e^2}{Y}& \frac{b^{}c}{X}+\frac{bc^{}}{X}+\frac{ef}{Y}\\ \frac{b^{}c}{X}+\frac{bc^{}}{X}+\frac{ef}{Y}& \frac{2cc^{}}{X}+\frac{f^2}{Y}\end{array}\right)$$
(64)
From Eq.206 we find the analagous result to Eq.27,

$$\mathrm{tan}2\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}\frac{2e^{i(\varphi _2^\nu +\varphi _3^\nu )}\frac{ef}{Y}(1+ϵ_1^{}ϵ_2^{})}{(e^{2i\varphi _3^\nu }\frac{f^2}{Y}e^{2i\varphi _2^\nu }\frac{e^2}{Y})}$$
(65)
where now

$$ϵ_1^{}=\frac{\frac{b^{}c}{X}+\frac{bc^{}}{X}}{\frac{ef}{Y}},ϵ_2^{}=\frac{e^{2i\varphi _3^\nu }\frac{2cc^{}}{X}e^{2i\varphi _2^\nu }\frac{2bb^{}}{X}}{e^{2i\varphi _3^\nu }\frac{f^2}{Y}e^{2i\varphi _2^\nu }\frac{e^2}{Y}}$$
(66)
In the leading approximation, in which the corrections of order $`ϵ_i`$ are neglected, we obtain the same results as in Eqs.29,30,

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}\frac{|e|}{|f|}.$$
(67)
The determinant of Eq.26 with Eq.64 gives

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu m_3^{}=2e^{2i(\varphi _2^\nu +\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\frac{(bfce)(b^{}fc^{}e)}{XY}$$
(68)
where again the leading order terms in the determinant have cancelled due to single right-handed neutrino dominance. The trace of Eq.26 with Eq.64 gives the same leading order result for $`m_3^{}`$ is as in Eq.33,

$$m_3^{}e^{i(2\varphi _e^\nu 2\varphi _2^{\nu _L})}\frac{[|e|^2+|f|^2]}{Y}$$
(69)
Hence from Eqs.68, 69,

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu 2e^{2i\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\frac{(c_{23}^{\nu _L}bs_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})(c_{23}^{\nu _L}b^{}s_{23}^{\nu _L}c^{}e^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}$$
(70)
As before, henceforth we display only the leading order results explicitly, with the corrections $`m_2/m_3`$ readily obtainable from our formalism if required. The leading order results for $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu `$, $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu `$ follow from Eq.36. We find to leading order using Eqs.36,62,

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu e^{i\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\left[\frac{a^{}(c_{23}^{\nu _L}bs_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})+a(c_{23}^{\nu _L}b^{}s_{23}^{\nu _L}c^{}e^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}\right]$$
(71)
$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu e^{i\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\left[\frac{a^{}(s_{23}^{\nu _L}b+c_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}+\frac{a(s_{23}^{\nu _L}b^{}+c_{23}^{\nu _L}c^{}e^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}+e^{i\varphi _e}\frac{d\sqrt{|e|^2+|f|^2}}{Y}\right]$$
(72)
Again the leading order $`1/Y`$ terms have cancelled in Eq.71.

The 13 neutrino angle is given from Eq.213 where the leading order form for $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu `$ is given in Eq.72, and for $`m_3^{}`$ in Eq.69. In the large $`d`$ limit we find the same result as in Eq.41,

$$\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}\frac{|d|}{\sqrt{|e|^2+|f|^2}}$$
(73)
On the other hand in the small $`d`$ limit we find the leading order result

$$\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}\frac{1}{m_3^{}}e^{i\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\left[\frac{a^{}(s_{23}^{\nu _L}b+c_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}+\frac{a(s_{23}^{\nu _L}b^{}+c_{23}^{\nu _L}c^{}e^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}\right]$$
(74)
where the phase $`\varphi _2^{\nu _L}`$ is fixed by Eq.214.

After the 13 rotation the neutrino mass matrix is in block diagonal form as in Eq.45. Using the leading order form for $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^{\nu _L}`$ in Eq.72, and for $`m_3^{}`$ in Eq.69, and $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^{\nu _L}`$ in Eq.62, we find

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^{\nu _L}\frac{2aa^{}}{X}e^{i\varphi _e^\nu }\frac{2d}{\sqrt{|e|^2+|f|^2}}\left[\frac{a^{}(s_{23}^{\nu _L}b+c_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}+\frac{a(s_{23}^{\nu _L}b^{}+c_{23}^{\nu _L}c^{}e^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{X}\right]$$
(75)
where the leading $`1/Y`$ dependence in $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^{\nu _L}`$ has cancelled, as before. After the phase transformations $`P_1^{\nu _L}`$ the upper block which remains to be diagonalised is, approximately,

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}2AA^{}& A^{}B+AB^{}\\ A^{}B+AB^{}& 2BB^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(76)
where

$$A^{}=\frac{a^{}}{\sqrt{X}},B^{}=e^{i(\varphi _2^{\nu _L}+\chi ^{\nu _L})}\frac{(c_{23}^{\nu _L}b^{}s_{23}^{\nu _L}c^{}e^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}{\sqrt{X}}$$
(77)
and $`A,B`$ are as in Eq.49. The determinant of Eq.76 is now non-zero due to the two sub-dominant right-handed neutrinos,

$$m_1^{}m_2^{}(A^{}BAB^{})^2$$
(78)
The trace of Eq.76 is,

$$m_1^{}+m_2^{}2(AA^{}+BB^{})$$
(79)
The leading order 12 neutrino mixing angle is given from Eq.217,76

$$\mathrm{tan}2\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}\mathrm{tan}\left(\theta _{12}^{\nu _L\mathrm{seq}}+\theta _{12}^{\nu _L^{}}\right)$$
(80)
where the angle $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L\mathrm{seq}}`$ is given by

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L\mathrm{seq}}\frac{A}{B}\frac{ae^{i(\varphi _2^{\nu _L}+\chi ^{\nu _L})}}{(c_{23}^{\nu _L}bs_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}$$
(81)
and $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L^{}}`$ is given by

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L^{}}\frac{A^{}}{B^{}}\frac{a^{}e^{i(\varphi _2^{\nu _L}+\chi ^{\nu _L})}}{(c_{23}^{\nu _L}b^{}s_{23}^{\nu _L}c^{}e^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})}$$
(82)
The phase $`\chi ^{\nu _L}`$ is fixed by a similar proceedure to that described previously.

From Eqs.69,78,79,63 we see that off-diagonal sub-dominance has generated a partial neutrino mass hierarchy

$$m_1\stackrel{<}{_{}}m_2m_3$$
(83)
and hence

$$\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2m_3^2,\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^2=m_2^2m_1^2.$$
(84)
Off-diagonal sub-dominance also naturally leads to the LMA MSW solution by assuming a mild hierarchy of couplings in Eq.63.

Analagous to the sequential sub-dominance case, there is a lower bound on $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ arising from small $`d`$ limit limit Eq.74. If we assume no accidental cancellations then the square of the numerator in Eq.74 is of the same order as the product of eigenvalues in Eq.78. Since the lightest two eigenvalues are of similar magnitude in this case, we may deduce a lower bound analagous to Eq.60,

$$|U_{e3}|^2\stackrel{>}{_{}}|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^2/\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2|$$
(85)
#### 3.2.1 The pseudo-Dirac limit

A limiting case of off-diagonal sub-dominance is when the lightest two neutrinos form an approximate pseudo-Dirac pair, which happens when the terms in the upper block in Eq.76 satisfy either

$$|A^{}|,|B||A|,|B^{}|$$
(86)
or

$$|A|,|B^{}||A^{}|,|B|$$
(87)
The conditions for this happening are, respectively, using Eqs.81,82,

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L\mathrm{seq}}1,\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L^{}}1,$$
(88)
or

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L\mathrm{seq}}1,\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L^{}}1,$$
(89)
In either of the two limiting cases, from Eq.80, we will have an almost maximal neutrino contribution to the solar mixing angle,

$$\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}\pi /4$$
(90)
and, since the trace of the upper block is very small, opposite sign mass eigenvalues,

$$m_1^{}m_2^{}$$
(91)
both of which are characteristic features of a pseudo-Dirac neutrino pair. In the pseudo-Dirac case we clearly have

$$\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^2m_2^2m_1^2m_3^2\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2$$
(92)
The hierarchy in Eq.92 implies that the pseudo-Dirac case is applicable to the LOW solution rather then the LMA MSW solution, so is not of interest to us here.

Finally, the 13 neutrino mixing angle in the pseudo-Dirac case is given in the small $`d`$ limit from Eq.74, using Eqs.86,87,

$$\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}\frac{m_2^{}}{m_3^{}}e^{i\chi ^{\nu _L}}$$
(93)
Hence in the pseudo-Dirac case we have the bound analagous to Eq.59

$$|\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}|\stackrel{>}{_{}}|m_2/m_3|$$
(94)
This bound differs from that quoted in , since it is not singular for $`\theta _{12}=\pi /4`$.

### 3.3 Inverted hierarchy from off-diagonal dominance

We now discuss the case of off-diagonal right-handed neutrino dominance which gives rise to a neutrino mass matrix as in Eq.2 corresponding to an inverted neutrino mass hierarchy with opposite sign mass eigenvalues for the heavier pseudo-Dirac neutrino pair. The mechanism is based on the off-diagonal form of the right-handed neutrino mass matrix as in Eq.61, which after the see-saw mechanism gives rise to the physical neutrino mass matrix in Eq.62,

$$m_{LL}^\nu =\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{2aa^{}}{X}+\frac{d^2}{Y}& \frac{a^{}b}{X}+\frac{ab^{}}{X}+\frac{de}{Y}& \frac{a^{}c}{X}+\frac{ac^{}}{X}+\frac{df}{Y}\\ .& \frac{2bb^{}}{X}+\frac{e^2}{Y}& \frac{b^{}c}{X}+\frac{bc^{}}{X}+\frac{ef}{Y}\\ .& .& \frac{2cc^{}}{X}+\frac{f^2}{Y}\end{array}\right)$$
(95)
However, instead of applying the condition for single right-handed neutrino dominance as in Eq.63, we shall now require the pseudo-Dirac pair of right-handed neutrinos with mass $`X`$ to dominate in such a way as to give the leading order form of the neutrino mass matrix in Eq.2. The two alternative conditions for this are either:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{|a^{}b|}{X}}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{|a^{}c|}{X}}{\displaystyle \frac{|a^{}a|}{X}},{\displaystyle \frac{|x^{}x|}{X}},{\displaystyle \frac{|yy^{}|}{Y}}`$ (96)
where $`x^{}b^{},c^{}`$, and $`xa,b,c`$, and $`y,y^{}d,e,f`$.

Or:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{|ab^{}|}{X}}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{|ac^{}|}{X}}{\displaystyle \frac{|aa^{}|}{X}},{\displaystyle \frac{|xx^{}|}{X}},{\displaystyle \frac{|yy^{}|}{Y}}`$ (97)
where $`xb,c`$, and $`x^{}a^{},b^{},c^{}`$, and $`y,y^{}d,e,f`$. In the following we shall consider the first alternative in Eq.96 for definiteness.

The proceedure for diagonalising the form of the mass matrix in Eq.95 with the inverted hierarchy conditions in Eq.96 is outlined in appendix E. We first perform the re-phasing as in Eq.205. Then we determine the 23 neutrino mixing angle $`\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}`$ from Eq.227,

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\frac{c}{b}(1+\stackrel{~}{ϵ_1}\stackrel{~}{ϵ_2})$$
(98)
where

$$\stackrel{~}{ϵ_1}=\frac{\frac{ac^{}}{X}+\frac{df}{Y}}{\frac{a^{}c}{X}},\stackrel{~}{ϵ_2}=\frac{\frac{ab^{}}{X}+\frac{de}{Y}}{\frac{a^{}b}{X}}$$
(99)
The leading order result, neglecting the corrections $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ_i}`$ is then

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}\frac{|c|}{|b|}$$
(100)
where the relative phases are fixed by

$$\varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L}=\pi +\varphi _c^\nu \varphi _b^\nu $$
(101)
We find at leading order

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu =e^{i(\varphi _b^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L})}\frac{a^{}\sqrt{|b|^2+|c|^2}}{X}$$
(102)
Henceforth we only give the leading order results explicitly, as in the previous cases. The lower block elements are given by

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{23}^{\nu _L}s_{23}^{\nu _L}c_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i2\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\left[\frac{2\sqrt{|b|^2+|c|^2}e^{i\varphi _b^\nu }(c_{23}^{\nu _L}b^{}s_{23}^{\nu _L}c^{}e^{i(\varphi _b^\nu \varphi _c^\nu )})}{X}+\frac{(e^2f^2e^{2i(\varphi _b^\nu \varphi _c^\nu )})}{Y}\right]$$
(103)
$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^{\nu _L}e^{i2\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\left[\frac{2\sqrt{|b|^2+|c|^2}e^{i\varphi _b^\nu }(c_{23}^{\nu _L}b^{}+s_{23}^{\nu _L}c^{}e^{i(\varphi _b^\nu \varphi _c^\nu )})}{X}+\frac{(c_{23}^{\nu _L}e+s_{23}^{\nu _L}fe^{i(\varphi _b^\nu \varphi _c^\nu )})^2}{Y}\right]$$
(104)
$$m_3^{}e^{i2\varphi _2^{\nu _L}}\frac{(s_{23}^{\nu _L}ec_{23}^{\nu _L}fe^{i(\varphi _b^\nu \varphi _c^\nu )})^2}{Y}$$
(105)
We next perform the small angle 13 rotation in Eq.231. From Eqs.233,102,103 we determine $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$,

$$\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}\frac{\stackrel{~}{m}_{23}^{\nu _L}}{\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu }$$
(106)
The requirement that $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ is real fixes the absolute value of the phases $`\varphi _2^{\nu _L}`$, $`\varphi _3^{\nu _L}`$.

After the $`P_1^{\nu _L}`$ re-phasing the upper $`2\times 2`$ block which remains to be diagonalised is of the form

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}\delta & 1\\ 1& ϵ\end{array}\right)m^{}$$
(107)
where from Eq.102,104,

$$m^{}e^{i\chi ^{\nu _L}}\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu $$
(108)
$$\delta \frac{1}{m^{}}(\frac{2aa^{}}{X}+\frac{d^2}{Y})$$
(109)
$$ϵe^{i\chi ^{\nu _L}}\frac{\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu }{\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu }$$
(110)
Eq.107 is of the pseudo-Dirac form. The trace and determinant of Eq.107 reveal the two heavier eigenvalues $`m_1^{},m_2^{}`$,

$$m_1^{}+m_2^{}=(\delta +ϵ)m^{}$$
(111)
$$m_1^{}m_2^{}=(\delta ϵ1)(m^{})^2$$
(112)
Thus we have

$$m_1^{}m_2^{}m^{}$$
(113)
$$\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2|m_2^{}|^2$$
(114)
$$\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^22|m_2^{}|^2Re(\delta +ϵ)$$
(115)
We find the neutrino contribution to the 12 mixing angle by diagonalising Eq.107,

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}\frac{2}{ϵ\delta }$$
(116)
which is almost maximal due to the smallness of $`\delta ,ϵ`$ or equivalently the pseudo-Dirac form.

From Eqs.115,114 we find

$$R\frac{|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^2|}{|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2|}2Re(\delta +ϵ)$$
(117)
From Eq.116 we find

$$1\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}\frac{ϵ\delta }{2}$$
(118)
These relations together with Eq.106 give important constraints for the inverted hierarchical case. By comparing Eq.110 to Eq.106 it is apparent that, in the absence of cancellations, $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}ϵ`$. The parameter $`\delta `$ is completely independent of $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ and $`ϵ`$. Thus for example we can have $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}=ϵ=0`$, while at the same time having $`\delta 0`$ corresponding to $`R0`$. Thus, unlike the hierarchical case, there is no lower bound on $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$. On the other hand there is an upper bound on $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$, in the absence of cancellation effects, which is saturated when $`\delta `$ is not large compared to $`ϵ\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$. For all choices of $`ϵ\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ and $`\delta `$ we find

$$|\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}|\stackrel{<}{_{}}|1\mathrm{tan}\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}|R$$
(119)
Since for the LMA MSW solution we know that $`R10^2`$, Eq.119 implies that the neutrino mixing angles $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}=\pi /4`$ and $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}=0`$ to high accuracy. However the LMA MSW solution is not consistent with maximal mixing and has a preferred mixing angle $`\theta _{12}\pi /6`$, and for this reason there have been claims in the literature (see for example ) that the inverted hierarchy case is inconsistent with the LMA MSW solution. However this conclusion ignores the contribution to MNS angles arising from the charged lepton sector, as was originally pointed out in . It is clear from Eqs.14,15 that even if $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}=\pi /4`$ and $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}=0`$ that a reasonable charged lepton contribution, for example a Cabibbo-like contribution to $`\theta _{12}^{E_L}0.2`$, can result in $`\theta _{12}`$ in the LMA MSW range and $`\theta _{13}`$ close to the current CHOOZ limit.

## 4 Physical applications

### 4.1 Neutrinoless double beta decay

There has been a recent claim of a signal in neutrinoless double beta decay correponding to $`|m_{ee}|=0.110.56`$ eV at 95% C.L. However this claim has been criticised by two groups ,  and in turn this criticism has been refuted . Since the Heidelberg-Moscow experiment has almost reached its full sensitivity, we may have to wait for a next generation experiment such as GENIUS to resolve this question.

From the theoretical point of view, in the natural hierarchical and inverted hierarchical models favoured here, corresponding to the leading order mass matrices in Eqs.1, 2, it is immediately clear that very small values of $`|m_{ee}|0.05`$ eV are expected, since both matrices have leading order zeroes in the 11 position. Since we argue that these are the only two natural leading order forms, we can immediately predict that the signal for neutrinoless double beta decay should be below the sensitivity of the Heidelberg-Moscow experiment. The next question is whether a more sensitive experiment such as GENIUS is likely to see a signal?

This question has been fully analysed in , using the formula

$$|m_{ee}|=|\underset{j}{}(U_{ej}^{MNS})^2m_j|$$
(120)
and the general conclusions are that for the hierarchical models $`|m_{ee}|=0.00050.005`$ eV while for the inverted hierarchical models $`|m_{ee}|=0.010.057`$ eV . It is interesting to re-examine these expectations from the point of view of the equivalent formulation

$$|m_{ee}|=|(V^{E_L}m_{LL}^\nu V_{}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{T})_{11}|$$
(121)
If we neglect the charged lepton contributions then $`|m_{ee}|`$ is just given by $`|(m_{LL}^\nu )_{11}|`$ and we can read-off the prediction for this in the different models. Of course the contributions from the charged lepton sector can be very important, as we have emphasised, however what can look like a cancellation conspiracy in the formulation in Eq.120 can be readily understood in the formulation in Eq.121, so the alternative formulation can also be quite instructive, and we use it here as a simple application of our analytic results. There are three case to consider and we discuss each in turn.

We shall show that in all the cases considered, full hierarchy, partial hierarchy, and inverted hierarchy, where the hierarchies result naturally from right-handed neutrino dominance, that neutrinoless double beta decay should have a value of about of $`|m_{ee}|0.007`$ eV assuming the LMA MSW solution. Such a value is below the sensitivity of the Heidelberg-Moscow experiment, but is within the range of future proposals such as the GENIUS experiment.

(i) Full hierarchy from sequential subdominance

In this case, ignoring the charged lepton rotations, from Eq.23 we find

$$|m_{ee}||(m_{LL}^\nu )_{11}||\frac{a^2}{X}+\frac{d^2}{Y}|$$
(122)
Ignoring the contribution from $`\frac{d^2}{Y}`$ which is always small even in the large $`d`$ limit in Eq.40, and using Eq.51 we find

$$|m_{ee}|m_2\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^2}0.007\mathrm{eV}$$
(123)
which slightly exceeds the upper end of the quoted hierarchical range .

(ii) Partial hierarchy from off-diagonal subdominance

Again, ignoring the charged lepton rotations, from Eq.62 we have

$$|m_{ee}||(m_{LL}^\nu )_{11}||\frac{2aa^{}}{X}+\frac{d^2}{Y}|$$
(124)
Again, ignoring the contribution from $`\frac{d^2}{Y}`$ which is always small, and using Eq.79 we again find

$$|m_{ee}|m_2\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^2}0.007\mathrm{eV}$$
(125)
In the pseudo-Dirac limit the term $`\frac{2aa^{}}{X}`$ would be very small, so much smaller values of $`|m_{ee}|`$ would be expected. However, as we discussed earlier, the pseudo-Dirac limit is not relevant for the LMA MSW solution.

(iii) Inverted hierarchy from off-diagonal dominance

Ignoring the charged lepton rotations as before we find, from Eq.95,

$$|m_{ee}||(m_{LL}^\nu )_{11}||\frac{2aa^{}}{X}+\frac{d^2}{Y}|$$
(126)
Using the results of the previous section with Eq.126 we find

$$|m_{ee}||\delta .m_2|\stackrel{<}{_{}}|Rm_2|\stackrel{<}{_{}}0.01m_2\stackrel{<}{_{}}0.01\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2}\stackrel{<}{_{}}0.0005\mathrm{eV}$$
(127)
The result in Eq.127 neglects the effect of charged lepton mixing angles. However we saw in the previous section that the inverted hierarchy case in inconsistent with the LMA MSW solution unless the effect of charged leptons is considered. Therefore one would expect the result in Eq.127 to be considerably affected by charged lepton mixing angles in this case. As an example let us consider the effect of the 12 charged lepton mixing angle on the value of $`|m_{ee}|`$. From Eq.121 we find a contribution from $`\theta _{12}^{E_L}`$,

$$|m_{ee}||\frac{\theta _{12}^{E_L}}{\sqrt{2}}|\sqrt{|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2|}|\frac{\theta _{12}^{E_L}}{\theta _C}|0.008\mathrm{eV}$$
(128)
where we have scaled the charged lepton angle by the Cabibbo angle $`\theta _C`$. Thus, if the inverted hierarchy case is to achieve consistency with the LMA MSW solution, we would expect a contribution to neutrinoless double beta decay to be given by Eq.128.

### 4.2 Leptogenesis

Leptogenesis ,  provides another example where a correct treatment of phases is crucial to the physics, and this provides another example of the application of our general treatment including phases considered in this paper. An analytic treatment of leptogenesis in the the framework of single right-handed neutrino dominance was considered earlier . In this subsection we highlight how the more general treatment of phases considered here impacts on our previous analytic estimates. The numerical results previously presented  are of course completely unchanged.

According to leptogenesis the baryon asymmetry of the universe is given by

$$Y_B=\frac{\alpha }{\alpha 1}d\frac{ϵ_1}{g^{}}$$
(129)
where $`\alpha `$ is a number of order unity arising from sphaleron effects which convert the lepton number to baryon number, $`d`$ is a dilution factor which is crucial to the success of leptogenesis since it can be many orders of magnitude below unity if the right-handed neutrinos are not produced efficiently enough or if they do not satisfy the decay-out-of-equilibrium condition strongly enough, and $`g^{}10^2`$ represents the number of effective degrees of freedom. In the analytic discussion here we shall confine our attention to $`ϵ_1`$ which is the CP decay asymmetry parameter of the lightest right-handed neutrino, and is the basic seed of lepton number violation in the leptogenesis scenario.

$$ϵ_1=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_{R1}L_j+H_2)\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_{R1}^{}L_{j}^{}{}_{}{}^{}+H_2^{})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_{R1}L_j+H_2)+\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_{R1}^{}L_{j}^{}{}_{}{}^{}+H_2^{})}$$
(130)
Assuming a hierarchy of right-handed neutrino masses $`M_1M_2M_3`$, one has, approximately,

$$ϵ_1\frac{3}{16\pi ((Y_{LR}^\nu )^{}Y_{LR}^\nu )_{11}}\underset{i1}{}Im\left(\left[((Y_{LR}^\nu )^{}Y_{LR}^\nu )_{1i}\right]^2\right)\left(\frac{M_1}{M_i}\right)$$
(131)
Leptogenesis therefore depends on following Yukawa combinations, or, equivalently, Dirac mass combinations

$$((Y_{LR}^\nu )^{}Y_{LR}^\nu )_{1i}=\frac{1}{v_2^2}((m_{LR}^\nu )^{}m_{LR}^\nu )_{1i}$$
(132)
The combinations in Eq.132 have the property that they are invariant under a change of charged lepton basis, so they may be calculated either in the original theory basis or in the diagonal charged lepton mass basis. However the combinations are sensitive to a basis change of the right-handed neutrinos. For the present discussion we shall assume that in the theory basis the right-handed neutrinos are diagonal as in Eq.3. We shall also assume right-handed neutrino dominance with sequential subdominance. Within this class of model, leptogenesis provides a means of discriminanting between different subclasses of sequential subdominance, namely between the case where the dominant right-handed neutrino is the heaviest ($`YM_3`$) and the case where it is the lightest ($`YM_1`$), where we assume $`M_1M_2M_3`$ in both cases. We found that leptogenesis actually prefers the case $`YM_3`$ where the dominant right-handed neutrino is the heaviest . The reason is that leptogenesis is only marginally consistent with the gravitino constraint on the reheat temperature $`T_R10^9`$ GeV, and the values of $`ϵ_1`$ for the case where the dominant right-handed neutrino is the lighest one are suppressed by a factor of $`m_2/m_3`$ relative to the case where it is the heaviest, and this suppression is enough to make it quantitatively unnacceptable . We now consider the two possibilities explicitly.

(a) Sequential subdominance with $`YXX^{}`$

In this case we need to re-order the matrices involving right-handed neutrinos so that the first column corresponds to $`Y`$, and so on. Then the combinations in Eq.132 can be written as

$$((m_{LR}^\nu )^{}m_{LR}^\nu )=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}<z_1|z_1>& <z_1|z_2>& <z_1|z_3>\\ <z_2|z_1>& <z_2|z_2>& <z_2|z_3>\\ <z_3|z_1>& <z_3|z_2>& <z_3|z_3>\end{array}\right)$$
(133)
where we define three complex vectors $`|z_1>=(d,e,f)`$, $`|z_2>=(a,b,c)`$, $`|z_3>=(a^{},b^{},c^{})`$. Clearly the combinations in Eq.132 only depend on the first row of the matrix in Eq.133, and hence only on two phases, namely that of $`<z_1|z_2>`$ and $`<z_1|z_3>`$. 444In general a third phase will enter leptogenesis via $`<z_2|z_3>`$, but in the approximation that lepton number arises from the decay of the lightest right-handed neutrino it is not relevant. From the sequential subdominance conditions in Eqs.22, we find that one term dominates

$$ϵ_1^{(a)}\frac{3}{16\pi v_2^2}\frac{Y}{X}\frac{Im\left(<z_1|z_2>^2\right)}{<z_1|z_1>}$$
(134)
so that leptogenesis only depends on one phase combination. Using Eq.24, and the leading order results this may be expressed as

$$ϵ_1^{(a)}\frac{3}{16\pi v_2^2}\frac{Y}{X}Im\left(e^{2i\varphi _e^\nu }(s_{23}^{\nu _L}b+c_{23}^{\nu _L}ce^{i(\varphi _e^\nu \varphi _f^\nu )})^2\right)$$
(135)
Using Eqs.33,51 we find the order of magnitude result

$$ϵ_1^{(a)}2\times 10^6\frac{m_2}{m_3}\mathrm{sin}(2\varphi _{12})\left(\frac{Y}{10^{10}\mathrm{GeV}}\right)$$
(136)
where $`\varphi _{12}=\mathrm{arg}<z_1|z_2>`$, which quantitatively turns out to be too small due to the $`\frac{m_2}{m_3}`$ suppression factor .

(b) Sequential subdominance with $`X^{}XY`$

The case where the dominant right-handed neutrino is the heaviest requires no re-ordering of the mass matrices, and we have Eq.133 with $`|z_1>=(a^{},b^{},c^{})`$, $`|z_2>=(a,b,c)`$, $`|z_3>=(d,e,f)`$ (if $`M_1=X^{},M_2=X,M_3=Y`$). From the sequential subdominance conditions in Eqs.22, we find the dominant term is now

$$ϵ_1^{(b)}\frac{3}{16\pi v_2^2}\frac{X^{}}{Y}\frac{Im\left(<z_1|z_3>^2\right)}{<z_1|z_1>}$$
(137)
so that leptogenesis now depends on the $`<z_1|z_3>`$ phase combination. Using Eq.24, and the leading order results this may be expressed as

$$ϵ_1^{(b)}\frac{3}{16\pi v_2^2}\frac{X^{}}{Y}\frac{|e|^2+|f|^2}{|a^{}|^2+|b^{}|^2+|c^{}|^2}Im\left(e^{2i\varphi _e^\nu }(s_{23}^{\nu _L}(b^{})^{}+c_{23}^{\nu _L}(c^{})^{}e^{i(\varphi _f^\nu \varphi _e^\nu )})^2\right)$$
(138)
Using Eqs.33, we find the order of magnitude result

$$ϵ_1^{(b)}2\times 10^6\mathrm{sin}(2\varphi _{13})\left(\frac{X^{}}{10^{10}\mathrm{GeV}}\right)$$
(139)
where $`\varphi _{13}=\mathrm{arg}<z_1|z_3>`$, which quantitatively turns out to be just about acceptable since it does not suffer from the $`\frac{m_2}{m_3}`$ suppression factor of Eq.136 .

Note that the leptogenesis phase $`\varphi _{13}`$ in this case involves the phases of the Dirac couplings to the lightest right-handed neutrino of mass $`X^{}`$. These couplings and phases are completely irrelevant for constructing the MNS matrix.

## 5 Summary and Conclusion

The latest solar and atmospheric neutrino data strongly point towards a minimal interpretation consisting of three active neutrinos whose mixings are described by a LMA MNS matrix, corresponding to the mixing angles $`\theta _{23}\pi /4`$, $`\theta _{12}\pi /6`$, $`\theta _{13}\stackrel{<}{_{}}0.2`$. We have argued on naturalness grounds in favour of a neutrino mass matrix whose leading order form is either Eq.1, corresponding to a neutrino mass hierarchy, or Eq.2 corresponding to an inverse mass hierarchy with the heavier neutrinos comprising an approximate pseudo-Dirac pair. We have constructed the LMA MNS matrix to leading order in $`\theta _{13}`$ including the neutrino and charged lepton mixing angles and phases, the latter playing a crucial rôle in allowing the inverted hierarchy solution to be consistent with the LMA MSW solution.

We then showed how the neutrino mass matrices with leading order forms in Eqs.1,2 may be constructed naturally from the see-saw mechanism with right-handed neutrino dominance. For the hierarchical form of the mass matrix in Eq.1, single right-handed neutrino dominance ensures that we obtain a natural neutrino mass hierarchy $`m_2m_3`$ with no tuning, not even at the level of 10% accidental cancellations, which would otherwise be required. Although such a tuning is quite mild, it would mean that the low energy results would be subject to rather large radiative corrections, and therefore that the low energy neutrino masses and mixing angles are not directly related to the high energy ones. By contrast in technically natural theories based on single right-handed neutrino dominance, the radiative corrections are expected to be quite small, at the level of a few per cent . For the inverted hierarchy case, where the leading order form of the mass matrix in Eq.2 arises from off-diagonal right-handed neutrino dominance, the radiative corrections are also small .

With right-handed neutrino dominance because the radiative corrections are small the low energy observables provide a direct window into the high energy parameters of the theory. In such theories it is therefore meaningful to relate the high energy see-saw parameters to the low energy neutrino observables by simple analytic relations which ignore the radiative corrections. We have done this for three types of right-handed neutrino dominance corresponding to a full hierarchy from single right-handed neutrino dominance with sequential sub-dominance, a partial hierarchy from single right-handed neutrino dominance with off-diagonal subdominance, and an inverted mass hierarchy from off-diagonal dominance. In each case we have derived analytic expressions for neutrino masses, mixing angles and phases in terms of the parameters of the see-saw matrices. Our results are accurate to leading order in $`\theta _{13}`$, which is sufficiently accurate bearing in mind that such expressions ignore the effects of radiative corrections. The leading order expressions are particularly instructive in guiding the construction of see-saw models, and these should be particularly useful for unified model building. This analysis extends the range of the analytic results in , to include the important effects of phases and charged lepton mixing angles which are often overlooked in the literature.

It is worth highlighting how the large atmospheric and solar mixing angles arise for the different types of right-handed neutrino dominance. In all cases we write the neutrino complex Dirac mass matrix in the common notation of Eq.20 where the columns of this matrix represent the couplings to the different right-handed neutrinos to the right-handed neutrinos with Majorana mass matrices given in Eqs.3,5. Without loss of generality the columns of the matrices may be permuted corresponding to a re-ordering of right-handed neutrinos.

For case of a full neutrino mass hierarchy $`m_1m_2m_3`$ with the right-handed neutrinos having the texture in Eq.3 with the right-handed neutrino of mass $`Y`$ giving the dominant contribution and the right-handed neutrino of mass $`X`$ giving the sub-dominant contribution, and the right-handed neutrino of mass $`X^{}`$ giving negligible contributions, the large atmospheric angle then arises from Eq.29, and the large solar angle arises from Eq.52. The fact that the solar angle is given, up to phases, by the ratio of the subdominant coupling $`a`$ to the difference of subdominant couplings $`bc`$, was previously known . Eq.54 shows that the cancellation in the denominator in general depends on the relative phases of $`b,c`$. In addition the solar angle will receive corrections from the charged lepton sector from Eq.15.

For the case of a partial neutrino mass hierarchy $`m_1\stackrel{<}{_{}}m_2m_3`$ arising from the right-handed neutrinos having the texture in Eq.5 with the right-handed neutrino with mass $`Y`$ dominating and the off-diagonal right-handed neutrinos of pseudo-Dirac mass $`X`$ giving the sub-dominant contributions, the atmospheric angle is determined similarly to the previous case. However in this case the large solar angle arises from a sum of two angles as in Eq.80, where the angle $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L\mathrm{seq}}`$ is given by Eq.81 while the angle $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L^{}}`$ is given by Eq.82. In this case a large solar angle can result from one or both of the angles $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L\mathrm{seq}}`$, $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L^{}}`$ being large. As before cancellations can occur in the denominators, which in general depends on the relative phases of $`b,c`$ and $`b^{},c^{}`$ and in addition the solar angle will receive corrections from the charged lepton sector from Eq.15. The pseudo-Dirac limit is not relevant for the LMA MSW solution. For both the full and partial hierarchy cases we obtain a limit $`|U_{e3}|\stackrel{>}{_{}}0.1`$, just below the current CHOOZ limit.

For the case of an inverted neutrino mass hierarchy with a heavier approximately pseudo-Dirac neutrino pair, $`m_1m_2m_3`$, arising from the right-handed neutrinos having the texture in Eq.5, with now the off-diagonal pseudo-Dirac right-handed neutrinos of mass $`X`$ dominating, the large atmospheric angle arises from Eq.100, assuming the condition in Eq.96, similar to . In this case the contribution to the solar angle from the neutrino sector is almost maximal and we have the result in Eq.119. However, including the effect of charged lepton mixing angles, for example a Cabibbo-like contribution to $`\theta _{12}^{E_L}0.2`$, can result in $`\theta _{12}`$ in the LMA MSW range and $`\theta _{13}`$ close to the current CHOOZ limit, as in the hierarchical case.

Although we only quote the leading order expressions, they should serve to provide a useful guide to unified model building. More accurate expressions including the $`m_2/m_3`$ corrections can readily be obtained if required from our more general results.

We have also considered two physical applications of our results, to neutrinoless double beta decay and to leptogenesis. Both hierarchical and inverted hierarchical cases predict small $`\beta \beta _{0\nu }`$ with $`|m_{ee}|0.007`$ eV within the sensitivity of future proposals such as GENIUS. We also considered leptogenesis for the sequential sub-dominance case and emphasised that successful leptogenesis is possible if the dominant right-handed neutrino is the heaviest one, but the leptogenesis phase is unrelated to the MNS phases. Although the leptogenesis phase is not directly related to the MNS phases, it should be emphasised that they all originate from the same source, namely the Dirac mass matrix. It is natural to assume that the neutrino Dirac mass matrix is complex, in which case we would expect both a non-zero leptogenesis phase and non-zero MNS phases. The observation of the Dirac MNS phase at a neutrino factory would therefore be at least circumstantial evidence for a non-zero leptogenesis phase.

To conclude, recent SNO results when combined with other solar and atmosheric neutrino data supports the LMA MSW solution and three active neutrinos. The application of the notion of technical naturalness then leads to two possible mass patterns for neutrinos, either a hierarchy or an inverted hierarchy with an approximately pseudo-Dirac heavier neutrino pair. Further naturalness requirements applied to the see-saw mechanism, leads us to suppose that the successful mass patterns result from right-handed neutrino dominance where one or two right-handed neutrinos dominate and give the leading order mass matrices in Eqs.1,2. The maximal atmospheric angle results from a ratio of dominant right-handed neutrino Dirac couplings. The large solar angle results from a ratio of subdominant right-handed neutrino couplings. The leading order results we present here should provide a useful and reliable guide in constructing unified models. The usefulness is due to the simplicity of the leading order results and the reliability is due to the correct treatment of phases and also the fact that the radiative corrections are expected to be relatively small due to the technical naturalness. Both these features are a consequence of right-handed neutrino dominance, which may be tested experimentally via its predictions of $`\theta _{13}\stackrel{>}{_{}}0.1`$ and $`|m_{ee}|0.007`$, assuming the LMA MSW solution to be correct, although we emphasise that both predictions are rather soft since they rely on the assumption of the absence of cancellations.

###### Acknowledgments.

S.K. would like to thank M.Hirsch for useful conversations and PPARC for a Senior Fellowship.

## Appendix A Equivalence of different parametrisations

In this appendix we exhibit the equivalence of different parametrisations of the MNS matrix. A $`3\times 3`$ unitary matrix may be parametrised by 3 angles and 6 phases. We shall find it convenient to parametrise a unitary matrix $`V^{}`$ by 555It is convenient to define the parametrisation of $`V^{}`$ rather than $`V`$ because the MNS matrix involves $`V_{}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}`$ and the neutrino mixing angles will play a central rôle.:

$$V^{}=P_2R_{23}R_{13}P_1R_{12}P_3$$
(140)
where $`R_{ij}`$ are a sequence of real rotations corresponding to the Euler angles $`\theta _{ij}`$, and $`P_i`$ are diagonal phase matrices. The Euler matrices are given by

$$R_{23}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& c_{23}& s_{23}\\ 0& s_{23}& c_{23}\end{array}\right)$$
(141)
$$R_{13}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{13}& 0& s_{13}\\ 0& 1& 0\\ s_{13}& 0& c_{13}\end{array}\right)$$
(142)
$$R_{12}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{12}& s_{12}& 0\\ s_{12}& c_{12}& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right)$$
(143)
where $`c_{ij}=\mathrm{cos}\theta _{ij}`$ and $`s_{ij}=\mathrm{sin}\theta _{ij}`$. The phase matrices are given by

$$P_1=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& e^{i\chi }& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right)$$
(144)
$$P_2=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& e^{i\varphi _2}& 0\\ 0& 0& e^{i\varphi _3}\end{array}\right)$$
(145)
$$P_3=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}e^{i\omega _1}& 0& 0\\ 0& e^{i\omega _2}& 0\\ 0& 0& e^{i\omega _3}\end{array}\right)$$
(146)
By commuting the phase matrices to the left, it is not difficult to show that the parametrisation in Eq.140 is equivalent to

$$V^{}=PU_{23}U_{13}U_{12}$$
(147)
where $`P=P_1P_2P_3`$ and

$$U_{23}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& c_{23}& s_{23}e^{i\delta _{23}}\\ 0& s_{23}e^{i\delta _{23}}& c_{23}\end{array}\right)$$
(148)
$$U_{13}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{13}& 0& s_{13}e^{i\delta _{13}}\\ 0& 1& 0\\ s_{13}e^{i\delta _{13}}& 0& c_{13}\end{array}\right)$$
(149)
$$U_{12}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{12}& s_{12}e^{i\delta _{12}}& 0\\ s_{12}e^{i\delta _{12}}& c_{12}& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right)$$
(150)
where

$$\delta _{23}=\chi +\omega _2\omega _3$$
(151)
$$\delta _{13}=\omega _1\omega _3$$
(152)
$$\delta _{12}=\omega _1\omega _2$$
(153)
The matrix $`U_{MNS}`$ is an example of a unitary matrix, and as such it may be parametrised by either of the equivalent forms in Eqs.140 or 147. If we use the form in Eq.147 then the phase matrix $`P`$ on the left may always be removed by an additional charged lepton phase rotation $`\mathrm{\Delta }V^{E_L}=P^{}`$, which is always possible since right-handed charged lepton phase rotations can always make the charged lepton masses real. Therefore $`U_{MNS}`$ can always be parametrised by

$$U_{MNS}=U_{23}U_{13}U_{12}$$
(154)
which involves just three irremoveable physical phases $`\delta _{ij}`$. In this parametrisation the Dirac phase $`\delta `$ which enters the CP odd part of neutrino oscillation probabilities is given by

$$\delta =\delta _{13}\delta _{23}\delta _{12}.$$
(155)
Another common parametrisation of the MNS matrix is

$$U_{MNS}=R_{23}U_{13}R_{12}P_0$$
(156)
where

$$P_0=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}e^{i\beta _1}& 0& 0\\ 0& e^{i\beta _2}& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right)$$
(157)
and in Eq.156 $`U_{13}`$ is of the form in Eq.149 but with $`\delta _{13}`$ replaced by the Dirac phase $`\delta `$. The parametrisation in Eq.156 can be transformed into the parametrisation in Eq.154 by commuting the phase matrix $`P_0`$ in Eq.156 to the left, and then removing the phases on the left-hand side by charged lepton phase rotations. The two parametrisations are then related by the phase relations

$$\delta _{23}=\beta _2$$
(158)
$$\delta _{13}=\delta +\beta _1$$
(159)
$$\delta _{12}=\beta _1\beta _2$$
(160)
The use of the parametrisation in Eq.156 is widespread in the literature, however for the reasons discussed in the next sub-section we prefer to use the parametrisation in Eq.154 which is trivially related to Eq.156 by the above phase relations.

## Appendix B Charged lepton contributions to the MNS matrix

In this appendix we discuss the contribution of the charged lepton mixing angles to the MNS matrix. The MNS matrix is constructed in Eq.8 as a product of a unitary matrix from the charged lepton sector $`V^{E_L}`$ and a unitary matrix from the neutrino sector $`V_{}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}`$. Each of these unitary matrices may be parametrised by the parametrisation of $`V^{}`$ in Eq.140. Thus we write

$$V_{}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}=P_2^{\nu _L}R_{23}^{\nu _L}R_{13}^{\nu _L}P_1^{\nu _L}R_{12}^{\nu _L}P_3^{\nu _L}$$
(161)
$$V_{}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}=P_2^{E_L}R_{23}^{E_L}R_{13}^{E_L}P_1^{E_L}R_{12}^{E_L}P_3^{E_L}$$
(162)
where the Euler angles and phases are defined as in Eqs.141-146 but now there are independent angles and phases for the left-handed neutrino and charged lepton sectors distinguished by the superscripts $`\nu _L`$ and $`E_L`$. The MNS matrix from Eqs.8,161,162 is then

$$U_{MNS}=P_{3}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}R_{12}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}P_{1}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}R_{13}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}R_{23}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}P_{2}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}P_2^{\nu _L}R_{23}^{\nu _L}R_{13}^{\nu _L}P_1^{\nu _L}R_{12}^{\nu _L}P_3^{\nu _L}$$
(163)
As before we commute all the phase matrices to the left, then choose $`P_{3}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}`$ to cancel all the phases on the left-hand side, to leave just

$$U_{MNS}=U_{12}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}U_{13}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}U_{23}^{E_L}{}_{}{}^{}U_{23}^{\nu _L}U_{13}^{\nu _L}U_{12}^{\nu _L}$$
(164)
with independent phases and angles for the left-handed neutrino and charged lepton sectors, in the convention of Eqs.148,149,150. The phases in Eq.164 are given in terms of the phases in Eqs.161, 162 by

$`\delta _{12}^{\nu _L}`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _1^{\nu _L}\omega _2^{\nu _L}`$ (165)
$`\delta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _1^{\nu _L}\omega _3^{\nu _L}`$ (166)
$`\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}`$ $`=`$ $`\chi ^{\nu _L}+\omega _2^{\nu _L}\omega _3^{\nu _L}`$ (167)
$`\delta _{23}^{E_L}`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi _2^{E_L}+\varphi _3^{E_L}+\varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L}+\chi ^{\nu _L}+\omega _2^{\nu _L}\omega _3^{\nu _L}`$ (168)
$`\delta _{13}^{E_L}`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi _3^{E_L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L}+\omega _1^{\nu _L}\omega _3^{\nu _L}`$ (169)
$`\delta _{12}^{E_L}`$ $`=`$ $`\chi ^{E_L}+\varphi _2^{E_L}\varphi _2^{\nu _L}\chi ^{\nu _L}+\omega _1^{\nu _L}\omega _2^{\nu _L}`$ (170)
The form of $`U_{MNS}`$ in Eq.164 is similar to the parametrisation in Eq.9, which is the practical reason why we prefer that form rather than that in Eq.156.

We now discuss the MNS matrix to leading order in $`\theta _{13}`$. From Eqs.154,148,149,150, we find to leading order in $`\theta _{13}`$ that $`U_{MNS}`$ may be expanded as:

$`U_{MNS}`$
$`\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{12}& s_{12}e^{i\delta _{12}}& \theta _{13}e^{i\delta _{13}}\\ s_{12}c_{23}e^{i\delta _{12}}c_{12}s_{23}\theta _{13}e^{i(\delta _{13}\delta _{23})}& c_{12}c_{23}s_{12}s_{23}\theta _{13}e^{i(\delta _{23}+\delta _{13}\delta _{12})}& s_{23}e^{i\delta _{23}}\\ s_{12}s_{23}e^{i(\delta _{23}+\delta _{12})}c_{12}c_{23}\theta _{13}e^{i\delta _{13}}& c_{12}s_{23}e^{i\delta _{23}}s_{12}c_{23}\theta _{13}e^{i(\delta _{13}\delta _{12})}& c_{23}\end{array}\right)`$ (174)
(175)
For $`\theta _{13}=0.1`$, close to the CHOOZ limit, the approximate form in Eq.175 is accurate to 1%.

We now wish to expand the MNS matrix in terms of neutrino and charged lepton mixing angles and phases to leading order in small angles, using Eq.164. In technically natural theories, based on right-handed neutrino dominance, the contribution to $`\theta _{23}`$ comes mainly from the neutrino sector, $`\theta _{23}\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}`$. Furthermore in natural theories we expect that the contributions to $`\theta _{13}`$ are all separately small so that the smallness of this angle does not rely on accidental cancellations. Clearly this implies that $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ and $`\theta _{13}^{E_L}`$ must both be $`\stackrel{<}{_{}}\theta _{13}`$. Since the 13 element of $`U_{MNS}`$ also receives a contribution from the charged lepton sector proportional to $`s_{12}^{E_L}s_{23}^{\nu _L}`$, the same argument also implies that $`\theta _{12}^{E_L}\stackrel{<}{_{}}\theta _{13}`$. Therefore the natural expectation is that all the charged lepton mixing angles are small! Expanding Eq.164 to leading order in small angles $`\theta _{12}^{E_L}`$, $`\theta _{23}^{E_L}`$, $`\theta _{13}^{E_L}`$, $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$, we find

$`U_{MNS}`$
$`\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{12}^{\nu _L}& s_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{12}^{\nu _L}}& \theta _{13}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{13}^{\nu _L}}\\ s_{12}^{\nu _L}c_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{12}^{\nu _L}}c_{12}^{\nu _L}s_{23}^{\nu _L}\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{13}^{\nu _L}\delta _{23}^{\nu _L})}& c_{12}^{\nu _L}c_{23}^{\nu _L}s_{12}^{\nu _L}s_{23}^{\nu _L}\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}+\delta _{13}^{\nu _L}\delta _{12}^{\nu _L})}& s_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}}\\ s_{12}^{\nu _L}s_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}+\delta _{12}^{\nu _L})}c_{12}^{\nu _L}c_{23}^{\nu _L}\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{13}^{\nu _L}}& c_{12}^{\nu _L}s_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}}s_{12}^{\nu _L}c_{23}^{\nu _L}\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{13}^{\nu _L}\delta _{12}^{\nu _L})}& c_{23}^{\nu _L}\end{array}\right)`$
$`+\theta _{23}^{E_L}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{12}^{\nu _L}& s_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{12}^{\nu _L}}& 0\\ s_{23}^{\nu _L}s_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}\delta _{23}^{E_L}+\delta _{12}^{\nu _L})}& s_{23}^{\nu _L}c_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}\delta _{23}^{E_L})}& c_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{23}^{E_L}}\\ c_{23}^{\nu _L}s_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{23}^{E_L}+\delta _{12}^{\nu _L})}& c_{23}^{\nu _L}c_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{23}^{E_L}}& s_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{23}^{E_L}\delta _{23}^{\nu _L})}\end{array}\right)`$
$`+\theta _{13}^{E_L}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}s_{12}^{\nu _L}s_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{12}^{\nu _L}+\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}\delta _{13}^{E_L})}& c_{12}^{\nu _L}s_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}\delta _{13}^{E_L})}& c_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{13}^{E_L}}\\ 0& 0& 0\\ c_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{13}^{E_L}}& s_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{12}^{\nu _L}+\delta _{13}^{E_L})}& 0\end{array}\right)`$
$`+\theta _{12}^{E_L}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{23}^{\nu _L}s_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{12}^{\nu _L}\delta _{12}^{E_L})}& c_{23}^{\nu _L}c_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{12}^{E_L}}& s_{23}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{23}^{\nu _L}\delta _{12}^{E_L})}\\ c_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i\delta _{12}^{E_L}}& s_{12}^{\nu _L}e^{i(\delta _{12}^{\nu _L}+\delta _{12}^{E_L})}& 0\\ 0& 0& 0\end{array}\right)`$ (182)
(183)
where we have dropped terms of order $`\theta _{23}^{E_L}\theta _{13}`$. The first matrix on the right hand side of Eq.183 gives the contribution to the MNS matrix from the neutrino mixing angles and phases, and is of the same form as Eq.175. The subsequent matrices give the corrections to the MNS matrix from the charged lepton mixing angles $`\theta _{23}^{E_L}`$, $`\theta _{13}^{E_L}`$, and $`\theta _{12}^{E_L}`$.

## Appendix C Proceedure for diagonalising hierarchical mass matrices

In this appendix we discuss the diagonalisation of a general complex hierarchical matrix $`m`$ where

$$m=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}& m_{12}& m_{13}\\ m_{21}& m_{22}& m_{23}\\ m_{31}& m_{32}& m_{33}\end{array}\right)$$
(184)
The matrix $`m`$ is diagonalised by a sequence of tranformations:

$$P_{3}^{L}{}_{}{}^{}R_{12}^{L}{}_{}{}^{T}P_{1}^{L}{}_{}{}^{}R_{13}^{L}{}_{}{}^{T}R_{23}^{L}{}_{}{}^{T}P_{2}^{L}{}_{}{}^{}mP_2^RR_{23}^RR_{13}^RP_1^RR_{12}^RP_3^R=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_1& 0& 0\\ 0& m_2& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3\end{array}\right)$$
(185)
In the case of the charged lepton mass matrix, all the rotation angles are small, while in the case of the neutrino mass matrix it is symmetric. The results for the general complex matrix $`m`$ will be sufficiently general to allow us to apply them to both of the physical cases of interest as limiting cases.

The proceedure for diagonalising a general hierarchical matrix $`m`$ involves the following steps.

1. The first step involves multiplying the mass matrix $`m`$ by the inner phase matrices $`P_2`$ defined in Eq.145:

$$P_{2}^{L}{}_{}{}^{}mP_2^R=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}& m_{12}e^{i\varphi _2^R}& m_{13}e^{i\varphi _3^R}\\ m_{21}e^{i\varphi _2^L}& m_{22}e^{i(\varphi _2^R\varphi _2^L)}& m_{23}e^{i(\varphi _3^R\varphi _2^L)}\\ m_{31}e^{i\varphi _3^L}& m_{32}e^{i(\varphi _2^R\varphi _3^L)}& m_{33}e^{i(\varphi _3^R\varphi _3^L)}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}& m_{12}^{}& m_{13}^{}\\ m_{21}^{}& m_{22}^{}& m_{23}^{}\\ m_{31}^{}& m_{32}^{}& m_{33}^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(186)
The purpose of this re-phasing is to facilitate steps 2,3 using real rotation angles $`\theta _{23}`$, $`\theta _{13}`$, as we shall see.

2. The second step is to perform the real rotations $`R_{23}`$ defined in Eq.141 on the re-phased matrix from step1. The purpose is to put zeroes in the 23,32 elements of the resulting matrix:

$$R_{23}^{L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}& m_{12}^{}& m_{13}^{}\\ m_{21}^{}& m_{22}^{}& m_{23}^{}\\ m_{31}^{}& m_{32}^{}& m_{33}^{}\end{array}\right)R_{23}^R\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{13}\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{21}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}& 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{31}& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(187)
The zeroes in the 23,32 positions are achieved by diagonalising the lower 23 block, using the reduced matrix $`R_{23}`$ obtained by striking out the row and column in which the unit element appears, to leave a $`2\times 2`$ rotation,

$$R_{23}^{L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{cc}m_{22}^{}& m_{23}^{}\\ m_{32}^{}& m_{33}^{}\end{array}\right)R_{23}^R\left(\begin{array}{cc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}& 0\\ 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(188)
which implies

$$\mathrm{tan}2\theta _{23}^L=\frac{2\left[m_{33}^{}m_{23}^{}+m_{22}^{}m_{32}^{}\right]}{\left[m_{33}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}m_{22}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}+m_{32}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}m_{23}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\right]}$$
(189)
$$\mathrm{tan}2\theta _{23}^R=\frac{2\left[m_{33}^{}m_{32}^{}+m_{22}^{}m_{23}^{}\right]}{\left[m_{33}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}m_{22}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}+m_{23}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}m_{32}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\right]}$$
(190)
The requirement that the angles $`\theta _{23}^L`$ and $`\theta _{23}^R`$ are real means that the numerators and denominators must have equal phases, and this is achieved by adjusting the relative phases $`\varphi _i^R\varphi _j^L`$ which appear in the lower block of Eq.186. The remaining elements are then given by the reduced rotations

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{13}\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}m_{12}^{}& m_{13}^{}\end{array}\right)R_{23}^R$$
(191)
$$\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{m}_{21}\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{31}\end{array}\right)=R_{23}^{L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{c}m_{21}^{}\\ m_{31}^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(192)
3. The third step is to perform the real small angle rotations $`R_{13}`$ defined in Eq.142 on the matrix from step 2. The purpose is to put zeroes in the 13,31 elements of the resulting matrix:

$$R_{13}^{L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{13}\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{21}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}& 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{31}& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)R_{13}^R\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}& 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{21}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(193)
The zeroes in the 13,31 positions are achieved by diagonalising the outer 13 block, using the reduced matrix $`R_{13}`$ obtained by striking out the row and column in which the unit element appears, to leave a $`2\times 2`$ rotation,

$$R_{13}^{L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{cc}m_{11}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{13}\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{31}& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)R_{13}^R\left(\begin{array}{cc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}& 0\\ 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(194)
which implies

$$\theta _{13}^L\frac{\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}}{m_3^{}}+\frac{\stackrel{~}{m}_{31}m_{11}}{(m_3^{})^2}$$
(195)
$$\theta _{13}^R\frac{\stackrel{~}{m}_{31}}{m_3^{}}+\frac{\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}m_{11}}{(m_3^{})^2}$$
(196)
The requirement that the angles $`\theta _{13}^L`$ and $`\theta _{31}^R`$ are real fixes the absolute value of the phases $`\varphi _i^R+\varphi _j^L`$, since only the relative phases were fixed previously. This uses up all the phase freedom and thus all the resulting mass matrix elements in Eq.193 remain complex. Note that Eq.193 is written to leading order in the small angles $`\theta _{13}`$, and as discussed previously the 23,32 elements remain zero to this order. The large complex element $`m_3^{}`$ is approximately unchanged to this order. Due to the zeroes in the 23,32 position of the matrix the elements $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{21}`$ are also unchanged to leading order. The element $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}`$ is also unchanged of course since it is not present in the reduced matrix. The only new element is therefore

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}m_{11}\frac{\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}\stackrel{~}{m}_{31}}{m_3^{}}$$
(197)
4. The fourth step involves multiplying the mass matrix resulting from Eq.193 by the phase matrices $`P_1`$ defined in Eq.144:

$$P_{1}^{L}{}_{}{}^{}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}& 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{21}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)P_1^R=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}e^{i\chi ^R}& 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{21}e^{i\chi ^L}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}e^{i(\chi ^R\chi ^L)}& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^{}& 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{21}^{}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^{}& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(198)
The purpose of this re-phasing is to facilitate step 5 using real rotation angle $`\theta _{12}`$.

5. The fifth step is to perform the real rotations $`R_{12}`$ defined in Eq.143 on the re-phased matrix from step 4. The purpose is to put zeroes in the 12,21 elements of the resulting matrix:

$$R_{12}^{L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^{}& 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{21}^{}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^{}& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)R_{12}^R\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_1^{}& 0& 0\\ 0& m_2^{}& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(199)
The zeroes in the 12,21 positions are achieved by diagonalising the upper 12 block, using the reduced matrix $`R_{12}`$ obtained by striking out the row and column in which the unit element appears, to leave a $`2\times 2`$ rotation,

$$R_{12}^{L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{cc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^{}\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{21}^{}& \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^{}\end{array}\right)R_{12}^R\left(\begin{array}{cc}m_1^{}& 0\\ 0& m_2^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(200)
which implies

$$\mathrm{tan}2\theta _{12}^L=\frac{2\left[\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^{}\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^{}+\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}\stackrel{~}{m}_{21}^{}\right]}{\left[(\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^{})^2(\stackrel{~}{m}_{11})^2+(\stackrel{~}{m}_{21}^{})^2(\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^{})^2\right]}$$
(201)
$$\mathrm{tan}2\theta _{12}^R=\frac{2\left[\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^{}\stackrel{~}{m}_{21}^{}+\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^{}\right]}{\left[(\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^{})^2(\stackrel{~}{m}_{11})^2+(\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^{})^2(\stackrel{~}{m}_{21}^{})^2\right]}$$
(202)
The requirement that the angles $`\theta _{12}^L`$ and $`\theta _{21}^R`$ are real means that the numerators and denominators must have equal phases, and this is achieved by adjusting the phases $`\chi _L`$, $`\chi _R`$.

6. The sixth step involves multiplying the complex diagonal mass matrix resulting from Eq.199 by the phase matrices $`P_3`$ defined in Eq.146:

$$P_{3}^{L}{}_{}{}^{}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_1^{}& 0& 0\\ 0& m_2^{}& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)P_3^R=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_1& 0& 0\\ 0& m_2& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3\end{array}\right)$$
(203)
The result of this re-phasing is a diagonal matrix with real eigenvalues. In the case of charged leptons this last step can be achieved by a suitable $`P_3^R`$ for any choice of $`P_3^L`$. This freedom in $`P_3^L`$ enables three phases to be removed from the MNS matrix.

## Appendix D Diagonalising the hierarchical neutrino mass matrix

In this appendix we shall apply the results of appendix C to the case of the complex symmetric hierarchical neutrino mass matrix of the leading order form as shown in Eq.1, which will be written in full generality as

$$m_{LL}^\nu =\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}^\nu & m_{12}^\nu & m_{13}^\nu \\ m_{12}^\nu & m_{22}^\nu & m_{23}^\nu \\ m_{13}^\nu & m_{23}^\nu & m_{33}^\nu \end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{ccc}|m_{11}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{11}^\nu }& |m_{12}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{12}^\nu }& |m_{13}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{13}^\nu }\\ |m_{12}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{12}^\nu }& |m_{22}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{22}^\nu }& |m_{23}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{23}^\nu }\\ |m_{13}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{13}^\nu }& |m_{23}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{23}^\nu }& |m_{33}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{33}^\nu }\end{array}\right)$$
(204)
where it should be remembered that the elements in the lower 23 block are larger than the other elements, as in Eq.1.

The proceedure outlined in appendix D for diagonalising $`m_{LL}^\nu `$ is to work our way from the inner transformations to the outer transformations as follows.

1. Re-phase $`m_{LL}^\nu `$ using the $`P_2^{\nu _L}`$.
2. Put zeroes in the 23=32 positions using $`R_{23}^{\nu _L}`$.
3. Put zeroes in the 13=31 positions using $`R_{13}^{\nu _L}`$.
4. Re-phase the mass matrix using $`P_1^{\nu _L}`$.
5. Put zeroes in the 12=21 positions using $`R_{12}^{\nu _L}`$.
6. Make the diagonal elements real using the $`P_3^{\nu _L}`$.

If $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ is small, then for the hierarchical case $`m_3m_2`$ this proceedure will result in an approximately diagonal matrix to leading order in $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$. One might object that after step 3 the $`R_{13}^{\nu _L}`$ rotations will “fill-in” the zeroes in the 23,32 positions with terms of order $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ multiplied by $`m_{12}^{\nu _L},m_{13}^{\nu _L}`$. However in the hierarchical case $`m_{12}^{\nu _L},m_{13}^{\nu _L}`$ are smaller than $`m_{33}^{\nu _L}`$ by a factor of $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ which means that the “filled-in” 23,32 entries are suppressed by a total factor of $`(\theta _{13}^{\nu _L})^2`$ compared to the 33 element. This means that after the 5 steps above a hierarchical matrix will be diagonal to leading order in $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$, as claimed. For the inverted hierarchical neutrino case a different proceedure must be followed, as discussed in the next sub-section. Here we shall systematically diagonalise the hierarchical neutrino mass matrix in Eq.204 by following the above proceedure as follows.

The first step is to re-phase the matrix in Eq.204 using $`P_{2}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{}`$ so that the neutrino mass matrix becomes,

$$\left(\begin{array}{ccc}|m_{11}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{11}^\nu }& |m_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{12}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L})}& |m_{13}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{13}^\nu \varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\\ |m_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{12}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L})}& |m_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{22}^\nu 2\varphi _2^{\nu _L})}& |m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\\ |m_{13}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{13}^\nu \varphi _3^{\nu _L})}& |m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}& |m_{33}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{33}^\nu 2\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\end{array}\right)$$
(205)
To determine the 23 neutrino mixing angle $`\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}`$ we perform a 23 rotation which diagonalises the lower 23 block of Eq.205. From Eq.189 we find the 23 neutrino mixing angle $`\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}`$ as

$$\mathrm{tan}2\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}=\frac{2\left[|m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\right]}{\left[|m_{33}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{33}^\nu 2\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}|m_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{22}^\nu 2\varphi _2^{\nu _L})}\right]}$$
(206)
The relative phase $`\varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L}`$ is fixed by the requirement that the angle $`\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}`$ in Eq.206 be real,

$$|m_{33}^\nu |\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _{33}^\nu \varphi _{23}^\nu +\varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})=|m_{22}^\nu |\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _{22}^\nu \varphi _{23}^\nu +\varphi _3^{\nu _L}\varphi _2^{\nu _L})$$
(207)
After the 23 rotation in Eq.187, the neutrino mass matrix in Eq.205 becomes

$$\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu \\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu & 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu & 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(208)
The lower block elements are given by

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu & 0\\ 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)R_{23}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{cc}|m_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{22}^\nu 2\varphi _2^{\nu _L})}& |m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\\ |m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}& |m_{33}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{33}^\nu 2\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\end{array}\right)R_{23}^{\nu _L}$$
(209)
which implies

$`\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu `$ $`=`$ $`(c_{23}^{\nu _L})^2|m_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{22}^\nu 2\varphi _2^{\nu _L})}2s_{23}^{\nu _L}c_{23}^{\nu _L}|m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}+(s_{23}^{\nu _L})^2|m_{33}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{33}^\nu 2\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}`$
$`m_3^{}`$ $`=`$ $`(s_{23}^{\nu _L})^2|m_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{22}^\nu 2\varphi _2^{\nu _L})}+2s_{23}^{\nu _L}c_{23}^{\nu _L}|m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}+(c_{23}^{\nu _L})^2|m_{33}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{33}^\nu 2\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}`$
and from Eq.192

$$\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu \\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu \end{array}\right)=R_{23}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{c}|m_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{12}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L})}\\ |m_{13}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{13}^\nu \varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\end{array}\right)$$
(212)
We now perform a 13 rotation on the neutrino matrix in Eq.208 which diagonalises the outer 13 block of Eq.208 and determines the 13 neutrino mixing angle $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$. From Eq.195 we find the 13 neutrino mixing angle $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ as

$$\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}\frac{\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^\nu }{m_3^{}}$$
(213)
The absolute phases $`\varphi _2^{\nu _L}`$, $`\varphi _3^{\nu _L}`$ are fixed by the requirement that the angle $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ in Eq.213 be real,

$$s_{23}^{\nu _L}|m_{12}^\nu |\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _{12}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{})+c_{23}^{\nu _L}|m_{13}^\nu |\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _{13}^\nu \varphi _3^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{})=0$$
(214)
After the 13 rotation in Eq.193, Eq.208 becomes

$$\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu & 0\\ 0& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{ccc}|\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^\nu |e^{i\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{11}^\nu }& |\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu |e^{i\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{12}^\nu }& 0\\ |\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu |e^{i\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{12}^\nu }& |\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu |e^{i\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{22}^\nu }& 0\\ 0& 0& |m_3^{}|e^{i\varphi _3^{}}\end{array}\right)$$
(215)
To leading order in $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ the only new element in Eq.215 is

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^{\nu _L}m_{11}^{\nu _L}\frac{(\stackrel{~}{m}_{13}^{\nu _L})^2}{m_3^{}}$$
(216)
It only remains to determine the 12 neutrino mixing angle $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}`$ by diagonalising the upper 12 block of Eq.215. From Eq.201 we find the 12 neutrino mixing angle $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}`$ as

$$\mathrm{tan}2\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}=\frac{2\left[|\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{12}^\nu \chi ^{\nu _L})}\right]}{\left[|\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{22}^\nu 2\chi ^{\nu _L})}|\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^\nu |e^{i\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{11}^\nu }\right]}$$
(217)
The phase $`\chi ^{\nu _L}`$ is fixed by the requirement that the angle $`\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}`$ in Eq.217 be real,

$$|\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu |\mathrm{sin}(\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{22}^\nu \stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{12}^\nu \chi ^{\nu _L})=|\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^\nu |\mathrm{sin}(\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{11}^\nu \stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{12}^\nu +\chi ^{\nu _L})$$
(218)
After the 12 rotation the upper block of the matrix in Eq.215 is diagonal and the resulting matrix is

$$\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_1^{}& 0& 0\\ 0& m_2^{}& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_1e^{i\varphi _1^{}}& 0& 0\\ 0& m_2e^{i\varphi _2^{}}& 0\\ 0& 0& m_3e^{i\varphi _3^{}}\end{array}\right)$$
(219)
where from Eq.200

$`m_1^{}`$ $`=`$ $`(c_{12}^{\nu _L})^2|\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^\nu |e^{i\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{11}^\nu }2s_{12}^{\nu _L}c_{12}^{\nu _L}|\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{12}^\nu \chi ^{\nu _L})}+(s_{12}^{\nu _L})^2|\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{22}^\nu 2\chi ^{\nu _L})}`$
$`m_2^{}`$ $`=`$ $`(s_{12}^{\nu _L})^2|\stackrel{~}{m}_{11}^\nu |e^{i\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{11}^\nu }+2s_{12}^{\nu _L}c_{12}^{\nu _L}|\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{12}^\nu \chi ^{\nu _L})}+(c_{12}^{\nu _L})^2|\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{22}^\nu 2\chi ^{\nu _L})}`$
It is a simple matter to adjust the phases $`\omega _i^{\nu _L}`$ in $`P_3^{\nu _L}`$ to remove the phases in Eq.219 and make the neutrino masses real, as in Eq.203,

$$\omega _i^{\nu _L}=\frac{\varphi _i^{}}{2}$$
(222)
This completes the diagonalisation in Eq.18. In the case of neutrino masses, unlike the case of the charged fermions, there is no left over phase freedom. This is the reason why the MNS matrix has three more physical phases than the CKM matrix.

## Appendix E Diagonalising the inverted hierarchical neutrino mass matrix

In this appendix we shall consider the case of the complex symmetric inverted hierarchical neutrino mass matrix of the leading order form as shown in Eq.2. In this case the proceedure is as follows.

1. Re-phase $`m_{LL}^\nu `$ using the $`P_2^{\nu _L}`$.
2. Put zeroes in the 13=31 positions using $`R_{23}^{\nu _L}`$.
3. Put zeroes in the 23=32 positions using $`R_{13}^{\nu _L}`$.
4. Re-phase the mass matrix using $`P_1^{\nu _L}`$.
5. Put zeroes in the 12=21 positions using $`R_{12}^{\nu _L}`$.
6. Make the diagonal elements real using the $`P_3^{\nu _L}`$.

We continue to write the neutrino mass matrix as in Eq.204, but now it should be remembered that the 12,13 elements are now larger than the other elements, as in Eq.2. This is the reason why the above proceedure differs from that for the case of the hierarchical neutrino mass matrix.

We first perform the re-phasing as in Eq.205. Then we determine the 23 neutrino mixing angle $`\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}`$ by performing a 23 rotation such that

$$\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{23}^\nu \\ 0& \stackrel{~}{m}_{23}^\nu & m_3^{}\end{array}\right)R_{23}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}|m_{11}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{11}^\nu }& |m_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{12}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L})}& |m_{13}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{13}^\nu \varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\\ |m_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{12}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L})}& |m_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{22}^\nu 2\varphi _2^{\nu _L})}& |m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\\ |m_{13}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{13}^\nu \varphi _3^{\nu _L})}& |m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}& |m_{33}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{33}^\nu 2\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\end{array}\right)R_{23}^{\nu _L}$$
(223)
where

$$\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu \\ 0\end{array}\right)=R_{23}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{c}|m_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{12}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L})}\\ |m_{13}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{13}^\nu \varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\end{array}\right)$$
(224)
which gives the 23 neutrino mixing angle $`\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}`$ in this case to be

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}=\frac{|m_{13}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{13}^\nu \varphi _3^{\nu _L})}}{|m_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{12}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L})}}$$
(225)
Since the Euler angles are constrained to satisfy $`\theta _{ij}\pi /2`$, we must have $`\mathrm{tan}\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}+1`$, and this then fixes

$$\varphi _{13}^\nu \varphi _{12}^\nu +\varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L}=\pi $$
(226)
This fixes $`\varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L}`$ and gives

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _{23}^{\nu _L}=\frac{|m_{13}^\nu |}{|m_{12}^\nu |}$$
(227)
and

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu =c_{23}^{\nu _L}|m_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{12}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L})}s_{23}^{\nu _L}|m_{13}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{13}^\nu \varphi _3^{\nu _L})}$$
(228)
The lower block elements are given by

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{23}^\nu \\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{23}^\nu & m_3^{}\end{array}\right)R_{23}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{cc}|m_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{22}^\nu 2\varphi _2^{\nu _L})}& |m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\\ |m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}& |m_{33}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{33}^\nu 2\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}\end{array}\right)R_{23}^{\nu _L}$$
(229)
which implies

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_{23}^\nu =s_{23}^{\nu _L}c_{23}^{\nu _L}(|m_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{22}^\nu 2\varphi _2^{\nu _L})}|m_{33}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{33}^\nu 2\varphi _3^{\nu _L})})+((c_{23}^{\nu _L})^2(s_{23}^{\nu _L})^2)|m_{23}^\nu |e^{i(\varphi _{23}^\nu \varphi _2^{\nu _L}\varphi _3^{\nu _L})}$$
(230)
and the remaining diagonal elements are given as before in Eqs.LABEL:m22,LABEL:m3p.

We next perform a small angle 13 rotation such that

$$\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu & 0\\ 0& 0& m_3^{}\end{array}\right)R_{13}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m_{11}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & 0\\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu & \stackrel{~}{m}_{23}^\nu \\ 0& \stackrel{~}{m}_{23}^\nu & m_3^{}\end{array}\right)R_{13}^{\nu _L}$$
(231)
where

$$\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu \\ 0\end{array}\right)R_{13}^{\nu _L}{}_{}{}^{T}\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu \\ \stackrel{~}{m}_{23}^\nu \end{array}\right)$$
(232)
Note that to leading order in $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ the large element $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu `$ is unchanged. The remaining elements in Eq.231 are also unchanged to leading order in $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$. The 13=31 element in Eq.231 gets filled in by a term $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}(m_{11}^\nu m_3^{})`$ which is of order $`(\theta _{13}^{\nu _L})^2`$ compared to $`\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu `$ and does not appear to leading order in $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$. From Eq.232 the 13 neutrino mixing angle $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ is

$$\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}\frac{\stackrel{~}{m}_{23}^\nu }{\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu }$$
(233)
The requirement that $`\theta _{13}^{\nu _L}`$ is real fixes the absolute value of the phases $`\varphi _2^{\nu _L}`$, $`\varphi _3^{\nu _L}`$.

The left hand side of Eq.231 now resembles the left hand side of Eq.215, except that here $`m_{11}^\nu `$ is unchanged due to the zero 13=31 element after the 23 rotation. Therefore the rest of the diagonalisation process follows that of the previous hierarchical case from Eq.217 onwards, where now

$$\mathrm{tan}2\theta _{12}^{\nu _L}=\frac{2\left[|\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu |e^{i(\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{12}^\nu \chi ^{\nu _L})}\right]}{\left[|\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu |e^{i(\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_{22}^\nu 2\chi ^{\nu _L})}|m_{11}^\nu |e^{i\varphi _{11}^\nu }\right]}$$
(234)
Note that in the inverted hierarchy case here we have

$$|\stackrel{~}{m}_{12}^\nu ||\stackrel{~}{m}_{22}^\nu |,|m_{11}^\nu |$$
(235)
which implies an almost degenerate pair of pseudo-Dirac neutrino masses (with opposite sign eigenvalues) and an almost maximal 12 mixing angle from Eq.234.