A review of µ-τ flavor symmetry in neutrino physics Zhi-zhong Xing1 and Zhen-hua Zhao1,2 1Institute of High Energy Physics and School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 2Department of Physics, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China E-mail:
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[email protected] First version: December 2015; Modified version: March 2016 Abstract. Behind the observed pattern of lepton flavor mixing is a partial or approximate µ-τ flavor symmetry — a milestone on our road to the true origin of neutrino masses and flavor structures. In this review article we first describe the features of µ-τ permutation and reflection symmetries, and then explore their various consequences on model building and neutrino phenomenology. We pay particular attention to soft µ-τ symmetry breaking, which is crucial for our deeper understanding of the fine effects of flavor mixing and CP violation. Keywords: flavor mixing, µ-τ symmetry, neutrino mass and oscillation, particle physics Contents 1 Introduction 2 1.1 A brief history of the neutrino families . 2 1.2 The µ-τ flavorsymmetrystandsout. 5 chinaXiv:201609.01055v1 2 Behind the lepton flavor mixing pattern 7 2.1 Lepton flavor mixing and neutrino oscillations . 7 2.2 Current neutrino oscillation experiments . 10 2.3 TheobservedpatternofthePMNSmatrix . 13 3 An overview of the µ-τ flavor symmetry 16 3.1 The µ-τ permutationsymmetry . 20 3.2 The µ-τ reflectionsymmetry......................... 23 3.3 Breaking of the µ-τ permutationsymmetry. 26 3.4 Breaking of the µ-τ reflectionsymmetry . 35 3.5 RGE-induced µ-τ symmetrybreakingeffects .