Neutrino mass ordering and \mu-\tau reflection symmetry breaking

Abstract

If the neutrino mass spectrum turns out to be m^{}_3 < m^{}_1 < m^{}_2, one may choose to relabel it as m^{\prime}_1 < m^{\prime}_2 < m^{\prime}_3 such that all the masses of fundamental fermions with the same electrical charges are in order. In this case the columns of the 3\times 3 lepton flavor mixing matrix U should be reordered accordingly, and the resulting pattern U^\prime may involve one or two large mixing angles in the standard parametrization or its variations. Since the Majorana neutrino mass matrix keeps unchanged in such a mass relabeling, a possible \mu-\tau reflection symmetry is respected in this connection and its breaking effects are model-independently constrained at the 3\sigma level by using current experimental data.