A Nearest-neighbor Expansion of Lepton Flavor Mixing in Powers of the $\mu$-$\tau$ Permutation Symmetry Breaking Effect

Abstract

We point out that the observed pattern of lepton flavor mixing can be well described by a proper nearest-neighbor expansion of a constant $3\times 3$ unitary matrix in powers of a small parameter characterizing the fine effect of $\mu$-$\tau$ permutation symmetry breaking. We take an example of this kind for illustration, and provide complete discussions on the usefulness in the study of leptonic CP violation and unitarity triangles in matter.