Interplay of type I and type II seesaw contributions to neutrino mass

Abstract

Type I and type II seesaw contributions to the mass matrix of light neutrinos are inherently related if left-right symmetry is realized at high energy scales. We investigate implications of such a relation for the interpretation of neutrino data. We proved recently that the left-right symmetric seesaw equation has eight solutions, related by a duality property, for the mass matrix of right-handed neutrinos $M_R$. In this paper the eight allowed structures of $M_R$ are reconstructed analytically and analyzed numerically in a bottom-up approach. We study the dependence of right-handed neutrino masses on the mass spectrum of light neutrinos, mixing angle $\theta_{13}$, leptonic CP violation, scale of left-right symmetry breaking and on the hierarchy in neutrino Yukawa couplings. The structure of the seesaw formula in several specific SO(10) models is explored in the light of the duality. The outcome of leptogenesis may depend crucially on the choice among the allowed structures of $M_R$ and on the level crossing between right-handed neutrino masses.