The Friedberg-Lee Symmetry and Minimal Seesaw Model

Abstract

The Friedberg-Lee (FL) symmetry is generated by a transformation of a fermionic field $q$ to $q+\xi z$. This symmetry puts very restrictive constraints on allowed terms in a Lagrangian. Applying this symmetry to $N$ fermionic fields, we find that the number of independent fields is reduced to $N-1$ if the fields have gauge interaction or the transformation is a local one. Using this property, we find that a seesaw model originally with three generations of left- and right-handed neutrinos, with the left-handed neutrinos unaffected but the right-handed neutrinos transformed under the local FL translation, is reduced to an effective theory of minimal seesaw which has only two right-handed neutrinos. The symmetry predicts that one of the light neutrino masses must be zero.

Comments: 10 pages, no figure, version to appear in PLB