Non-decoupling; Heavy neutrinos; Lepton number violation; Left-right models

In analogy to the case of the axion, which converts the Θ-angle into a dynamical degree of freedom, we are trying to imagine a situation where the quark mixing angles turn out to be dynamical degrees of freedom (pseudo-Goldstone bosons), and their vacuum expectation values are obtained from the minimization of the vacuum energy. We present an explicit supersymmetric model with horizontal symmetry, where such a mechanism can be realized. It implies one relation between the quark masses and the CKM mixing angles: S13S23/S12 = (ms/mb)2, which is fulfilled within the present experimental accuracy. We believe, however, that the idea might be more general than this concrete model, and that it can be implemented in more profound frameworks.