Neutrino masses and mixing with general mass matrices

We consider the most general neutrino masses and mixings including Dirac mass terms, MD, as well as Majorana masses, MR and ML. Neither the Majorana nor the Dirac mass matrices are expected to be diagonal in the eigenbasis of weak interactions, and so the resulting eigenstates of the Hamiltonian are admixtures of SU(2)L singlet and doublet fields of different “generations.” We show that for three generations each of doublet and singlet neutrinos, diagonalization of the Hamiltonian to obtain the propagating eigenstates in the general case requires diagonalization of a 12×12 Hermitian matrix, rather than the traditional 6×6 symmetric mass matrix. The symmetries of the 12×12 matrix are such that it has 6 pairs of real eigenvalues. Although the standard “see-saw” mechanism remains valid, and indeed the eigenvalues obtained are identical to the standard ones, the correct description of diagonalization and mixing is more complicated. The analogs of the CKM matrix for the light and the heavy neutrinos are nonunitary, enriching the opportunities for CP violation in the full neutrino sector.