Softly broken A4 symmetry for nearly degenerate neutrino masses -: art. no. 113012

The leptonic Higgs doublet model of neutrino masses is implemented with an A(4) discrete symmetry (the even permutation of four objects or equivalently the symmetry of the tetrahedron) which has four irreducible representations: (1) under bar, (1) under bar', (1) under bar, and 3. The resulting spontaneous and soft breaking of A(4) provides a realistic model of charged-lepton masses as well as a nearly degenerate neutrino mass matrix. The phenomenological consequences at and below the TeV scale are discussed.