Is S4 the horizontal symmetry of tri-bimaximal lepton mixing?

Abstract

We determine the symmetry groups under which the charged-lepton and the Majorana-neutrino mass terms are invariant. We note that those two groups always exist trivially, i.e. independently of the presence of any symmetries in the Lagrangian, and that they always have the same form. Using this insight, we re-evaluate the recent claim that, whenever lepton mixing is tri-bimaximal, S_4 is the minimal unique horizontal-symmetry group of the Lagrangian of the lepton sector, with S_4 being determined by the symmetries of the lepton mass matrices. We discuss two models for tri-bimaximal mixing which serve as counterexamples to this claim. With these two models and some group-theoretical arguments we illustrate that there is no compelling reason for the uniqueness of S_4.