A non-standard CP transformation leading to maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing

Abstract We discuss a neutrino mass matrix M ν originally found by Babu, Ma, and Valle (BMV) and show that this mass matrix can be characterized by a simple algebraic relation. From this relation it follows that atmospheric neutrino mixing is exactly maximal while at the same time an arbitrary mixing angle θ 13 of the lepton mixing matrix U is allowed and—in the usual phase convention— CP violation in mixing is maximal; moreover, neither the neutrino mass spectrum nor the solar mixing angle are restricted. We put forward a seesaw extension of the Standard Model, with three right-handed neutrinos and three Higgs doublets, where the family lepton numbers are softly broken by the Majorana mass terms of the right-handed neutrino singlets and the BMV mass matrix results from a non-standard CP symmetry.