LOCAL SYMMETRIES BEYOND THE STANDARD MODEL INDICATED BY NEUTRINO RESULTS
The present atmospheric neutrino oscillation data viewed within the context of see-saw mechanism for small neutrino masses, requires right handed neutrino masses (MR) around the conventional GUT scale i.e. 1015 to 1016 GeV. This raises a new hierarchy puzzle i.e. why MR≪Mpℓ? This can be interpreted as an indication in favor of new local symmetries around MR. In this paper, we argue that depending on the nature of neutrino mass patterns, this symmetry could either be: (i) the local B-L symmetry arising from a larger symmetry group such as in the left-right symmetric model of weak interactions, grand unified SO(10) models etc. or (ii) a local horizontal symmetry group SU(2)H operating on the fermions of the first two generations which is often invoked to understand the generation puzzles. We discuss some simple consequences of these symmetries and propose experimental for these ideas.