Exploring the predictability of symmetric texture zeros in quark mass matrices

The predictability of hierarchical quark mass matrices with symmetrically placed texture zeros is explored in the light of current precision measurements on quark masses and mixing data and interesting phenomenological relations among the quark mass ratios and flavor mixing angles along with CP asymmetry angle $\beta$ are deduced for different predictive textures within the framework of the Standard Model. It is shown that a single non-trivial phase in these mass matrices is sufficient enough to account for the observed CP-violation in the quark sector. In particular, it is observed that the Cabibbo angle is predominantly determined by the ratio $\sqrt{m_{d}/m_{s}}$ and corrections may also result from $\sqrt{m_{u}/m_{c}}$. Furthermore, $V_{cb}\cong \sqrt{m_d/m_b}$ or $V_{cb}\cong \sqrt{m_c/2m_t}$ along with $V_{ub}\simeq \sqrt{m_u/m_t}$ provide excellent agreements with the current mixing data and $\beta =-Arg\lbrace V_{td}\rbrace$ may provide a rigorous test at the B-factories for some of these texture zero structures.