Z₃ Symmetry and Neutrino Mixing in Type II Seesaw

Neutrino mixing matrix satisfying the current experimental data can be well described by the HPS tri-bimaximal mixing matrix. We propose that its origin can be understood within the seesaw framework by a hidden condition on the mass matrix of heavy right-handed neutrinos under the transformation of the Abelian finite group Z_3 on the flavor basis. Ignoring CP phases, we show that it can lead to the generic form of the effective light neutrino mass matrix from which the HPS mixing matrix appears naturally, as well as an expeimentally allowed non-zero \sin\theta_{13}. We show that the model based on our proposal is in good agreement with the current experimental data.