Quark and lepton modular models from the binary dihedral flavor symmetry

Abstract Inspired by the structure of top-down derived models endowed with modular flavor symmetries, we investigate the yet phenomenologically unexplored binary dihedral group 2D 3. After building the vector-valued modular forms in the representations of 2D 3 with small modular weights, we systematically classify all (Dirac and Majorana) mass textures of fermions with fractional modular weights and all possible 2 + 1-family structures. This allows us to explore the parameter space of fermion models based on 2D 3, aiming at a description of both quarks and leptons with a minimal number of parameters and best compatibility with observed data. We consider the separate possibilities of neutrino masses generated by either a type-I seesaw mechanism or the Weinberg operator. We identify a model that, besides fitting all known flavor observables, delivers predictions for six not-yet measured parameters and favors normal-ordered neutrino masses generated by the Weinberg operator. It would be interesting to figure out whether it is possible to embed our model within a top-down scheme, such as $${\mathbb{T}}^{2}/{\mathbb{Z}}_{4}$$ heterotic orbifold compactifications.