Mass matrix ansatz and lepton flavor violation in the two-Higgs doublet model-III

Predictive Higgs-boson--fermion couplings can be obtained when a specific texture for the fermion mass matrices is included in the general two-Higgs doublet model. We derive the form of these couplings in the charged lepton sector using a Hermitian mass matrix ansatz with four-texture zeros. The presence of unconstrained phases in the vertices φᵢlᵢlⱼ modifies the pattern of flavor-violating Higgs boson interactions. Bounds on the model parameters are obtained from present limits on rare lepton flavor-violating processes, which could be extended further by the search for the decay →τμμμ and μ-e conversion at future experiments. The signal from Higgs boson decays φᵢ→τμ could be searched for at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, while e-μ transitions could produce a detectable signal at a future eμ collider, through the reaction e⁺μ^-→h⁰→τ⁺τ^-.