Mass matrix ansatz and lepton flavor violation in the two-Higgs doublet model-III -: art. no. 095002

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 phi(i)l(i)l(j) 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 tau-->mumumu and mu-e conversion at future experiments. The signal from Higgs boson decays phi(i)-->taumu could be searched for at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, while e-mu transitions could produce a detectable signal at a future emu collider, through the reaction e(+)mu(-)-->h(0)-->tau(+)tau(-).