Special symmetric quark mass matrices

We give a procedure to construct a special class of symmetric quark mass ma trices near the democratic Limit of equal Yukawn couplings for each sector. It is shown that within appropriate weak-bases, the requirements of symmet ry and arg[det(M)] = 0 are very strong conditions, that necessarily lead to a Cabibbo angle given by \V-us\ = root m(d)/m(s), and to \V-ch\, similar t o m(s)/m(b), in first order. In addition, we prove that the recently classi fied anastze, which also reproduce these mixing matrix relations, and which were based on the hypothesis of the Universal Strength for Yukawa coupling s, where all Yukawa couplings have equal moduli while the flavour dependenc e is only in their phases, are. in fact, particular eases of the generalize d symmetric quark mass matrix ansatze we construct here. In an excellent nu merical example, the experimental values on all quark mixings and masses ar e accommodated, and the CP violation phase parameter is shown to he crucial ly dependent on the values of m(u) and V-us. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.