Degenerate and quasidegenerate Majorana neutrinos

We study mixing and CP violation of three left-handed Majorana neutrinos in the limit of exactly degenerate masses, identify the weak-basis invariant relevant for CP violation, and show that the leptonic mixing matrix is para metrized only by two angles and one phase. After the lifting of the degener acy, this parametrization accommodates the present data on atmospheric and solar neutrinos, as well as double beta decay. Some of the leptonic mixing Ansatze suggested in the literature correspond to special cases of this par ametrization.