Flavor Mixing and the Permutation Symmetry among Generations

In the standard model, the permutation symmetry among the three generations of fundamental fermions is usually regarded to be broken by the Higgs couplings. It is found that the symmetry is restored if we include the mass matrix parameters as physical variables which transform appropriately under the symmetry operation. Known relations between these variables, such as the renormalization group equations, as well as formulas for neutrino oscillations (in vacuum and in matter), are shown to be covariant tensor equations under the permutation symmetry group.