Symmetries of symmetries and geometrical CP violation

Abstract: We investigate transformations which are not symmetries of a theory but nevertheless leave invariant the set of all symmetry elements and representations. Generalizing from the example of a three Higgs doublet model with $\Delta(27)$ symmetry, we show that the possibility of such transformations signals physical degeneracies in the parameter space of a theory. We show that stationary points only appear in multiplets which are representations of the group of these so-called equivalence transformations. As a consequence, the stationary points are amongst the solutions of a set of homogeneous linear equations. This is relevant to the minimization of potentials in general and sheds new light on the origin of calculable phases and geometrical CP violation.