The minimal scenario of leptogenesis

TL;DR

This paper reviews thermal leptogenesis within the minimal type I seesaw model, highlighting recent developments, detailed theoretical descriptions, and its potential as a phenomenological tool to test neutrino mass models.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the minimal leptogenesis scenario, including recent advances in flavor effects and kinetic descriptions, and discusses its role in testing new physics models.

Findings

Inclusion of lepton and heavy neutrino flavor effects enhances leptogenesis models.

Beyond hierarchical heavy neutrino masses, alternative scenarios are explored.

Improved kinetic descriptions refine the understanding of leptogenesis dynamics.

Abstract

We review the main features and results of thermal leptogenesis within the type I seesaw mechanism, the minimal extension of the Standard Model explaining neutrino masses and mixing. After presenting the simplest approach, the vanilla scenario, we discuss various important developments in recent years, such as the inclusion of lepton and heavy neutrino flavour effects, a description beyond a hierarchical heavy neutrino mass spectrum and an improved kinetic description within the density matrix and the closed-time-path formalisms. We also discuss how leptogenesis can ultimately represent an important phenomenological tool to test the seesaw mechanism and the underlying model of new physics.