The minimal type-I seesaw model with maximally-restricted texture zeros

In the context of Standard Model (SM) extensions, the seesaw mechanism provides the most natural explanation for the smallness of neutrino masses. In this work we consider the most economical type-I seesaw realization in which two right-handed neutrinos are added to the SM field content. For the sake of predictability, we impose the maximum number of texture zeros in the lepton Yukawa and mass matrices. All possible patterns are analyzed in the light of the most recent neutrino oscillation data, and predictions for leptonic CP violation are presented. We conclude that, in the charged-lepton mass basis, eight different texture combinations are compatible with neutrino data at $1σ$, all of them for an inverted-hierarchical neutrino mass spectrum. Four of these cases predict a CP-violating Dirac phase close to $3π/2$, which is around the current best-fit value from global analysis of neutrino oscillation data. If one further reduces the number of free parameters by considering three equal elements in the Dirac neutrino Yukawa coupling matrix, several texture combinations are still compatible with data but only at $3σ$. For all viable textures, the baryon asymmetry of the Universe is computed in the context of thermal leptogenesis, assuming (mildly) hierarchical heavy Majorana neutrino masses $M_{1,2}$. It is shown that the flavored regime is ruled out, while the unflavored one requires $M_{1} \sim 10^{14}$ GeV.