Thermal leptogenesis in minimal unified models

Abstract

We review the status of thermal leptogenesis in the minimal $SU(5)\times U(1)$ and $SO(10)$ unified models under the assumption that the leptonic asymmetry generated in the out-of-equilibrium decays of heavy Majorana neutrinos (and its subsequent conversion into baryons via sphalerons) constitutes the primary source of baryon asymmetry of the Universe. In both cases, leptogenesis is shown to provide a strong extra constraint on the flavour structure of the model under consideration, leading to interesting and potentially testable phenomenological effects.