Simple Modular $S_3$ Models for Lepton Masses and Mixing

We perform a systematic study of an economical class of modular $S_3$ lepton-flavor models without enlarging the continuous gauge symmetry or introducing right-handed neutrinos or additional flavon fields. We provide a complete classification of all inequivalent realizations allowed by the $S_3$ singlet--doublet representation structure and the admissible modular-weight assignments. Their phenomenological viability is investigated for both normal ordering (NO) and inverted ordering (IO) using Bayesian model comparison and parameter-correlation analysis based on current neutrino-oscillation data. We identify 18 viable models for NO and 19 for IO, with 14 satisfying the experimental constraints in both orderings. The viable models successfully accommodate current neutrino-oscillation data while yielding nontrivial predictions for leptonic CP violation, Majorana phases, and observables probing the absolute neutrino-mass scale. Among these predictions, the absolute-mass observables provide the clearest separation between the two orderings. At the best-fit points, the predicted ranges of the effective electron-neutrino mass ($m_β$) are completely disjoint between NO and IO, whereas those of the sum of neutrino masses ($\sum_i m_i$) and the effective Majorana mass ($m_{ββ}$) show only partial separation. The IO models generally predict a higher absolute neutrino-mass scale and are consequently more strongly constrained by cosmological observations and more accessible to neutrinoless double-beta-decay searches. Our results show that, despite its economical field content, the modular $S_3$ framework accommodates a diverse set of phenomenologically viable lepton-flavor realizations with experimentally testable predictions.