Electroweak Precision Observables, New Physics and the Nature of a 126 GeV Higgs Boson

Abstract

We perform the fit of electroweak precision observables within the Standard Model with a 126 GeV Higgs boson, compare the results with the theoretical predictions and discuss the impact of recent experimental and theoretical improvements. We introduce New Physics contributions in a model-independent way and fit for the S, T and U parameters, for the ${ϵ}_{1,2,3,b}$ ones, for modified $Zb\bar{b}$ couplings and for a modified Higgs coupling to vector bosons. We point out that composite Higgs models are very strongly constrained. Finally, we compute the bounds on dimension-six operators relevant for the electroweak fit.

Comments: 44 pages, 12 figures. v2: references added, version to appear in JHEP