Electroweak precision observables, new physics and the nature of a 126 GeV Higgs boson

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 ϵ1,2,3,b ones, for modified \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$ Zb\overline{b} $\end{document} 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.