ON THE ROLE OF THE HIGGS MECHANISM IN PRESENT ELECTROWEAK PRECISION TESTS

Based on the observables M(w), Gamma(l), s(w)(-2)(M(Z)(2)), we evaluate the parameters Delta x, Delta y and epsilon at one-loop level within an electroweak massive vector-boson theory, which does not employ the Higgs mechanism. The theoretical results are consistent with the experimental ones on Delta x, Delta y, epsilon. The theoretical prediction for Delta(y) coincides with the standard-model one (apart from numerically irrelevant terms which vanish for M(H) --> infinity). Non-renormalizability only affects Delta x and epsilon, which differ from the standard-model results by the replacement log M(H) --> log Lambda for a heavy Higgs mass, M(H) (where Lambda denotes an effective UV cut-off).