Viability of strongly-coupled scenarios with a light Higgs-like boson

We present a one-loop calculation of the oblique S and T parameters within strongly-coupled models of electroweak symmetry breaking with a light Higgs-like boson. We use a general effective Lagrangian, implementing the chiral symmetry breaking SU(2)_L x SU(2)R -> SU(2){L+R} with Goldstones, gauge bosons, the Higgs-like scalar and one multiplet of vector and axial-vector massive resonance states. Using a dispersive representation and imposing a proper ultraviolet behaviour, we obtain S and T at the next-to-leading order in terms of a few resonance parameters. The experimentally allowed range forces the vector and axial-vector states to be heavy, with masses above the TeV scale, and suggests that the Higgs-like scalar should have a WW coupling close to the Standard Model one. Our conclusions are generic and apply to more specific scenarios such as the minimal SO(5)/SO(4) composite Higgs model.