THE HIGGS-BOSON MASS FROM PRECISION ELECTROWEAK DATA

We present a new global fit to precision electroweak data, including n ew low- and high-energy data and analyzing the radiative corrections a rising from the minimal symmetry breaking sectors of the Standard Mode l (SM) and its supersymmetric extension (MSSM). It is shown that prese nt data favor a Higgs mass of O(M(Z)): [GRAPHICS] We confront our anal ysis with (meta) stability and perturbative bounds on the SM Higgs mas s, and the theoretical upper bound on the MSSM Higgs mass. Present dat a do not discriminate significantly between the SM and MSSM Higgs mass ranges. We comment in passing on the sensitivity of the Higgs mass de termination to the values of alpha(M(Z)) and alpha(M(Z)).