Weakly coupled Higgsless theories and precision electroweak tests

In 5 dimensions the electroweak symmetry can be broken by boundary conditions, leading to a new type of Higgsless theories. These could in principle improve on the 4D case by extending the perturbative domain to energies higher than 4piv and by allowing a better fit to the electroweak precision tests. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that both these improvements can be achieved, as we show by discussing these problems in an explicit model. Our conclusions are unaffected by the presence of an arbitrary warp factor. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.