Analytic continuation by duality estimation of the S parameter

We investigate the reliability of the analytic continuation by duality (ACD) technique in estimating the electroweak S parameter for technicolor theories. The ACD technique, which is an application of finite energy sum rules, relates the S parameter for theories with unknown particle spectra to known OPE coefficients. We identify the sources of error inherent in the technique and evaluate them for several toy models to see if they can be controlled. The evaluation of errors is done analytically and all relevant formulas are provided in appendixes including analytical formulas for approximating the function 1/s with a polynomial in s. The use of analytical formulas protects us from introducing additional errors due to numerical integration. We find that it is very difficult to control the errors even when the momentum dependence of the OPE coefficients is known exactly. In realistic cases in which the momentum dependence of the OPE coefficients is only known perturbatively, it is impossible to obtain a reliable estimate.