Would a light Higgs detection imply new physics?

Depending on the Higgs-boson and top-quark masses, M_H and M_t, the effective potential of the Standard Model can develop a non-standard minimum for values of the field much larger than the weak scale. In those cases the standard minimum becomes metastable and the possibility of decay to the non-standard one arises. Comparison of the decay rate to the non-standard minimum at finite (and zero) temperature with the corresponding expansion rate of the Universe allows to identify the region, in the (M_H, M_t) plane, where the Higgs field is sitting at the standard electroweak minimum. Since that region depends on the cutoff scale \Lambda, up to which we believe the Standard Model, the discovery of the Higgs boson, mainly at LEP-200, might put an upper bound (below the Planck scale) on the scale of new physics \Lambda.