Introduction to BB Physics

A short introduction to some current topics in $B$ physics is presented in order to set the stage for some results to be announced at this Workshop. After briefly reviewing the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix and information on its parameters, the decays of neutral $B$ mesons to several CP eigenstates, and some $B \to \pi K$ decays, are discussed. It is shown that progress is being made on determination of all the angles of the unitarity triangle.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, 7 figures plus photo, invited talk presented at XXXVIII Rencontres de Moriond: Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories, Les Arcs, France, March 15-22, 2003. To be published in the Proceedings. More typographic corrections; two figures improved furthe

Exotic states of matter in heavy meson decays

The potential of decays of mesons containing heavy quarks [including $B$ mesons and the $\Upsilon(1S)$] for producing final states of matter with unusual quark configurations, such as $q q \bar q \bar q$ or $q q q q \bar q$, is investigated. The usefulness of antineutron detection in such searches is stressed.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D. References and some text adde

Theoretical Issues in Flavor Physics

Quark and lepton flavor physics presents us with a basic question: Can we understand the pattern of masses and mixings of the known quarks and leptons, and how do present and proposed measurements help to advance that goal? Topics discussed include the apparent suppression of new flavor-changing effects, the status of quark and lepton mixing, the implications of new measurements of CP asymmetries in heavy quark decays, the impications of forthcoming experiments on the muon's anomalous magnetic moment and its transitions to an electron, and what we can hope to learn from electric dipole moments.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, presentation at the DPF 2013 Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Particles and Fields, Santa Cruz, California, August 13-17, 2013. One reference update

Learning the weak phase γ\gamma from B decays

The current status of some methods to determine the weak phase $\gamma$ of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix element $V^*_{ub}$ using B decays is discussed, and comments are made on accuracy achievable in the next few years.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, talk given at the 9th International Conference on B-Physics at Hadron Machines (BEAUTY 2003), CMU, Pittsburgh, October 2003. Some branching ratios updated, leading to slight changes in two figure