The BTeV RICH Front End Electronics

We report on the design and testing of novel mixed analog and digital front end ASICs custom made for the single photon detectors considered for the BTeV RICH system. The key features are reviewed, as well as results achieved using electronics bench tests and beam studies.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, talk given at the 5th International Workshop on Ring Imaging Cherenkov Counters (RICH2004

Present status of our knowledge of |V_{cb}|

The Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa parameter $|V_{cb}|$ plays an important role among the experimental constraints of the Yukawa sector of the Standard Model. The present status of our knowledge will be summarized with particular emphasis to the interplay between theoretical and experimental advances needed to improve upon present uncertainties.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures; talk given at Beauty 2003, Pittsburgh, PA, October 200

Present Status of experimental determination of Vcb

The present status of our knowledge of the magnitude of the quark mixing parameter Vcb is reviewed, with particular emphasis on the factors affecting experimental and theoretical errors and on prospects for a more precise determination.Comment: 15 pages and 3 figures, an abbreviated version is included in PDG2002 as a mini-review on Vc

Study of the spatial resolution achievable with the BTeV pixel sensors

A Monte Carlo simulation has been developed to predict the spatial resolution of silicon pixel detectors. The results discussed in this paper focus on the unit cell geometry of 50 $\mu$m x 400 $\mu$m, as chosen for BTeV. Effects taken into account include energy deposition fluctuations along the charged particle path, diffusion, magnetic field and response of the front end electronics. We compare our predictions with measurements from a recent test beam study performed at Fermilab.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures Talk given at PIXEL 2000 International Workshop on Semiconductor Pixel Detectors for Particles and X-rays, Genova, June 200

B Meson Decays

We discuss the most important Physics thus far extracted from studies of B meson decays. Measurements of the four CP violating angles accessible in B decay are reviewed as well as direct CP violation. A detailed discussion of the measurements of the CKM elements V_{cb} and V_{ub} from semileptonic decays is given, and the differences between resulting values using inclusive decays versus exclusive decays is discussed. Measurements of "rare" decays are also reviewed. We point out where CP violating and rare decays could lead to observations of physics beyond that of the Standard Model in future experiments. If such physics is found by directly observation of new particles, e.g. in LHC experiments, B decays can play a decisive role in interpreting the nature of these particles.Comment: 80 pages, 29 figures, invited review article for PMC Physics A; version 2 a few minor corrections, version 3 fixed some references, version 4 two minor fixe