Bottom Quark Physics - Past, Present, Future

Abstract

On the occasion of a symposium honoring my collegue Adrian Melissinos, I gave an informal, personal review of bottom quark physics. This paper is a writeup of that talk. I first summarize the early days, the decade from the discovery through the determination of the b quark's rough features. I note a change in objective which occurred around 1990, with the new emphasis being USING the b quark, to probe the Standard Model and to search for physics `beyond the Standard Model'. I review the flavor sector of the Standard Model, showing why the b quark is such a useful probe. I then discuss three topics of current interest: the determination of V_ub; studies of rare hadronic B decays; and the radiative penguin decay b -> s gamma.