Beauty Physics in the Next 15 Years -- an Itinerary for a Long Journey towards an Essential Goal

Abstract

After re-stating why beauty physics is so special and sketching its present status I attempt to map out an itinerary for the next fifteen years. The basic elements are listed for a research program that allows to define and probe the KM unitarity triangle in a manner where the numerical uncertainties are reduced to the few percent level. Dedicated experiments at the LHC will be essential in exploiting the discovery guarantee in beauty physics to the fullest. This paper is dedicated to Prof. H. Kastrup on the occasion of his 60th birthday. I have spent five years at his institute at the RWTH Aachen and I truly enjoyed the stimulating atmosphere he created by encouraging intellectual exchange unimpeded by hierarchical privileges.