THE CKM MATRIX AND B-PHYSICS

A review of present information on the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix, describing weak charge-changing transitions among quarks, is presented. The status of direct measurements of magnitudes of elements is discussed briefly. The elements involving the top quark t can be probed indirectly via higher-order processes. Using data on B-BBAR mixing and CP-violating K-KBAR mixing, we obtain regions of allowed parameters for elements of the CKM matrix. The range of allowed variation is large as a result of uncertainty about the B meson decay constant f(B). Prospects for resolving the ambiguity are discussed. Finally, some preliminary results are presented of attempts to construct models of the CKM matrix.