Final Results on Heavy Quarks at LEP and SLD

A. Stocchi

Published 2003-04-24, updated 2003-05-06Version 2

In the last decade, the LEP and SLD experiments played a central role in the study of B hadrons (hadrons containing a b quark). New B hadrons have been observed ($B^0_s$, \Lambda_b$, $\Xi_b$ and $B^{**}$) and their production and decay properties have been measured. In this paper we will focus on measurements of the CKM matrix elements: $|V_{cb}|$, $|V_{ub}|$, $|V_{td}|$ and $|V_{ts}|$. We will show how all these measurements, together with theoretical developments, have significantly improved our knowledge on the flavour sector of the Standard Model.