Theoretical topics in B-physics

The bottom quark should need no introduction. Other than the undiscovered top quark, it is by far the most fashionable of the six. There is good reason for this. It is bottom-quark behavior which holds out the most hope of measuring and understanding some of the most fundamental and delicate parameters of the standard model -- those having to do with the origin of electroweak mixing - and thereby in all probability also the origin of quark mass. Also interwoven into this is the subject of CP violation, and its proposed interpretation in terms of electroweak mixing. In this section we shall review the basics of electroweak mixing and how it is impacted by the study of b-quark properties. There are by now many lecture series and workshop proceedings devoted to this topic, so I will not try to be comprehensive, but only hit some highlights.