Measurement of the average lifetime of hadrons containing bottom quarks

This thesis reports a measurement of the average lifetime of hadrons containing bottom quarks. It is based on data taken with the DELCO detector at the PEP e/sup +/e/sup -/ storage ring at a center of mass energy of 29 GeV. The decays of hadrons containing bottom quarks are tagged in hadronic events by the presence of electrons with a large component of momentum transverse to the event axis. Such electrons are identified in the DELCO detector by an atmospheric pressure Cherenkov counter assisted by a lead/scintillator electromagnetic shower counter. The lifetime measured is 1.17 psec, consistent with previous measurements. This measurement, in conjunction with a limit on the non-charm branching ratio in b-decay obtained by other experiments, can be used to constrain the magnitude of the V/sub cb/ element of the Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix to the range 0.042 (+0.005 or -0.004 (stat.), +0.004 or -0.002 (sys.)), where the errors reflect the uncertainty on tau/sub b/ only and not the uncertainties in the calculations which relate the b-lifetime and the element of the Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix.