Hadronic Decays of B Mesons

We review recent experimental results on hadronic decays and lifetimes of hadrons containing b and c quarks[1]. We discuss charm counting and the semileptonic branching fraction in B decays, the color suppressed amplitude in B decay, and the search for gluonic penguins in B decay. A complete picture of inclusive B decay is beginning to emerge from recent measurements by CLEO II and the LEP experiments. These measurements can be used to address the question of whether the hadronic decay of the B meson is compatible with its semileptonic branching fraction. Three facts emerge from the experimental examination of inclusive B decay: n c = 1.15 ± 0.05 where n c is the number of charm quarks produced per B decay taking an average of ARGUS, CLEO 1.5, and CLEO II results and using B(D 0 → K − π +) = (3.76 ± 0.15%)[3].