Title: "Challenges and Opportunities at an Asymmetric B Factory"

Abstract:

The BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center has recently begun an ambitious physics program to systematically study CP-violating asymmetries in neutral B decays. One of the challenges at a high-luminosity asymmetric e+e- collider like PEP-II is to operate in the presence of large accelerator backgrounds. I will describe the sources of these backgrounds and how they influenced the design of the BaBar interaction region and silicon vertex tracker. I will also review our operating experience with backgrounds since the start of PEP-II commissioning, in June 1997. Next, I will outline BaBar's plans to measure the CP-violation parameter sin(2 beta), emphasizing the role of the silicon tracker. Finally, I will describe how a study of B0-B0bar oscillations will soon be used to demonstrate BaBar's capability to measure sin(2 beta) and to provide important input for this measurement.