B* Production in Z(0) Decays

The process B* --> B gamma has been observed in a sample of approximately 4.1 million hadronic Z(0) decays collected by the OPAL detector at LEP in the years 1991-1995. Inclusively reconstructed B mesons have been combined with converted photons to reconstruct approximately 1900 B* mesons. The B*-B mass difference is found to be Delta M(B* - B) = 46.2 +/- 0.3 +/- 0.8 MeV/c(2), and the rate of B* meson production relative to that of B mesons is found to be sigma(B*)/sigma(B) = 0.760 +/- 0.036 +/- 0.083, where the first errors are statistical and the second systematic. The angular distribution of the transition photon in the B* rest frame has been measured and the relative contribution of longitudinal B* polarization states found to be sigma(l)/(sigma(l) + sigma(t)) = 0.36 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.07, consistent with a simple spin counting picture. These results average over B-0, B+/- and B-s(0) mesons.