A data sample of about 3.0 million hadronic Z decays collected by the
ALEPH experiment at LEP in the years 1991 through 1994 is used to make
an inclusive selection of B hadron events. In this event sample 4227
+/- 140 +/- 252 B mesons in the decay B* --> B gamma and 1944 +/- 108
+/- 161 B-u,B-d* mesons decaying into a B meson and a charged pion a
re reconstructed. Here and in the following B-u,B-d* denotes the eigh
t L = 1 (b (u) over bar and (b (d) over bar) states and their charge c
onjugate. For the well established B meson the following quantities a
re obtained: Delta M = M(B) - M(B) = (45.30 +/- 0.35 +/- 0.87) MeV/c(
2) and N-B/(N-B + N-B*) = (77.1 +/- 2.6 +/- 7.0)%. The angular distri
bution of the photons in the B rest frame is used to measure the rela
tive contribution of longitudinal B polarization states to be sigma(L
)/(sigma(L) + sigma(T)) = (33 +/- 6 +/- 5)%. In the M(B pi)- M(B) mass
difference resonance structure is observed at (424 +/- 4 +/- 10) MeV/
c(2), for which the shape and position is consistent with the expectat
ion for B-u,B-d* states decaying into B(*)pi(+/-). The relative produ
ction rate is determined to be BR(Z --> b --> B-u,B-d*)/BR(Z --> b --
> B-u,B-d) = [27.9 +/- 1.6(stat) +/- 5.9(syst) (+3.9)(-5.6)(model)]%.
where the third error reflects the uncertainty due to different produc
tion and decay models for the broad B-u,B-d* States.