We have measured gluon splitting into bottom quarks, g --> b (b) over bar,
in hadronic Z(0) decays collected by SLD between 1996 and 1998. The analysi
s was performed by looking for secondary bottom production in 4-jet events
of any primary flavor. 4-jet events were identified. and in each event a to
pological vertex-mass technique was applied to the two jets closest in angl
e in order to identify them as b or b;jets. The upgraded CCD-based vertex d
etector gives very high B-tagging efficiency, especially for B hadrons with
the low energies typical of this process. We measured the rate of g --> b
(b) over bar production per hadronic event, g(b (b) over bar), to be (2.44
+/- 0.59(stat.) +/- 0.34(syst.)) x 10(-3). (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. A
ll rights reserved.