Short-distance Functions Research Articles

The form and function of chimpanzee buttress drumming

Many animal species use vocal and nonvocal acoustic signals to communicate over large distances. Wild chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes , drum on the buttress roots of trees, generating low-frequency sounds that can reach distances of over 1 km. Buttress drumming is produced in bouts of beats and is often accompanied by pant hoots, the species-typical long-distance vocalization. We investigated whether individual differences exist in the acoustic structure of drumming bouts produced by male chimpanzees of the Waibira community in the Budongo Forest in Uganda, and whether individual, contextual and social factors affected their use of drumming. We found individual differences in drumming bouts produced by seven male chimpanzees during travel events as well as in their timing within the pant hoot, and discriminated specific patterns of beats for some chimpanzees. In contrast, we found no evidence for individual differences in the acoustic structure of drumming bouts produced by four males during displays. Together these findings suggest that chimpanzees may be able to choose to encode identity within individual drumming ‘signatures’. Chimpanzees drummed less frequently as their party size increased. We found no evidence that the age of the signaller or the presence of preferred social partners, higher-ranking males or females in oestrus affected the use of drumming. These findings suggest there may be flexibility in buttress drumming across social and behavioural contexts and provide support for the hypothesis that, by encoding individual identity, long-distance drumming may be used to facilitate chimpanzee fission–fusion social dynamics. • Chimpanzees produce low-frequency sounds by drumming on buttress roots of trees. • Drumming is used across contexts with apparently long- and short-distance functions. • Chimpanzee drums encode individual signatures in travel events but not in displays. • Patterns of production suggest drumming coordinates fission–fusion dynamics.

Factorization, resummation and sum rules for heavy-to-light form factors

Precision calculations of heavy-to-light form factors are essential to sharpen our understanding towards the strong interaction dynamics of the heavy-quark system and to shed light on a coherent solution of flavor anomalies. We briefly review factorization properties of heavy-to-light form factors in the framework of QCD factorization in the heavy quark limit and discuss the recent progress on the QCD calculation of $B \to \pi$ form factors from the light-cone sum rules with the $B$-meson distribution amplitudes. Demonstration of QCD factorization for the vacuum-to-$B$-meson correlation function used in the sum-rule construction and resummation of large logarithms in the short-distance functions entering the factorization theorem are presented in detail. Phenomenological implications of the newly derived sum rules for $B \to \pi$ form factors are further addressed with a particular attention to the extraction of the CKM matrix element $|V_{ub}|$.

QCD corrections to [formula omitted] form factors from light-cone sum rules

We compute perturbative corrections to B→π form factors from QCD light-cone sum rules with B-meson distribution amplitudes. Applying the method of regions we demonstrate factorization of the vacuum-to-B-meson correlation function defined with an interpolating current for pion, at one-loop level, explicitly in the heavy quark limit. The short-distance functions in the factorization formulae of the correlation function involves both hard and hard-collinear scales; and these functions can be further factorized into hard coefficients by integrating out the hard fluctuations and jet functions encoding the hard-collinear information. Resummation of large logarithms in the short-distance functions is then achieved via the standard renormalization-group approach. We further show that structures of the factorization formulae for fBπ+(q2) and fBπ0(q2) at large hadronic recoil from QCD light-cone sum rules match that derived in QCD factorization. In particular, we perform an exploratory phenomenological analysis of B→π form factors, paying attention to various sources of perturbative and systematic uncertainties, and extract |Vub|=(3.05−0.38+0.54|th.±0.09|exp.)×10−3 with the inverse moment of the B-meson distribution amplitude ϕB+(ω) determined by reproducing fBπ+(q2=0) obtained from the light-cone sum rules with π distribution amplitudes. Furthermore, we present the invariant-mass distributions of the lepton pair for B→πℓνℓ (ℓ=μ,τ) in the whole kinematic region. Finally, we discuss non-valence Fock state contributions to the B→π form factors fBπ+(q2) and fBπ0(q2) in brief.

Rapidity resummation forB-meson wave functions

Transverse-momentum dependent (TMD) hadronic wave functions develop light-cone divergences under QCD corrections, which are commonly regularized by the rapidity $\zeta$ of gauge vector defining the non-light-like Wilson lines. The yielding rapidity logarithms from infrared enhancement need to be resummed for both hadronic wave functions and short-distance functions, to achieve scheme-independent calculations of physical quantities. We briefly review the recent progress on the rapidity resummation for $B$-meson wave functions which are the key ingredients of TMD factorization formulae for radiative-leptonic, semi-leptonic and non-leptonic $B$-meson decays. The crucial observation is that rapidity resummation induces a strong suppression of $B$-meson wave functions at small light-quark momentum, strengthening the applicability of TMD factorization in exclusive $B$-meson decays. The phenomenological consequence of rapidity-resummation improved $B$-meson wave functions is further discussed in the context of $B \to \pi$ transition form factors at large hadronic recoil.

Phloem: the long and the short of it

The structure of phloem sieve-element-companion-cell complexes reflects a duality of function: to conduct photoassimilates throughout the plant, and to exchange solutes between the phloem and surrounding tissues. The conceptual integration of these long- and short-distance functions requires the abandonment of a long-cherished concept in phloem physicochemistry, that source-sink turgor differentials control flow. The manifest inability of decentralized organisms such as plants to control phloem translocation centrally disqualifies such differentials as control variables; besides, the phloem is maximally efficient if the pressure differentials are small. Testing this hypothesis and whether turgor differentials are small will require a significant recommitment to studying the quantitative anatomy of phloem.