Renormalization-Group Evolution for the Bottom-Meson Soft Function

Abstract

We determine for the first time the renormalization-group (RG) evolution equation for the $B$-meson soft function dictating the non-perturbative strong interaction dynamics of the long-distance penguin contributions to the exclusive $b \to q \ell^{+} \ell^{-}$ and $b \to q \gamma$ decays. The distinctive feature of the ultraviolet renormalization of this fundamental distribution amplitude consists in the novel pattern of mixing positive into negative support for an arbitrary initial condition. The exact solution to this integro-differential RG evolution equation of the bottom-meson soft function is then derived with the Laplace transform technique, allowing for the model-independent extraction of the desired asymptotic behaviour at large/small partonic momenta.