A new study has more precisely determined the strong charge couplings $g_{H^*H^*V}$ for heavy mesons $H^*$ (where $H$ can be a $D$ or $B$ meson) and vector mesons $V$ (such as $\rho$, $\omega$, $K^*$, or $\phi$). This advance was achieved using the framework of light-cone sum rules (LCSR), a theoretical technique that allows for the calculation of particle properties from fundamental principles of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The improvement in theoretical precision is significant, incorporating higher-order corrections in the strong coupling constant $\alpha_s$ and systematic power-suppressed contributions.

The methodology employed included establishing a leading-power hard-collinear factorization formula with next-to-leading-order (NLO) $\alpha_s$ corrections. Furthermore, power-suppressed contributions up to the next-to-next-to-leading power (NNLP) were systematically included. The numerical analysis demonstrated a subtle cancellation of the factorization-scale dependence at NLO and revealed highly stable Borel plateaus, leading to robust predictions for the couplings. These results are crucial for understanding the strong interactions governing the structure of these particles.

By parameterizing the $\mathcal{O}(1/m_{H^*})$ power corrections, the researchers extracted a universal static coupling $\beta = 0.73 \pm 0.13$. This value indicates that the charge couplings are remarkably insensitive to heavy-quark mass breaking effects, an important finding for heavy hadron physics. The investigation also examined SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking, concluding that its minute physical effects are currently overshadowed by uncertainties in the non-perturbative vector meson distribution amplitudes. These results provide a solid foundation for future studies of strong interactions and the search for new physics beyond the Standard Model.