Complete 1/m_b^4 corrections to non-leptonic B-meson widths

Calculate the complete corrections to the non-leptonic decay widths of mesons in the heavy-quark expansion, thereby enabling a consistent treatment of higher-order uncertainties in lifetime predictions.

Background

The lifetime calculation used in the analysis includes non-leptonic contributions only through the orders currently implemented, while the semileptonic analysis probes higher-order power corrections. The missing complete terms in the non-leptonic width prevent a fully consistent order-by-order treatment of the lifetime uncertainty. Including them is therefore necessary to align the precision of the lifetime calculation with that of the semileptonic analysis.

References

In addition, our analysis would benefit from including several higher-order corrections that are currently unknown:

— Inclusive $B$ decays, lifetimes, and $|V_{cb}|$: a unified heavy-quark expansion analysis  (2609.28752 - Fael et al., 23 Sep 2026) in Conclusion, final section