Is there a comprehensive and authoritative reference on whether or not an article is appropriate?

Question

The question of whether an article should be omitted seems to be quite complicated and subject to numerous conventions.

Moreover, it appears that there are acceptable variations: e.g., both

The electric dipole moment has a magnitude p=qd.

and

The electric dipole moment has magnitude p=qd.

may be correct or, at least, acceptable. (The latter variant was suggested to me, in a similar case, by a professional editor.)

Unfortunately, style manuals, such as The Chicago Manual of Style and New Oxford Style Manual, offer little guidance on this topic.

Does a comprehensive, authoritative, and/or detailed reference for the zero article exist?

Answer 1

I am simply a vehicle for getting some enlightening but ephemeral comments into an answer. This is all thanks to the incomparable Edwin.

Actually, it's far from trivial to decide between the definite article the and an indefinite article a/an. For example: 'A/the boomslang is certainly not a snake one would want to be bitten by.'

There is a 100+ page monograph by Collins Cobuild dealing solely with the usages of the articles (including the zero article). And it is far from comprehensive. One largely has to rely on examples in well-written sources.

The Cobuild monograph is the best treatment I've [Edwin has] found, but doesn't even mention the (infrequent) use of 'a' with non-count nouns (A subtle light filtered through the leaves), for instance.