QCD Corrections to Neutralino-Nucleon Scattering

Abstract

We calculate the dominant loop corrections from both standard and supersymmetric QCD to the effective coupling of neutralinos to nucleons. The potentially largest corrections come from gluino-squark loop contributions to the Higgs boson couplings to quarks; these corrections also affect the leading spin-independent squark exchange contribution. Ordinary QCD corrections to the effective coupling of CP-even Higgs bosons to two gluons are also sizable. For large $\tanb$ values, i.e. in the region of parameter space probed by current and near-future direct Dark-Matter search experiments, the total corrections can exceed a factor of three.

LaTeX with equation.sty, 12 pages, 2 PS-figures