Renormalization of the Spin-dependent WIMP scattering off nuclei

Abstract

We study the amplitude for the spin-dependent WIMP scattering off nuclei by including the leading long-range two-body currents in the most important isovector contribution. We show that such effects are essentially independent of the target nucleus and, as a result, they can be treated as a mere renormalization of the effective nucleon cross section or, equivalently, of the corresponding effective coupling with values around 25%.