Predicting the neutralino relic density in the MSSM more precisely

Abstract

The dark matter relic density being a powerful observable to constrain models of new physics, the recent experimental progress calls for more precise theoretical predictions. On the particle physics side, improvements are to be made in the calculation of the (co)annihilation cross-section of the dark matter particle. We present the project DM@NLO which aims at calculating the neutralino (co)annihilation cross-section in the MSSM including radiative corrections in QCD. In the present document, we briefly review selected results for different (co)annihilation processes. We then discuss the estimation of the associated theory uncertainty obtained by varying the renormalization scale. Finally, perspectives are discussed.