Some Issues Related to the Direct Detection of SUSY Dark Matter Detection

Abstract

Since the expected rates for neutralino-nucleus scattering are expected to be small, one should exploit all the characteristic signatures of this reaction. Such are: (i) In the standard recoil measurements the modulation of the event rate due to the Earth's motion. (ii) In directional recoil experiments the correlation of the event rate with the sun's motion. One now has both modulation, which is much larger and depends not only on time, but on the direction of observation as well, and a large forward-backward asymmetry. (iii) In non recoil experiments gamma rays following the decay of excited states populated during the Nucleus-LSP collision. Branching ratios of about 6 percent are possible.