New Contribution to Coherent neutralino-Nucleus Scattering

Abstract

We discuss coherent scattering between supersymmetric neutralinos and nuclei via an effective neutralino-gluon interaction. We identify two new classes of diagrams which are not treated in the existing literature. These occur at the same order of perturbation theory as the previously considered diagrams. The new contributions can be numerically important, and can even dominate the total amplitude. This affects the clculation fo event rates in experiments searching for direct or indirect evidence of cosmic relic neutralinos.