New Contributions to Neutralino Elastic Cross-sections from CP Violating Phases in the MSSM

Abstract

We compute the four-Fermi neutralino-quark interaction Lagrangian including contributions from the CP violating phases in the MSSM. We find that neutralino-nucleus scattering cross-sections relevant for direct detection experiments show a strong dependence on the value of the CP-violating phase associated with the $\mu$ parameter, $\theta_\mu$. In some cases, for a broad range of non-zero $\theta_\mu$, there are cancellations in the cross-sections which reduce the cross-section by more than an order of magnitude. In other cases, there may be enhancements as one varies $\theta_\mu$.