Searching for cold dark matter

The differential cross section for the elastic scattering of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) with nuclear targets is calculated in the context of currently fashionable supersymmetric theories (SUSY). An effective four-fermion interaction is constructed by considering (i) Z(0) exchange, (ii) s-quark exchange and (iii) Higgs exchange. it is expressed in terms of the form factors f(V)(0), f(A)(0), f(S)(0) (isoscalar) and f(V)(1), f(A)(1) and f(S)(1) (isovector) which contain all the information of the underlining theory. Numerical values were obtained using representative input parameters in the constrained parameter space of SUSY phenomenology. Both the coherent and for odd-A nuclei the incoherent (spin) nuclear matrix elements were evaluated for nuclei of experimental interest. The spin matrix elements tend to dominate for odd light nuclei but the coherent matrix elements become more important in all other cases. For the coherent part the Higgs contribution is more important than the Z and s-quark contributions. Cross sections as high as 10(-34) cm(2) have been obtained.