Implications for relic neutralinos of the theoretical uncertainties in the neutralino-nucleon cross section

We discuss the effect induced on the neutralino-nucleon cross section by the present uncertainties in the values of the quark masses and of the quark scalar densities in the nucleon. We examine the implications of this aspect on the determination of the neutralino cosmological properties, as derived from measurements of WIMP direct detection, We show that, within current theoretical uncertainties, the DAMA annual modulation data are compatible with a neutralino as a major dark matter component, to an extent which is even larger than the one previously derived. We also comment on implications of the mentioned uncertainties for experiments of indirect dark matter detection. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.