Prospects for the direct detection of neutralino dark matter in orbifold scenarios

Understand

We analyse the phenomenology of orbifold scenarios from the heterotic superstring, and the resulting theoretical predictions for the direct detection of neutralino dark matter.

• In particular, we study the parameter space of these constructions, computing the low-energy spectrum and taking into account the most recent experimental and astrophysical constraints, as well as imposing the absence of dangerous charge and colour breaking minima.
• In the remaining allowed regions the spin-independent part of the neutralino-proton cross section is calculated and compared with the sensitivity of dark matter detectors.
• In addition to the usual non universalities of the soft terms in orbifold scenarios due to the modular weight dependence, we also consider D-term contributions to scalar masses.