QCD corrections to neutralino–nucleon scattering

We calculate the dominant loop corrections from both standard and supersymmetric QCD to the effective coupling of neutralinos to nucleons. The potentially largest corrections come from gluino–squark loop contributions to the Higgs boson couplings to quarks; these corrections also affect the leading spin-independent squark exchange contribution. Ordinary QCD corrections to the effective coupling of CP-even Higgs bosons to two gluons are also sizable. For large tan β values, i.e. in the region of parameter space probed by current and near-future direct dark-matter search experiments, the total corrections can exceed a factor of three.