High-Energy Constraints on the Direct Detection of MSSM Neutralinos

The requirement that the MSSM remain an acceptable effective field theory up to energies beyond the weak scale constrains the sparticle spectrum, and hence the permissible ranges of cold dark matter neutralino-proton cross sections. Specifically, squarks are generally much heavier than sleptons if no tachyons are to appear before the GUT scale ~10^16 GeV, or even before 10 TeV. We display explicitly the allowed ranges of effective squark and slepton masses at the weak scale, and the cross-section ranges allowed if the MSSM is to remain valid without tachyons up to 10 TeV or the GUT scale. The allowed areas in the cross section-mass plane for both spin-independent and spin-dependent scattering are significantly smaller than would be allowed if the MSSM were required to be valid only around the weak scale. In addition to a reduction in the maximum cross section, the upper limit on the neutralino mass is greatly reduced when tachyons are avoided, particularly for smaller values of the squark masses.