Dark matter before the LHC in a natural supersymmetric standard model

We show that the solid lower bound of about 10(-44) cm(2) is obtained for the cross section between the supersymmetric dark matter and nucleon in a theory in which the supersymmetric fine-tuning problem is solved without extending the Higgs sector at the weak scale. This bound arises because of relatively small superparticle masses and a fortunate correlation that the two dominant diagrams for the dark matter detection always interfere constructively if the constraint from the b -> s gamma measurements is obeyed. It is, therefore, quite promising in the present scenario that the supersymmetric dark matter is discovered before the LHC, assuming that the dark matter is the lightest supersymmetric particle. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.