Large neutralino--nucleon cross section from supergravity and superstrings

The direct detection of supersymmetric dark matter in the light of recent experimental results is analysed. In particular, it is shown that there are regions in the parameter space of several scenarios where neutralino-nucleon cross sections of the order of 10-6 pb, i.e., where current dark matter detectors are sensitive, can be obtained. These are supergravity scenarios with intermediate unification scale, and superstring scenarios with D-branes