Direct detection of neutralino dark mattter in non-standard cosmologies

We compute the neutralino direct detection rate in non-standard cosmological scenarios where neutralinos account for the dark matter of the Universe. Significant differences are found when such rates are compared with those predicted by the standard cosmological model. For bino-like neutralinos, the main feature is the presence of additional light ($m_\chi\lesssim 40\gev$) and heavy ($m_\chi\gtrsim 600\gev$) neutralinos with detection rates within the sensitivity of future dark matter experiments. For higgsino- and wino-like neutralinos lighter than $m_\chi \sim 1\tev$, enhancements of more than two orders of magnitude in the largest detection rates are observed. Thus, if dark matter is made up of neutralinos, the prospects for their direct detection are in general more promising than in the standard cosmology.