Cross-section measurements for neutron activation of long-lived radioisotopes in TeO$_{2}$

CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) is an experiment that will search for neutrinoless double-beta (0$\nu \beta \beta )$ decay. In CUORE, an array of 988 high-resolution, low-background TeO$_{2}$ bolometers will be operated at a temperature of 10 mK and will serve as both the source and the detector of 0$\nu \beta \beta $ decay. All sources of background that can obscure the 0$\nu \beta \beta $ decay signature must be characterized and well-understood. One of these sources is activation by cosmic ray neutrons. This process can produce long-lived radioisotopes in the TeO$_{2}$ bolometers. A reliable estimation of this background is essential but difficult to obtain because of the lack of cross-section data. Therefore, cross-section measurements have been carried out at LANSCE (Los Alamos Neutron Science Center). In these measurements, TeO$_{2}$ crystals have been exposed to a spectrum of neutrons mimicking the cosmic ray neutron spectrum. The cross-sections, which have been extracted using gamma-ray counting, will be used to obtain an estimate of the cosmogenic activation background that will be present in CUORE.