Investigation of Neutron-Induced Backgrounds on 134, 136Xe at En = 5 - 8 MeV for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Searches

Neutrinoless double-beta decay (0$\nu\beta\beta$) studies are both the best way to determine the Majorana nature of the neutrino and determine its effective mass. The two main experiments searching for 0$\nu\beta\beta$-decay of $^{136}$Xe (Q value = 2457.8 keV) are Kamland-Zen and EXO-200. Though both experiments have enriched $^{136}$Xe targets, these targets still contain significant quantities of $^{134}$Xe. A new nuclear level was reported in $^{134}$Xe that decays to the ground state emitting a 2485.7 keV gamma ray [1]. For incident neutron energies of 2.5 – 4.5 MeV, the $\gamma$-ray production cross section for this branch was found to be on the order of 10 mb . Here, we further explore the potential neutron-induced backgrounds on both $^{134}$Xe and $^{136}$Xe for extended neutron energies from 5 to 8 MeV. We will report our preliminary results for neutron inelastic scattering on $^{134,136}$Xe in applications to 0$\nu\beta\beta$ decay searches. [1] E.E. Peters, et al., EPJ Web of Conferences, 93, 01027 (2015).