Inelastic neutron scattering on natural copper as a background for neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments

Neutron interactions with shielding materials provide a non-trivial source of background for rare physics searches such as dark-matter and double-beta decay experiments. These shielding materials, such as $^{nat}$Cu, are often used in large quantities, completely encasing the detector. We have recently measured the inelastic neutron scattering on a natural copper target with the GEANIE spectrometer using the broad-spectrum neutron beam at LANSCE. Our work focuses specifically on determining background rates for regions around the Q-values of many candidate $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay isotopes, as well as providing data for benchmarking Monte Carlo simulations of background events.