Measurement of Majorana background neutron interactions

Recent experiments have shown that free neutrons produced by cosmic-ray muons are expected to contribute to background events in double-beta decay and dark matter experiments. Neutron-induced transitions in natural lead were investigated with a broad spectrum neutron beam during Fall 2006 at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Specific measurements of the $\gamma$-ray production cross-section of Pb(n,Xn') reactions allow for improved Monte Carlo simulations of neutron-induced background. We focus on the 2040-keV line (in $^{206}$Pb) and 3062-keV double-escape peak (in $^{207}$Pb) which overlap with the germanium-76 neutrinoless double-beta decay signature. In addition, the integral $\gamma$-ray production cross-sections for the first excited state to ground state in $^{206,207,208}$Pb are calculated as a check on this result.