Constraining the Neutral Current $\pi^0$ Background for MicroBooNE's Single-Photon Search

Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPCs) are an important technology in the field of experimental neutrino physics due to their exceptional calorimetric and position resolution capabilities. In particular, their ability to distinguish electrons from photons is crucial for current and future neutrino oscillation experiments. The MicroBooNE experiment is utilizing LArTPC technology to investigate the MiniBooNE low-energy excess, which could be either electron-like or photon-like in nature. To test the photon-like hypothesis, MicroBooNE is searching for single-photon events, a likely source of which is the neutral current (NC) $\Delta$ radiative decays. However, this search is complicated by the significantly more common neutrino-induced NC resonant $\pi^0$ production process. This talk presents the method for constraining this NC $\pi^0$ background for the single photon analysis by selecting two-photon events which are characteristic of the NC $\pi^0$ topology. The selected sample is then used to constrain the systematic uncertainty on the NC $\Delta$ radiative decay measurement.