Hard probe path lengths and event-shape engineering of the quark-gluon plasma

Abstract

As particles traverse the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formed during a heavy ion collision they undergo energy loss depending on the distance travelled. We study several temperature- and velocity-weighted path length distributions of non-interacting particles as they traverse the plasma using the Trajectum heavy ion code, including those of back-to-back path lengths. We use event-shape engineering (ESE) in combination with in-plane versus out-of-plane selection to accurately control these path lengths. Lastly, we show how soft observables depend on the different ESE classes.