Jet quenching as a probe of the initial stages in heavy-ion collisions

Understand

Jet quenching provides a very flexible variety of observables which are sensitive to different energy- and time-scales of the strongly interacting matter created in heavy-ion collisions.

• Exploiting this versatility would make jet quenching an excellent chronometer of the yoctosecond structure of the evolution process.
• Here we show, for the first time, that a combination of jet quenching observables is sensitive to the initial stages of heavy-ion collisions, when the approach to local thermal equilibrium is expected to happen.
• Specifically, we find that in order to reproduce at the same time the inclusive particle production suppression, $R_{AA}$, and the high-$p_T$ azimuthal asymmetries, $v_2$, energy loss must be strongly suppressed for the first $\sim 0.6$ fm.