Jet modification as a probe of the quark-gluon plasma

Heavy-ion collision experiments at RHIC and the LHC provide unprecedented access to the physics of the deconfined phase of QCD, the quark-gluon plasma. A crucial part of this program is using the modified properties of jets in heavy-ion collisions as a probe of the plasma they pass through. I will introduce a new strategy to measure the average energy loss of jets as a function of their energy and discuss how this information can be used to clarify the physical interpretation of jet modification measurements. I will also show how data science techniques can be used to measure the differences in energy loss and modification of quark- and gluon-initiated jets. These advances enhance the prospects of using experimental data directly to make model-independent inferences about the structure of the quark-gluon plasma.