Jet physics at the LHC with ALICE

In central Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC jet rates are expected to be high at energies at which ALICE can reconstruct jets over the background of the underlying event. This will open the possibility to quantify the effect of partonic energy loss through medium induced gluon radiation jet quenching by detailed measurement of the modification of the longitudinal and transverse structure of identified jets. In order to obtain probes sensitive to the properties of the QCD medium it is mandatory to measure the high- $p_{\rm T}$ parton fragments together with the low- $p_{\rm T}$ particles from the radiated gluons. Hence the excellent charged particle tracking capabilities of ALICE combined with the proposed electromagnetic calorimeter for ALICE EMCAL represent an ideal tool for jet quenching studies at the LHC. © Springer-Verlag 2005.