An Experimental Perspective on Thermalization in Heavy-Ion Collisions

Understanding how the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is formed from the incoming nuclei in heavy-ion collisions and to what degree it is thermalized are central questions in heavy-ion physics. The QGP is thought to form very quickly in collisions of large nuclei at RHIC and the LHC, based on comparing measurements of azimuthal anisotropies to hydrodynamic calculations. Key related experimental information sensitive to these questions come from small collision systems (pA, pp, etc) and jet quenching. In this talk, we discuss some of the experimental insights and discuss future measurements.