  The transverse broadening of an energetic jet passing through a non-Abelian
plasma is believed to be described by the thermal expectation value of a
light-cone Wilson loop. In this exploratory study, we measure the light-cone
Wilson loop with classical lattice gauge theory simulations. We observe, as
suggested by previous studies, that there are strong interactions already at
short transverse distances, which may lead to more efficient jet quenching than
in leading-order perturbation theory. We also verify that the asymptotics of
the Wilson loop do not change qualitatively when crossing the light cone, which
supports arguments in the literature that infrared contributions to jet
quenching can be studied with dimensionally reduced simulations in the
space-like domain. Finally we speculate on possibilities for full
four-dimensional lattice studies of the same observable, perhaps by employing
shifted boundary conditions in order to simulate ensembles boosted by an
imaginary velocity.
