  With the acceleration of lead nuclei in the LHC, heavy-ion physics will enter
a new energy domain. One of the main novelties introduced by the 30-fold
energy-jump from RHIC to the LHC is the abundant heavy-quark production. After
discussing a few examples of physics issues that can be addressed using heavy
quarks, we present a selection of results on the expected experimental
capability of ALICE, the dedicated heavy-ion experiment at the LHC, in the
open-heavy-flavour sector.
