Open heavy-flavour production at RHIC

The study of heavy-flavour production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is an extreme experimental challenge but provides important information on the properties of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) created in Au+Au collisions at RHIC. Heavy quarks are believed to be produced in the initial stages of the collision, and are essential for the understanding of parton energy loss in the dense medium created in such environment. Moreover, heavy quarks can help to investigate the fundamental properties of QCD in elementary p+p collisions. In this work, we review recent results on heavy-flavour production and their interaction with the hot and dense medium at RHIC.