Measurements of the suppression and anisotropy of heavy-flavour particles in Pb--Pb collisions at √sₙN= 2.76 TeV with ALICE

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Heavy quarks, i.e. charm and beauty, are produced on a shorter time scale with respect to the strongly-interacting matter produced in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. Therefore, they are unique probes to study the mechanisms of parton energy loss, hadronisation and thermalization in the hot and dense state of matter. The nuclear modification factor (R AA) and the elliptic flow (v₂) are two of the main experimental observables that allow us to investigate the interaction strength of heavy quarks with the medium. The most recent results on heavy-flavour production and elliptic flow measured by the ALICE collaboration in Pb--Pb collisions at √sₙN = 2.76 TeV will be discussed.