Charm Physics with the ALICE experiment

ALICE is the LHC experiment dedicated to the study of the nuclear matter at high temperatures and densities reached in the most central heavy ion collisions, where a transition of the QCD matter from a nuclear state to a QGP (Quark Gluon Plasma) is expected. Heavy quarks, such as charm and beauty, are produced by hard scatterings in the early stages of high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. Therefore, they become a powerful probe to study the medium produced in heavy-ion collisions at high energy. Open charm and charmonium are very important probes for the QGP in Pb-Pb collisions. For instance, J/psi measurements are very important in order to study mechanisms of suppression (by the dissociation of c-cbar pairs) or regeneration (as suggested by measurements at RHIC). The measurement of Lambda_c yield relative to D mesons in Pb--Pb collisions would answer the question whether the baryon over meson enhancement at intermediate momentum, observed in the light-flavour sector at RHIC and LHC, also holds in the heavy-quark sector. This would indicate that the hadronization mechanism is dominated by coalescence.
The pp collisions are specially important for the ALICE physics program, since they provide baseline results to be compared with Pb--Pb, where the production of the QGP is expected, and with p--Pb collisions, where it enables us to study the cold nuclear matter effects. 
The ALICE Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMCal) extends the pt range of J/psi measurements in central rapidity (|y| < 0.9), since it provides electron/hadron discrimination for higher pt values in comparison to other electron PID techniques in ALICE. The EMCal can also provide fast triggers for events containing high energy electrons. The currently measurements in MB (Minimum Bias) events correspond to pt < 7 GeV/c in pp collisions and also limited to low pt in Pb-Pb collisions. 
The upgrade on the ITS (Inner Tracking System) will improve the resolution of collision (primary) and decay (secondary) vertices. Consequently, there will be an improvement of the Lambda_c significance in Pb-Pb collisions. That will lead to the measurement of RAA (Nuclear modification factor) and v2 in Pb-Pb collision.
This presentation will show the motivation of open charm and charmonium physics in ALICE, and measurements of J/psi in pp and PbPb collisions with the ALICE EMCal triggered events for pt greater than 6 GeV/c and recent results for open charm, with focus on Lambda_c. Some plans for the ITS upgrade, and how it will improve the Lambda_c measurement will also be discussed.