Measurements of open heavy flavor in STAR experiment

We present recent open heavy-flavor measurements performed with the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC). The production cross sections of charm quarks in p+p collisions at √(s)=200 and 500 GeV are determined through hadronic decay channels of D⁰ and D^⁎+ mesons. These results are consistent with perturbative QCD calculations. Using p+p collisions as a reference, the nuclear modification factors R_AA of D⁰ meson production are extracted from Au+Au collisions at √(s_NN)=200 GeV and U+U collisions at √(s_NN)=193 GeV. Model calculations including charm–medium interactions and hadronization via both fragmentation and coalescence describe the measured D⁰R_AA. Results are also reported on R_AA and elliptic flow v₂ of non-photonic electrons (NPE) from semileptonic decays of open heavy-flavor hadrons. None of the existing model calculations simultaneously describe the NPE R_AA and v₂. Finally we give an outlook for heavy-flavor measurements with the newly upgraded STAR detector