The Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), a state of strongly-interacting matter in which quarks and gluons are deconfined, is thought to have existed a few micro-seconds after the Big Bang. Ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions provide a unique opportunity to study the properties of such deconfined medium. These collisions are realized at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Jet quenching, the phenomenon in which high transverse momentum partons undergo energy loss by collisions with medium constituents and medium-induced gluon radiation, is widely considered as one of the evidences for QGP formation. Jet quenching can be observed via the measurements of di-hadron angular correlations, the nuclear modification factor (RAAβ), di-jet energy imbalance and via the modification of the jet fragmentation function. Heavy quarks are a powerful probe of the QGP, as they are produced in hard scattering processes on a timescale shorter than the QGP formation time and experience the whole system evolution. This thesis presents the measurements of jet-like correlations with neutral pion triggers in pp and central Pb--Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV, the measurements of prompt D0 production in Pb--Pb collisions at sβNNβ = 5.02 TeV, and the on-going measurements of non-prompt D0 production in p--Pb collisions at sNNββ = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The measurements using two-particle angular correlations between trigger particles and associated particles have been extensively used to search for remnants of the radiated energy and the medium response to the high-pTβ parton. By varying the transverse momentum for trigger and associated particles one can probe different momentum scales to study the interplay of soft and hard processes. Besides providing access to medium properties, measurements of Ο0-hadron correlations determine the most important background contribution of direct photon-hadron correlation measurements. For this analysis, the neutral pions used as triggers are identified in the di-photon decay channel, with energy deposits are reconstructed with the Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMCal), avoiding admixtures from changing particle composition of the trigger particle, hence should simplify comparisons with calculations. Associated hadrons are reconstructed with the Inner Tracking System (ITS) and Time Projection Chamber (TPC) down to 0.5 GeV/c, and significantly extend the previous measurement that only used charged hadrons above 3 GeV/c. After subtracting the dominant background, including the anisotropic flow harmonics v2β to v5β, the per-trigger yields are extracted for Near side with β£ΞΟβ£3GeV/c,andincreaseasthemomentadecrease,reachingabout5.2atlowestp_{\rm T}.Onthenearside,anenhancementofI_{\rm AA}from1.2to1.8atlowestp_{\rm T}isobserved.Thedataprovidesagoodconstraintothetheoreticalmodelswhichaimtofullydescribejetβmediuminteractions.Themeasurementsofprompt\rm D^0nuclearmodificationfactor(R_{\rm AA})canprovideimportantinformationaboutthemicroscopicinteractionsofheavyquarkswiththemediumconstituents,inparticularonthecolourβchargeandpartonβmassdependenceofheavyβquarkenergyloss.Theprompt\rm D^0arereconstructedatmidβrapidityviathehadronicdecaychannel\rm D^0\to K^-\pi^+.Selectionsonthedecaytopologyandparticleidentificationareappliedinordertoreducethecombinatorialbackground.Thesignalisextractedviaaninvariantβmassanalysis.ThefeedβdownfrombeautyβhadrondecaysissubtractedaccordingtoexpectationsbasedonFONLLcalculationsandassumptionsoffeedβdownnuclearmodificationfactor.Theprompt\rm D^0nuclearmodificationfactor(R_{\rm AA})hasbeenmeasuredinPbββPbcollisionsat\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02TeV,inthecentralityclass0β10%,30β50%and60β80%.Theresultsarecompatiblewiththosemeasuredat\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76TeV,withbetterprecisionandextendedp_{\rm T}coverage.Thedatasetstringentconstraintstotheoreticalmodelswithdifferentimplementationsofinβmediumenergyloss.Thecrosssectionofnonβprompt\rm D^0hasbeenmeasuredinpβPbcollisionsat\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02TeV,withthegoaltofurtherunderstandingofbeautyhadronisation.Amultivariatetechnique(BoostedDecisionTrees)isutilisedtoimprovetheseparationbetweennonβpromptandprompt\rm D^0byoptimallycombiningdiscriminatingvariablesrelatedtothe\rm D^0decaytopology.Thismethodcansignificantlyimprovethestatisticalprecisionwithwhichthemeasurementofnonβprompt\rm D^0canbemadeinPbββPbcollisionswithALICEinthefuture.Atthesametime,thistechniquecanbeutilisedforextractingotherphysicssignalwithlowsignalβtoβbackgroundratio.InthefirstChapter,thephysicsofQCDtheoryandHeavyIonCollisionswillbeintroduced.ThesecondChapterdescribestheroleofheavyflavourobservablestoinvestigatetheQGP.AbriefintroductionoftheALICEapparatuswillbegiveninChapter3.ThefourthandfifthChapterspresentthemainworkofthethesis,about\pi^0βhadroncorrelationsandprompt\rm D^0R_{\rm AA}measurements.Theseresultshavealreadybeenpublished.Thesixthchapterdescribesanonβgoingworkaboutnonβprompt\rm D^0$ analysis, which aims to prepare a new measurement in Pb--Pb collisions in the future. Conclusions and Outlook will be drawn in the end. \vspace{0.5cm} {\large\textbf{Keywords:}} LHC, ALICE experiment, Pb--Pb collisions, ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, D mesons, heavy flavour production, nuclear modification factor, Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), two-particle correlation