Probing Primordial Gravitational Waves: Ali CMB Polarization Telescope

In this paper, we will give a general introduction to the project of Ali CMB Polarization Tele-scope (AliCPT), which is a Sino-US joint project led by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) and has involved many di erent institutes in China. It is the rst ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiment in China and an integral part of China's Gravitational Waves Program. The main scienti c goal of AliCPT project is to probe the primor-dial gravitational waves (PGWs) originated from the very early Universe.The AliCPT project includes two stages. The rst stage referred to as AliCPT-1, is to build a telescope in the Ali region of Tibet with an altitude of 5,250 meters. Once completed, it will be theworldwide highest ground-based CMB observatory and open a new window for probing PGWs in northern hemisphere. AliCPT-1 telescope is designed to have about 7,000 TES detectors at 90GHz and 150GHz. The second stage is to have a more sensitive telescope (AliCPT-2) with the number of detectors more than 20,000.Our simulations show that AliCPT will improve the current constraint on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r by one order of magnitude with 3 years' observation. Besides the PGWs, the AliCPT willalso enable a precise measurement on the CMB rotation angle and provide a precise test on the CPT symmetry. We show 3 years' observation will improve the current limit by two order of magnitude.