Weekly Report for Week Ending June 29, 2000

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  July 3, 2000 will be:

 CANCELLED DUE TO HOLIDAY

Special Items:

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights
 
 

LSC Issues (Weiss)

Minutes of the LSC Executive Committee meeting of June 16:

to: LSCexecutive committee
from: R. Weiss
concerning: Notes from June 16, 2000 committee meeting

1) We are planning a John A. Wheeler day at Hanford on August 14,
the Monday before the LSC meeting. This to be a celebration of
Wheeler who has multiple couplings to the Hanford site. During the
Second World War he was deeply involved in design and diagnosis of
the first production reactor at Hanford and, now, he is
responsible for many of the concepts in relativistic gravitation
which have motivated LIGO.

2) Meetings and events being planned

Workshop on r modes in neutron stars: L.Bildsten,
August 2 and 3 at Santa Barbara

Workshop on gravitational wave astrophysics: J. Centrella, in
late Oct - early November at Drexel Institute

GWDAW: December 14,15,16 in Louisiana at LIGO and LSU

Aspen to overlap the astrophysics and gravitation meetings in
February 2001.

3) Establish a writing committee for the second draft of the LSC
White Paper on Data Analysis. The committee to address the
analysis program and the long range needs for analysis.

People being asked to be on the committee:
     Stuart Anderson
     Al Lazzarini
     Tom Nash
     Keith Riles
     Allen Weinstein
     Alan Wiseman

One function of the committee is to take "testimony" from groups
who have asked for data analysis funds from the NSF.

4) Draft GEO/LIGO MOU on data analysis
Committee expressed caution in going forward with a bilateral
agreement with GEO without bringing the idea to GWIC. In particular,
to explore the type of bilateral (or hopefully multilateral)
agreements that would be useful to connect the data from LIGO,
GEO, VIRGO, TAMA and ACIGA as well as the neutrino, X-ray and
radio astronomy communities. A major concern was that an agreement
with GEO not prejudice an agreement with VIRGO.

The consensus of the meeting was not to present the GEO/LIGO
MOU to GWIC but rather to bring forward some talking points
(bullets) about the MOU which would become topics for discussion.
It was felt important to draw out the difficult
points in establishing agreements with the other gravitational wave
detection groups.
 

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

WBS 1.2 LIGO Operations--Administration

Finance, ORACLE, etc. (Lindquist)

LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Jasnow)

From: Ed Chargois <chargois_e@ligo.caltech.edu>

• No report this week (travel).

From: the DCC <dcc@ligo.caltech.edu>

From: Cleveland Mak <mak_c@ligo.caltech.edu>

 ACTIVITY HIGHLIGHTS

• There was an unusual large request from the Hanford site for several copies of theses that we have in the DCC files.
• Nine documents were added on-line and an additional 25 were added to the database.
• Continued to hold down the DCC front and performed the usual daily routines.

From: Esther Cunningham <esther@ligo.caltech.edu>

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA.

From: "Brambila, Ruth" <Ruth.Brambila@caltech.edu>

• Finished closing all PO's requested to be closed.  Did investigations on other PO's and provided printouts to Dorothy to determine whether PO's should be closed and encumbrances removed.
• Have been placing credit card orders.  Have a few orders pending call backs. All other credit card orders are placed.
• Will start on entering the FY2000 blankets today.
• Finishing up Sun River, Florence Kaufman.  All others are completed.

• Continued working on identifying contractor costs to be moved to Operations.
• Attended and prepared materials for meeting  with consultants from Arthur Andersen regarding Project Accounting Department.
• Started working on monthly Operations report for June.

From: irena@ligo.caltech.edu (Irena Petrac)

• No report this week (travel).

From: Ed Jasnow <jasnow@ligo.caltech.edu>

A meeting was held among Barry Barish, Donna Tomlinson, and Ed Jasnow, of the LIGO Project, with Sharon Borbon, of the Provost's office, for the purpose of discussing the processing of appointments of long-term visitors to the LIGO sites.  The issue was the length of time required to secure the appointments, which were necessary to establish affiliation and, therefore, insurance coverage for the visitors.  Sharon recommended that, if the visitors are receiving no reimbursement from Caltech, that they be categorized as "volunteers," with an official letter from Barry.  This will establish affiliation and insurance coverage, but will not require the appointment processing by Caltech.  It was also agreed that identification cards showing the term of the visit will be issued to long-term visitors.

Rita Torres

• Was away from the office for several hours over the last week attending to medical stuff. Therefore this is a short report.
• Did letter to Boeing re: Letter of Interest for Procurement and Development & Fabrication of LIGO II lasers. Did site trip updates. Considerable Pcard activity as I placed orders, investigated errant invoices, and chased delayed orders. Completed update to D. Lloyd's purchase order log.

• Worked on the paper work for 11 new trips taken recently or upcoming (11 Payment Requests and 4 Advance Requests). There are approximately seven new trips in various stages pending completion of travel arrangements before the paper work can be completed.
• Our SURF/LIGO/Hanford and LIGO/Livingston Students will be brought to Caltech for a tour of LIGO/Caltech (40-meter, TNI, SAS, etc.) and JPL on Aug. 3rd and 4th. Also, our SURF/LIGO/Caltech Students will be taken to LIGO/Hanford for presentations and tours on Aug. 10th and 11th. This will take quite a bit of work moving 23 students around the country, but we've done it before, and I'm gaining experience each year.
• Completed eight Expense Reports, some of which were extensive, involving 2-3 or more pages each. There are 24 Expense Reports still to be done. I'm not holding any Expense Reports for a check from the Traveler before sending to Travel Audit to be cleared at the present time.
• I understand that Criselda has submitted her request to the Controller for Travel P-Cards and that LIGO and Development will be their test cases. As of this report, approval has not been received from the Controller but is expected shortly. Criselda indicated that Gary Sanders and Ed Jasnow will probably be contacted by the Controller for further discussion.
• Prepared the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for the Week of June 26, 2000. Performed normal recording and filing associated with Travel and Reimbursement. Worked on several problem issues with Travel Audit. Also performed miscellaneous duties as requested by various members of the LIGO Project here at Caltech as well as from members of the staffs of each of the two (2) sites. I continue to do MIT's travel to the sites for installation activities and also to assist them wherever possible.

• Processed requisitions, invoices and receiving on-line and tracked and followed up on invoice problems.
• Continue to monitor contract and blanket order funding levels and notified task managers when supplements are needed.
• Received billed amounts on-line on purchase orders that I had submitted to Ruth to close out, so she could cancel the lines and remove the encumbrances.
• Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther for the period of June 12-23 on contract summary sheets and LIGO database.
• Jim continues to do data entry in the LIGO database and began working on updating the PO Log books. He also spent some time helping Cleveland out in the DCC.

• Continuing to shuffle people and things around in anticipation of some of CDS’s people moving over to West Bridge.
• Otherwise, nothing out of the ordinary.

LIGO II (Frey)

Progress Period from from 6.23 to 6.29

Accomplishments:

• Held weekly meeting this week for LIGO II Project Controls. (Sanders and Coyne out of town.)
• Had meeting with the Caltech Project Accounting Group.
• Held meeting with Barbara K. regarding the Cost Book Tool.  Issued revised data tables per WBS rev. 7.
• Work on the LIGO resource database continues.
• Proposal plan development for LIGO II and Operations continues.  Waiting for feedback.
• Finished incorporating WBS changes per revision v7.
• Created cost codes per rev. 7 of WBS and to cover the need for Capital Projects accounting.
• Project Plan for the 40-Meter Lab Upgrade continues. Mike Smith is currently working on his data.
• Planning process for the LASTI project at MIT is in progress.  David Shoemaker sent data, unfortunately it was corrupted.
• Project Web Site for posting schedule and progress related data continues to be updated with the latest and greatest. http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/index.htm

• Next weekly meeting will be Monday afternoon July 10 from 1 to 3pm regarding the planning and control of the LIGO II proposal development.
• Meeting scheduled for July 5, 9:30am with Barbara K. to cover additional developments.
• Hope to receive non corrupt data from MIT regarding the LASTI Project plan so that data input can proceed.
• Will continue to update the LIGO II Proposal Plan and incorporate any changes.
• Will issue next revision to the 40-Meter Project Plan on Friday.  Will continue to collect 40-Meter Project Schedule data and hope to start updating next week.
• Cost Book Tool development continues.  Will continue to test and will make corrections to on-line help files.  Will provide on-line help regarding the use of the capital projects code.
• Will continue the development of the LIGO II Project Web Site.

• Collection of schedule data is moving much slower than anticipated.

• Need help to expedite data collection.

Reports (Lindquist)

• Quarterly Report--end of May 2000 (inputs required June 23).
• Operations 2001 Work Plan (Budget inputs requested by June 30)
• Continuing Operations (FY 2002-2006) Proposal (I am requesting preliminary budget information by June 30 and narrative by July 14. This proposal will be submitted concurrently with the LIGO II Proposal. There will be a review of the budgets and any changes relative to LIGO I Operations sceduled July 20, 2000)
• LIGO II Proposal (Due mid-October)

The following change requests have been submitted:
 

Copies of these change requests have been distributed to memebers of the LIGO Change Control Board (See LIGO-M000176-00-P).

Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection.

From: Kris Duncan <kris@ligo.caltech.edu>

• Continued with the LIGO cost performance reports for month end May 2000.
• Continued reconciling cost and commitment data with the Oracle reports.
• Completed and distributed the May 2000 Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM),
• Continued review of the change request's submitted to date and the potential contingency needs list.
• Prepared presentation materials for the Project Accounting meeting.
• Continued with construction contract/work package close out.

• Continue to reviewed the open encumbrances on the Construction and Advanced R&D accounts to see if the requested removals have been made. I will continue to review these accounts weekly until all erroneous encumbrances have been removed.
• I am still working on gathering a list of all LIGO employees along with the account number they are being charged against.
• Received the MIT invoice for May 2000.  I processed the data of the MIT twonk report and got it signed and it is waiting for Esther's return from vacation to be paid. (it was decided that waiting for Esther to return would still be faster than sending it across the street to be paid)
• The financial reports on the web provide supporting detail.

http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport
http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~finance

• No report this week; see above.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

• During the last few weeks, worked with Cindy Akutagawa to validate and cross reference appropriate LIGO accounts for late 1998, 1999 and early 2000 JPL billing for engineering and analytical support.
• Coordinated/assisted LIGO and JPL efforts related to funding and statement of work/contract modifications as required to assure continuation of Raytheon software engineering support, reliability engineering, and Contamination Control Group analytical lab work.
• On going miscellaneous procurement support effort for the computer group.
• Working with Pasadena, Hanford and Livingston personnel to untangle the CPU rack hardware on-hand vs the original rack/shelf concept and material ordered.

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)

FRED RAAB'S MAIL DESCRIPTION OF THE BRUSH FIRE AT HANFORD

Last night the LIGO Hanford Observatory survived an intense brush fire
without damage. The brush fire was started approximately 20 miles southwest
of LIGO by a fatal car/truck collision on Tuesday. As of Wednesday
afternoon it had jumped Highway 240 and was headed northwards, driven by
high winds, toward the tank farms of the Hanford 200 area. At 6 pm, with
the fire still about 10 miles west of LIGO and heading northerly I went
home for dinner. Sometime after 7 pm I noticed the sky grow ominously dark
over Richland and I began preparing to return to the observatory to check
on conditions, suspecting the winds had shifted.  Richard McCarthy and I
learned through Hanford emergency personnel that the fire was racing toward
LIGO. Richard called the lab to tell people working inside and a touring
Boy Scout group to evacuate the site. I drove in to ensure all personnel
were out and Richard followed shortly to actuate our groundwater pumps and
valves to recharge our firewater tanks.
 

I found the site evacuated, except for Doug Cook, our laser safety officer,
who had just completed a walk-through of all the labs and assured me that
all personnel and visitors were gone. Hanford fire had set up a command
post on the site, with a large number of fire engines, earth moving
equipment attempting to trench firebreaks around the 10 mile perimeter of
LIGO, and aircraft dropping fire retardant on the most threatened
structures. By this time the winds had grown extremely strong with a wild
fire out of control and bearing down on the observatory. For a time, the Y
arm of LIGO served as a firebreak, but the winds eventually blew the fire
over the arm and it raced further across the Hanford site. The fire started
racing along the y arm past the mid and end stations. McCarthy and I went
to the well (at the y end) to actuate the fire recharge system and were
able to inspect those buildings at that time. The fire had burned out all
the available fuel on the shrub-steppe surrounding these structures without
damage to the structures. When we returned, the fire was challenging the
corner station. I was able to inspect the site from the platform on the
corner station roof and could see a line of fire advancing toward the x
arm, but then a wall of smoke and high winds drove me off the roof. The
combination of the extensive rock works we had installed surrounding our
buildings and the firefighter's efforts prevailed as the fire burned down
most of the grass and sage near the vertex, without placing significant
heat loads on the buildings themselves. By this time I could see fire
extending several miles to the east, about 15 miles to the west, about 10
miles south and ascending Rattlesnake Mountain. The corner station was
about the safest haven around, so we remained there.
 

As the fire advanced along the Y arm burning away from the corner station,
the firefighters rapidly left our site. I later found out that this was
when the fire jumped the Yakima River, headed for populated areas of West
Richland and Benton City, which were under evacuation orders. We remained,
predominantly at the corner station, inspecting fire conditions with
binoculars as the fire burned along the x arm toward the end station. The
fire failed to jump the x arm and by midnight, it had burned past the x end
station. We were able to drive out on the x arm at this time and inspect
those buidlings, which looked OK. The winds were shifting and the fire
started to advance northerly again. I expected it to start burning back
toward the corner station along the north side of the x arm, but I knew our
roads would provide adequate fire breaks. We decided conditions looked good
enough to leave the observatory by driving north to the Wye barricade and
then to Richland along Stevens Way.
 

By morning the fire was mostly contained on the Hanford site, but was
burning near populated areas. The population of these areas was evacuated
to emergency shelters. According to radio reports, about 500-1000
firefighters were on the fire, which had by now burned about 150 square
miles of land. We instructed staff to remain at home while a few of us
drove out to do an inspection under daylight conditions and to attend to
checking systems. A power surge around midnight had taken down our turbo
pumps (without any danger to the vacuum system) and we began a restart
procedure. We drove the full 10 mile perimeter of the buildings and beam
tube and found no discernible damage. We met with Rex Jordan and other
officials of Hanford Fire and other DOE contractors who came out to inspect
conditions at LIGO. The x end station was partially covered with fire
retardant compound, whose sticky surface had a layer of ash glued onto it.
I think the worst damage we may have is if the fire retardant damages the
underlying paint. Otto Matherny is trying to get a contractor out as soon
as possible to wash this down. The ventilation systems prevented smoke
damage within the critical experimental areas although there is a slight
smoke smell and dust levels were exceeded in the clean areas during the
fire. None of the critical optics were exposed. Vacuum system operation has
been restored to normal.
 

The DOE contractors, especially Hanford Fire and Hanford Patrol, were
exemplary in their efforts to keep us informed, to let key people into the
affected areas while providing for public safety, and most importantly to
bring tremendous resources to bear on protecting our structures. As of
approximately 10:30 am PDT today, the state of emergency surrounding the
LIGO area was lifted and roads into the area were opened. Some personnel
are returning to resume installation/commissioning work.
 

---------------

Some photos have been collected by Doug Cook, Richard McCarthy and Tom
Mahood and I have them posted at

http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/wildfire/

We will post more photos as we collect them.

One of the noticeable oddities is the existence of small islands of unburnt
shrub-steppe visible in the panoramas. Nightfire.jpg could have been taken
in any direction last night.

GHS NOTE:   We were very lucky. Fred and his colleagues did a very admirable job of stewardship at the site. The DOE earned our gratitude in this event. After the smoke clears, during the next month, we will have a lessons-learned meeting to review this experience and to capture insights for the next time.
 

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)

OPTICS/COC INSTALLATION: Standoffs, guide rods and magnets were removed from our Beamsplitter, replaced, balanced and vacuum baked this week. BS returned to BSC-2 yesterday and we'll realign today. Used the time while the optic was in the oven to straighten the lab and shop areas. Small vacuum bake oven back online using an RGA Allen loaned us. Final COS bakeload completed; Kapton ground cables are now being baked. (Jonathan Kern)

PSL: We replaced the main output laser beam periscope with a fixed one, non-adjustable one. All the fixed mounts for the PSL are in place. There was no difficulty attaining alignment with these fixed mounts. We will replace the few adjustable mounts that are necessary next week with Optosigma ultra-stable mounts. (Joe Kovalik)

SMALL OPTICS: Three optics came out of the vacuum bake oven. We re-hung MC1 using the current suspension tower (i.e., the suspension tower that was on the HAM table before the door was opened). The new balancing angle is 0.18 mrad (the designed balancing angle of MC1 is 0 mrad, i.e., the new balancing angle is within the spec of +/-0.5 mrad). MC1 has been reinstalled on the HAM1 table. Before taking MC1 out of the HAM table, we checked the new alignment fixture using the PSL beam in HAM1 and HAM2. All fixtures work properly. (Sany Yoshida)

LLO seismic array: We are gathering price information for the vault components to finalize the design and array layout. It appears that there is some confusion at PASSCAL regarding the delivery of the seismometers as the original request from Louisiana Tech seems to have gotten misplaced. Noel Bartow of PASSCAL said that she is working to straighten out the mess, but this probably means that our seismometers will dribble in rather than all arrive July 1 as originally requested.

Community relations: Groups of 20-30 teachers from Livingston Parish public schools have been LLO for each of the three past Thursdays. This visit is part of in-service training for them. Many have expressed interest in coming for a return visit with their classes during the next academic year.

MIT (Shoemaker)

All activity reported in other categories

Caltech (Sanders)

All activity reported in other categories

Detector/Technical Support (Whitcomb, Coyne)

See also the daily electronic logs for the installation and commissioning activities:
Hanford Detector Log
Livingston Detector Log

1.1 LHO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

2km Commissioning

We have moved IOT7 back to its location at HAM7 following flooring work. All light paths on the table have been aligned and the mode cleaner was locked.

ISCT7 and ISCT9 have also been moved to their nominal positions by HAM7 and HAM9. We are in the process of aligning the tables with 1.06 um beam out of the viewports, after which we will complete the field cabling on the tables.

Rana is testing/tuning the LSC photodetectors and has gotten at least one fully tuned for use on ISCT7.

Suspension Tuning

###SEW adds
The shorted coil on the RM will need to be fixed eventually, but should not prevent us from making significant progress bringing the LSC system up and beginning tests of its performance.  We will defer any action to fix this problem until a later date, possibly in conjunction with 4 km installation.

ASC/LSC/SUS Electronics

Mike Zucker, Rana Adhikari, Richard McCarthy
Diagnosed and patched a high-frequency oscillation in the MC servo demod board.  This may have caused the wandering DC offset problem which sporadically impaired mode cleaner operation.

Began measuring cable delays and wiring up the new (beautifully engineered!) RF reference distribution system for the three 2k modulation frequencies.

Dale Ouimette, Mohana Mageswaram, Flavio Nocera
We shipped to Hanford the following LSC boards this week:

LIGO-Trinet Seismic Stations

1.2 LLO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

Core Optics Alignment

Core Optics Support (COS) Assembly

Elliptical baffle staged and assembly in process.

APS/PO Telescope: Four telescopes were pre-aligned and focussed and are awaiting installation.

APS/PO Telescope Optical Train: Optical train parts are awaiting assembly.

HAM2/HAM3 Beam dumps: The HAM2/HAM3 beam dump assemblies are in process.

ASC/LSC Electronics

Global Diagnostics System

2.0 Other Engineering and Scientific Activities

2.1 Design/Analysis/Fab

PSL

Orders for beam dumps and monitoring equipment for the 40m Lab PSL and LASTI laser have been ordered.

Rich Abbott
Prototype of new pockels cell driver for the frequency servo is being constructed with the goal of extending the useful bandwidth of the PA-85 output driver.

Beginning the ordering of new items for the 40 meter and MIT PSLs.  All of the documentation is being reviewed with the goal of matching to "as builts" from the sites.  New release wiring diagrams and point to point wiring lists are being prepared.

Beginning to plan the photodiode and servo for the intensity servo using the current shunt actuator that was retrofitted during my last visit to LHO.  This was chosen as the next item to finish as reports from LHO by Peter F.  indicate that the ISS is the next most desired item.

ISC fab

The ISC layer showing all ISC supplied equipment supplied to LLO has been completed and sent to Caltech to add to the integration drawing. Work has started on the LHO supplied equipment.

Computing A new version of MSC Nastran finite element analysis 4.5.1 has been recieved and installed on several pc's.

COC Metrology

Suspensions/OSEM Head Re-Design

Data monitoring Tool

I also modified the name server to handle nodes that are connected to more than one network. Before this modification a client process would only be able to contact a given process through the network from which it registered. This change will allow monitors or servers running on the DMT machines to be contacted from either the CDS consoles or the GC network machines.

Finally I worked with LDAS to verify that the Hanford LDAS system was receiving triggers properly from the DMT.

Electronics

Global Diagnostic System Signal Processor - Printed Citcuit Board design is in progress.

Electronics Shop

2.2 Issues Concerns

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• All the new summer students are making progress:
• Brian Kappus met with Nergis about Modal Model. He is assembling a (dc) length control matrix for ligo-4k (for validation) and 40m.
• Ted Jou is working with ligo-4k and 40m Twiddle models, without and with RSE (ala Jim Mason). He too is assembling a length control matrix, for validating Brian's Modal Model work. But he's encountering problems, so we'll want to get help from Jim Mason, soon.
• Lisa Goggin is using Matlab to design the optics for the 12m Mode Cleaner and MMT. She's working with existing code, and is developing it.
• Ivica Stevanovic is studying the response of LIGO-I suspension controllers using Simulink models, in time and in frequency space. The goal is to apply these to 4" test masses, and ultimately, to multiple pendula.
• Jitesh Chauhan is studying the GDS system, and trying to compile and build it on 40m computers. He's getting help from John Zweizig.
• Dennis Ugolini and Ivica Stevanovic are doing all the cross-connect wiring and assembling the vacuum control hardware near the pump spool. They hope to be ready to test the hardware in the coming weeks.
• Contracters have been coming around to look at the work required at the 40m. There are some problems with new cable trays that must be resolved. Fred Asiri is on vacation through July 4, but assures me that work will not begin before then, anyway.
• AJW spent much of his time preparing "Physics of LIGO" lectures.
• Mike Smith has completed a preliminary 40 m optical layout in Autocad: core optics wedge angles have been defined; potential pick-off beams have been defined for both ITM's, RM, BS, anti-symmetric port, and symmetric port; beam dumps have been located, arm cavity baffles have been located; optical lever beams have been defined for all core optic mirrors; optical table locations have been defined for wave front sensing, length sensing, optical lever beams, and ETM transmission monitor; 12 meter modecleaner layout. AJW will meet with Mike on Friday to go over it all.
• The CSUDH group (Ken Ganezer, George Jennings, et al) have mastered the non-parallel, power-recycling FFT code, and have been trying to run the non-parallel, dual-recycling FFT code; they are encountering learning opportunities.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

While working on the test cavity assemblies for the TNI, we also started
installing a new version of our photothermal experiment, with which we
intend to measure one of the thermal noise sources predicted by Braginsky,
et al. (Phys. Lett. A 264, 1-10 (1999)).  We laid out a new optical setup,
mode matched to the test cavity, and aligned one of the two beams we will
be using to make the measurement.  We now have a nice TEM00 mode resonating
in the cavity, and should be able to lock the system and get a preliminary
signal in the next few days.
 

Our test cavity is L-shaped, with a beamsplitter at the fold, and we
observed an interesting effect while aligning it.  When misaligned, the
cavity resonates in a "necklace-shaped" mode, much like a Herriott delay
line.  The effect is not really surprising, once you think about it, but
the spot pattern is quite pretty!
 

LASTI (Zucker)

No report received

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling

Biplab visited LHO last week. He continued the work initiated at LHO.
He worked with Rick and his SURF student, Brad on PSL noises.
For those noise study of PSL, he introduced 'beam-wiggler' module.
Kept working together with Brad on the shot noise in the error signal
of the reference cavity when the mode is not matched.
He introduced E2E to Rana Adhikari and David Ottaway. Rana wants to
use it for Michelson runs.
He sorted out differences among all latest versions of PSL and
finally settled on a new version 0600.0_std_config  which is not
much different from 08.0_std_config

Adlib

Hiro wrote the code to parse a text expressing equations.
The code development is almost over and modeler code
will be modified so that users can use expressions in the
settings and can embed formulas in the box file using
a new primitive.

MSE

G.Cella has committed his delivered software, including example codes and documents,
in our CVS repository. Ed is working to modify so that MSE is fully
integrated with e2e from the code management point of view.

LIGO Data Analysis System

The problems found with the managerAPI and genericAPI last week have been
fixed and much of the week was spent retesting the LDAS system with these
new patches. A run of the DMT trigger ingestion into the LDAS system early
this week was fully successful at entering all 7120 triggers into the LDAS
tables. ILWD socket test, database table insertion tests and frame to ILWD
translation tests are currently underway. Preliminary results are looking
great. The new tester has worked closely with the TCL staff during these
tests as he prepares to take over these activities. We will meet later
this week to determine the readiness of the LDAS software for a new release.
All indications are that the system is in the most reliable state ever.
There are still a few known problems, including a small memory leak in the
frameAPI (most likely the TCL layer) which amounts to a few hundred bytes
per gigabyte of data processed. And this is cleanly handled by the LDAS
system managerAPI by having the frameAPI cleanly shutdown and restart during
an idle period after a threshold memory leak has been detected.

GUILD has been getting a lot of attention this week with new functionality
being added to this user interface to support requests for frame data. The
GUI will also display a list of channels in the frame and allow frame data
from consecutive frames to be concatenated into a result set (frame/ilwd/xml).

The work on the wrapperAPI has moved away from the MPI code development to
modifications to the LAL library build process to support shared objects. The
wrapperAPI itself had a bug discovered late last week in which data sent from
the master to the slaves usually fails. This will need to be fixed before a
test of the wrapperAPI with the LAL code from UWM can be made. The build of
the MPI library and the wrapperAPI will also need to be repeated with several
configuration modifications before the test to support shared objects.

A meeting was held here at CIT to outline the user command that will drive
the dataConditionAPI during its MDC. Two proposals were on the table. One
with an OOP look and feel interface and the other with a scripting language
look and feel. It was determined that the scripting language look and feel
was adequate and easier on users and easier to implement. The code to handle
pushing chains of commands down into the C++ layer and into threads is near
to completion but much testing is still needed.

Also this week, the FFTW development team finally responded to our weeks of
notices concerning huge memory usage within this package. The FFTW teams
now agrees with us that there is a problem and has made a commitment to have
this fixed in the next release. But there is no commitment as to when that
release will take place.

We have a lot of work on the dataConditionAPI, mpiAPI, wrapperAPI, and the
controlMonitorAPI still ahead of us. The debugging of the new release of
LDAS has interfered with new development on these APIs but this is expected
to shift in favor of new code development after the release.

Lazzarini: I met with Eric Katsavanitas several times to go over LDAS with him as he starts
to ponder his MIT involvement.

General Computing

Livingston:
We are in the process of surveying our software and hardware to
determine what is in need of upgrade.

Hanford:
Working on the network expansion and s/w upgrades.

CIT:

Samantha (still on crutches) sshed into every sun and linux box and ran the sun
script that detectspatches.
Worked with screen savers.
Called and chatted with Gateway personal multiple times, in a vain attempt to
get the gateway box sitting on my desk fixed. They finally concluded that the
hard drive is bad, just as Larry said it was weeks ago.
Worked on a CD Rom that was not working quite right, I believe the
problem is fixed, but will not know until the user gets back to me.
Learned all sorts of new and cool stuff all unix related.
Burned a number of CD's.
Futzed with my desktop computer, vainly attempting to make it back into
an even semi-stable system, but alas it is not to be.  Lookinginto different
options to keep it stable in the future.
Aquired mad crutching skills.  I can now walk to work.  It takes over
fifteen minutes, but I do eventually make it:+)

Barbara reworked the CostBook database and web forms for a different Activity
Sheet identifier.
Continued efforts on web forms for next LSC reporting period.  Purchased
2 remaining license upgrades for WebBase.  Installed Office 2000 on my NT
box.  The existing LSC reports database will not open in Access 2000; I'm
trying to figure out why.
Continued updating LSC web pages.  Added more reports and attachments.
Set up new institutions.  Updated the Council page using latest Z attachments.
Worked with Larry changing the setup on the Primavera NT server in attempts
to improve the performance of the unit.

Lisa performed a demo network installation of StarOffice 5.2 on graffias.  The
installation procedure went well but it still needs a round of client testing
before it is deployed on sirius.
Replicated the samba problem that Jay was experiencing using Protel98 on Luna
(but not on sirius).  This indicated that it was a problem in either samba or
the network connection to luna.  I installed version 1.9.17p3 of samba on luna.
Initial testing looks like this might firm up the connection, but we won't be
sure until after Jay has a chance to run the connection during a
high load of traffic.
Installed ssh2 on luna.  Now that this is working we need to make sure that
F-secure is running on all the PCs and that everyone is trained on how to use it
with Exceed.
Installed the 6/23/00 jumbo patch cluster on luna.
Began working with Rolf on how the VME crates boot from luna/kater.
Got a tutorial on monthly backups from Suresh.  Sam and I are jointly running
the monthly backups for June.
Got a tutorial on managing user accounts.
Worked with Sam on running patchdiag to determine the patch level of all the
Solaris boxes.
Began looking into the problems Todd Etzel (Wilson house) is having on Cheetah.
These include:
- file locking errors in his email (fixed)
- NIS+ password problems
- SSH daemon has fatal errors when it starts.  This looks like a shared library
problem.  Cheetah is running OS 5.5.1.  A recent set of patches will probably
fix this, but Todd would prefer to have cheetah swapped out for a PC instead.
He needs StarOffice.

(Suresh)Installed GPIB-SCSI-A driver in system named tiger after loading solaris
2.5.1 in RSE Lab in Lauritsen. This would enable to display output from spectrum
analyser by using Labview.
Put system named bala (Ultra 1) in 131.215.120 network and made a client of
LIGO domain in Synchrotron Lab for use by SAS (Ricardo's) group.
Demonstrated how monthly backups of LIGO servers are done to Samantha and
Lisa.

(Larry) Resolved a number of PC issues. There are a number of utilities such as
crash guard that cause more problems than they prevent. The best things is to
run the utilities once a week or at bootup but don't have them running in the
background, this takes away resources the computer can use for other programs.
Worked a number of procurement issues including the SUN order. It looks like the
order is now with SUN and we are trying to get a partial part of the order
expedited.
Working on some of the logistics and costs to get the Observatories network
connections upgraded. Both Larry and Albert have been making contacts to try and
get more information on what needs to be done.
Evaluating a problem tracking s/w pkg. that LDAS is using to see if it would
work with the GC group.
 

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

From: GariLynn Billingsley <Billingsley_G@ligo.caltech.edu>

I am requesting a quote for Suprasil 311 SV glass in the shapes of rods and "microscope slides" from Heraeus Amersil.  These are for Phil Willems and Gregg Harry (Syracuse.)

Veeco has still not responded with a quote for upgrading the IR Metrology interferometer.

The first 15 cm diameter sapphire blank shipped to CSIRO, they are to measure the homogeneity of two pieces.

From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>

Attended CleanTech 2000, an International Cleaning Technology Conference and Exposition.
The most positive outcome from the Conference, was to be able to identify and contact some vendors that could supply equipment needed for LIGO II.
As an example: an ergonomic arm to perform mirror lifting and positioning in fixtures during substrate/mirror characterization, cleaning, and assembly. And a customized cleaning and drying system for mirrors.

LIGO II coatings:
A preliminary talk (for costing purposes) with Ramin from REO, reinforces the fact that REO took a "real commercial"  business path during the last year.
Each ion beam sputtering chamber, they have around 10 by now, produces $100,000.00 a day.
Research and development of coatings implies tying a coating chamber for extended periods of time.
LIGO II optics would require coating development to achieve uniformity on the larger substrates and to achieve lower absorption.
To accommodate the larger substrates the chamber would require mayor re-tooling.
A ball park figure for these tasks is between $1.5 M and $2 M. (Does not include the coating of the LIGO II mirrors).
Also, the possibility exist, that when the time comes for the LIGO II coatings to materialize, REO could be on a different business tempo.
We discussed different possibilities, I think that a meeting is required to develop a plan to ensure we can procure coated optics in time, within specs. and budget.
 

From: Riccardo DeSalvo <desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu>

Welcome Susha and Paolo

Started lab removal,  big mess but will get better.
Due to removal slowdown and 4th of July festivities next week no group
meeting and no weekly report.
Virginio will run group meeting of July 12th and write status report.

Hareem, Paolo, Riccardo
Started oil bearing, shortly followed by recycling pump breakdown,
despite specs the pump lining was not oil compatible, an oil bath
ensued.  Tested second set of oil pump, this one was not compatible with
the bubbles in the recovery oil.  Finally tested pumps from C&H surplus
store;  these pumps seem to work, The oil bearing and IP testing
facility should be finally up and running by the 4th of July.

Hareem, Akiteru
Measured thermal drift of GASF and MGASF at 230 mHz.  This time it is a
stable 1 mm/degree.  Proven that the Akiteru-Tatsuo measurement was
transient dominated.
Start designing a simple bi-metal spring compensator to passively null
the filter vertical load point thermal sensitivity.

Hareem
Changed load disk in GASF, obtained 170 mHz, going to extend Quality
factor and thermal stability measurements in this frequency range.

Hareem, Virginio
Writing GASF paper.

Brett
Component acquisition for stepper motor controllers, e.t.a. this week.
Finished and tested hand wired driver boards, will make PCB version in
background priority with Flavio’s assistance.

James
Learning Transfer function measurement techniques.
Populated an LVDT board, built some coils.

Erik.
Reported on suspension fiber TNI feasibility and on related discussions
with Vladimir.

Susha
Started working/learning MSE
Studying static profile of blades in MGASF plus dynamic range behaviour
around w.p..

Chenyang
Starting up Marconi AC electrostatic actuator demonstrator.

Akiteru, Kenji
Confirmed 50 dB performance of 1.5 mm MGASF; The 70 dB were faked by a
miscalibration in connecting two different frequency ranges.  Result now
qualitatively agrees with expectation that less stressed blades produce
worse attenuation plateau.

Akiteru
TAMA suspension design.

Alessandro
Advancing in accelerometer circuit construction.
Accelerometer item one construction delayed by lack of special end
mills.
Present accelerometer item one e.t.a. is Monday or Tuesday.

Soy
LVDT driver work.
Tooling up a stand for acoustic emission measurements in stressed
blades.

Virginio, Riccardo
Continuing heavy duty supervision work.
 

Virginio
Re-diagonalization of Ip controls for new load and new LVDT
positionings.  Wrapping up for removal of IP.
Remaining some accelerometer testing with Akiteru before removal.

Virginio, Akiteru
IP long term drift measurement. Found no correlation with temperature.
Only floor tilting (within 5 micro rad/day) observed occasional sudden
shifts of tens of nano-rads.
Tilting compatible to known building stability.

Gilberto
LVDT calibrations for creep measurement. 4 made, found some glitch,
probably in measurement technique.

Lisa
Running thermal stability measurement. Found problems in including LVDTs
in the DAQ, may be simpler to change existing card.

Szabi
Remotely assisting in solving DAQ problems.

Paolo
Starting compilation of transfer function, sensitivities and seismic
activities.

Data acquisition status report (from Virginio).
Three PC computers in the lab.
C1 reserved for creep with K. DAQ
C2 running IP controls and thermal measurements with DSP and NI DAQ
C3 general purpose use

Receiving a work station from Suresh.

Need to run thermal stability stand, TAMA SAS stand and acoustic
emission stand.
Filter transfer functions generally run on spectrum analyser.

Need at least another PC and two DAQ cards.

Waiting for the return of the second broken DSP card (shipped today).
We will need another one for the lab plus need to order all the TAMA
ones.
Waiting for a second DSP crate, late on e.t.a..

For those who enquired, the report order is given by the sitting
position of the people coming to the meeting, starting clockwise from my
chair.

For additional information about this report, contact sanders@ligo.caltech.edu