Weekly Report for Week Ending August 3, 2000

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  August 7, 2000 will be:
 (Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

Open meeting 10:30 - 11:30

1. Announcements
2. LSC Issues (Weiss)
3. Comments on Weekly Report
4. WBS 1 LIGO I Construction (Lindquist)
• Field Change Orders/Contingency Liens/Change Requests
5. WBS 2 LIGO Lab Operations
• Administration (Lindquist)
• Sites (Raab, Coles, Shoemaker, Sanders)
• Detector (Whitcomb, Coyne)
• Campus Research Facilities (Weinstein (40 Meter), Libbrecht (TNI), Zucker(LASTI))
• Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)
6. WBS 3 and 4  Advanced R&D and LIGO II (Sanders)

Special Items:

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Weiss)

No report this week.

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

WBS 1.2 LIGO Operations--Administration

LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Lindquist)

• The site telecon on August 3, 2000 focused on the disposition of the beam tube bake equipment, the FY 2001 budget model, and the cost vs. budget numbers as of the end of July 2000.  The list of current actions revised to reflect open actions assigned through August 3, 2000 may be found at ACTION LIST.

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

• Nothing significant to report.

>From: Linda Turner - turner@ligo.caltech.edu>

Web pages for the DCC give simple how-to's for document numbering, easy access to the latest on-line documents, and search capabilities for the DCC database.Take a look. . .

 ACTIVITY HIGHLIGHTS

• During the month of July, a total of 69 new electronic documents were processed and made available.  Additionally, another 151 documents were added to the database.  During the same period, 130 faxes were sent and 143 received, while 52 packages were sent out and 123 were checked in.
• The process of scanning all 40+ core optic components files and making them available electronically continued.
• I began preliminary plans for LIGO's Christmas party, working on finalizing the date and location.

Press here to access the DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER WEB PAGE.

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

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA.

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

Finished up the lease agreement.  Have several subcontracts to do and need to set up the files on these.  Reconciled pcard transactions and placed new orders on the pcard.  Closed a few PO's out, but expect to start closing PO's again on Monday.

From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman@ligo.caltech.edu>

• Started working on Operations reports for July.
• At request of Sponsored Research Department prepared schedule of proposed Budget Realignments for Construction accounts.
• Prepared projection of expenditures for fiscal year 2000 Operations for Hanford and Livingston.
• Reviewed proposed 2001 Operations budgets for consistency with data for 2000 Operations.
• Provided information to Albert Lazzarini for possible adjustment of Encumbrances for Data Analysis Group on monthly Operations report.

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

• LaTech: CO#2 for a funding re-allocation, to pay for costs incurred in shipment and installation of equipment donated for LIGO research, was released to CIT procurement.

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

• An orientation meeting on using the P-card for travel was held on Wednesday, August 2.  In attendance were representatives from Acquisitions and Finance, as well as the LIGO cardholders whose cards will be capable of being used for travel.  LIGO is the only organization on campus participating in this pilot program to develop a software module which will eventually be used for reconciliation of travel expenses on the P-card.
• The lease for storage space in Livingston was Fed Ex'd to the Mayor of the town of Livingston on Wednesday, August 2.  This space will be used initially for electrical equipment from the beam tube bakeout.

Dorothy Lloyd

• Worked with Ruth by receiving billed amounts on-line, to cancel lines for various reasons or to close out and remove remaining encumbrances on POs that are complete. Adjusted LIGO database accordingly.
• Went over input of change order request for contracts, standard and blanket PO requisitions in Oracle with Rita.
• Processed the usual requisitions, invoices and receiving on-line. For more detail see "Cost Schedule Control Systems" report by Esther Cunningham. Tracked and followed up on invoice problems.
• Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther for the week of July 24 on contract summary sheets and LIGO database.
• Continue to monitor contract and blanket order funding levels and notified task managers when supplements are needed.
• Jim continues to do data entry in the LIGO database and help out in the DCC.

Irene Baldon

• Due to numerous meetings and training session on our new Travel P-Cards I was unable to do much this past week (stats) This situation will continue through at least this week. We will be up an running, ready or not, on Monday morning (August 7th). There will be a total of 16 cards issued to a representative cross-section of LIGO travelers. It is felt that this group best represents LIGO's various travel needs. During this trial period (3 months per the Controller) we need to either solve our problems or have a course of action in place that will work before he approves the plan for final use Campus wide. All participants will be asked to follow the procedures and expect changes at any given time. This three (3) month period will be constantly evolving/changing and everyone's cooperation and patience will be greatly appreciated by all those who follow us. Thanks in advance!
• Worked on preparing the paper work for eleven (11) new trips taken recently or upcoming (11 Payment Requests and 10 Advance Requests). There are approximately an additional fifteen (15) new trips in various stages pending completion of travel arrangements before the paper work can be completed.
• Completed all final arrangements for our SURF/LIGO/Hanford and SURF/LIGO/Livingston Students coming to Caltech for a tour of LIGO/Caltech (40-meter, TNI, SAS, etc.) and JPL on Aug. 3rd and 4th, and for our SURF/LIGO/Caltech Students travel to LIGO/Hanford for their presentations and tours on Aug. 10th and 11th. All shuttles, vans, hotels, etc., are completed.
• Have not been able to work on Expense Reports this week. I have 27 Expense Reports to work on. I plan to work on these and other matters through this weekend so that I will have relatively less pressure on Monday when the new system starts up.
• Prepared the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for the Week of July 31, 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.

• Corrected some Web internal charges that Florence discovered had been put into the wrong account.
• Did a lot of various activities related to visas, green cards, hiring, and terminating. No exterminating, however.
• Brought several visitors on board. Benoit Mours is in Millikan 612 , x 8510. B. S. Sathyaprakash is in Millikan 611, x. 8511. Giovanni Losurdo is in WB 358, x. 3691.
• I am continuing to do an amazing amount of check requests.

Advanced LIGO (Frey, Petrac)

Progress Period from 7.28 to 8.3

Accomplishments:

• Held LIGO II Project Controls meeting with Phil, Dennis, and Gary.  Focus of meeting was status of LIGO II Proposal.
• Held meeting with Barbara K. regarding the Cost Book Tool.  Agreed that additional meetings will be informal via email or phone.
• Incorporated version 11r1 of WBS to Primavera, and related changes to the Chart of Accounts.  Posted to site.
• Proposal plan development for LIGO II and Operations continues.
• Progress data as of 8.4.00 is due Friday.
• Attended meeting with SEI and SUS groups.
• Project Plan for the 40-Meter Lab Upgrade continues.
• Final scope and mission of the lab is in flux.  Should be finalized by August LSC.
• Updated the plan with progress as of 7.28.00 provided by Fred Asiri and Peter King.
• Planning process for the LASTI project at MIT is in progress.
• Finished review of 2nd iteration.
• David will issue 3rd iteration after LSC.
• Initiated travel request for attendance at the LSC meetings from 8.15 to 8.17 at Hanford Observatory.
• Development of the LIGO II Project Controls Guidebook continues.  Continuing to write section on data dictionaries.
• Project Web Site for posting schedule and progress related data continues to be updated with the latest and greatest.
• See http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/index.html

• Out of office on August 4th - in Portland for Timberline Certified Trainer's / Consultant's Conference.
• Next weekly meeting will be Monday afternoon August 7 from 1 to 3pm regarding the planning and control of the LIGO II proposal development.
• LIGO II Proposal Status meeting will be Tuesday morning August 8 from 9:30am to 11am.    Each system leader to discuss issues specific to he LIGO II proposals.
• No more meetings schedule with Barbara K. to discuss the Cost Book Tool.  Development is in final phases.
• Will continue to follow up on the LASTI data development.
• Will continue to update the LIGO II / Ops Proposal Plans and incorporate any changes.
• Will post progress report by end of day Monday.
• Will issue fifth week of status data to teams.
• Will continue updating the 40 meter schedule per progress as of 8.4.00.
• Cost Book Tool development continues.  Will be importing data for Installation so that Dennis Coyne can proceed with estimating.
• Will continue the development of the LIGO II Project Web Site.
• Will continue the development of the LIGO II Project Controls Guide Book.  Finish section on data dictionaries and start on update process.

• Collection of schedule data is moving slower than anticipated.

• None to report at this time.

• REO / LIGO II optics: A telecon was help with REO principals regarding options for continuing collaboration (beyond LIGO I) in support of the LIGO II optics coating pathfinder and production coating program. REO's response was positive and constructive, however, the "rates have gone up".

Reports (Lindquist)

A meeting of  LIGO Change Control Board, Tuesday, August 1, 2000 at 9:30 PDT in the Science Conference Room (SCR)

The following change requests were approved:
 

Minutes of the LIGO Change Control Board have been prepared and will be distributed (See LIGO-M000237-00-P).

Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection.

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

• No report this week.

• I am gathering the data for the monthly reports for July 2000.
• 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 encumbrances have been removed.
• Received the MIT invoice for June 2000. I processed the data from the MIT TWONK report and got it signed and gave it to Esther to be paid.
• The financial reports on the web provide supporting detail.

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

From: Irena Petrac <irena@ligo.caltech.edu>

CO #7 was processed for a-cost extension of the REO contract to allow completion of ongoing coating and re-coating of LIGO I optics.

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

See above.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

• No report this week.

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)

General Items:
--------------
(F. Raab)
 

Activities are heating up related to installation as evidenced by the greater length of this report. An optic was scratched near its edge in handling, but a review of the situation indicates it should not adversely affect performance.
 

The Kamiakin SST team have gotten some nice measurements of ground vibrations from the present gravel mine in south Richland. They have collected field measurements at a number of sites at various distances from the plant, with plant operations on/off and with varying distance from the local highway. Analysis proceeds.
 

Bake Oven:
----------
(K. Ryan)
 

LHO Vacuum Bake Oven A load #98, consisting of misc. COS parts & fasteners and misc. small optics beam dump and mirror mount components, was released on 8-2-00.

Load #99, consisting of new OSEM bodies and misc. IOO (SOS top block) and COS parts, is to begin vacuum baking on the afternoon of 8/3/00- to be released on 8/7/00.
 

PreStabilized Laser:
--------------------
(R. Savage)
 

- Recently, a problem with the HVAC system in the LVEA caused a diurnal
temperature variation of several degrees Fahrenheit.   As a result, the PSL
output power varied by several percent.  The HVAC system has been patched
and the large PSL power fluctuations eliminated.  M. Guenther is using the
data from this accidental experiment in an effort to understand and
hopefully reduce the sensitivity of the PSL output power to ambient
temperature variations.  M. Lubinski has installed a temperature sensor
that is connected to the DAQ system in the 2k PSL chiller closet that
should help us assess the role of the closet temperature variations.
 

- We have received the acoustic insulation panels for the 2k PSL table
enclosure.  We ordered panels covered with PVF film rather than PVC film.
We don't notice any odor from the new panels as we did from the PVC-covered
panels.  G. Moreno is using the 4k PSL enclosure to investigate a method of
attaching the panels.
 

- T. Mahood has generated a new comprehensive optical layout of the 2k
IOO/PSL optical table using autocad.  The layout is to scale, +,- ~ 0.25
inch.  He is in the process of updating the optical component information
and is following the naming schemes devised by M. Guenther and the IOO group.
 

- T. Mahood, D. Cook and R. Savage have begun installing the
upgraded beam dumps on the PSL IOO optical table.  D. Cook has cut the beam
tubes (1" diameter Al. tubing) to length and they are out for anodizing.
 

- D. Ottaway and R. Savage plan to release a new draft of the LIGO II PSL
Conceptual Design Document (in the new Microsoft Word format) by early next
week.  It appears that the Design Requirements Review for the LIGO II PSL
will not take place during the LSC meeting next month as previously planned.
 
 

Optics:
---------------------
(D. Cook)
 

The ETMx-4k has its magnets/standoff glued and we will balance it Friday and
get it into the Vacuum bake on Tuesday. ETMy-4k will be have the guide rod
and wire standoff glued on Friday and the Magnets/standoffs and balance
hopefully in time to hit the same bake load on Tues. The ETM transmission
monitors are being installed after sorting through some minor confusions
and modifications. The optical levers will follow as parts are received.
The new OSEMs will come out of the bake and sent to MIT to be completed and
tested. The ETM optics HR surface yields ~ 1% reflectivity at 633 nm. This
is too low for our total station autocollimator. Upon its availability, we
will borrow the one from LLO which has been modified and is more sensitive
to weaker return signals. We will use ours for the balancing and wedge
angle measurements in the interim. Betsy continues to build up the COS
components as time allows.
 

Seismic Systems:
----------------------
(C. Gray, M. Guenther & H. Radkins)
 

Are seeing light at the end of the tunnel for the transfer function
measurements for a BSC Seismic Isolation Stack (at X-End).  Have performed
a few Swept Sine Measurements on the stack, but have had difficulties
producing coherence plots for these measurements.  Will now try to obtain
coherence data by using "white noise" as a source for our system.
 

Ribbon Cable Sag Test is still on going and Coarse Actuation System (CAS)
cabling installation is a background activity.
 

Controls:
---------
(D. Barker)
 

Replaced 50GB Cybernetics RAID with 18GB Sun and 36GB IBM disks on
hanford1. Waiting for RMAs to return Cybernetics RAID and Tape Robot for
repair. Using exabyte tape for CDS backups in the mean time, at a much
reduced rate.
 

Coding the next release of the DAQ ADCU code, which will run more
efficiently by using the DMA engines in both the onboard VIC64 chip on
the baja, and the DMA chips on the VMIC 5588 RFM modules. This will free
the baja CPU to perform digital filtering when decimating the data. Data
transmission to the RFM will be more closely monitored. In cases of
network collisions a "back off then retry" algorithm will be used. DCU
processing will be handled by three tasks instead of the current single
task, allowing for parallel processing of the tasks.
 

Completing the LHO EPICS save/restore system by forcing passive output
records to run at initialisation time to restore the saved setting.
 

Preparing for the CDS upgrade at Louisiana which will take place at the
end of the month.
 

Physics Environmental Monitoring:
---------------------------------
(M. Lubinski)
 

We are changing the gain setting in the Endevco accelerometer
chassis (Isotron power supply, model 2793) from X1(factory setting) to X10.
This will increase sensitivity of the instruments.  We are also working on
calibration of accelerometers to be able to correlate counts to acceleration.
 

We have developed a calibration method for the microphones using a Bruel
and Kjaer piston phone (model 4228) calibration unit with an attenuator unit
attached.  This calibration is in progress.  All of the data for the above
calibrations will be put on the CDS web page under "Installation files"
when completed.

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)

The new Pre Mode Cleaner is running continuously with 5.4 Watts of output
with 7 Watts of input power. The cavity FWHM was measured to be 4.5 MHz.
The old pre mode cleaner was open to the atmosphere and the feedback
voltage on the PZT to keep it locked showed a strong correlation with
atmospheric pressure. The new pre mode cleaner is hermetically sealed. The
PZT voltage no longer shows any correlation with atmospheric pressure, but
rather strongly correlates with the table temperature.
 

Sany, Haisheng, and Dave R. worked on getting the mode cleaner and MMT
aligned.  We discovered that some of the cabling which carries the MC
alignment bias voltage into the controllers had been crossed. Cables are
now labeled and connected to the proper controllers. The MC has been
aligned to the point where flashes are coming through MC3. Beams are
centered on the mirrors to 1 mm or better. Pitch and Yaw biases for the MCs
are in the range |1 - 4| V. Reflected and transmitted MC beams are aligned
out of the chamber for IOT pickoff. MMT alignment - SM1 had to be shifted a
few mm to center the beam on the mirror. Faraday is aligned; MMT alignment
underway.

MIT (Shoemaker)

All activity reported elsewhere.

Caltech (Sanders)

Kip Thorne has organized an association of the gravitation research projects at Caltech and JPL. An organizing meeting was held last Friday. Among other things, it was decided to combine and share the associations seminar series with the LIGO series, approximately equally. The time for the seminar series has been movedto a time convenient for the JPL attendees so they do not have to make a roundtrip. Thus, in the fall, the combined seminar series will meet on Fridays at 4 pm, not at the old Tuesday 11:00 am time.

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

4km Suspensions

1.2 LLO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

Input  Optics

ITMy

PEM Audit

Core Optics Support (COS)

PSL

Lee Cardenas

Rich Abbott
Shipped a full set of frequency distribution components to LLO for installation in the near term on a trip to the site that I am planning.

SUS Electronics

LLO One Arm Test

Suspensions Controller Tuning

2.0 Other Engineering and Scientific Activities

2.1 Design/Analysis/Fab

PSL

COC Metrology

LSC Electronics

Modulated OSEM  & Digital Suspension Controller Design

GDS electronics

DMT

2.2 Issues Concerns

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• 40 m Lab Rehab: Contractor has placed concrete for footings and slab for additional room at Northwest side of the Lab. He has erected the wood framing and outside paneling. It is about 15% complete.
• Fred Asiri, Rick Karwoski, and Steve Vass met with an electrical engineer and electrician from Physical Plant at the 40m. Discussed possible methods to improve "clean" power distribution for the electronics work. We will discuss these methods with Jay/Rolf and if they are in agreement, Fred will obtain cost and schedule impacts for management decision.
• Painters are stripping old paint off of the three overhead cranes in the lab, in preparation for painting them.
• Output Chamber: Fabrication of the seismic isolation and support system for the Output Chamber is in progress at Caltech Central Engineering Services. Fabrication is about 30% complete.
• Papers placed in a time capsule under the NW corner of the 40m lab on 7/31/00, G000179-00.pdf.
• SURF students toured the lab on 8/3/00, and there will be a tour for political reporters (in town for the DNC) on Monday.
• In preparation for these tours, a set of 56 slides on LIGO physics was made into seven 8-slide posters for display at the 40m lab, G000183-00.pdf.
• Dennis Ugolini continues to bring up bits of the upgraded vacuum control system. All gauges can be read on the EPICS screen, serial port communications with ion pump controllers work, and read-back of valve and pump status lines will be up soon. Remaining: relays for switching remote valves and pumps, and shakedown of the control software, alarms, etc.
• Steve Vass and Ivica have plumbed up the (empty) output chamber and are pumping it down. After 2 days, it's already below 1e-5 torr, and RGA scans are being monitored. We'll pump on it with a small turbo pump and then a big ion pump, for some weeks; but it already looks to be pretty clean. We will solicit advice from vacuum experts on the criterion for deciding whether the chamber needs to be sent out for cleaning and baking.
• Continued great progress from the SURF students: Ivica S. is modelling the new digital LOS and SOS suspension controllers, and has a rather deep understanding of its workings. Brian Kappus has a very nice WFS control plant for dual recycling, both for LIGO II and 40m. Ten Jou has a variety of good models for length control of a dual-recycled 40m (different signal recycling tunes). Lisa Goggin has good designs for the 40m optics, including 12 meter mode cleaner and two mode matching telescopes. Jit Chauhan knows how to build much of the GDS code on the 40m suns (his list of code to install includes gds, diag, dmt, dataviewer, GRASP, and 3rd party stuff: root, fftw, etc).
• From Rick Karwoski: During the past week I continued my efforts on infrastructure aspects of the new 40 meter facility. Specifically, I worked with Jay, Fred and Steve to resolve power, grounding isolation and distribution. We also met with the CalTech facilities folks who provided some fine input regarding the matter. Over the past week the facility power issues have become much clearer. After our final discussions with Jay today, I believe that Fred and I have a good idea of how things might best proceed. Tomorrow we hope to review our findings and recommendations with both of you. During the other part of my life, I continued to delve into the details of the LIGO system. A number of sessions with Stan has helped immensely in this regard. Likewise general conversations with Jay concerning ISC particulars and Rich regarding the PSL have been instructive.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

This week, still with Seiji's considerable help, we have been studying the
noise in our mode cleaner frequency-stabilization servo.  We measured both
the electronic noise and the shot noise in our frequency measurement system
(photodiode, demodulator, etc.) and found them to be comparable.  We have
also been moving components in the feedback loop around to improve its
noise performance and to replace as many active components as possible with
passive ones.
 

We have successfully glued magnets and guide rods to two test masses, and
we plan to begin installing one test cavity in a few days.  There's a fair
bit of electronics that needs to be built before we will have a working
suspended test cavity, but we have decided to take advantage of Seiji's
expertise while he is here and install the mirrors anyway, clamp the masses
down with their earthquake stops and look at the finesse and throughput of
the cavity.  The mirrors will remain under vacuum during these tests and
while the electronics are being finished.

LASTI (Zucker)

LASTI: Continued work on documentation for LASTI program discussion and review
for week of 8/15.

LIGO II ISC: Continued work on WBS dictionary.  Circulated "fanciful" hybrid
block diagram of sensing & control scheme, incorporating elements of all major
modulation/readout schemes under current consideration, to act as a strawman
for hardware & software cost effort.

HAM Installation

All parts and tooling for the installation of the first HAM seismic
isolation system has been located with the exception of an adapter plate
and hardware. These items are short lead and will be ordered early next
week if not found before then.

Installation is scheduled to begin 9/11. LLO will be sending 2 people
for two weeks to get us started.

Recieved and installed Algor analysis software to assist Stanford with
STIFF prototype design.
 

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling

Lock Acquisition

Matt is working to implement a better logic for Jim's RSE.
He is also working to find a better robust locking of LHO Michelson.

PSL

Rick, Brad and Biplab kept working to study the noise sources of
PSL using e2e. The result will be summarized in the SURF report.
(possibly LIGO note, or better yet publication?)

adlib

Biplab worked hard to trace bugs which were found when the mis aligment
effect for the lock acquisition was studied. The bug fix release will be
very
soon.

alfi / GUI

A new version, 4.0.13, was released. New features in this release are
(1) better support of multiple directories
(2) better information feedback to the user
in addition to the fixes of some of the known bugs.
A few problems were found after the release and Bruce worked to trace
the cause. A new revised version is expected to be released very soon.
After that revised version goes through basic QA, it will be installed
at
LHO.

Improvement works are going on as well. Bruce is working to implement
a better interface to edit the settings. He is also working to implement

a semi-automatized ALFI test suite so that ALFI can be tested more
reliably after changes are made in maintenance and features are added.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

(Lazzarini for Kent)
This week has been consumed by an intense effort to perform the first LDAS Mock Data Challenge. More will be provided next week. PSU, UTB and ANU visitors have been working around the clock with LIGO people to complete the challenge.

 

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

----- Forwarded message from Omar Rashad (LDAS SysAdmin) -----

Applied slight tweaks to LDAS servers requested for MDC
Resurrected muscida from temp storage for usage by visitors for MDC

Gnats:
Added MDC visitors to edit access for ldas-bugs database
Created associations from newly utilized mdc categories to responsible
  email addresses
Corrected associations in the ldas_procurrements db to use alias groups
  and migrated references in existing problem reports
Similar corrections should be applied to GC database

Installs/reinstalls:
Resurrected apache on ldas-wa after server hardware replacement
Reinstalling Linux OS on kitalpha and all 8 beowulf nodes to bring them up
  to must current official release
Helping with Linux install on users laptops

----- End of forwarded message from Omar Rashad (LDAS SysAdmin) -----

For Omar add,
Fixed hardware problem with ldas-pcdev1 that prevented it from using
both CPU's.
 

P.S. Should we consider opening up the GNATS ldas_procurement table to
perusal by interested LSC members? I can imagine that some of them
will be interested to know when certain computational resources
will be made avilable.

 

Data Analysis Activities

Also, Beoit Mours has arrived for his year-long sabbatical visit from VIRGO. He will likely work in two areas: user interfaces to LDAS (with Peter Shawhan); multiple interferometer analysis (with Sam Finn and other GWIC researchers in this area).
 

LIGO-SNEWS: (K. Ganezer, A Lazzarini, Sz. Marka)
We welcome Albert Lazzarini in our group. Albert helped us along the
way to draft our proposal and plans to participate in the development of
our coincidence system.
We sheduled our introductory SNEW talk for the 08/2000 LSC Meeting in
Hanford. We would like to use the opportunity discuss the project with
interested LSC members especially experts already working on burst
detection algorithms.

Jeff Edlund (summer student):

I modified the code for the Fast Chirp Transform (FCT) so that it
automatically corrects for phase functions that are not 0 at x=0 and 1 at
x=1.  Phase functions are now only required to be monotonically
increasing.

I started a small web page to keep track of my progress.

I completed my comparison of the 2D FFT FCT method and our new method that
does the FFTs of the columns by inspection. I showed that the results at
powers of 2 were consistent with the change in order.

I'm currently working on understanding how to apply the FCT to
gravitational chirps from the binary inspiral of neutron stars.
 
 

General Computing

MIT:
Has received most of the SUN equipment from the special SUN order.
Larry will be traveling to MIT the third week of August to assist in setting the
new computers up.
 

Livingston:
Nothing to report from General Computing. Bellsouth and LSC did have some
network problems but they did not adversly affect the Observatory.

Hanford:
Preparing for the LSC meeting.

CIT:
(Barbara)
- Continued work on the web reports for the CostBook.
- Helped Irena with the LSC progress reports and research plans.  Made some
minor changes to the Access application.

(Sam)
Finished up a new PC build. Worked on documentation.

(Lisa)
- Finished monthly backups.  This included centralizing the backup scripts and
changing them to use hardware compression.  We are still only getting about 10G
per tape.I want to look into it a bit more to see if I can get closer to the
14G mark.
- Added users to the dial up access. Will add an entry to the FAQ
on how to configure a user for dial-up. Will work on DHCP configuration for
dial-up services.
- Changed (with Larry's help) the automaps on sirius and sadal.  Both servers
still had remnants of maps from kater and puma which was affecting my ability to
install the new cadence software.
- Cadence installation has begun.
- Worked with Larry on moving the home accounts on home8 to a larger disk array.
- Provided user support to Wilson House. Worked with Larry on installing the
Multi-mode to Single-mode signal converter. The first test did not pass on the
single mode connection so there will have to be some tweaking done.

(Suresh)
Still in Nepal visiting family.

(Larry)
- Still working procurement issues most dealing with LDAS but still have a
number of items for the GC.
- Resolved a number of PC issues, most dealing with incorrect installations of
s/w. Just a reminder for everyone to keep their virus-scan up to date, we've had
a number of hits this past week and so far no major problems and the virus-scan
s/w has helped in keeping the problems to a minimum.
- Installed a few more hubs and ran some more cable for the network.
- Working with Ed C. on getting some of the old equipment moved out.
- Started installation of equipment into a new rack.
- Working with Liz to get an area set aside for people to use the scanner and CD
burner. Presently, looking at location on the third floor of Bridge.
 

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

From: Janeen Hazel <romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu>
Suspensions - Wednesday August 2, 2000

Working on LIGO II Proposal. Updated the Development Plan and the Table
listing which optic with which type of suspension (on the L2 Proposal
Suspension page.)

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

A preliminary cost estimate has been received from CSIRO for polishing a Pathfinder II piece.  I will discuss this with them in depth when I visit next week to take part in sapphire homogeneity measurements.

A SUS-COC interface meeting was held to try and find the dotted line between the subsystems and to decide what type of requirements SUS might put on COC.  More in depth questions to follow, but it was a good start.
 

From: Jordan Camp <jordan@ligo.caltech.edu>

Worked on LIGO-II PSL and COC proposal chapters.

Measured total loss and absorption of a 1" MLD mirror coating (MLD is the Oregon
coating company founded by one of the co-inventors of the ion beam sputtered
coating process.) The mirror appears to be in the supermirror category, with
total loss (transmission+scatter+absorption) ~30 ppm, and with absorption ~1
ppm (comparable to the absorption of an REO mirror coating). At
present, MLD has no facilities for coating of LIGO size large optics, but they
have expressed interest in the LIGO program and have asked for a copy of our
coating specifications.
 

From: Virginio Sannibale <vsanni@ligo.caltech.edu>
Caltech SAS Seismic Group Short Report.

Akiteru

 TAMA-IP transverse mode tuned at ~ 67mHz.
 TAMA- IP Counter weight tunning: Coupling with the yaw mode fixed by
 using 2 accelerometers. Model to fit experimental data improved by
 considering an effective counter weight arm.

Brett and Virginio

  Still working on the software to control the VME board to drive the stepping
  motor.

Lisa

  finishing the cabling of the LVDT and testing the last 3 LVDT drivers.
  First run of the 3 reference LVDT placed into the oven seems not to correlate
  quite well with the temperature fluctuation. A better data analisys is
  needed

James and Akiteru

  Transfer function measurement of the MGASF with different working point under
  progress.

Giovanni Lo Surdo

  Remounting and re-wiring the IP sensors and actuators.

Soy and Francesco Fidecaro

  Working on a Labview program to trigger the creak/creep noise of a
  loaded triangular blade.

Chenyang

  improved the Q factor for the LC actuator circuit.

Virginio

  Supervising the work of the LIGO-SAS surf students.
  Working on fixing a bug on the DSP control program.

Hareem

  Finishing the characterization of the MSGAF and GASF working point
  and Q factor of the vertical mode.

Susha Giancarlo Virginio

  Found a better agreement on the simulation of the MGASF and the
  experimental data for the blade working point. Fit of the blade shape
  under progress.
 
 [1] From Peter King:3.1 LIGO II PSL        Quotations for various PSL-related components continue totricklein.  Currently the second draft of the PSL WBS Dictionary is beingworkedon, after some guidance from the meeting held on Monday.
 > LIGO II coatings> During a teleconference, REO reaffirmed their intention to be involved with> the LIGO project.> They mentioned the possibility of getting a dedicated chamber and staff to> support LIGO II coatings; previous commitment ($$) from CALTECH is expected.>> Also, JM Mackowski, from the Virgo coating laboratory, visited Caltech.> He also expressed interest in making  LIGO II coatings.> He had a very impressive presentation about their capabilities. They have a> very complete characterization facility, a coating chamber capable to fit> very large substrates, a very sophisticated rotation / mask system capable> of correcting the surface wavefront in a mirror.> However, they do not have cleaning or coating procedures in place yet. They> just made some single coating layers.>>> A mirror from MLD was tested, see Jordan's report. Maybe they can become a> good supplier for coatings other than COC's.

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