Weekly Report for Week Ending September 28, 2000

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  October 2, 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.

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

WBS 1.2 LIGO Operations--Administration

LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Lindquist)

• A site telecon was held on September 28, 2000.   Ed Jasnow reported on the pre-bid conference held at Livingston for the Storage and Staging Building contract.  Eight potential primes participated.  We expect to hold to the bid schedule.
• Otto plans to submit a change request for $200,000 to begin the A&E work at Hanford.
• The list of current actions revised to reflect open actions assigned through September 28, 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. . .

SEPTEMBER STATISTICS

September was an extremely active month.  A total of 136 new documents were processed and made available on-line.  Additionally, 261 documents were added to the DCC database.  The fax traffic was high as well with 163 faxes sent and another 145 received.  During this month, 92 packages were sent out while 94 were received.

ACTIVITY HIGHLIGHTS

• Processed a couple of additional, late-arriving LSC presentations and am expecting one from Dr. McQuire shortly.  One anticipated presentation was actually never presented and will not be submitted.  I believe this leaves us only a couple of presentations which are not in the DCC.
• Prepared Addendum 1 to IFB EJ-319 (Staging Building, LA) for Fred Asiri, consisting of copying, quality checks, packaging, tracking, and FedExing.
• Met with Irena and Phil to address a disconnect in a process chain that subsequently caused a delay in posting an LSC report to the web.  To protect from this occurring in the future, we will ask Rita to routinely check the docspublic/M directory to ensure that her LSC submittals to dcc/OUT were handled.  If the documentation resides in docspublic/M, then she can contact Barbara to indicate that those documents are ready to be posted on the web.
• Completed a physical audit of "P" documents in the DCC, making sure that any publication listed in the database was indeed on our shelves or available electronically.  The audit covered years 1986 through the present.  Out of  230 publications, 17 were missing (approximately 7%).  We are identifying the authors of these publications to see if we can recover a copy for the files. Following this initial audit, we will compare the web's publication list against those in the DCC database, bringing both lists into synchronization.   Those publications that are on the web without DCC numbers will be added to our database and any showing in the database but not on the web list will be added.  Concurrently with this process, we will seek to gather as much missing bibliographic data as possible for each publication.  Following web synchronization, two steps remain:
• Checking the latest publication listing (web/DCC) with Liz' list of publications as submitted to the NSF.
• Assembling outstanding "P" numbers from the DCC Log database, and sending individual emails to encourage the submittal of these "P" documents or cancellation of the "P" number.

• Prepared, packaged, & shipped 19 of the Addendum 1 to IFB EJ-319.
• Continued working on "fixing" the publications document problem.

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>

Working on preparing the report for the Washington Sales tax auditor who will be here on Monday.  Gathering information and copies of invoices for furniture orders placed for LHO.

Finishing up for the fiscal year 2000 which officially ends tomorrow.  Closing out PO's and removing encumbrances.  Released $261.38 in
encumbrances on old FY99 PO's.  Many of the PO's had only nominal amounts encumbered.

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

• Revised spreadsheet comparing Budgets for FY 2001 and FY 2000 with anticipated expenditures for FY2000.  Spreadsheet has been sent to Managers requesting their input, as this data will be a part of the Budget Review on October 3rd.
• Worked with Donna Tomlinson on preparing the monthly reports for Visitor Programs.
• Prepared an analysis of payroll charges for Graduate Assistants and the Tuition Remission Allowance paid for them.

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

• LIGO II Coating R&D/REO: An RFQ for a follow-on (to LIGO I program) coating effort is in review by the Detector group. A teleconference (with REO), on the subject, was held on Sept. 26th.
• Univ. Of Michigan: CO No. 3, adding funds for commissioning support at LHO is pending receipt of a proposal from the Univ. of Michigan.

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

• No report from Ed this week.  He is at Livingston for the "job walk.".

Advanced LIGO (Frey, Petrac)

Progress Period from 9.22 to 9.28

Accomplishments:

• OUT OF OFFICE ON 9.25 - NOT WELL
• Did not hold Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting with Gary, Dennis, and Phil.
• Weekly status meeting for Advanced LIGO Proposal canceled this week.  Every Tuesday at 9:30am at SCR.
• Continue to test the Cost Book Tool.
• Proposal plan development for Advanced LIGO and Operations continues.
• Issued data requests for progress data as of 9.29.00 that is due Friday.
• Progress as of 9.22.00 was processed and posted.
• Funding exercise has been revised due to information needs at NSF.  Working with Dennis Coyne to further define R&D and MRE funding profile. Meeting with Dennis and Gary scheduled for Thursday 1:30pm SSCR.
• Project Plan for the 40-Meter Lab Upgrade continues.
• Issued data requests for progress data as of 9.29.00 that is due Friday.
• Updated the plan with progress as of 9.22.00.  Posted to site.
• Posed a revised baseline plan with all of AOS integrated per Mike Smith's data and comments.
• Planning process for the LASTI project at MIT is in progress.
• 4th iteration provided by David.  Integration into the central database is proceeding.
• Development of the Advanced LIGO 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

• Next weekly meeting will be Monday afternoon October 2 from 1 to 2pm regarding the planning and control of the Advanced LIGO proposal development.
• Advanced LIGO Proposal Status meeting will be Tuesday morning October 3 from 9:30am to 11am.    Each system leader to discuss issues specific to he Advanced LIGO proposals.
• Continuing Operations Proposal budget presentations continue on October 3 from 9am to Noon and resume at 1pm until 4pm.
• Will meet with Alex Krigman of Campus Auxiliary Business Systems for one hour to provide additional guidance regarding his use of SureTrak planning software.
• Continue to test the Cost Book Tool.
• Will continue to integrate LASTI data and issue for comments.
• Will continue to update the Advanced LIGO / Ops Proposal Plans and incorporate any changes.
• Will post progress report by end of day Tuesday with progress as of 9.29.00.
• Will issue 12th week of status data to teams.
• Will continue effort with Dennis Coyne to complete funding profile to sufficient detail to meet Gary Sander's needs.
• Will continue updating the 40 meter schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will post progress report by end of day Tuesday with progress as of 9.29.00.
• Will issue 12th week of status data to teams.
• 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 Advanced LIGO Project Web Site.
• Will continue the development of the Advanced LIGO Project Controls Guide Book.  Finish section on data dictionaries and start on update process.

• We have scheduled meetings for review of the FY 2001 and Continuing Operations (FY 2002-2006) budget requests.  The first was held Thursday afternoon, September 21, for the Data Analysis and Computing Group.  The remainder are scheduled for Tuesday, October 3.  Group leads will be requested to present their budget requests and explain differences betwee the budget proposed for FY 2001 and the FY 2000 budgets and actual costs for FY 2000 projected through the end of the fiscal year.  We will also review Continuing Operations budgets for FY 2002-2006.
• A Quarterly Progress Report  is due for the quarter ending August 31, 2000.  I have distributed a rough draft for information and review.  We are still missing the section for the Detector.  Their priorities currently are on text for the Advanced LIGO proposal (the right place).

The following Change Request has been submitted:
 
 

Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection.

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

• Completed partial sections of the August CSSR and Quarterly NSF Report.  Ran draft reports for review.

• No report this week (sick).

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

Nothing significant to report (see above).

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

No report, see above.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

• No report this week.

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)

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

We have made some reassignments of labor to cover 4K installation to broaden the capabilities of the resident staff and to adjust to holes created by LIGO-II commitments. Mark Guenther and Tom Mahood will work with Rick Savage to install the 4K PSL; Corey Gray and Betsy Weaver will work with Dave Ottaway on IO installation. Rick Graf will be helping support Doug Cook with optics tasks.
 

Bake Oven:
----------
(K. Ryan)

LHO Vacuum Bake Oven A load #105, consisting of 10" optic ETM02-A and 3" optics MCFM01-1 and MCFM04-1, was released on 9-11-00.

Load #106, consisting of an SOS top block, Kapton cable w/peek connectors and misc. COS SS fasteners, was released 09-19-00.

Load #107, consisting of three 3" optics, should be released 9-29-00.  This load had to be rebaked as two of the heated zones had run cooler than the programmed setpoint during the initial baking.  This problem was found to be due a simple programming error and was corrected.

Vacuum Bake Oven B (small oven ~1.5-2.0 cubic feet) has been test fitted and mounted to it's stand but is still waiting for a custom part before final commissioning can be completed.
 

PreStabilized Lasers:
-----------------------------------
(M. Guenther T. Mahood & R. Savage)

Fabrication of the attachment fixtures for installation of the acoustical insulating panels into the 2k PSL enclosure have been completed and T. Mahood and G. Moreno have completed 95% of the installation.

The 4k 10 watt laser has now been activated in its enclosure in the south bay.  There are no table optics at this time. It's just being run into a beam dump (a power meter) for startup and initial monitoring.

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

We closed out last week with the cleaning and realignment of ETMy-2k. The optic had been showing a lot of scattering. The optic was quit dusty and the BSC chamber floor was littered with aluminum foil chips, material from clean room garb and some other debris which probably was the source of the contamination. Quite dirty by normal standards. The chamber was vacuumed and the optics table interior and adjacent modules were inspected for additional contamination. We then adjusted the optic alignment to give us a better dynamic range on the SUS and ASC bias adjustments. The optic was then CO2 and N2 cleaned and inspected. An additional viewport was added to accomodate the photon calibrator. Hopefully the H2O level will be such that we can open gate valves and look at the lack of scattering and the alignment. We are still processing optics and hardware for the 4K installation.
 

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

SEI Coarse Actuation System:
 

Installation is essentially complete.  Use of the CAS at LLO revealed moves commanded produce smaller motions coupled with yaws at the Optics Table.  Testing at LHO has continued on the CAS (Instrumentation JPEG).  We have found definitively that the connection between the airbearing and the crossbeam is too loose and allows the joint to rotate during CAS lateral translation plot.  This results in shorter than commanded moves and unintended yaws as the two airbearing/crossbeam connections rotate different amounts in response to different resistive loads from the expansion bellows.  We have fabricated custom shims to allows full torquing of this joint.  We will test this modification 9-28.
 

Fine-X
We were installing the PZT stacks in the Fine-X stages at Y-Mid when we found the conical seat for the PZT installed backwards in the bottom frame.  This part needs precise machining and a hardened material due to the continuous high stress it endures.  It will be a few days as we fabricate the solution.
 

SEI Transfer Function:
We have lost one of our reaction mass shakers to the commisioning group working on modecleaner leveling.  We'll get back to wrapping up the results when we have the fourth shaker.
 

Other areas
--------------
ISC Alignment Sensing & Control
 

2k: Working with R. McCarthy to swap the QPDs with increased gain (10x) models.
The 4 test mass optical levers are completed to date.
 

4k: Slowly putting in and testing the various components of the 4k optical levers.  Nothing significant new this week.
 

Computing:
----------
(C. Patton)
 

Evaluating Quick Restore backup software for possible purchase.  The
software provides a GUI on the Unix server, has drivers to control the
Exabyte tape robot, and will backup the server and 5 Unix clients.
There are other options for more clients, drivers for different types of
tape robots and Windows98 clients will be available by the end of this
year.  So far it works well.
 

Finished putting the fiber onto the GC license server so that it is now
serving licensed software to the CDS network computers as well as the GC
computers.  This makes Matlab, Mathematica, GNU compilers, Latex, emacs,
Ghostview and Ghostscript and several other applications available on
the CDS network.
 

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)

OPTICS/COC/SEI INSTALLATION: ITM-x has been fine aligned, and its Optical Lever enabled. With the COS-LAC established the X-manifold and used to
coalign MMT-3 with MMT-2 and the projected PSL beam, we found that MMT-3 required quite a bit of PAM bias in yaw. We backed out the PAM screws to
minimize their influence and corrected the Yaw misalignment by loosening MMT-3 from the HAM table and yawing the entire LOS. We also found that
after yawing the LOS we no longer observed pitch/yaw cross talk. BSC 3, as well as HAMS 3, 4 and 5 have been documented and closed; this morning we're completing the photographic documentation of HAMS 1 and 2 and replacing their doors. We'll kill the purge air briefly, and place the air-dam
between HAM-3 and BSC-2 so that we can make the in-air length measurement of the MC. Following this, I plan to complete the checkout/cleaning of both
ITMs and the BS, replace the remaining BSC door and X-manifold spoolpiece and begin pump down of the vertex Friday or Monday. (Jonathan Kern)

LLO Computing: Larry Wallace and several members of the Livingston staff had a series of talks with representatives from Bell South about our eventual
conversion to a fiber link to LSU. A fiber has been installed between LLO and the nearest Bell South substation, but many administrative issues remain to be resolved before we can switch over to the fiber. (Shannon Roddy)

Outreach: One school group visited this week. This Saturday, the U of New Orleans and Loyola University SPS and Astronomy club students and some faculty tour LIGO.

Late news: After an extended installation period this summer, the mode cleaner is once again locking for brief periods in air!
 

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

Bill Kells
Mostly have concentrated on interpretation of full lock data brought back from LHO since then.

Finished up e2e runs (started at LHO) to show difference between LHO 2k and 40m PRM lock in presence of arm fringes. A striking difference is apparent which corresponds (qualitatively to observation).

Input Optics

ETMY Cleaning

Core Optics Support (COS)

• Faraday Isolator: 4k Faraday Isolator is being re-checked to improve the extinction and transmissivity characteristics.
• HAM2/3 Beam Dump A beam dump assembly is  fabricated; delivery to CIT is expected 10/3.
• COS equipment (except for laser autocollimators) was sent to LHO

LIGO-TriNet

1.2 LLO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

Commissioning

First step will be the in-air measurement of the length of the re-installed Mode Cleaner, which should take place by the end of this week.

IO

• MC resonating (flashing)
• Establishment of the PSL beamline into the COC: a laser autocollimator was directed from the spool section at ITMx to MMT3 to establish the PSL beamline into the COC.  The laser autocollimator optical axis was established using ITMx and MMT3 by centering on those optics.  MMT3 was then yaw'ed to center the projected pattern on a target mounted to MMT2.  The PSL beam was also centered on MMT2,3 by adjusting biases on MMT1,2 to establish collinearity (some uncertainty in positioning on MMT3). The beam returning from the RM was slightly low (~ 1.5 cm) on MMT1, so we tweaked to MMT3 a bit (~ 0.5 bias) to get the beam out the Faraday port.
• Checked the beam coming out the APS telescope on HAM 4.  Slight adjustments of MMT3 pitch and yaw bias give a reasonable looking beam.
• more data on the LLO e-log.

ISC

LSC

• 5 ea. I&Q demod, 2 are needed soon and will be borrowed from LHO
• 2 ea. LSC notch filters
• 1 ea. common mode board 1
• 1 ea. diff driver receiver
• 1 ea. VMIC 4116

CDS Software

LSC software: Waiting for header files and lock acq. code updates from M. Evans to incorporate in front end code for next run.

ASC software: Awaiting decision/guidance on adding optical lever signals and servos into ASC front end software.

Core Optics Support (COS)

• Arm Cavity Baffle: The ITMx and ITMy baffles are aligned.
• IO Baffle: The re-worked IO baffle is installed.

PSL

Prepared all the components, procedures, pictures and drawings required to Suspend a Ref. Cavity for the PSL at LHO. As per request from Rick Savage and Mark Guenther.

Took last parameter measurements for the Laser MOPA S/N 110 that it is going to Lightwave.

Peter King
Some parts are coming in for fabrication of the 4k PSL.

2.0 Other Engineering and Scientific Activities

2.1 Design/Analysis/Fab

Optical Metrology

The 0º incidence measurements of the Beamsplitter are nearly complete.  We have yet to start the 45º incidence measurements.

#SEW#  We have decided to go ahead with RM03 for the LHO 4 km interferometer, based on real absorption measurements for the ITMs and some FFT analysis by Bill Kells.  It is shipping to LHO today.

PSL

The network link down to the PSL Lab seems to be behaving properly now, at least there aren't so many dropped packets.  A new problem popped up when no non-root user could log in but that has since been fixed.

Rick  and Peter have been taking measurements characterizing the current shunt actuator, for frequencies below 100 kHz.  We feel that it is important to also obtain data beyond 100 kHz, since this will give us a good indication of just how high we can extend the bandwidth of any intensity stabilization servo.

The paperwork for some 40m Lab and LASTI PSL components has been submitted. These being for the PSL optical table and pre-modecleaner.  Other bits and bobs continue to trickle in.

Paul Russell
I am looking forward to my association with Rick Karwoski. This week has been dedicated to getting my tasks at the wilson house finished up... this might take a week or two, in the mean time I'm trying to collect and absorb  all the info on the PSL.

ISC

LSC/ASC Software

ASC software: Awaiting decision/guidance on adding optical lever signals and servos into ASC front end software.

Modulated OSEM Design

• Measurements at CIT tend to confirm the PD intermodulation measurements made by Rai. They do not bode well for for eliminating the scattered light effects using only electronic measures.
• The scattered light sampling and subtraction idea is still on going. Hopefully we will have some results by next week.

New OSEM Heads

Wesgo/Duramic has come back with a quote for alumina heads. Surmet and Progressive Technology say they will quote by the end of this week. Working on osem documentation.

Suspensions

Digital Suspensions

The SOS dewhitening schematics are being reviewed and completion of the design is scheduled for next week.

Rolf Bork
Got back to work on the LOS controller output stage software.  Running some preliminary performance and timing tests using the LSC system to provide inputs to the system via reflected memory.

TNI Suspensions

Data Monitoring Tool

DAQ Software

DAQ Antialiasing Filter Board

Global Diagnostics

Originally, 14 units were requested. Now the number has increased to 17. We are in the process of buying additional components to fill the new order. Previous order for two pin LEMO connectors has fallen through the crack and are being reordered.

2.2 Issues Concerns

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• The 40m upgrade project budget will be "scrubbed" October 3. AJW is trying to assemble numbers for a meaningful budget, with input from subsystem leaders.
• Dennis Ugolini and Ben Abbot continue to assemble the hardware required to control the vacuum valves with the new vacuum control system.
• Final drafts of all five summer SURF student reports are posted on the 40m web page. Most of them will be submitted to the DCC as LIGO notes.
• Rick Karwoski is continuing to assemble and maintain documentation on electronics required for LIGO II / 40m, currently focussing on ISC, LSC, suspension controllers, ASC.
• Steve Vass continues to prepare the lab for the installation of STACIS isolators, scheduled for November. First isolator system (of 4) should arrive in the next few weeks.
• Peter King will begin assembly of the 40m PSL at the lab, as soon as the lab is ready. This should be after STACIS installation is complete, as early as December 1.
• 40m building rehab: Most of the exterior work and interior wall work is done. Wall between South Annex changing room and main work room is gone. Newly enclosed entry hall is mostly done. Electrical work and cable tray installation is in progress. The end is in sight! (We continue to await re-roofing by Caltech).
• Output optic chamber stack:
• An Indian film maker, Anjali Meta, will use the 40m as a backdrop for interviews about LIGO and the history of the field, on Monday, October 2.
• We discussed what the LIGO II output mode cleaner (for DC demodulation GW readout) might look like, at our weekly meeting. The idea that it might look like a PSL pre-mode-cleaner, hung from a LIGO-I-like suspension, controlled by OSEMs, is only a "strawman" design (which seems a bit unwieldy). We'd like to prototype this thing at the 40m, once we (ie, the LIGO II design team) has a good sense of what it might look like.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

This week, while waiting on new filters for our laminar flow hood, we
reassembled the hood to get it up and running again and then used it to
glue magnets and guide rods onto our third test mass.  Once the epoxy has
set, we will only have one more mirror to prepare.
 

Jay Heefner laid out the boards for our satellite amplifiers, and we should
receive a quote for fabrication by the end of the week.  We anticipate a
one week turnaround time for these boards, and we hope to start stuffing
them very soon.
 

Components for the mode cleaner servo and the satellite amplifiers arrived
from Digi-Key, as did suspension wire from California Fine Wire.  The
Carpentry shop delivered our custom optical table, a lightweight breadboard
mounted on wooden legs, on Tuesday.  This table will be for diagnostic
optics, mostly cameras used to look at the modes of each cavity, and
replaces a shelf-on-wheels that we have been using.
 

LASTI (Zucker)

Planning/budget (DHS & MZ): completed & distributed for comment
hardware budget estimate for LASTI R&D program corresponding to
reviewed project plan.  Daniel and Rolf's analysis of reduced
requirements for the planned experiments led to significant savings on
the DAQ and GDS portions over 'carbon copy' site-type installations.
 

Lab infrastructure (M. MacInnis, M. Smith, K. Mason, E. Kruzel, MZ):
Cleared out stored equipment to make room for SEI hardware.  With
riggers, moved donated cleanrooms and gowning room from CSR into high
bay; cleaned fan units and erected cleanroom over right end HAM. May
want to raise the height a tad but otherwise looks like it was made for
the job.
 

Erected donated cleanroom-compatible aluminum gantry crane for testing
door removal options (no Toyota here and no space to drive it...).
 

SEI external installation(M. MacInnis, M. Smith, K. Mason, E. Kruzel):
Finished HAM anchor drilling (turns out carbide hole saws work best on
SST rebars).  Set anchor bolts for all HAM chambers, scarified concrete
for grouting and rough-set SEI support piers for 2 of 3 HAM's. Cleaned
corrosion and passivated surfaces of all HAM piers. Staged remaining
equipment for SEI installation and scheduled cleaning crew to clean up
next week.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling

1. Matt works on improving the lock servo design.
2. Luca repdoduced the LHO 2k lock experiment with ETMs misaligned.
     Luca is looking into the details of the simulated lock process to find
     what breaks the lock.
3. Biplab studied the effect of the misalignments of mirrors on the lock.
     He found that there is a threshold at around several x 10-8 rad above
     which the system would not lock. He summarized the result in LIGO
     note T000106

Simulations

Jim found a discrepancy between data and the simulated result when the
waist position of the incoming field is shifted by 10% of the Raleigh length.
The simulation predicts a big change of the stored power in the cavity
(several 10% reduction), while the measurement sees much smaller effect.
The cause, possibly the perturbative expansion keeping only the lowest order
of the shift, is being looked into.

GUI

The new alfi based on a revised version of the graphics rendering code has been
released. With this version, improvements of stability and performance are
expected. Various reported problems were also addressed, including the issues related
to removing objects cleanly.

Simulation Code improvements

Tavio worked on improving the matrix class. By chaning the return type of various
operators whose values are not used (e.g., *= ) to void and by removing the creation
of temporary memory allocation by suing dual storage based on the idea of Matt,
the multi mode code runs several 10% faster. He is cleaning another part of the
matrix class.
There was a discussion about the implementation of the parallelization of the code
among Matt, Hiro and Tavio. The strategy is well formulated.

Distribution

Ed wrote a documentation explaining the installation process. The document and
tar files of the latest e2e release are now available from the e2e webpage. When
a new version is released, it will be notified to the registered users and they can
download. Gerhert of TAMA has followed this document to install from the scratch
to his PC linux machine, and after a few exchane of mails with Ed, he could install
all softwares.

TAMA

Hiro went to National Astronomical Observatory, the host institute of TAMA.
Prior to his visit, Ed worked hard to install all e2e softwares on a TAMA
computer. Hiro explained the basic use of e2e to scientists from NAO, ICCR and
Univ. of Tokyo, together with the HAN2K package used for the Hanford 2k locking
servo design.
Hiro discussed with Prof. Ohashi and Mr.Tomaru about the plan of improving
and publishing a FFT paper mainly done by Tomaru by using the polished
surface data in the FFT simulation. One improvement mentioned by Ohashi
was to include some measurement of performance of TAMA in the paper.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

 

 

The wrapperAPI interface function design was finalized during a set
of teleconferences held Friday, Saturday and Monday between CIT and
UWM. Work will begin today on the development of a new wrapperAPI that
will meet the design criteria of this new interface design. The first
version of the wrapperAPI has been checked into the CVS respository
and tagged so that it can easily be distinguished from the new version
during development.

A bug in the genericAPI TCL code which cropped up on Monday of this
week and caused all LDAS APIs to stop running after 16 minutes has
been tracked down and fixed. A meeting to review our testing procedure
was held to insure more thorough integration testing of new code prior
to system testing so that this type of bug (common to all system
components) does not get into the main stream system builds. However,
it was very reassuring to be able to isolate and fix this level of
bug in less than two days.

An exhaustive suite of tests are currently underway for the version of
the LDAS system running on the development hardware. We plan to push
this version to the sites over the weekend if all tests pass. A test
status meeting will be held Friday to discuss the push to the sites.

LDAS participated in a meeting of the Network Analysis Working Group,
now called (NAWG). Kent Blackburn reported on his activities to put
together a "data flow model" for gravitational wave network analysis.
A draft of this was placed on the web and will continue to evolve as
the details of performing a network wide analysis become more clear.

The next challenge for the dataConditionAPI working group is to design
a "Unified Data Type" (UDT) C++ class. The requirements for this class
were presented last week to the group and implemetation was discussed
this week. The current leader is an implementation which uses multiple
inheritance to organize the marginally related objects needed to
support the UDT classs. Ed Maros is presenting a C++ class based on
multiple inheritance to the group next week.

The other big news for the dataConditionAPI from this week is that the
memory leak which was only half solved last week is now completely
removed.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

 

 

Started upgrade of LDAS @ LLO from U10 workstations to E450 servers, Solaris 7
to Solaris 8, ATM to Gigabit Ethernet, and adding additional 250GB disk system.

Installed and started performance testing of 1.5TB DotHill RAID system.

Installed and started configuration of 16node development Beowulf cluster
at Caltech.

Switched Caltech LDAS development network from fast Ethernet hub to
Gigabit Ethernet switch.

General Computing

Livingston:
Working on setting up a new server layout.
Checking on tape robots to be purchased for a new backup system.
Met with Larry and Bellsouth reps concerning the fiber connection.
The copper connection should be converted over to the fiber connection
sometime in the Dec-Jan time frame. Shannon Roddy will be working the
logistics at the Observatory.

Hanford:
Evaluating Quick Restore backup software for possible purchase.  The
software provides a GUI on the Unix server, has drivers to control the
Exabyte tape robot, and will backup the server and 5 Unix clients.
There are other options for more clients, drivers for different types of
tape robots and Windows98 clients will be available by the end of this
year.  So far it works well.

Finished putting the fiber onto the GC license server so that it is now
serving licensed software to the CDS network computers as well as the GC
computers.  This makes Matlab, Mathematica, GNU compilers, Latex, emacs,
Ghostview and Ghostscript and several other applications available on
the CDS network.

CIT:
(Lisa)
-Installed staroffice for Janeen Romie
-Contacted Cactus software to get a demo copy of their network backup software
for solaris/NT.
-Received and installed a replacement CPU for Rich Abbott's old gateway.  It is
now back over in Wilson House.  Swapped some other pc's around.
-Switched a SUN box from the 115 to the 125 for the Wilson backhouse.
- Created accounts for 2 wilson house employees who never had accounts created -
Dave Grimmett and Shaun Rahimi.
- Set up Rick Karwoski to run Cadence from his PC.
- Fixed the NIS+ on Peter King's sparc20 in Lauritson Lab.  It lost its sync
after the fiber move.
- Started building HTML pages for a cadence web site.  This site will contain my
notes about Cadence as well as any info that comes in from users here at
Caltech.

(Barbara)
- Tied up loose ends regarding the LSC transparencies.
- Enhanced the LSC roster to include additional information for discipline,
LIGO I, Advanced LIGO, and Council members.
- Made changes to the LDAS web site for server aliases and ilog links.
- Made quick changes to the CostBook.
- Continued efforts on the publications list/web pages.

(Suresh)
-Assisted electricians to move networking fibers from telephone closet to
computer room on last saturday.
-Restored LIGO templates for Adobe Framemaker from backup tape of former
sirius.
-Made some changes on DNS server (ligo) to reflect system named lionking which
is currently in Lauritsen building to be visible to outside world.
-Put a Sparc 5 system  in the 115 subnet in Room #354 in bridge.
-Testing "snort" and Intrusion Detection System (IDS) both on PC and solaris.
-Installing and configuring necessary softwares in PCs to be used with
projectors in conferece rooms in Millikan and third floor bridge.

(Larry)
- Worked a number of contract issues and put in a number of orders for
maintenance contracts as well as some hardware purchases.
- Working a number of budget issues for this fiscal year as well as the future
years.
- Met with Bellsouth the OTM of Louisiana and LSU to go over the costs and
logistics of the OC3 installation. Most of the information that is needed will
be supplied by Bellsouth in the near future, both cost and time estimates.
- Working on a number of procedure setups covering OS installations, LSC
meetings, and sysadmin documentation.
- Worked on a number of fiber issues through out the CIT/LIGO network.

(Samantha)

Worked on getting the new Dell lap top up and going.  It has issues
though.
Worked on burning cds.
Getting a number of parts from different computers to be used in other
computers.
Physical therapy
 

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

From Mike Smith:
LIGO 2
Pricing for the reference design is in process.

From Bill Kells:
Also tackling analysis of fate of Rayleigh scatter from
Sapphire TMs in LIGO II.

More on MElody validation, including steps to get FFT
up and running on EXEMPLAR.

From Janeen:
Working on Advanced LIGO schedule and costs for labor and materials.

From Peter King:
3.1 LIGO II PSL
The LIGO II PSL schedule has been reworked after a meeting with
Dennis Coyne and Thomas Frey. The old schedule had a large number of tasks
in parallel since I didn't know about what should go where and when. The
new schedule has removed most of that and has incorporated the PSL
delivery dates from David Shoemaker's LASTI schedule.

From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>
Silicate bonding
Investigated surface preparation prior to bonding.
Two sets of bonds were prepared.
In one set the substrates were cleaned with calcium carbonate and were well rinsed.
In the other, the substrates were rubbed with calcium carbonate and the residue was cleaned by wiping the surface several times with a wet cloth (no rinsing).
The strength of the bonds were compared, obtained very similar results, averaging ~330kg of shear for a 1/2"-diameter bond.

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

Akiteru:
Coming back from JPS meeting

Virginio:

Cleaner measurement on the SAS chain after the construction of the
enclosure. It seems possible now to run measurements when the very noisy
around and the MINOS group is working.
Found an unexpected noise problem and its source of in the DAQ system
and fixed.
Made a simple simulation of the system to study and optimize the
blending of the Accelerometers and the LVDT. Test on the IP chain under
progress.
New version of GASF paper.

Alessandro
Assembling and tuning four Copper Beryllium accelerometers.

Frederick
Early result of evaluation of mechanical simulation packages.  Ansys
seems better so far.

Riccardo, Frederick:
Assembled filter 1 in TAMA IP
Built enclosure for LIGO IP
Tested first TAMA miniGAS springs, setting dimensions for production.

Virginio, Akiteru:
Still no DSP chips found, but found a likely source in Singapore to be
checked.
 

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

The Corning representative was in on Tuesday.  We have fairly good numbers for our Corning fused silica now.  Heraeus has given us some rough $/kg numbers.  They are having a hard time getting actual quotes from Germany. (~2months to quote)  The great news is that Corning is developing a low water glass in cooperation with the government, and expect to be selling it sometime next year.  They are sending us a sample of the development material for absorption testing.
 

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