Weekly Report for Week Ending October 26, 2000


 Exec. Comm. Agenda
Highlights
LSC
Administration
Hanford Observatory
Livingston Observatory
MIT
Caltech
Detector
40 Meter
TNI
LASTI
Data Analysis
LIGO II/Adv. R&D
Past Weekly Reports

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  October 30, 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)
  5. WBS 2 LIGO Lab Operations
  6. WBS 3 and 4  Advanced R&D and LIGO II (Sanders)
Executive Committee only 11:30 - noon   Topics:
 

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)

The next site telecon is scheduled for Thursday, October 26, 2000.  The primary agenda item for that meeting will be the actual cost status through the end of September and projections for FY 2000.

The list of current actions revised to reflect open actions assigned through October 12, 2000 may be found at ACTION LIST.


PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)

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


DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)
>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

REMINDER to all LIGO-ites From: Cleveland Mak <mak_c@ligo.caltech.edu>
Packages Faxes
In 36 44
Out 12 41

Press here to access the DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER WEB PAGE.


COST SCHEDULE CONTROL SYSTEMS (Cunningham, Brambila, Akutagawa, Kaufman)

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

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA.

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

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

SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

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

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



Support (Wood)
 
Irene Baldon
    Down one-plus (1+) days with computer problems.  I now have a new one and should be able to get back into the swing of things.
    Twenty-one (21) new trips were started, with twelve (12) trips pending final approval from the traveler before tickets can be issued.

    The P-Cards are working great.  Everyone seems to be happy with them and we are in the process of adding an additional ten (10) travelers to the list of card holders.  The P-Card Expense Report was revised by Michelle Thompson's group and I made a few minor change recommendations.  I received the re-revised version this morning and will work on it as time permits today.  Once this new form is approved it will go over to Beth Moore's group to be put into FileMaker Pro form.

    I prepared a few Advance Requests and Payment Requests using the old system due to various reasons that excluded them from the new system.

    I also worked with World Travel Group to clear some outstanding canceled trips that had tickets that either needed to be transferred to a new traveler or a credit due from the airlines.  These are special cases and since LIGO is a big ticket user with the airlines involved the airlines are giving us a case-by-case special credit or exchange.

    Worked on and completed only fifteen (15) Expense Reports due to the excessive amount of time expelled on computer down time and the P-Card Expense Report form problems as related above.  I now have a new computer and things should get back on track.

    Prepared the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for the Week of October 23, 2000.

    Performed normal recording and filing associated with Travel and Reimbursement.  Worked on several problem issues with Travel Audit in addition to the above listed.  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.

Rita Torres
    Various tasks involved in formatting, scanning, submitting for web page posting for: CEGG, Attachment A, B, & Z, Syracuse Attachment A, B, & Z, and others.  FedExed for signature Attachments B, C, D, & Z to University of Australia, and Attachment C & Z to Southern University.  Did Change Order No. 9 to CSIRO.  Obtained some LSC information for R. Weiss.
    Prepared letters regarding Architectural and Engineering services at LHO, obtained an illustration of the buildings to accompany the letters.  Helped with letters for R. DeSalvo.  Re-did Change Request Form in Word (and rtf), awaiting review before I make it available to all.

    Other activities: site trip update, Pcard purchases and reconciling.

Dorothy Lloyd
    Received billed amounts on-line, to close out and remove remaining encumbrances on old POs. Adjusted LIGO database accordingly.
    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.

    Continue to monitor contract and blanket order funding levels and notify task managers when supplements are needed.

    Jim continues to do data entry in the LIGO database and help out in the DCC.

    Worked on updating PO logbooks.

    Doing some filing for Ed Jasnow starting back with 1997.

Elizabeth K. Wood
    The good news on the visa front is that on October 17, President Clinton signed into law a temporary increase in the number of H1-B visas the INS can issue each year.  For the next three years, 195,000 H1-B visas will be available.  That’s an increase of 80,000.  Even better news is that under the new law,  institutions of higher learning, nonprofit research organizations, or governmental research organizations are not subject to the numerical limitation.  Cool.

Advanced LIGO (Frey, Petrac)

From: irena@ligo.caltech.edu (Irena Petrac) From: Thomas Frey <tfrey@ligo.caltech.edu>
Progress Period from 10.20 to 10.26

Accomplishments:

Schedule 10.27 to 11.2:
Anticipated Challenges:
Will not be able to produce a complete / accurate baseline schedule for the 40-Meter lab due to the lack of planning regarding the CDS.  Per 40-Meter meetings, I cannot expect to receive this data anytime soon if at all.

 


WBS 1.4.1.2   Project Controls (LIGO Construction)



Reports (Lindquist)

Change Control/Contingency (Lindquist)

The following Change Request has been submitted:
 

CR-000018 WBS 1.1.4 Curbing for Service Roads at Livingston G. Stapfer

Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection.


COST SCHEDULE CONTROL SYSTEMS (Duncan, Akutagawa)

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

From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu> The financial reports on the web provide supporting detail.

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



SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

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

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

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)


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

We had the data acquisition system down for some work that had been getting pushed off to keep the lock acquisition work going and most of the commissars are getting some well-earned rest. Stan is here and we have some effort going to track down and fix some problems observed previously in commissioning work. Stan has also organized some special operator training and exercise to get prepared for E2. We expect one last push for stable full ifo locking before E2.

PreStabilized Lasers:
--------------------

Frequency noise modeling
(B. Bhawal, G. Cella, and R. Savage)

Frequency noise resulting from motion of the isolated and suspended
reference cavity is being analyzed using the e2e modeling software,
Giancarlo Cella's prediction of reference cavity motion based on the
model he developed while at LHO last spring, and PSL optical table
motion measurements made while he was here. With the laser and optics
stationary and considering only the suspended cavity motion, the
resulting frequency noise (caused by Doppler shifting by the moving
mirrors) peaks at about 1e-2 Hz/rtHz at 12 Hz (peak in the longitudinal
cavity motion resulting from coupling of the stack tilt to cavity
motion) and falling to about 1e-5 Hz/rtHz at 100 Hz.

We will now consider frequency noise caused by the relative motion
between the laser and mirrors mounted to the optics table and the
suspended cavity for both the case where the input direction to the
reference cavity is the same as for the 15-m mode cleaner and for the
case where they are opposite.

Giancarlo is modifying his analysis to include the internal modes of the
reference cavity with relative mirror motion precision of 1e-18 m. He
expects to have results within the next few weeks.
 
 

4k PSL
(T. Mahood and M. Guenther)
 

The laser has been located in its hopefully final position and locked down
using the new delrin microlocks and optic installation is commencing.  The
Livingston designed periscope and first turning mirror have been placed in
their positions.  Two boxes were received from Caltech containing the bulk
of the items needed for the 4K PSL.  We are awaiting a final determination
as to the optimum mirror mount to use, and then the turning mirrors will be
placed on the table.  The initial mode matching calculations have been
completed, and the lens are on hand for the main beam path from the laser
to the site of the premode cleaner.
 

Considerable effort has been expended experimenting with different means of
support for the 4k optical table (i.e., regular legs, Al blocks, elastomer
inserts, etc) in search of way to reduce low frequency vibrations of the table.
 

The 4k cross-connect has been wired, and minor discrepancies between it and
the existing 2k cross-connect are being sorted out.
 


LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)



 

OPTICS/COC/SEI INSTALLATION: Arm Cavity Baffle at the X-end has been installed, aligned and disassembled. It turned out to be an unexpectedly large job to install the unit through the BSC door, and took 2 days. ETM-x has been repositioned and fine aligned, and the new ETM transmission monitor has been assembled and installed. This afternoon we'll go to Laser Hazard and use the COS-LAC to steer the beam into the monitor. All going well, we'll close up this week. Prepared and released a new SOP M000330-A-L controlling the IOT/ISC Table Operation in LLO LVEA. (Jonathan Kern)

Commissioning: The servo for the PMC was changed by reducing the 10 Hz pole by a factor of ten and then increasing the gain by a factor of 10. This was done to decrease the effect of a 13 kHz mechanical resonance in the PMC body on the intensity spectrum from the PSL. This also increases the DC gain which will keep the PMC locked closer to resonance.

Preliminary measurements of frequency noise show it to be still a factor of 10 too high.

The mode cleaner now locks robustly. One important procedure to perform if the mode cleaner will not lock is to bring down the mode cleaner gain until the demod out is not saturated. If it still remains saturated, then the DC offset must be adjusted to bring the DC level to near 0. (Joe Kovalik)

GC: Tape library arrived this afternoon. We will install it in the rack and test this week or early next. Replacing a failed power supply
in a Fore 200BX. Installing various software packages for several people on the GC net (e2e etc.). I have been installing and configuring
some web based database/scheduling utilities for the control room operators. The scheduling part is working but several other items need
further configuration and testing. Eventually the operator checklist will be web based to ease in trending/searching data from the daily forms.

Other: Our water well pump failed yesterday afternoon. We've improvised a temporary feed from Gerry's irrigation well and ordered a replacement.

A fire occurred at the intersection of the access road and Hwy 63 on 10/24. It spread from a trash fire set by the resident on the resident's property and then spread into the Weyerhauser owned forest land. It was brought under control approximately 9:30 pm 10/23 after consuming approximately 25 acres of forest. The closest approach to LIGO is was approximately 1 mile. The fire continues to smoulder and flare occasionally; we are keeping a close watch on it.


Detector/Technical Support (Whitcomb, Coyne)


 
Installation & Commissioning:
Hanford
Livingston
Other Science/Engineering Activities:
Design/Analysis/Fab
Issues/Concerns
See also the Installation web page

1.1 LHO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

2km Commissioning

Richard McCarthy, Josh Myers, Fred Raab,  Stan Whitcomb
Mostly following up on items identified by the crew from last week:
  • modified the ETM controllers to give better response (faster slew, better saturation behavior, etc) as recoomended by Rai
  • Jumpered out the noisy input "pots" on the modecleaner suspensions.  This has enabled us to go to NORMAL mode (lowpass filter engaged and reduces the broadband noise in the PSL/MC loop between 20 and 100 Hz.  John Worden turned off the QPD80 (backing pump for the turbos on the vertex section) and that further reduced the noise between 20 and 50 Hz.
  • Investigated the excess noise on the Pentek ADCs.  One of the LSC Penteks had shown a significant bump at 4 kHz that was causing problems in the locking attempts. After some investigation, none of which seemed to be conclusive, it seems to have gone away.  We will continue to monitor it.

  •  

     

    Bill Kells
    Back in Pasadena have been working on e2e modeling to determine the effects of input laser frequency noise on [2k] ifo lock.

    PSL

    Peter King
    Lightwave Electronics have repaired laser SN #110 and power supply #108. Both will be shipped to LHO some time this week.
     

    1.2 LLO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

    Commissioning

    Peter Saulson
    Studies of the SOS suspensions continued. Mark Barton and Sany Yoshida drove various modes to large amplitude and measured the ringdowns, finding much higher Q's than at low levels. This apparent non-linearity of the damping is as surprising as the low Q at low amplitudes, and needs further investigation.

    We were able to make the mode cleaner lock robustly, through fixes to a set of small problems in cable connections and in an offset setting on the mode cleaner demod board. Lock is robust enough that we can't yet quote a typical time to loss of lock; no longer is it measured in minutes, but hours or days.

    A preliminary check of the PSL frequency noise reveals that high frequency performance is about a factor of 10 too high. It depends in a surprising way on the DC voltage applied to the PZT on the PMC only if the PMC is far off the resonance peak.   This may occur occasionally as  the PMC thermal drifts away from the DC setpoint and the feedback has to apply a large bias to keep the resonance.  The PMC servo is being modified by reducing the 10 Hz pole by a factor of 10 and then increasing the low frequency gain by a factor of 10.  This should increase the DC gain and reduce excursions from resonance.  It should also decrease the effect of mechanical resonances at 13 KHz and above on the intensity noise spectrum.

    Low frequency noise has been improved by the mechanical improvements on the PSL table that were made over the summer.

    PSL

    Peter King
    Using the modecleaner as an analyzer cavity, the frequency noise of the PSL was measured.  Various objects on the PSL table were banged to see their mechanical resonances.  A quick comparison with a previously recorded spectrum indicated that the resonances of the new mirror mounts are higher than the old ones.  One of the largest resonances, at around 290 Hz, was due to the main beam periscope taking the beam into the modecleaner.  The mirror mounts will be examined in more detail later.

    The pre-modecleaner (PMC) exhibited a first mechanical resonance at about 13 kHz.  The old pre-modecleaner exhibited a resonance at ~9 kHz.  The difference is thought to be due to the different bonding technique employed.

    I helped Joe Kovalik layout the LSC photodiode calibration setup.

    LSC

    Rich Abbott, Flavio Nocera, Jay Heefner
    Flavio and I have been assisting Jay and learning about the LSC installation procedure.  We have almost completed the installation of the newly modified frequency distribution system and the radiation problem seems to be cured.  More to follow as it is completed.  We have also helped out in the PSL getting some of the hardware tweaked up for operation.

    System tests of the LSC system are progressing slowly. They will not be complete before Jay, Flavio and Rich leave at the end of the week. Another trip back in a few weeks will be required.

    Rolf Bork
    Supporting LSC installation at LLO (from afar).

    Suspensions

    Mark Barton
    I spent time at LLO, in principle debugging the suspension controller tuning procedure but in practice mostly chasing several other problems and mysteries:

    The VME board running the MC1/MC2/MC3 suspension controllers was flaky and needed to be rebooted frequently.

  • Several of the analog data collection processors crashed and took out the spare WFS DAQ inputs that I had been relying on.
  • Some of the optics, especially MC2 seem to have poor, amplitude dependent Q. Since returning to Caltech I've been guiding Sany and Warren Johnson to take a bit more data to get to the bottom of it.
  • There is a spike at 0.77345 Hz on many of the OSEM sensor signals which is so sharp it's unlikely to be mechanical and is probably some leakage from some electronic oscillator or counter. I've been guiding Sany to look for harmonics of it to see if it's a square wave.
  • I finally managed to take some data with both OSEM sensors and optical levers so as to be able to debug the input matrix tuning procedure. I've been looking at it briefly in preparation for my talk on Friday, but there won't be a definitive answer by then.

  •  

    LIGO-TriNet

    Szabi Marka
    We are working on the setup of the Quanterra datalogger (on board OS9, DAQ, filters and communication), ensureing the correct configuration before field installation. The pictures of LLO construction are posted at: http://abundance.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~smarka/LLO_Vault_pix/
     

    2.0 Other Engineering and Scientific Activities

    2.1 Design/Analysis/Fab

    Optical Metrology

    GariLynn Billingsley, Helena Armandula
    Measurement of BS03 is complete, we are in the process of analyzing the data

    PSL

    Peter King
    I have been studying photodiodes and circuits, in order to gain an appreciation for what is required for the PSL intensity stabilization photodetector.  Whilst I was probably heading down the wrong path, I was trying to come up with a notional design that would allow up to 500 mA of photocurrent.

    Rick Karwoski, Paul Russell
    The Premode Cleaner electronics is a necessary component to the basic light source.  The three custom modules comprising the PMC which need to be built and tested are:

  • The Reference oscillator
  • The PMC servo
  • The Photo detector

  • Two Ref Oscillator modules:  missing one component, otherwise completely stuffed.   PMC servo board stuffing has begun

    Euro-crate, fully assembled and  shipped to LHO.  All other cabinet/crate-oriented (including OTS VME equipment) has been shipped to LHO Lab test equipment list compiled -- ordering tomorrow

    ISC

    Mike Zucker,
    Misc. troubleshooting; optical lever laser R&R, replacement of
    water damaged ISC video equipment & shutters, revised/new safety procedures,
    inspiring pep talks, etc.  I miss my interferometer(s).

    Mohana Mageswaran

    CDS Software

    Rolf Bork
    Continued work on porting ADCU code to a Pentium processor; initial tests look good, as a single Pentium running with 4 ADC cards completes all acq from VME, performs filter decimation and sends out all data in ~30msec (DAQ window is 60msec). Present MIPS processors can handle max 3 ADC boards, therefore we use 2 MIPS CPUS in some LVEA ADCU to handle 5 ADC boards. Use of Pentiums would allow us to do a one for two replacement in these units and simplify these units.

    Modulated OSEM Design

    Jay Heefner
    A prototype board for the stabilized oscillator circuit has been sent out and is due back this week. It should be ready for test next week.

    New OSEM Heads

    Janeen Hazel-Romie
    Looking for LA-local plating vendors. Plan to visit one in Malibu on Monday. Still buying parts and making process travelers and sending the parts for cleaning and baking.

    Digital Suspensions

    Jay Heefner
  • LOS Controller boards have been received and are being stuffed. Some of the parts, mostly the large caps, will not be received until mid Nov.
  • LOS Bias Boards are due back this week.
  • SOS dewhitening board design is on hold this week while Jay is at LLO for LSC tests.
  • Global Diagnostics

    Daniel Sigg
    Charlie Shapiro's power line monitor has been released.

    A 1TB RAID5 system has been installed on fortress.

    Data Monitoring Tool

    John Zweizig
    This week I have been working on amassing all the software that will be running online for the second engineering run. This involves writing monitors, improving the DMT infrastructure (e.g. trend writing functions) and working with/bugging the analysis groups for completed monitor software.

    I also tested running many monitors on one of the DMT machines to make sure that there were no reasons that many monitors couldn't run concurrently. At one point I had 13 monitor running (mostly different copies of my channel monitor) on a single machine (sand) with no obvious interference. I conclude that the most severe limitation on the number of processes that may be run is just the available computing power, and that there doesn't seem to be any apparent unexplained load increase when many monitors are run on a single platform.

    EO Shutter Controls

    Sander Liu
    The old GRX-3.0-H high voltage pulser from DEI is now obsolete and has been replaced by PVX-4140 with improvements in rise and fall time (from <45nS to <30nS) and minimum pulse width (from <90nS to <60nS). Order for four PVX-4140 has been placed and delivery is expected in about four weeks. All units will come with its cooling fan disabled to reduce noise but can be put back to use if needed.

    Global Diagnostics

    Sander Liu
    Received the two pin LEMO connectors and Dave Grimmett is in the process of retro-fitting the PCBs.

    2.2 Issues Concerns

    nothing new

    40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)




    Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)


    Various pieces in progress -- electronics and cables being fabricated,
    optics being laid out.  No new milestones this week.
     


    LASTI (Zucker)


    LASTI SEI installation (Hugh Radkins, Corey Gray, Ken Mason, Myron
    MacInnis, Mike Zucker, Matt Smith, Ed Kruzel):
     

    Helium leakchecking was completed Friday on the four HAM-13 bellows;
    all passed.  Thanks to much coaching from John Worden the procedure
    went smoothly, and all our rag-tag secondhand equipment functioned
    well.  We're exploring the idea of borrowing a second QDP-80 roughing
    pump (any spares out there?) to improve our cycle time.  With one pump
    it takes 11 hours of nursing to wean over to the turbo and start
    testing; we'd like to fit that into a single shift if possible.
     

    We backfilled Monday and installed the external support wings and
    structures.  Because we have no scissor tables for fine height
    adjustment, some precision shimming was made up to level the support
    beam attachments.  The structure is now solid and very well aligned.

    Tuesday we removed the doors again for stack installation on HAM-13;
    this also went very smoothly and, as of Wed. evening, HAM-13 SEI
    installation is complete, outside and inside. We are now ready to
    replace the doors and move on to HAM-21.


    Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)



     
     

    Simulation and Modeling (Yamamoto)


    e2e workshop

    There was a e2e workshop held last week from 18th til 20th.
    On 19th and 20th, discussions were made among Hiro, Biplab,
    Ed, Michel and Malik about the collaboration and support at sites.
    Installations on LHO and UFL machines were done remotely from
    Caltech by Michel and Malik, to make sure they can do the future
    upgrade maintenance. The details of the e2e internal structures
    and Han2k model were explained.

    LHO model

    Biplab is visiting LHO to complete the PSL noise study. The detail
    is explained by the weekly report by Rick Savage.

    Adlib (engine)

    Based on the suggestion of R.Weiss, the module simulating the rail
    effect now includes the saturation of slew rate.
    The simulation of the curved mismatch was checked and there were
    a few mistakes found (part coming from VIRGO note). After fixing this,
    the e2e simulation passes a sanity check.

    ALFI (GUI)

    A through test of new alfi based on the new graphics rendering code
    has been performed. The alfi bug database has been updated including
    these new test result.
    A discussion among Ed, Bruce, Matt and Hiro addressed removing
    the support of "instances", by using macro (or alias) more extensively.
    It was concluded that that decision will be postponed until we have
    a more detailed modeling which may demand the concept of "instances".

    LIGO Data Analysis System

  • Software Systems (Blackburn)

  • This week was spent extensively testing the current version of LDAS in
    preparation for the Engineering run. These tests have been primarily carried
    out on the local development system where bugs that are being identified can
    quickly be fixed and retested. However, over the past few days we have begun
    to focus also on performing these tests on the Hanford LDAS system. This is
    strickly needed because of the differences in hardware used by the various
    LDAS software modules (APIs) between Hanford and CIT. At present we are
    performing i) database insertion tests, ii) ilwd data transmission tests,
    iii) frame to ilwd data translation tests, iv) dataConditionAPI MDC tests,
    v) DMT trigger ingestion tests, and vi) high rate random user command
    requests. These test have identified a half dozen major bugs to be fixed in
    preparation for the E2 engineering run. But we expect to have most fixes in
    this week and repeat the testing on the new distribution of the software. One
    of the bugs is hinting at a new problem with FFTW with the system is low on
    memory which is sever enough to crash the dataConditionAPI. The details of
    whether or not we can implement a work-around for this are actively being
    explored. An effort to fix bgerrors in the TCL (event loop associated errors)
    which were unexplained since the MDC in August has finally been tracked down
    and fixed this will remove the unmeaningful "red-ball" bgerrors from the log
    file. A memory leak was first introduced while fixing this error but has
    since
    been fixed. Other fixes this week occurred in the frameCPP and frameAPI.TCL
    codes.

    The new wrapperAPI was built and tested on the new LDAS development beowulf
    with its currently working 8 of 16 nodes. The available functions from UWM
    which have been tested in the dynamically loaded shared object library were
    initSearch(), conditionData(), and finalizeSearch(). UWM is still
    implementing
    the applySearch and freeOutput() interface functions. These will be tested
    in the next week. The new wrapperAPI will also soon host the dynamically
    loaded shared object developed by Gray Rybka (LIGO SURF student and now part
    time student worker). The wrapperAPI will also begin documentation
    development
    in the framework of the new perceps C++ documentation generator. The testing
    of the wrapperAPI with the mpiAPI interface has only been performed using a
    mock interface. The mpiAPI development has fallen behind as a result of the
    need to support the preparations for the engineering run.

    We have seen a steady decrease in the number of open software problems over
    the past few months since the dataConditionAPI MDC. This decrease has now
    leveled off with all the testing/debugging activity in preparation for the
    engineering run at roughly half the level seen during the MDC.

    The dataConditionAPI group identified an issue with handling bad exceptions
    which were occuring in the dataConditionAPI and causing the API to terminate.
    These issues can impact any LDAS API but have only been seen in the d.c. API
    due to its extensive use of specialized exceptions. Several proposals on how
    to handle this issue have been proposed. The most robust solution will
    involve
    reworking a significant amount of API exception handling which could not
    possibly be ready in time for the engineering run. An interim fix will be
    needed for the dataConditionAPI prior to the run if it is to be used at all
    in the E2.

    A GUI for the controlMonitorAPI specifically to control the tapecontroller
    script to be used in the E2 run has been implemented. It has been handed off
    to Greg Mendell at Hanford for evaluation. In addition, the controlMonitorAPI
    interface now included support for restarting, shutdown, adding and removal
    of LDAS APIs from the running system.
     

  • Data Analysis

  • Philip Charlton has done some more work on statistical properties of the FCT
    output for Gaussian noise. He looked at the distributions of a sample of
    points
    in the FCT-power plane. We expect these to be chi^2, which they appear to be.
    He also looked at distributions of the sums of powers from two adjacent bins
    for a sample of the FCT plane. We expect these to be chi^2 degree 4. They
    look
    chi^2 but I haven't yet checked how well they maatch the degree.

     
  • Hardware Systems (Anderson)

  • All LDAS sun computers are now running Solaris 8 Maintenance Update 1, and
    all LDAS networks have completed migration from ATM to 100/1000 Mbit/s
    Ethernet.

    CIT-DEV
    -------
    1) dataserver was upgraded to 4GB of memory and Solaris 8.
    2) sunbox1 was upgraded to Solaris 8.
    3) A new U10 was installed with Solaris 8 to run as metaserver.
    4) ldas-sw has been downgraded from 4GB to 2GB of memory.

    General Computing

    MIT:
    (David S.)
    -Preparing to put up a web server and an ilog (with lots of help from Bruce
    Sears).

    Livingston:
    -SUN maintenance contract for the 3000 has finally gone through.
    (Shannon and Tom)
    -Tape library arrived this afternoon.  We will install it in the
    rack and test this week or early next.
    -Replacing a failed power supplying a Fore 200BX.
    -Installing various software packages for several people on the GC net (e2e
    etc.).
    -Installing and configuring some web based database/scheduling utilities for
    the
    control room operators. The scheduling part is working but several other
    items
    need further configuration and testing.  Eventually the operator checklist
    will be web based to ease in trending/searching data from the daily
    forms.

    Hanford:
    -Getting things ready for the engineering run.

    CIT:
    (Lisa)
    - Installed 2 Ultra 10's for Rolf on the 113 subnet.
    - Luna was not behaving as a gateway.  That's fixed now.  Computers on the
    113
    subnet can now use Luna as a gateway for internet access.
    - I'm trying to transition the Wilson House PCs off the 125 to the 115
    subnet.
    - All of the components to upgrade the modem pool have arrived.
    - I've been demo-ing backup software that will back up both the Solaris and
    the
    NT servers.  So far I've looked at Cactus Backup Professional.  It had bugs
    in
    the GUI and is very expensive.  Bru is not sophisticated enough for our
    environment.  Also, most of its advanced features are in the command line
    tools
    and haven't been implemented in the GUI.  Sun's Solstice Backup is very
    sophisticated and will do everything we need, but the learning curve on
    configuring it is steep.  It would be a difficult piece of software to hand
    off
    to someone else to run.  I'm currently awaiting a demo copy of Quick Restore.
    - I have one last problem to resolve before kater can be decommissioned.  If
    anyone has a sbus ethernet card to spare, I need one.

    (Sam)
    -Finally finish with the new NT box for dcc.
    -Got the gateway pc up and going that wasn't recognizing its hard drive.
    -Settled laptop problems with dell.
    -Dealt with a gateway replacement part return issue.
    -Installed  office component on liz's machine.

    (Barbara)
    - Made changes to DCC database -- tables, forms, reports, etc -- to support
    multiple files for a document and to support any file type.  Am now working
    on changes to the web forms.
    - Installed new LIGO home page and First Lock pages.  Reworked the News,
    Travel, and Calendars web pages.
    - Have talked with Verity Inc. about their Information Server for indexing
    our PDF files.  They are supposed to send a quote.
    - Helped Rita with the Roster database and made some quick changes.
    (Suresh)
    -Worked with Larry on last saturday, to install some hardware (memory and
    mass
    Storage unit, Sun SunStorage D1000) to system sargas.
    -Saved the configuration files of all ATM workgroup switches to a tftp server
    (homam).
    -Installed and configured needed application software on Irene's new PC.
    -Worked on some system related files on system tiger.

    (Larry)
    - Finalizing a number of procurements to get things wrapped up for the end of
    the fiscal year.
    - Worked out a number of network problems. Moved part of the 125 subnet to
    another switch.
    - Repaired and setup a couple of PC's. Resolved a few virus issues.
    - Working with Jordon to get some data transferred from a HP unit. The
    equipment
    that would have been able to read and convert the data from the disk had been
    turned over to CIT. Jordon is presently working on other methods to try and
    get
    the data on to the computer.
    - Setup a new disk partition on sirius, /ligoapps. This location is to be
    used
    for storing programs developed by LIGO groups. Also, working on a large
    scratch
    area (100-150GB) for users to test their programs and check out data.


    LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)


    From Bill Kells:

    Picking back up on FFT-MELODY comparison studies.

    Working on OTF Sapphire mirror cavity measurements with JOrdan.
    Also effects of (predicted to be large) "Rayleigh" scattering
    from Sapphire ITMS.

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

    Loading Test
    We loaded a fully cured bond (over 50 days old) with 25 lbs. and is still holding the weight a week later.

    Tension Test
    Repeated tension tests at Durkee Labs. and the results obtained last week did not improve.
    We are setting-up to measure tension in our lab.

    From: Mike Zucker <mike@ligo.mit.edu>
    Adaptive thermal core optic distortion compensation (MZ for R. Lawrence)
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Ryan has now characterized his 10.6 micron heating laser beam at the
    target focal plane using his homebrew pyroelectric beam scanner. The
    beam is better than 99% TEM00, and its parameters are now known
    accurately enough not to affect experimental errors.
     

    The 4" C-axis test optic has so much spatially varying birefringence
    (evidently due to internal stress??) that the current double-passing
    arrangement for the Schack-Hartmann sensor (quarter
    waveplate/polarizing beamsplitter) produces gross spatial nulls in the
    return beam. Ryan ordered some new optics and will switch over to a
    polarization-insensitive readout system to get around this.  At the
    same time we're wondering how representative this particular boule
    really is...

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

    Warren Johnson:

    Joined the meeting by phone.  Illustrated a possible suspension with
    CuBe suspension wires and Sapphire fingers to evacuate heath.  CuBe OK
    because Q factor for it grows as T3~T4 and can be machined to get good
    flexibility where needed.  Also could use sputtered Beryllium to adhere
    to mirrors.
    Discussed differences with Sapphire only suspensions and heath
    evacuation.

    Frederick

    the readout electronics box thermostabilization results.
    Studying sapphire Q measurement samples.

    ChenYang,

    Designing electrostatic actuator hardware.

    Akiteru:

    TAMA IP driven to 30 mHz,  measured 80 dB at 2 Hz, 60 dB at 1 Hz.
    Only visible resonances up to 20 Hz are the suspended chain
    resonances!!!
    At 20 Hz IP leg to F0 standard resonance.
    DSPs in Austin TX, supposedly for test.

    Alessandro
    Received from Alessandro the 3 new accelerometers.
    Updating drawings with Gianni for production run of 9x for TAMA 3 m and
    Livingston tests.

    Giancarlo:
    Sent some simulations of MGASFs, Nice results.

    Riccardo:

    Updates on optical heath pumps and possible Sapphire mechanics.
     


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