Weekly Report for Week Ending December 7, 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  December 11, 2000 will be:

CANCELLED DUE TO PAC/GWDAW MEETINGS


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)

No Report this week.

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. . .
 

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

REMINDER to all LIGO-ites
From: Cleveland Mak <mak_c@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
Packages Faxes
In 49 34
Out 19 43

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.
 
 
Date
Incoming Invoices
And Receivers
Wires
Large Contract 
Invoices
December 1, 2000 7 0 0
December 4, 2000 15 0 1
December 5, 2000 9 0 0
December 6, 2000 8 0 0
December 7, 2000 10 0 0
Totals 49 0 1

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 (Elizabeth Wood) <ewood@ligo.caltech.edu>

Irene Baldon

Dorothy Lloyd Rita Torres Elizabeth K. Wood

Advanced LIGO (Frey, Petrac)

From: Thomas Frey <tfrey@ligo.caltech.edu>


Progress Period from 12.1 to 12.7

Accomplishments:

Schedule 12.8 to 12.14:
Anticipated Challenges:
None to report at this time.

 
 

Corrective Action:

None to report at this time.
 
 

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



WBS 1.4.1.2   Project Controls (LIGO Construction)



Reports (Lindquist)

Annual Report:  There will be an Annual Report due as of the end of November.  I will be requesting inputs from the usual bunch mid-December after the dust from the proposal has a chance to settle a bit.  I propose to keep this report moderate in size, about the size and complexity of a Quarterly Report, to minimize the burden.



Change Control/Contingency (Lindquist)

The following Change Requests have been submitted:
 

CR-000018 WBS 1.1.4 Curbing for Service Roads at Livingston G. Stapfer
CR-000019 WBS 1.2 Additional Lab Equipment D. Coyne

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>

SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

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

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

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

>From: Bill Tyler <tyler@ligo.caltech.edu>

 


LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)



 
 

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

Work continues on locking the full interferometer in the "undamped"
cavity mode. With some help from Hugh Radkins, I have made some progress
using the Morganson code (SURF 99) to "predict" the earth tides for E2.
The preliminary plots comparing the data to the prediction are at
http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~fjr/earth_tides/E2_prelim_tides_comm.pdf
http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~fjr/earth_tides/E2_prelim_tides_diff.pdf
http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~fjr/earth_tides/E2_prelim_tides_diff.pdf
for your viewing pleasure. The parameters chosen for the tide prediction
were "typical" numbers adopted by Morganson and me back in 1999. We will
now move on to fitting the tides to the data.
 
 
 

PreStabilized Lasers:
--------------------
M. Guenther, T. Mahood, R. Savage
 

- The 4K racks were successfully relocated an additional 6' from the 4K
PSL enclosure and rotated so the doors now face the PSL enclosure (with
lots of help from J. Meyers and  R. McCarthy). This provides additional
clearance around the PSL enclosure should a future wall
or secondary acoustical enclosure be installed.  The relocation also
cuts down on the rack's acoustical impacts, and with the rack doors now
facing the enclosure, adjustments to the laser are greatly facilitated.
Following the rack relocation, cables to the laser were run overhead to
keep the floor free and clear.  Finally, the bulk of the electronics for
the laser were installed in the rack, the cross-connect put in place, and
cables run to tie in the cross-connect to the rest of the equipment in
the rack. The laser is back in operation, and now feeding data into the
EPICS system.
 

- The broadband EOM was installed within the laser, but a reduction in
the laser's output power suggests some additional tweaking of the EOM
alignment is necessary.
 

- Parts for the 4K reference cavity are being staged for assembly next
week (while Lee Cardenas is here to advise). It's planned to assemble the
cavity in its ultimate location on the 4K table.
 

The rigid mirror mount bases have now been anodized and are hand for
imminent installation.  These bases include rigid mounts for Newport
U100 and "Klinger" mirror holders, a rigid base for supporting polarizing
beamsplitter cubes, and a reference cavity periscope with the lower
mirror fixed, and the upper mirror a steerable U100 mirror holder.
 

Computing
-----------
(C. Patton)
 

Reminder - Starting 12/27/00 until 12/29/00, the LHO file and NIS+
server, rainier, and the LHO email/web server, apex, will be undergoing
hardware upgrades.  These machines will be shutdown for several hours on
the 27th and may require periodic reboots over the 28th and 29th.
 

I am adding more disk space and more memory to rainier.  I will be
moving some of the user accounts to the new disks and cleaning up some
of the old application software that is no longer needed.  Apex is
currently a 300 MHz Ultra10 with 64 MB of memory, it will be replaced
with a 440 MHz Ultra10 with 256 MB of memory and will have an external
36 GB disk drive.  This is the first step to turning apex into a better
web and anonymous FTP server as well as email.  Both machines will be
upgraded to the latest software and patches.
 
 


LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles) .


OPTICS/COC/SEI INSTALLATION: We've inventoried and shipped the COS installation equipment, as well as our own ISC instrumentation to LHO for support of the LHO 4k installation. This week has been spent completing the installation of cameras at the end stations, and vertex. With David Shoemaker's assistance we located ICST-4 at the darkport, and temporarily installed a camera and photo detector to use while aligning the Michelson. Joe Hanson is cleaning and baking the last 2 BSC bellows for MIT, and we're moving the machine shop as opportunities present themselves. (Jonathan Kern)

We are also preparing for the imminent opening of the gate valves along the arms so that we can look at the alignment over 4K.

The bulk of this week's activities have been consumed with commissioning and preparation for the PAC meeting.  We also had a successful bid opening for the addition to the staging building.
 


MIT (Shoemaker)


No report.


Caltech (Sanders)


The Caltech group had its Xmas party today. It was a great success and there was quite a crowd. Kudos to Linda for a successful party!


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

Bill Kells, Mike Landry, Daniel Sigg, Dave Barker, Rai Weiss, Nergis Mavalavala, Stan Whitcomb

The effort has been on aligning the 2 km interferometer, making the calibrations needed to feed the lock acquisition code, and to get back to making the full recycled, recombined interferometer work.

The major piece of news was the finding that the digital phase shifting part of the software had a small bug, but one that affects the signal separation on the two phases of the reflected light signal.  This was easily fixed, once it was diagnosed, and the corrected code loaded.  Unfortunately it meant that all the previously determined lock acquisition parameters had to be remeasured.

By the end of the week, everything seems to be in place and we are again seeing the servos try to lock the full interferometer.  Durations are about what we had observed before without using the gate valves to spoil the arm cavity Q's, typically 0.3 - 1 second.  We are continuing to work on improving this.

PSL

Peter King
The 4k PSL pre-modecleaner (PMC) was shipped to the site along with its mounting block.

Ben Abbott
Started working with Rick Karwoski regarding the PSL.  RF photodiode board is tested, and I have designed the frequency sensitive portions which should enjoy final installation/testing today.

ASC WFS Photodiodes

Jay Heefner
The WFS PDs for the LHO 4K IOO and IFO have been tuned and calibrated and will be sent to the site 12/7.

Input Optics Control Electronics

Jay Heefner
The schematics for the IO controls are 75% complete and should be complete by 12/8. Cross connect lists will be generated and sent to Richard for fab. This design will move the VME controls for the MC length controls to rack 1X1 (PSL) and should reduce the possiblity of ground loops.

COS

Ken Mailand, Mike Smith
APS Telescope and 3 PO telescopes are assembled and awaiting alignment. ETM telescopes need a slight rework of a mounting bracket; otherwise, they are assembled and awaiting alignment. Some parts of the COS autocollimator were missing from the shipment from LLO. The COS autocollimators will be sent to Davidson for focus alignment adjustment.
 

1.2 LLO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

Commissioning

submitted by Peter Saulson
The main focus of commissioning work at LLO has been on alignment of optics beyond the Mode Cleaner. We first found adjustments of SM, MMT1 and MMT2 that brought the beam through the Faraday, to the Recycling mirror, then back through the system and cleanly out of the symmetric port. We could see beams from the two Michelson arms exiting the anti-symmetric port. We carried out a trial alignment of the Michelson that superposed the two beams and showed interference fringes.

Then we did a more careful alignment. We adjusted the angle of the Recycling Mirror to be parallel to ITMX, as judged by seeing bright flashes in the poor Fabry-Perot formed by those two mirrors. This is also a test of the alignment of the input light to the Michelson. When this alignment is done, the FP cavity formed by RM and ITMY also flashes as expected. Next, the BS was adjusted so that the spots from the two arms were superposed at the anti-symmetric port, and fringes were observed. This could be accomplished while leaving the alignments of the two ITMs undisturbed, as required to leave them aligned with the long arms.

A number of issues remain. We needed to make substantial changes to the orientations of the RM and of the BS to accomplish this alignment, and this is something of a mystery. There is also a problem with the BS controller that needs to be fixed.

We are working to be prepared to take a look down the X arm (at least), perhaps as soon as next week.

PSL

Peter King
New beam tubes that encompass more of the beam path have been installed on the PSL table, mostly in the IO section.
The PSL data acquisition channels were checked out.  From the control room, using dataviewer three PSL channels appeared dead.  These signals were checked at the output of the PSL generic DAQ card and appeared okay.  Thus the problem either lay with dataviewer, the cable connecting the PSL generic DAQ card or the DAQ.  This will be checked out later this week. The gain for two signals will have to be changed in order to bring it within the range required for the DAQ and the PMC PZT voltage will have to be AC-coupled.

ASC WFS Photodiodes

Jay Heefner
The last WFS PD for LLO has been tuned and calibrated and will be sent to LLO.

2.0 Other Engineering and Scientific Activities

2.1 Design/Analysis/Fab

PSL

Peter King
The current shunt for the next 10-W laser was modified and shipped back to Lightwave for installation in the laser.

A new, lower bandwidth, PMC has been fabricated and located on the PSL table.  The PMC was roughly aligned to the laser - no attempt was made to move the mode-matching lenses despite a large number of changes to the laser - and locked to the laser.  Optimization of the mode-matching will take place when I get back from LLO and when Lee returns from LHO.

New Sensor/Actuator assembly (OSEM)

Janeen Romie
Rapid Prototyping in Colorado have finished the zirconium nitride coating on 350 heads. They are also doing the laser marking of part number and serial number. A partial shipment will get to MIT Thursday 12/7. The balance is promised at MIT on Friday. Peter and Myron will perform QA and will lightly polish the OD to ease movement in the bracket. Then they will ship them to New England Techni Coil in New Hampshire for coil winding. New England Techni Coil will partial ship parts back to MIT for ceramabonding of the wires. After that, the heads will be vacuum baked at one of the sites.
Doug Cook sent 94 assembled PAM bracket/PAM screw/magnet assemblies to Peter at MIT for delivery Friday. They have been cleaned and baked. Alumina head order with Surmet has been cancelled by Caltech because the Surmet's subcontractor could not meet the drawing's requirements. A follow-on order for alumina heads has been placed with Progressive Technology for delivery in five weeks. Oliver McCullough is writing up a process specification for the "pigtail" OSEM cables. He plans to fabricate some but not all of the remaining required pigtail cables. I will go out for RFQ as soon as I receive this spec.
Ordering parts for osem production. Working on osem documentation.

EO Shutter Controller

Sander Liu
Received four new high voltage pulser from DEI. Two were shipped to LHO and two to LLO.
 

Data Acquisition Antialiasing Filter Chassis

Sander Liu
Received 150 850 Hz filter module from Frequency Devices. All were shipped  to LHO. Except for the Burr-Brown line receiver and driver ICs, kits for five each of the BNC and LEMO version PCB are ready for delivery to Accu-Sembly for fabrication. Obtained a quote to assemble 30 new 16 channel data acquisition cables from So-Cal Value Added. Lead time is approximately 6 weeks.

CDS Development System

Rolf Bork
Moved the operator console furniture from the 40m lab to the Wilson lab and set up our development machines in it; having problems now with our DAQ framebuilder disk drives; Larry and Lisa will try to fix it while I am gone.

Digital Suspensions

Rolf Bork
Working on digital SOS controller software: Front end software is operational, less the filters.  It's designed similar to the LSC, so the specific filter coefficients can be loaded from file.  It requires about 2-3  days work to finish up the initial test release.  The I/O is working and did some initial tests on ADC readouts / DAC outputs.  H.Ding has started work on the EPICS databases and state code required for operator comms.

2.2 Issues Concerns

nothing new


40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein) .



 



Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)


Lot's of action in the lab this week, as we are trying to put all the
pieces together and lock our cavities in the TNI, with assistance from
Seiji Kawamura.  We've run into several difficulties, however, so progress
has been slow.  Some of our problems seem to have their origin in our
laser, but this is not yet certain.
 


LASTI (Zucker)


No report this week.


Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini) .



 
 

Simulation and Modeling (Yamamoto)

* Physics studies : Biplab

  Studied lock-acquisition in presence of misalignments
  using new version (full001107) of Han2k model.

  The upper limit on the rms value of misalignment noise
  in ALL MIRRORS, for which stable lock could be achieved
  without ASC, still stands at about 4e-08 rad.

  The average lock-acquisition time is found to be about
  3.3 sec in scalar case and about  11.6 sec in multi-mode
  case with misalignment noise of rms 3.4e-8 rad in all mirrors.

  Modifying document no. LIGO-T000106 written on this topic.

  As a test of both primitive modules and recycling summation cavity,
  ran the Han2k model replacing its recycling summation cavity
  by the corresponding arrangement of primitive modules like
  mirrors and propagators without changing any parameter in
  servo, suspension or anything else. After 7 days of continuous run
  with a time-step of only 1e-8 (as compared to a time-step of 6.7e-6
  in standard Han2k which uses the recycling summation cavity),
  it could be confirmed that these two versions produce the same
  result and acquire lock at same point of time.

  Introducing violin modes for generating noise curves from Han2k.
  Facing some problems in generating such sharp lines from time-series.
  Various testings are being pursued.

* Lock acuqisition:

Matt has improved the lock acuisition code to be implemented in his visit
to LHO this and next week. This makes the calibration easier.

* simulation engine code:

Tavio and Matt worked on the global thread support in adlib. Tavio has
developed a testbed which can be used to test the thread safe queue and
develop the algorithm for optimizing the usage of thread. The overhead is
the first thing to be tested to have a good view of the thread-based
simulation.

Hiro worked on to implement thread in the summation cavity which spends
most of the time. Multi threads can be activated for each sideband. But,
somehow, the overhead is too large, and now is trying to solve the
problem.

* Alfi :

Most of the reported bugs are fixed. Code change are going on for further
stablization and for easier development/maintenance. The new features
planned next are (1) copy & paste and (2) support of connection node.

LIGO Data Analysis System

  • Software Systems (Blackburn)

  •  

     
     
     

    The communication problem between the mpiAPI and the wrapperAPI being used
    to report messages such as status, progress and perform load balancing has now
    been fixed. It did take the better part of the week to resolve. The reversal of
    the client and server side of the communications however broke the problem lose
    and allowed the fixes to be implemented. The next step is to integrate a search
    engine (dynamically loaded shared object).

    The problem with namespaces in the new perceps used to document the LDAS C++ code has now been fixed. This brings LDAS one significant step closer to
    being in a position to have a new release.

    The change over to the new Unified Data Type continues to make progress. A
    version of LDAS in which the new UDT is implemented in the dataConditionAPI is now on the development system. Only limited algorithm functionality has been
    demonstrated to function, with various minor bugs and issues being identified by testing.

    The testing verification of the dataConditionAPI mock-data-challenge scripts
    has continued this week. A few of the tests are not providing the expected
    accuracy in the results as expected. These are being look into more closely. Also, a
    few of the performance tests were not able to be streamed through the system due
    to memory resources issues these are being documented with the expectation that
    the MDC closure will be soon.

    The frameCPP and frameAPI were found to lack interfaces to the full detector
    and static data structures. This functionality has now been implemented and
    exposed to the TCL layer of the frameAPI. It has yet to be tested though.

    New webpage interfaces into the LDAS database statistics with indicate the
    total number of rows, insertion rates, and errors have been added to LDAS using
    the db2utils toolkit.

    The controlMonitorAPI's log page views have been cleaned up and the filters
    used to select information from the log files cleaned up and unified.

    Peter Shawhan drafted a detailed schedule for the Database Mock Data
    Challenge. The schedule was discussed during the SoftwareCommittee teleconference, where some suggestions were made about involving additional people and further defining what LDAS computing resources will be needed when.  The general plan has activities continuing from now through late January.

  • Hardware Systems (Anderson)

  •  

     
     
     

    LDAS news from CIT
    ------------------

    1) The new LDAS 16 node Beowulf and server have passed their acceptance tests
    and are now ready for LDAS software development and upcoming Mock Data
    Challenges.

    2) Anderson and Lazzarini took a trip to BNL in order to make an evaluation of the HPSS system being used at BNL (RHIC Computing Facility, or RCF). Our findings have positive implications for LIGO. Briefly:

    -       Their HPSS experience started out bad and has become rather good; they
    grew their own experts from zero to FOUR in 3 years; NOTE THAT they have 4
    FTEs supporting the HPSS installation (which supports all 4 RHIC experiments).

    - RCF is different from us in one key area: they are relying on HPSS for
    REAL-TIME data ingestion. Even IBM/HPSS suggested against this when RHIC
    first started out.

    -       The prices they are getting from the same hardware mfrs. seems to be in
    line with what we are receiving as quotes.

    -       We learned about how/what types of tape drives they use and their
    maintenance problems. It probably changes how we will want to do things a
    little.

    -       An earlier report that RHIC/RCF (RHIC Computing Facility) was
    having difficulties with HPSS seems to have been skewed by bad experiences from the one group only. And there has been some finger-pointing over this. Apparently some of the experimental code brings down the unix filesystems (WHICH NO PROGRAM SHOULD BE ABLE TO EVER DO). So one side is saying: bad programming; the other says: bad systems administration.... The fact is
    that they have isolated the issue to one specific set of code running.

    -       One thing we found surprising was that the RCF provides COMPLETELY REDUNDANT AND NONOVERLAPPING resource support to each of the 4 experiments: some times precious resources go unused by one group while another group may be struggling .... this is NOT the model LIGO wants to pursue.

    LDAS news from LHO
    ------------------

    1) Since the Nov E2 run, a new configuration for the SCSI SONY AIT 2
    tape drivers have
    been implemented and tested.  The new configuration appears to greatly
    reduce
    problems with SCSI resets.  Remaining resets can be overcome by
    software.  More
    can be learned about the configuration by reading the man pages for st.
    The configuration added to /kernel/drv/st.conf is:

    tape-config-list=
            "SONY    SDX-300C",     "SONY 8mm AIT",
    "SONY_AIT",
            "SONY    SDX-500C",     "SONY 8mm AIT",
    "SONY_AIT";

    SONY_AIT = 1,0x34,0,0xd679,4,0x13,0x8c,0x8c,0x8c,3;

    2) The following enhancements were made to the tapecontrol software
    script:
    (i) The script will backup from disk onto tape arbitrary amounts of data
    from files or directories matching a pattern. The script emails the
    operator when more tapes need to be added to the tape library.
    (ii) The script will perform a tar diff and report difference between
    data on tape and disk.
    (iii) The script will restore from tape onto disk arbitrary amounts of
    data.  The script emails the operator
    when more tapes need to be added to the tape library.

    These enhancements have been used to backup reduced data sets from the
    Nov E2 run on fortress.

    3) An HP 9340i CD-Writer has been installed on linuxbox1

  • Other

  •  

     
     
     

    [Bruce Sears]
    *Ilog:
            - Continuing work associated with MIT installation, including
              needed upgrades at Hanford and Livingston.

    General Computing

    Lazzarini: We have received approval from ESnet/DOE to upgrade the T1 connection to the internet at LHO up to OC3. Larry and his counterpart at PNNL are working out the details. We will set up a bandwidth limitiation to keep us at 4xT1 unless the rest of the OC3 bandwidth is idle, in which case we will be allowed to "expand" into the void.

    MIT:
    Working on getting a fix for the new disk drive.

    Livingston:
    (Nothing to report at this time)

    Hanford:
    (Christine)
    Reminder - Starting 12/27/00 until 12/29/00, the LHO file and NIS+
    server, rainier, and the LHO email/web server, apex, will be undergoing
    hardware upgrades.  These machines will be shutdown for several hours on
    the 27th and may require periodic reboots over the 28th and 29th.
    -I am adding more disk space and more memory to rainier.  I will be
    moving some of the user accounts to the new disks and cleaning up some
    of the old application software that is no longer needed.  Apex is
    currently a 300 MHz Ultra10 with 64 MB of memory, it will be replaced
    with a 440 MHz Ultra10 with 256 MB of memory and will have an external
    36 GB disk drive.  This is the first step to turning apex into a better
    web and anonymous FTP server as well as email.  Both machines will be
    upgraded to the latest software and patches.

    CIT:
    (Sam)
    Nothing to report, just busy with school.

    (Lisa)
    - I spent a lot of time working on Rolf's development computers over at Wilson
    House.  Cdssol10 is having problems.  It got moved yesterday and now its
    storedge disks won't come back on line.  Larry is going to help me with that
    problem.
    - Upgraded a couple of sun boxes to Solaris 8.
    - Tried to swap out Hongyu's workstation but the replacement had a bad power
    supply.  I'm waiting on a replacement from sun.
    - Working on resolving some file sharing list issues for Rick Karwoski.
    - Worked with Larry on modifying a rack for equipment installation.
    - Worked with Larry on setting up new print drivers for the the new printer
    being used by the DCC.

    (Suresh)
    -Fixed the desktop application menu problem with Mark Barton's Sun
    workstation.
    -Helped setting up a PC for a new grad student in third floor bridge.
    -Prepared documentation for setting up printers/plotters to be included in
    LIGO internal Web pages.
    -Resolved Rich Savage's dial-up PPP account problem.
    -Fixed Irena's web browser accessing problem.

    (Barbara)
    -Working on DCC conversion to Office 2000.
    -Setup Timetarget on the new DCC server.
    -Installed the DCC software including changes for multiple electronic files
    per document.

    (Larry)
    -Spent a great deal of time this past week helping Liz and others on getting out
    the LIGO proposal document. Mostly, working through the logistics and getting
    the equipment to perform the tasks needed.
    This little exercise showed a number of weak points that we are now going to
    resolve, such as; more memory for the printers, larger spool areas and a sorter
    for the DCC printer.
    -Continued work on purchasing of new equipment and software.
    -Checking out some of the new virus attacks. It looks like the new ones are
    getting to be more malicious.
    -Working on setting up some new equipment in the server room.
    -Working with the group to get more documentation on the internal web.
     


    LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)


    From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>
    Silicate Bonding
    Phil and I visited Sheila Rowan at Stanford.
    We learned and practiced the technique for bonding fused silica to sapphire.
    Also, met with Ken Bower, who with J. Gwo, researched and made the silicate bonds used in the Gravity Probe B experiment.
    We learned about UV cleaning approaches and discussed mechanical strengths.
    Mr. Bower was very approachable and open, sharing with us some of his practical knowledge.

    Advanced LIGO PSL
    Peter King
            I finally received a quotation for the pump laser diodes, the
    delivery fibers and associated power supplies from Coherent
    Semiconductor.
    Surprisingly the price of laser diodes has increased from 12 months ago
    by
    approximately 16% to ~$7500 ea.  Certainly the lion's share of the cost
    of
    the laser is in the pump diodes.  Each laser is expected to require
    around
    60 laser diodes, not including spare parts.
     

    Advanced LIGO SUS
    Janeen Romie
    Advanced LIGO - Planning a meeting Tuesday morning, December 12 at 9am
    pacific to talk about the Suspensions Design Requirements Document.
     


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