Weekly Report for Week Ending February 24, 2000



 Project Control Meeting Agenda  Highlights Hanford Observatory     Livingston Observatory     Detector  Project Office    System/Data Analysis    Administrative  Past Weekly Reports

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  February 28, 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
 

Special Items:   Revised format for weekly report,   Aspen meeting highlights,   Dave Berley visit reprise


Special Announcements:   The Weekly Report will appear in a revised format next week. NOTE THERE ARE TWO NEW CATEGORIES AT THE END OF THIS REPORT ON THE TNI AND ON LIGO II.


Weekly Report Highlights
 
 


LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations


Announcements:
--------------
(F. Raab)

Seismic installation is now reaching the home stretch. Commissioning
activity continues as a first-priority task. Doug and Betsy are moving toward
diagonalizing suspension controllers and Hugh and Mark Guenther will be
setting up for fine-actuator transfer function measurements. E2E folk are
up again and Hiro has helped us get some numbers on mode matching from
simulations of the brighteneing and decay of reflected light when the
illumination is cut off on the 2-km arm. A few "punch-list" items (VCO
retrofit and reference-cavity temperature stabilization) are being
implemented.

On Tuesday evening at 4:16 UTC, a Hanford Patrol vehicle driving along a
dirt road that used to cross the LIGO site struck into the beam-tube
enclosure at the Y arm approximately 1 km from the corner station. The road
is nearly perpendicular to the arm at a point where the grading produced
a 12-15 ft deep cut. The vehicle, a Dodge Durango, became airborne before
striking grade about 8 ft short of the enclosure and then bounced into the
enclosure. The driver was taken to Kadlec Medical Center and released next
day. Although the vehicle frame was bent and the front end crushed 12-18"
the beam tube enclosure showed no damage.

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

LHO vacuum bake oven load #77, consisting of elliptical baffle glass, ETM
telescope lenses, mode-cleaner beam dump assemblies, ETM telescope beam
dump assemblies, mode cleaner baffle assembly, pick-off telescope Ag
secondary mirror and ribbon cable clamping components, was released Friday
2.18.00.

Load #78, consisting of BSC2 beam dump flex hinge tongue, HAM 6 purge air
flange, right beam manifold to main turbo pump rigid nipple, 80K pump to
regeneration turbo cart fittings, 4K IO baffle fasteners, misc. spare COS
fasteners and BSC4 beam dump flex pivots was released on 2.23.00.

Load #79, consisting of various pieces of LLO and LHO 4k pick off mirror
assemblies and two ETM telescope assemblies, is scheduled to begin vacuum
baking today, 2.24.00.

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

HAM3:  Chamber was closed up--completing SEI work.

BSC1:  SEI installations complete and the chamber has been closed.

BSC2:  The vertex section has been pumped down and we are waiting for the
Helium background to drop so the expansion bellows can be leak checked.

BSC9(x-end):  Background tasks of hardware assembly and staging continue.

BSC10(y-end):  Scissors Tables and Fine-X stage components have been
assembled and installed.

Computing:
----------
(C. Patton)

A WSU student will start on 2/28 to help with PC System Admin.  He will
be working 4 hours a day on a flexible schedule around his classes.
This weekend I will be moving my office furniture around to create desk
space for him and getting everything ready for his first day.

Followed up on several POs.  Followed up on getting Norton Antivirus
software from the Caltech site license.  Continued network security
maintenance, did the usual backups, helped users with several printer
and PC problems, and kept the GC accounting paper work up to date.


LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations


Beam tube bakeout: We have started to ramp down the power on y1 and should be ready to take RGA data next week. One of the dc power supplies has started to show signs of trouble. It has started to shut down on over temp. We are attempting to isolate the problem so as to get a smooth temp. ramp down. Efforts are also being made to repair one or both of the failed supplies.  During this activity the Cetec 10" gate valve that isolates the VE from its main vacuum pump failed. The actuator no longer is connected to anything. I checked with Varian and confirmed that Cetec is defunct and no parts or service is available. A VAT valve has been ordered to replace it. (Allen Sibley)

CDS: Installation and testing of input optics with Jay is ongoing. Testing of suspension control at the west end station is also underway. (Rus Wooley)

PEM: The y arm end station RGA has been baked and is ready for start up as soon as the software is installed on its PC. (Allen Sibley) Dust monitor circuit modification and installation are complete! We have 11 dust monitors on site. Ten monitors are installed through out the LVEA and lab area and are monitored through the PEM software. One monitor is left alone for people working in end stations to use for the time being. (Juilien Svoboda). Weather Stations - James Finney (LSU) came out to start installation of weather stations at the end stations. He is to come again today (2/24/00). We brought
towers out to sites. Ordered 3 computers for weather stations to arrive March 1st. I decided with technicians and LSU where and how to route wires
including lightning protection for both end stations. Obtained some of wire from LSU for this run. Discussed with Dennis C. about where to locate PC for end
stations. We decided on the optics lab in the end stations. Seismic Analysis with GRASP: I have once again setup the experiment to run at south end station...hope to get data run this weekend. (Anthony Rizzi)

OPTICS: This week we've preparing for the ETM-x installation. In the process of measuring the wedge of the optic we realized how temperature dependent the reflectivity of the HR surface is at 670nm. Hopefully we'll be able to control the X-end station temperature to maximize the alignment signal. We assembled the ETM telescope for Mike Smith yesterday and today will complete the monument locations at the X-end for Ken Mason. Also been cleaning up some neglected documentation for the DCC. (Jonathan Kern)

LIGO-TriNet Seismic Station: I assembled a weatherproof and mobile seismic station and currently map the noise levels of various candidate positions.(Szabolcs Marka)

CDS Found all 4 siesmometers only two of them currently available for installation --conflicts in use requirements need to be resolved. Found one of anti-aliasing boards, recieved some of filter modules and installed them in the chassis and installed chassis in West end station.Installed BNC and LEMO at South end station and anti-aliasing boards and successfully tested them...they all work. Szabi and I found and fixed GPS antenna problem....cables had
been incorrectly installed and pins had pulled out. (We had to make a strain relief ...one of the GPS antenna was not functioning and needs to be replaced). Waiting for anti-aliasing board to check/troubleshoot remainder of DCU at west end station. Tom Evans working on cables for siesmometer. (Anthony Rizzi)

Detector installation: X-end station. Completed the set-up and core drilling for the Optical Level Table, completed the sealing of the beam tube extrusion (framing, dry wall, painting and baseboards). Removed Spool piece,set alignment table in spool void, installed clean room over spool void, removed side door (North) from BSC#4, repositioned the 3 legs on the Optics table (they were shifted 90 deg.), staged all parts and equipment need for ETM X installation next Monday.

PSL: The old pre mode cleaner was realigned and locked properly. It was then replaced by a new pre mode cleaner based on a high voltage PZT. It was aligned, but was difficult to lock. The electronics were then modified by Jay and Rich. The new electronics board is being tested and should be working in a short while. (Joe Kovalik)

Mode Cleaner:  We aligned DLC mounted mirrors on HAM1. The transmitted and reflected beams from MC are passing through the HAM door windows. HAM 1 is now in a vacuum. We are planning to start locking MC as soon as the PSL beam is back. We replaced the upper-left OSEM of SM (the photo-diode was dead). SM has been damped. In the vacuum, the peak-to-peak of POS, PIT, YAW, SIDE are all ~1 mV on a scope. This is as good as other SOS. The upper-right OSEM of SM still has a problem. It does not respond to a COIL test. (COIL test: input a test signal from the COIL test port and monitor the corresponding photo detector output).

We calculated mode matching lens locations on PSL. A new Mathematica code has been made. This code takes into account the thermal lensing in
EOMs by modeling it as a medium with a quadratically-varying refractive index. According to this calculation, the locations of MMLs are as follows:
MML1: 90" from EOM waist, MML2: 8" from MML1, MML3: 43" from MML2. We will check these numbers by measuring the spot size of PSL at the effective
waist (a point on PSL table as the same distance from the periscope as the MC waist). (Sany)

Computers:  We have been working on PC maintenance, and on preparations for the conference next month.
Bake Oven: We are currently finishing a bake of core optics. Our nextbake run is scheduled to be aluminum beam dump components. (Tom Evans)

Community relations: Boy Scout Troop 156 camped out here last weekend and planted 500 cypress trees purchased from the state forestry department. See some images of the tree planting at: http://abundance.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~jkern/BSATroop156/ . Mark Coles gave a "Saturday Morning Science" presentation on "Light Waves, Gravity Waves, and LIGO" to 400 high school students at LSU on 2/18. Harold Silverman - Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, along with several LSU Physics Dept. faculty, also attended.

A reminder to all visitors that you need to submit a work permit BEFORE beginning your tasks when you visit.


WBS 1.2, 1.3    Detector Group



 

----------------------------------------------------
DETECTOR GROUP -- Whitcomb/Shoemaker

(WBS 1.2, 1.3)
----------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------
Interferometer Sensing and Control -- M Zucker
(WBS 1.2.1.1.6, 1.2.1.1.7)
----------------------------------------------

Not many people around this week due to travel.

IAS Initial Alignment (K.Mason)
--------------------------------
We are preparing for initial alignment of ETMx in Livingston next week.
Jonathan
Kern has found that changing the room temperature will increase the
reflectivity
of the optic at the wavelength of our laser autocollimator. At normal room
temperature there is only 1% reflectivity @ 670nm. In order to obtain the
greatest accuracy in alignment we prefer to align directly toi the HR surface.
As an alternative Jonathan has measured the difference in angle between the HR
and AR surfaces. This would allow us to align to the AR surface which has a
26%
reflectivity. Alignment procedures and theodolite orientations were generated
to align off either surfaces. These procedures will be available soon in
the DCN
as T970151-04.
 

-------------------------------------------
Lasers and Optics -- J. Camp
(1.2.1.1.2, 1.2.1.1.3, 1.2.1.1.4,1.2.1.1.5)
--------------------------------------------

Pre-stabilized Laser (PSL)
==========================
- The hardware necessary to temperature stabilize the reference cavity has
been installed. The parameters for the process controller have been
entered and are currently being tested.
- A number of changes to the PSL EPICS records database have been made and
a few errors have been corrected. The changes mostly relate to the
calibration of the signals so that the readback is in degrees Celsius
rather than Kelvin.
The HOPR field of the VCO modulation output signal was increased
from 1 to 5. With the previous maximum value of 1, on rebooting the IOC
controlling the PSL, there would be little or no light diffracted by the 80
MHz frequency shifter.
The other changes relate to the gain sliders on the PSL screens,
which previously read in volts although the label on the screen suggested
otherwise. The number displayed on the screen is now in dB, which is
consistent with the screen labeling.

--------------------------
Isolation Group -- M. Fine
--------------------------
Seismic Design (Mike Fine)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. COS Telescope:
Allied is cleaning the telescope components this week and will make an
expedited shipment of the first batch of the cleaned components to LHO
this Saturday.
2. Coarse Actuator System (CAS) Training:
The CAS training will be held next week at Livingston. This will be a week
long training with 3 days designated for operational aspects of the hardware
and the software, 1 day for troubleshooting, and 1 day for advanced
programming. The training is structured to include 4-5 hours/day of classroom
instruction followed by 3-4 hours of hands-on operation of a BSC.

---------------------------------------------------------
Detector Systems Engineering -- D. Shoemaker/D Coyne
(WBS 1.2.1.1.9)
---------------------------------------------------------

Global Diagnostics System (Daniel Sigg, John Zweizig)
------------------------------------------------------
This week worked with DMT users at LHO and improved
installation and added new functions (e.g. carry data
status in TSeries, inverse Fourier transforms, modify
Filter to work on complex Series) as requested by users
here and on the LSCDC telecon. This week I tested and
released the new version of the DMT software with
the new LDAS library build procedure. This is listed as
version 1.1b and can be downloaded from the usual
places. I also updated the related documentation.
Added integrated rms to the power spectrum plots. Added
transfer function measurements to the Fourier tools.
Added parameters for start time, number of averages
and bandwidth to show up at the bottom of the plots.
Added a legend which is setup automatically from the
selected traces.
 

Physics Environmental Monitor (Matt Smith)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Installed two magnetometers near the 2K ITM, BSCs 7 and 8. They will be
connected to racke 2x5 next week.
Machined and taped holes in the magnetometer tripods so they can be
adjusted to level the magnetometers.
Made 2 power cables for the magnetometers.
Installed a PZT shaker onto BSC2 for Mike Landry to perform some vertical
shaker measurements.
Helped Rick Savage install accelerometers and PZT shaker onto the PSL table
for testing.
Ed Kruzel and I installed the PEM interfaceplates for HAMS 1,2,3, and 4,
and BSCs 1,3 and 4.
 

-----------------------------------------
Control and Data System -- R. Bork
(WBS 1.2.2)
-------------------------------------------
LSC CDS: (Dale)
==========================
Met with Mike Zucker and Peter Fritschel last week to finish out the
requirements for the remaining LSC electronics that needs to be
designed, built, tested and installed by the April/May shutdown (God
never said "Let there be sanity"). Made a lot of progress on the Common
Mode Servo design. We would like to have this installed before the
shutdown and we all agreed that it should be the "Real" priority one as
opposed to all my other priority ones.
The LSC Anti-alias Filter board should be ready for PCB layout early
next week thanks to the efforts of Mohana.

GPS Timing System: (Dale)
===========================
Shipped 2 GPS Clock Drivers to LLO along with 2 Eurocard Slot Testers as
part of the IO commissioning.
Livingston IO (Jay)
==========
- Completing fabrication and beginning testing CDS electronics/software.
Livingston Infrastructure (Rolf)
=====================
- Upgrading Suns to Solaris7
- Finishing out GDS (excitation engine, compilers, Network time server)
- Training of site staff on GDS and DAQS
 


WBS 1.4    Project Office


WBS 1.2 LIGO Operations--Administration


LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Jasnow)

No site telecon was held on on Thursday, February 17, 2000.  The list of current actions carried over from the meeting on February 17, 2000 may be found at ACTION LIST.


PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)

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

Assisted the System Administrator (L. Wallace ) with the vendor (Computer Works Technology) repair of four (4) Sun Monitors at a total cost of $750.00 . Account Number: LIGO.00003-1.5.3-NSFLIGO.000001.

Assisted the Detector Group (Mike Smith) with the packaging and shipping of two (2) crates (220lbs) of Pick-Off Mirror Assemblies to B. Rivera at the LIGO Hanford Observatory for cleaning and baking. Account Number: LIGO.5F500 2.5 NSFLIGO 5F5000.

Assisted the Detector Group (P. Kabot) with the packing and shipping of Pick -Off Mirror Hardware to B. Weaver at LIGO Hanford Observatory. Account Number P96937.

Prepared a Purchase Requisition Work Sheet, request payment to United Motor Freight for delivery of a Street Sweeper to the LIGO Hanford Observatory. Account Number LIGO.5D500 1.7 NSFLIGO.5D5000. [Requisition has been approved -pel.]


DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

From: the DCC <dcc@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

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

Great news!  I had reported previously that Triad showed an extra $1,000,000+ as being "released" whereas the p.o. was for a much lesser and correct amount.  Kathy Meade and Kimi just informed me that it was bug and Oracle has corrected the bug and now the "true" released amount is being reflected.  I will keep an eye on this to make sure it is okay.

We were just informed last week Wednesday from the main office that all computer orders for hardware, software, and maintenance must be handled by Caltech Wired.  (GHS note: LIGO is studying this new Caltech requirement. Refer all questions on computer procurements to Larry Wallace - GHS)

Met with Phil, Ed, and Jose to discuss close out of po's and reductions of contracts.

GMAC automobile lease for Livingston is in pending.  Lease expires April 14, 2000.

Followed up with Kathy Meade regarding "over-encumbered" po's, such as Burns PX295760, and High Performance 1005937 on current status.  She is still working with Oracle on trying to reach a resolution.

The contract supplemental agreement form proposed by Acquisitions to be used for the LIGO subcontracts was not accepted, therefore, we are working with LIGO on trying to get it revised in order for notifications on new change orders to be sent out.  This form would take the place of the lengthy Oracle printout.

I received new instructions from the main office on the handling of all purchase orders which I will be incorporating into the LIGO orders.  I've been working with the Acquisitions team leaders, Will and Jose, to make sure that we are consistent with the main office and also to make sure that where exceptions for LIGO exist, that they are aware of it.

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

From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu> SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

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

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

No report this week.
 

LIGO II (Lindquist)

We are setting up a LIGO II Proposal Team. Thomas Frey will start next Monday.  He will be responsible for building the LIGO II Schedule (integrated with LIGO I Construction, Operations, and Advanced R&D) using Primavera (P3e).  We will be required to submit proposals for LIGO II and for Operations starting in FY 2002 by autumn 2000.  This in addition to the usual LIGO I Work Plan Reports and the Advanced R&D Report and Request for funding.
 



WBS 1.4.1.2   Project Controls (LIGO Construction)


Reports (Lindquist)

Change Control/Contingency (Lindquist)

The following change requests have been submitted:
 

CR-990028 WBS 1.1.3 Beam Tube Enclosure Closeout F. Asiri
CR-000001 WBS 1.1.4 Fencing Road at Livingston (Info Only) G. Stapfer

Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection. There have not been many additions or modifications submitted this month.


COST SCHEDULE CONTROL SYSTEMS (Duncan, Akutagawa, Kaufman)

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

From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu>



WBS 1.4.3    Systems Engineering / Data Analysis and Computing



 
 

Systems Engineering

No report

Simulation and Modeling

At LHO Giancarlo Cella and Hiro worked, together with R.Savage, and
looked for frequency noise sources generated by the reference cavity
of PSL. Giancarlo constructed the mechanical simulation code to simulate
the suspended reference cavity based on MSE. Hiro worked independently
to characterize the effect of various motions on the frequency noise
using e2e and twiddle. Several measurements were done for this effort
(See the report of Rick Savage for details). Giancarlo will give a talk
at LHO on Feb.25 about MSE and about this modeling of the reference
cavity structure. Hiro will combine results later, (1) mechanics modeling,
(2) measurement of the PSL table motion and (3) the frequency noise
calculation using e2e.

Hiro analyzed the ring down measurement, MC and 2k FP, to estimate the
non-resonant components (SB and higher order mode), following the guidance
of Stan. The presence of non resonant components is less than 20%, in
which 10% is from SB, assuming that the modulation depth is the design
value (0.47). So the presence of higher order modes (mode mismatching at
the FP cavity) is estimated to be less than 10%.

Biplab continued working on improvement of various Adlib codes and
performed various tests on modules.

Matt and Luca are continuing their simulation work on W2K LSC system.

ALFI: Ed Maros fixed several issues related to editing settings in Alfi4.
Bruce Sears continued working on the tree display in the area of tracking,
labeling, and providing path information for boxes.  I.e., what is the
relative and/or absolute path to a box, as well as the system file path
to boxes loaded into alfi and in edit.

LIGO Data Analysis System

 The build and release of LDAS version 0.0.9 was completed over the weekend. It was a very smooth build and installation process (first time), thanks in great part to the successes of the problem tracking system we now have working. The new version of the software was mirrored to the sites and is currently being used to carry out performance tests. The data communications rates for complex ilwd datatypes is hundreds of times faster, though another factor of 10 improvement is needed. Tests are being carried out to identify the area mostlikely to bare fruit in our struggle to be faster.

New in this build is the return of the long lost ability to send and receive ilwd data between solaris and linux. The fix to this was as I expected. A pre- processor directive error in a header file. With this, we are now ready to send data to the more computationally focused data conditioning and parallel computing aspects of LDAS (if we just had those components implemented).

A new group was formed this week involving four LSC members to work on the parallel computing component of LDAS known as the wrapperAPI. The LSC will develop dynamically loaded shared objects used by this API to carry out the analysis algorithms. Considerable work went into getting documentation for this meeting ready so that all group members would have an understanding of the software technologies being exploited. The first meeting was just a kick-off but it was great to hear that everyone had an understanding of what was being developed.

Stuart worked on a re-write of the frame archiving script to reduce the CPU load on the LDAS gateway machines and CDS framebuilders at LHO and LLO from hours of cpu time per day to minutes.

LDAS System Adminsitration support:  Started preliminary work on controlled shutdown and UPS monitoring upon
extended power outages. Researched RAID configurations and other techniques for storage of large
amounts of data.

General Computing


MIT:
Nothing to Report.

Livingston: (Tom Evans)
We have been working on PC maintenance, and on preparations
for the conference next month.

Hanford: (Christine Patton)
A WSU student will start on 2/28 to help with PC System Admin.  He will
be working 4 hours a day on a flexible schedule around his classes.
This weekend I will be moving my office furniture around to create desk
space for him and getting everything ready for his first day.

Followed up on several POs.  Followed up on getting Norton Antivirus
software from the Caltech site license.  Continued network security
maintenance, did the usual backups, helped users with several printer
and PC problems, and kept the GC accounting paper work up to date.

CIT:

  Sam this week helped a number of people out with minor computer issues
Also converted the inaugration photos to jpeg and burned cds of them.
 

  Barbara assembled all the files, updated the web pages, and set out a URL for
the Nov 12 videos to Barish, Sanders, and Coles for comments.
  Continued efforts on the DCC changes for configuration control.  Had a
long meeting with Linda Turner to decide on our approach and the format of
the changes.
  Devised a plan for the web pages for the as-built drawings with Linda
Turner and Fred Asiri.

  Suresh replaced broken hard drive in one of the Ultra 2 (scutulum) and
installed Solaris 7 on it. Probably it will be configured to provide anonymous
FTP services.
  Installed the evaluation copy of Legato backup software in system named
"kuma". This is based on client-server model. It has been set up to operate with
connected Qualstar TLS 4210 tape robot unit. Its flexible GUI administrative
interface provides convenient remote backup/recover operation. I still need
to do checking  of its functionalities.
  Working on to configure Fore ES-3850 ethernet workgroup switch.
  Working on to surplus unneeded obsolete hardware.

  Larry worked a printing PDF issue with Linda T., it appears that the older
printers don't handle printing the larger drawings very well. Use of the
postscript level 2 and using the latest drivers were needed to print a batch of
PDF drawing files. Linda is also checking a number of PDF utilities found at a
site called "www.planetpdf.com" . Along that same line we found certain
documents under Framemake 5.5 will print under the Unix version and will not
under the PC version.
  Worked a number of procurement issues. Including tracking things down through
the new system of using Caltech Wired.
  Worked a number of hardware items with Ed C. and Suresh.
  Still working with SDRC IDEAS problems. Just as we get one fixed a new one
pops up.
  Fixed a number of PC's. The problems ranged from viruses to broken registry
files.
  Finally, received the two new units for the Primavera system.


WBS 1.4.4.1    Administrative Group


Rita Torres

For I. Petrac did update to Attachment Z with GEO. Update included various names and email addresses which required sorting. Sent a test message to lsc-all and many bounced back. Verifying in process to determine whether we have the most current addresses, then we must investigate why message did not go through.

Did trip updates to the sites, these are on the web. Met with F. Asiri and L. Turner on the SEI drawing project, more to be done. Ongoing P-card purchases, reconciling (16), and chasing after details. Got help in doing a P-Card transaction after the purchase was made.

Irene Baldon

Please note that this was a short week (4 days). Of the 4 days I worked 2 days on clearing out traveler's 1999 file folders, e-mailed travelers who have outstanding 1999 trips needing Expense Reports to clear them, arranged transportation of the 1999 files to LIGO's DCC, and set up my 2000 files. I've completed approximately 75% and will continue until done.

Worked on preparing the paper work for 9 new trips taken recently or upcoming (9 Payment Requests and 8 Advance Requests). There are approximately an additional 25 new trips in various stages pending completion of travel arrangements before the paper work can be completed. Also worked on a number of problem issues which required a good portion of my time.

Completed 8 Expense Reports, some of which were extensive, involving 2-3 or more pages each. Some of these reports were still not taped or completed by the Traveler, and required additional time for completion. Worked additionally on a number of problem issues associated with these which required a good portion of my time. There are 34 Expense Reports still to be done. I'm holding 3 completed Expense Reports which require a check from the Traveler before sending to Travel Audit to clear. Liz has taken 7 Expense Reports to work on but have not completed them as of this report.

I still have seen some improvement in the time lag for receiving checks. They still continue to hold checks in Disbursement Audit for to an additional period of time but it seems to be getting better. This additional time lag can add significantly to the lag that already occurs in Travel Audit/Accounting. I have started receiving T numbers on a regular basis.

Performed normal recording and filing associated with Travel and Reimbursement.

Prepared the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for the Week of February 22, 2000.

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.

Dorothy Lloyd

Two-day report: Once again, I returned to a very heavy load of invoices to be processed and spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday processing invoices.

Thursday morning began processing requisitions.

Jim continues with data entry and filing.

Elizabeth K. Wood

Dealt with numerous personnel issues this past week including one departure (Steve Elieson has gone to Cisco Systems) and two potential new hires in Louisiana.

Made furniture and phone arrangements for a reshuffling of offices on the third floor and for a new person, Thomas Frey, who will be working with Phil Lindquist. I won’t know what Thomas’s phone number is until Monday when the phone line is installed.

Located yet another missing paycheck.

Worked with Phil in preparing LIGO’s Annual Report for submission using FastLane. In order to get the FrameMaker file to convert successfully to a readable .pdf file, all I had to do was use the UNIX version of FrameMaker. Of course. It was so simple.


Campus Research Facilities


Thermal Noise Interferometer - Libbrecht

    At the TNI we are in the process of converting our linear mode cleaner
into a triangular one.  Our current plan is to use a rather short
triangular cavity, with an aspect ratio of 2:1.  Preliminary calculations
showed that neither astigmatism nor optical feedback would pose a problem
with a cavity this short, and we determined that the flat mirror coatings
(designed for 45-deg, but used at 38-deg), will be adequate for the task.
We estimate that the finesse of our 2:1 mode cleaner will be around 5000.
A third suspension was cleaned and assembled inside our vacuum chamber, and
the other suspensions were moved into position.  The next step is to
install the two flat mirrors.
    We have also been working on a measurement of Braginsky's predicted
photo-thermal effect (see LIGO T000001 for a description of the
experiment), and this week got the test cavity resonating.  We plan to look
for the effect first in aluminum, where it should be quite large, and then
move on to sapphire.


LIGO II and Advanced R&D


The Aspen meeting on Detector R&D is in progress while this report is being prepared. It has been very productive, with considerable discussion of thermoelastic noise. This noise source, ignored in scoping LIGO II appears to limit LIGO II sensitivity and will require design changes. During this workshop, two new sources of noise were suggested. Geppo Cagnoli (Glasgow) discussed how the temperature dependence of Young's modulus may lead to significant thermal fluctuation driven noise in sapphire. And Bill Kell's described how the temperature dependence of refractive indices may lead to sizable path length fluctuations in the optics (called variously "twinkling" or "scintillation" by the telescope astronomers). Both mechanisms may lead to design pressures for LIGO II. More study is needed. (Sanders)


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