Weekly Report for Week Ending March 8, 2001


 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  March 12, 2001 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:  NSF review report


Special Announcements:


Weekly Report Highlights

Quake status at LHO


LSC Issues (Weiss)


no report


LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)



 

WBS 1.2 LIGO Operations--Administration



LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Lindquist)

There was no site teleconference held on Thursday, March 8, 2001.

The next site telecon is scheduled for Thursday, March 15, 2001.  The list of current actions revised to reflect open actions assigned through February 22, 2001 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. . .

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

From: Cleveland Mak <mak_c@ligo.caltech.edu>
Packages Faxes
In 35 25
Out 25 35

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
  • No report due to illness.
Dorothy Lloyd
  • Processed the usual requisitions, invoices and receiving on-line. For more detail, see "Cost Schedule Control Systems" report by Esther Cunningham.
  • Tracked and followed up on invoice problems.
  • Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther for the week of February 26, on contract summary sheets and in the LIGO database.
  • Continue to monitor contract and blanket order encumbrance and notify task managers when supplements are needed.
  • Jim continues with data entry in the LIGO database and also help out in the travel and DCC areas.
Rita Torres
  • Obtained several copies, and did internal distribution, of responses to RFP IPGS-511 for SEI Isolation Systems Mechanical Structure Prototype.  FedExed to Fermilab the MOU and Attachment Z for their signature.  Formatted six-month report for Carleton, submitted to the DCC.  FedExed to the NSF, contract 1030186 with NTD Architects after some minor edits.  Helped to chase some information for a commercial invoice with Japan.
  • Obtained Oracle requisition numbers for:  Change order No. 2 to Shanghai Institute, change order No. 4 to Oliver McCullough, and regular POs with Hyspan Precision Products, and with Crystal Systems for items not on the contract.  Tracked down some packing slip information for D. Lloyd.
  • Ongoing activity:  Placed Pcard orders, chased documentation to reconcile a few, did site trip updates.  In communication with J. Holder regarding addresses on the LSC roster.
Elizabeth K. Wood
  • With the PMA division administrators and the IPAC administrative assistant, I attended a meeting with Sharon Patterson and recruiters in employment to discuss how things are going to change in the coming months.  It turns out that the RESUMIX system hasn’t been working all that well because people in the employment department don’t know how to write useful queries.  Hence, hiring managers haven’t been getting resumes to review.  We’ve had this terrific new tool to hire people for a couple of years and no one in HR knows how to use it.
  • Since LIGO’s employment issues frequently involve immigration as well, we also talked about the situation with immigration.  If there is any good news, it’s that the immigration staff won’t be moving away from their current location in HR.  Instead, employee relations will be moving, and the immigration folks will stay where they are.  There are also on-going discussions on immigration procedures.  Perhaps one day, there will be immigration procedures.  Tom Schmitt is actively involved in determining how visas will be handled.

Advanced LIGO (Frey, Petrac)

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

Progress Period from 02.23 to 03.08

Accomplishments:

Schedule 03.09 to 03.15:

WBS 1.4.1.2   Project Controls (LIGO Construction)



Reports (Lindquist)

We have received the funds ($19.1 million) from the NSF for FY 2001 Operations.  We are working with the Office of Sponsored Research to set up the account budgets.

Prepared revisions for the Proposal Budget for the FY 2002-6 Operations Proposal in accordance with NSF request.  Elizabeth has submitted these via FastLane.

A reminder that I require contributions for an end-of-February Quarterly Progress Report.  I am requesting contributions by Friday, March 23rd.  Thanks!



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
CR-000020 WBS 1.1.4 Staging Building and Renovations to Existing Building--Livigston F. Asiri
CR-010001 WBS 1.1.4 Return of Unused Construction Budget To Contingency F. Asiri

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)

Earthquake repair is the main activity as given in Doug Cook's report below:

Optics
------
D. Cook

Starting with some details on the earthquake damage and recovery progress:
        FMy-2k lost one side magnet, it was removed from BSC8 and is now being
reprocessed in the optics lab. We expect to have it balanced by late Friday
and into the vacuum bake oven on Saturday. The Lower Left OSEM was found loose.
        ITMy-2k lost its lower left magnet, it was removed from BSC8 and is now
being processed in the optics lab. It has been balanced and will go into
the vacuum bake oven on Saturday. All but the lower left OSEMs were found
to be loose.
        RM-2k lost the lower left and lower right magnets, it was removed from
HAM9 and is being reprocessed in the optics lab. We expect to have it
balanced and ready for the vacuum bake load mid week.
        The ETMy-2k optic will be removed on Tuesday after venting late Monday
after the E3 run. It will be moved to the optics lab for processing. We
have received the MMT3-2 spare optic from UFO and have started the
processing it as well.
In general the recovery process is going good. We are taking this
opportunity to retro-fit the new OSEMs. Hopefully we will come up with a
modification to the 'safety stops' prior to reinstalling the structures to
better protect. We will establish a new maximum set point to gap the safety
stops. This is to restrict the amount the optic can move during seismic
activity without interfering with the normal controlled steering.
        The 4k installation continues in parallel to the 2k. These tasks have been
only possible due to the efforts from large number of people here at LHO
and many visitors.
 


LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)



 

Operations: All operators have been trained in the use of Ed Daw's DMT program and will be exercising it during the E-3 and beyond. All 5 remote RGA computers are now accessible from the control room. Quincy is now training operators in its use for RGA monitoring. Szabi has given operations personnel the E-3 checklist and special duties
to be performed during the E-3

OPTICS: We measured the PSL frequency noise with the laser free running, at the error point and using the mode cleaner as an analyzer. We also noted peaks in the free running spectrum that randomly appeared and disappeared at 66 kHz. We discovered a short in the ETMx LL coil. We measured the resistance at the hermetic 25 pin connector directly on the BSC. It appears that the short is in the coil. We also discovered last night that the ETMy LR coil has a problem, which appears to be a partial short reducing the coil resistance to ~4 ohms. During locked stretches we realigned both ETM transmission monitors. Packed and shipped to LHO all LLO CO and IO jigs and fixtures, and Gary Traylor be at LHO next week to assist.  (Kovalik/King/Traylor/Kern)

Construction: The columns for crane support of the high bay area have been set in concrete. Construction activities will continue Friday and Monday overlapping the E3 run.
 


Detector/Technical Support (Whitcomb, Coyne)


 
Installation& Commissioning:
Hanford
Livingston
Other Science/EngineeringActivities:
Design/Analysis/Fab
Issues/Concerns
Seealso the Installation web page

1.1 LHO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

2km Earthquake repairs

Doug Cook, Mark Lubinski, Helena Armandula, David Ottaway, Hugh Radkins,  Betsy Weaver, Gerardo Moreno, Corey Gray, Dennis Coyne .....
The effort to repair the damage to the 2 km interferometer due to the Olympia quake swung into high gear this week.  First indications were that 5 large optics and an unknown number of small optics suffered magnets being knocked off and will have to be reglued.  ITMY, FMY and RM have been removed from the vacuum system to begin their reprocessing.  A spare MMT-3 will be glued and suspended to replace the existing one (just as a time saving measure, not because there is any major damage to the current MMT-3).  Staging for the removal of ETMY has started.

A high priority continues to be finishing the installation of the 4 km vertex optics, since we will need to move cleanrooms to the 2k area before opening up too many doors there.

Processing of new OSEMs continues and so far seems to be on schedule to meet the requirements for 2 km retrofit.  Ideas are being kicked around for improving the earthquake stops to minimize future risk of damage.

2-k IOO repairs

Malik Rakhmanov and David Tanner are at LHO this week. David Reitze will be at LHO early next week and Guido Mueller the following week.

Gluing is starting on a replacement SM-02, because the one installed appears to have lost a magnet.  Janeen has shipped up the SOS structures intended for the 40 m to allow us to make a more rapid swap (THANKS, ALAN!), and has ordered replacement SOS mechanical parts for the the 40m

The spare MMT-3 that was at UF was shipped to LLO. The radius of curvature (RC) was measured by imaging a target back on a screen immediately adjacent to the target. This mirror, MMT-305-1, has a RC of 25.02 +- 0.01 m.  The design value is 25.160 but the MMT3 for the 4-k LHO IFO  (MMT-302-1) is 25.03(5) +- 0.02 m. We will find the data for the MMT3 in the 2-k interferometer and adjust the location for mode matching.

Mode matching calculations indicate that a change in the RC of MMT3 by 10cm would reduce the mode matching to 80%. Any change in the RC of MMT3 has to be compensated by a change of the distance between MMT2 and MMT3.

If the RC change is dR, we have to change the distance between MMT2 and 3 by dR/2 by moving MMT3. To get the signs correct:
       RC = 25.16  distance=13.78
       RC = 25.06  distance=13.73
       RC = 25.26  distance=13.83
No change in the distance between MMT1 and MMT2.
The change between MMT3 and PR is neglectable.

Because MMT3 is pretty immobile, we'll try to place it right when we know RC but after that corrections are made by moving MMT2. We checked this and found that one requires same changes in distance MMT2-MMT3 and these small changes in the distance between MMT2 and MMT1 do not matter.

4-k IOO installation

We hope to install the suspended optics in HAM2 later this week.

COS

Mike Smith, Ken Mailand, Lee Cardenas, Hugh Radkins,  Gerardo Moreno, Corey Gray, Mark Lubinski, Dennis Coyne,....
The BS PO mirrors on BSC1 are aligned. The ITMx and ITMy PO mirrors in BSC2 are aligned. The ITMy PO telescope and optical train are installed and aligned; COS is complete in HAM3. The ITMx, BS, and APS telescopes are installed and aligned on HAM4. The optical trains on HAM 4 are in the process of being aligned.

 4K ASC and LSC

Jay Heefner

1.2LLO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

Commissioning

Rai Weiss, et al.
Decided to carry out the E3 run with X-arm cavity lock by ITM and ETM.  Work on recombination and recycling of the interferometer will continue after the E3 run.

Preparations for the E3 run include:

1) Use of the lock acquisition code on the single-cavity which typically acquires lock in 10-15 seconds.
2) Installation and test of two magnetometers and line voltage monitors for correlation with Hanford.


We have found coils in the ETM Y and ETM X to be shorted but have learned how to control the masses with three coils, allowing continued progress before it will be necessary to open to air.

Rich Abbott
Assisting in general electronics fixing and tweaking in preparation for the E3 run at LLO.  Diagnosed an offset problem with the PMC which is behaving normally now.  Took transfer functions in the LSC to diagnose code and wiring issues.

E3 Preparations

Szabi Marka
Up to date information is available from the E3 homepage http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/engrun/E3/

PSL

Peter King
The PSL seems to be functioning just fine after its master oscillator surgery.  The frequency noise measurement obtained with the modecleaner suggests that the frequency noise is about 3 times higher than the specification.

During the last week or so, Joe, Jonathan and I have been re-working the alignment of the beam into the modecleaner, trying to improve the image of the reflected spot on the camera.  Our conclusion was that the beam is being clipped somewhere inside the vacuum vessel, as the beam going into the modecleaner is definitely not clipped.

Rich and I inspected the pre-modecleaner servo to fix the DC offset problem observed when trying to lock the servo.  A problem was found with one of the op-amps, exhibiting a large input offset.  The op-amp was replaced and everything seems fine now.

2.0 OtherEngineering and Scientific Activities

2.1 Design/Analysis/Fab

Optics Modelling

Bill Kells
The progress is all in work on the FFT and MELODY codes, especially with regard to degenerate cavity situations. We are planning a (hopefully final) summit with Ray B. next week at the LSC meeting (to which I am going now that there is a hiatus for me at LHO).

LSC

Rich Abbott, Flavio Nocera
Last week we traveled to LHO and participated in the machine operations. While there we gathered information to get Flavio and Mohana rolling on the DC readout summing box and the 2 omega LA system.  They are in the process of writing the requirements and specs for these subsystems and will circulate them so we are all in agreement.

Mohana Mageswara
I am finishing up the next revision MC Servo PCB layout, and it should be send out for fabrication by early next week. I am also working on the block diagram of the LSC photodetector readout module.

Peter Fritschel, Mike Zucker, Nergis Mavalvala, Rich Abbott, Rolf Bork, Jay Heefner, Flavio Nocera, Rai Weiss, Matt Evans, Bill Kells, Mohana Mageswara,.....
We held a meeting to discuss the various patches that have been made at LHO to achieve lock acquisition of the full interferometer. The outcome was a set of specific plans to make permanent the various electronic setups that have been cobbled together. Other resolutions: do more lab characterization of the LSC photodetector saturation phenomenon and the electro-optic cell alignment sensitivity; make another analog dewhitening filter board that has less aggressive filtering than the present board, as a bootstrap during the noise reduction process.

PSL

Peter King
The P/O for super polished substrates, permitting fabrication of more pre-modecleaners was placed.

The new Pockels cell mount is still being fabbed by the Physics workshop.

I shipped up two AR-coated 10 in. diameter viewports to LHO (Doug Cook) for installation in front of a CCD camera - the location of which Mike Z knows.

The precision optical flats ordered from Thorlabs have arrived.  These will be used for practising optical contacting.

Rick Karwoski, Paul Russell
· PSL custom boards -- The final 35.5 MHz Frequency Reference, is currently in test. Once it is complete PMC boards will be available for LASTI and the 40m.
· PSL Cross-connect panels -- The first cross connect panel has been completed.
· Work continues in the intensity stabilization area. This week Rick's efforts were back on the prototype circuitry for the main intensity stabilization loop. The goal is to   begin testing next week.

Ben Abbott
I have tested my latest DC photodiode design for use in the intensity servo, and found that in INTUSOFT spice, it exceeds the design guidelines given to me by Rick Karwoski.

Sander Liu
In the process of repairing and test of PMC 21.5 MHz Frequency Reference Boards
 

Suspensions

Mark Barton
This week in response to questions from Peter Fritschel and Mike Zucker I revisited the calculation of the OSEM coil to optic magnet interaction. Peter was interested in the sweet spot along the axis of the coil where the force is a maximum, and the rate of change of force with distance is zero. The OSEM design had been optimized at one point to put the magnet at the sweet spot of the coil and the midrange position of the shadow sensor simultaneously, but due to fabrication problems the constraint had had to be relaxed. It turns out that the sweet spot is quite broad and the degradation of force is negligible. The cross- coupling to motion of the structure is trivial compared to the pendulum restoring force.

Mike was worried about displacements of the magnet transverse to the axis of the coil due to misglued magnets, misaligned OSEMs, mispositioned OSEM brackets etc. I generalized an earlier axially symmetric calculation to allow for this. It turns out that the sweet spot is comparably broad in the transverse direction. Interestingly the force actually increases for the few mm of displacement.
 

New OSEM Heads

Janeen Romie
Surmet delivered the next 5 batches of 20 coated heads this morning. That should allow us to meet the mid-May deadline for an LLO 4k osem switch. LHO 2k IFO's replacement osems are in process. I shipped Surmet the remaining 234 heads for coating today. I have ordered more osem circuit boards.They have a lead time of 6-8 weeks.

Working on redesigning the earthquake stops.

Peter Fritschel
Continuing osem assembly for the LHO 2k retrofit. A new issue that has arisen is that the long osems installed on the side of the optics have very little mechanical clearance, and in some cases not enough to allow them to be positioned at the proper sensor point. So we are making some modifications to the side osems to give more clearance: grinding off the front part of the led/pd circuit boards, and installing them so they stick out a bit from the osem form. Unfortunately in the first batch of 5 such modified heads, the epoxy bond on the spring clip that holds the filter in place failed. We are revising our handling procedures to avoid this.

Digital Suspensions

Rolf Bork, Jay Heefner

DMT

John Zweizig
This week I have been preparing the DMT nodes and monitors for the upcoming E3 run. I have recompiled all DMT software and installed all new or updated monitors. All monitors in the E3 run list are currently running on the DMT nodes. There are still a few cases where I suspect a configuration file is correct or some effort will be needed to insure that the proper test points are selected. The trigger generation and logging seems to be working to first order, but some minor changes are necessary to meet new xml syntax rules. The DMT nodes have plenty of CPU power to support the present full complement of monitors without offloading jobs to e.g. fortress or decatur.
 


40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)




Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)


We completed the investigation of the broadband Pockels cell which began
the end of last week and we inferred its frequency response. With this
study, we ended the test cavity characterization. Comments to the LIGO
draft note, summarizing the characterization, have been received. Once the
note is modified, it will be submitted to DCC.
 

Before opening the chamber, we cleaned and re-organized the lab. We opened
the chamber, and we inspected the state of the optics. Two suspended
mirrors were found with one magnet broken off: one from the modecleaner,
the other from the south test cavity. These mirrors were taken out of the
chamber and the magnets were reglued.
 

The laser was replaced by the one used for the photothermal experiment. We
realigned the optics to the reference cavity, and we locked the new laser
to the reference cavity for diagnostic purposes. A first estimate of the
laser PZT efficiency gives ~5MHz/V, a factor ~8 greater than the old laser.
 


LASTI (Zucker)


Ken: completed design, solicited and received bids for fabrication of
custom BSC cleanroom with integrated work platform.
 

Mike: looking at schedule impact for BSC SEI support installation due
to domino effect from LHO earthquake damage. Experts (local, LHO, LLO)
previously signed up for April are no longer available. Pushing back
the BSC install does not directly impact the experimental program (LIGO
II BSC SEI delivery is still the "long pole") but may cause
interference with PSL commissioning and some logistic headaches; e.g.,
we'd prefer to put all that steel in its proper place ASAP, as we have
no floor space left.
 

David: working on detailed meshing of LSC LIGO II development programs
& test article deliveries with published LASTI test plan.


Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)



 
 

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)


  There was a meeting held last Friday about modeling. Andrea, Biplab,
  Hiro, Matt, Virginio attended. Hiro explained about the plan of the
  simulation effort proposed to NSF, for LIGO I and advanced LIGO. In the
  discussion, action items and priorities and schedules were discussed.
  This will be revised by taking into account the feedbacks from the
  hardware expert people.
  Andrea Vicere will provide part-time support to the simulation group, spending that time
  on use of the e2e for modeling work. He will lead an important task for the modeling
  utilizing his expertise as a scientist.

Physics Studies
---------------
  (Hiro) Pursued the noise issues. An algorithm has been completed to
  calculate the psd of noises with a wide dynamic range. In order to make
  it possible, quadruple precision calculation needs to be adopted in the
  digital filter calculation, but the data being passed around can be
  double precision. So the e2e simulation can be built using double
  precision as the main data type, and quad precision calculation is used
  in limited number of places. This introduces a minor speed penalty.

  (Biplab) Some results from lock-acquisition studies: From observations
  of various runs, the effects of the angular fluctuations of different
  mirrors (zero angular offset assumed) may be arranged in the order from
  most harmful to least harmful (in terms of percentage locked time) as
  follows (i) Beam-splitter (ii) Input mirrors (iii) Recycling mirror
  (iv) End mirrors.
  If the ang. fluctuation level is low, these distinctions may not arise
  but their effects become prominent as the runs approach the critical
  cases of acquiring locks.
  In the presence of angular offsets (with ang. fluctuations), power
  fluctuations in locked states increase to higher levels along with a
  drop in  duration of locked states and an obvious drop in locked state
  power. More investigations going on.

The Code
--------
  (Tavio) Expression template is a very powerful tool to combine the
  nice feature of C++ operator overloading and the speed achievable by
  fortran. By adopting expression template-based matrix and field
  objects, our code becomes much cleaner and faster.  Tavio and Hiro
  looked into several implementations, but the adoption in our code will
  not be completed by the time when the contract with Tavio ends, so
  the task for Tavio has been changed to revisit the profiling of the
  simulation code. This task has been defered for the time being but will be revisited when resources permit.
  This week's tasks are to profile the newest version of modeler to see
  where we take a performance hit, and to use the Sun performance library's
  LAPACK routines within our matrix class.

E2E at CACR
-----------
  (Ed Maros) Worked on compiling e2e software on CACR supercomputer systems.
  With the aid of the staff, I have been able to compile the ALParser
  library and am now working on the AdlibMM directory.

Alfi
----
  (Bruce Sears) Alfi 4 Software Development:
  - Completed testing of connection code.  Found a few problems, and
  working on these Problem Reports (201 - 204).

LIGO Data Analysis System

Andrea Vicere':

* I am beginning to become involved in the simulation activity: Hiro
  showed me the general architecture, the structure of the Han2k, and
  provided me with bibliography which I am reading.
* The participation to the E3 run required a telecon with R.Adhikari,
  Biplab, L.Matone, and D.Brown at MIT. I am struggling to become able
  to use the tools here at the site, and to get involved in the
  analysis activity.
* I shall be at Livingston from today (March 8) to March 17th, mostly
  working on the frequency noise topic, although I hope also to
  work on seismometer data, which may become useful later for the
  simulation.

  • Software Systems (Blackburn)

  •  

     

    The 0.0.15 release of LDAS occurred on Tuesday of this week. This release is
    now installed at Hanford and Livingston, as well as on the CIT-Test system.
    It has added functionality and a few bug fixes needed for the E3 engineering
    run. In particular, there is a new user command called dataPipeline used to
    process frame data through the dataConditionAPI and store such results as
    power spectra, cross spectral densities and statistics in the site databases.
    Philip Charlton has been developing driver scripts based on this new user
    command which will be used to automate the process of recording detector
    characterizations on select channels which he as collaborated with Keith
    Riles and the dataConditionAPI team in order to make a solid contribution
    to the E3 with LDAS.

    The upgrade to LDAS 0.0.15 and the use of the new user command have also
    identified several limitations in the database table design. A new table
    called summ_csd which stores information from channel x channel cross
    spectral densities was added. In addition several columns were lengthened.
    These table changed lead LDAS to perform its first complex database
    administration task: dumping the existing tables (old design) and the
    merge this data into the new table design. The only data effected by this
    was the trigger data at Hanford. When this DBA exercise was attempted,
    16179 out of the 248202 triggers failed to migrate. An investigation into
    this has turned up that this is a common problem with DB2 and we will be
    re-ingesting the original XML files associated with these triggers after
    the format has been modified to reflect the new table design. Longer term,
    we are looking at third party solutions to this migration problem and hope
    that IBM will provide a patch.

    The usual set of test occupied much of the week as we prepared for the
    release. However, we did discover a processing bottleneck when concatenating
    large number of frame channel data to form a long timeseries. Already a few
    places in the code that can facilitate the data flow have been identified
    but it may be a couple of weeks before these are fully optimized.

    A schedule was formulated for the software development over the next two
    months which will include two new releases of LDAS (roughly one a month)
    and will carry the software into the Inspiral Inch Peeple in mid May.

    The first attempt at performing load balancing using a shared object from
    UWM (base on the new wrapperAPI model) was unsuccessful due to a MPI blocking
    call. The source of this problem has not been fully tracked down yet.

    Some coding effort went into the new LDAS API (eventMonitorAPI) this week.
    A shared library for submitting events to the database was started and the
    data bucket used to store the data products from the search codes was begun.

  • Hardware Systems (Anderson)

  •  

     
     
     

    E3 related activities
    ---------------------

    1)  The tapecontrol script has been modified to write data onto tape in
    parallel with creating the next tar ball of data from the framebuilder.
    This has increased the rate that data can be archived to 6.0+ MB/s.  The
    system has been tested for several weeks at LHO and LLO without errors,
    and is ready for E3.

    2) The tapecontrol documentation has been upgraded for E3.  The relevant
    parties have been informed of their duties during the run.  To
    summarize:
    a) operators should go through the following checklist at the beginning
    of each shift,
    http://apex.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~gmendell/tapecontrolchecklist.html
    b) the configuration of tapes in the tape robot during E3 is located at,
    http://apex.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~gmendell/tapecontrolsign.html
    c) the complete documentation on how to start and use the ldas control
    GUI and tapecontrol software is found here,
    http://apex.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~gmendell/tapecontroldoc.html

    3)  More vetting of the user's configuration of the tapecontrol script
    was added, and other minor bugs were fixed, to make the script more
    friendly when archiving data e.g., from the RDS writer on fortress.

    4)  A performance test of the DMT with the tapecontrol script running
    was conducted.  The test showed that cpu usage was not significantly
    impacted.

    Long term activities
    --------------------

    1) LHO: Contractors working with Richard McCarthy finished installing power
    for the upcoming move of LDAS from the mass storage room to the
    mezzanine of the staging building.

    2) Optional 240V electrical requirements for the 28TB of LDAS disk have been
    determined and will probably be adopted at LHO, LLO and CIT, but not MIT.

    3) A new dual-processor Sun server (E220R) has been ordered as the
    main LDAS software server.

    4) Updated quotes for the LDAS Engineering run beowulf clusters have been
    obtained (1 dual, 1 quad, and 16 uni-processor boxes for LHO and LLO).

    5) The first official LDAS version of RedHat Linux has been specified, i.e.,
    there is now an explicitly maintained set of RPM's to apply to a base RedHat
    installation to obtain a standard LDAS configuration.

    6) Initial testing of the second Red Hat 7.1 beta are proceeding (wolverine).

    General Computing (Wallace)


    [Bruce Sears]
    * (BS) Ilog maintenance, additions, and development:
            - LLO Ilog moving to a different machine.
            - Addition of a new group at LHO.
            - Developing better search feature accessibility.
     

    MIT:
    (Keith)
    -Traced NFS mail trouble down to solaris NFS version
    inconsistencies (2.6 / 2.8).
    -Built new print server  (using HP Jetdirect).
    -Installed various software packages for users.
    -Continuing to install patches when time permits and machines
    become available.

    Hanford:
    See Hanford Report

    Livingston:
    -Preparing for E3 run setting up and testing equipment.
    -Preparing for LSC setting up equipment and working on
    logistics.

    CIT:
    (Barbara)
    - Worked on the to-do list for the LDAS Equipment database and web forms.
    Thus far have set up a web form to create a new entry based on a previous
    one and have added an edit for the Cost field.  Once the remaining items
    are completed, the changes will be installed in production.

    - Reworked the web form for reserving a document number so the author
    pull-down is at the bottom of the page.  Folks will no longer have to wait
    for the pull-down to load before entering data (do we need the
    pull-down?).
     I am also working on a web form to search the log for reserved but unused
    document numbers.

    - Updated the LSC meeting announcement web page and posted the February
    newsletter.  Made a number of other changes to LSC rosters and
    transparencies, LIGO Participation, etc.

    - The text versions of the DCC database are now available at
    admdbsrv.ligo.caltech.edu/dcc/doclists.html -- a public URL that is not
    posted.

    - My schedule next week is to work Monday at home and Tuesday-Friday at
    Caltech so that I can post the LSC transparencies.  We still haven't
    gotten
    our router working and DLink Technical Support hasn't been responsive.
    Maybe Larry can give me some pointers when he returns from Livingston.

    (Lisa)
    - Tweaked the daily/weekly backup scripts on hamal. Moved the backup of
    ldas-sw
    to its own tape.  It now gets a level 0 dump every Saturday.
    - Decommissioned Rastaban as the server for daily/weekly backup scripts.
    - Did monthly backups.
    - Did a survey of the computers on the 2d and 3d floor of West Bridge.  We
    have
    5 offices without computers.  I currently am working on getting 4 up there
    (2
    sun, 2 pc).
    - Working on a new round of surplus equipment with Ed.
    - I tested and labelled every phone line in the modem pool area.  We have
    one
    line in particular that is very poor.
    - Moved the 800 number to the new modem.  The old modem pool is still
    active but
    with only 2 local phone numbers.
    - Got the PO for the Cadence license renewal to purchasing.
    - Got some competitive bids for AIT-2 tapes.
    - Worked on the usual round of printer/desktop support issues.

    (Suresh)
    -Installed Matlab Release 12 in sirius. This can be invoked by typing
    matlab12
    in command line on any Sun System. Also, the documentation for it has been
    installed. The old version of Matlab (Release 11) is still in place whose
    license will expire in March 31. Then release 12 will be the default.

    -Contacted HP support service to replace the broken plastic paper sensor
    in
    bottom tray of HP Laserjet 5000 N printer in third floor bridge. They are
    sending repair technician very soon. Fixed the duplex printing problem of
    HP
    ColorJet printer in third floor bridge. Working on resolving the unix
    postscript
    file printing problem of HP LaserJet 5000 N printer in Millikan 6th floor.

    -Received the 10db attenuator to be used with single mode ATM uplink
    module in
    ES 2810 Fore switch. I will be doing testing in next couple of days.

    -Doing necessary preparation for moving home3 and home4 in 36 GB drive in
    Sun
    Storage D1000.

    (Sam)

    -I came to work to answer modem questions, but there wasn't any.
    -Dealt with a gateway return issue.
    -Answered some random pc questions
     


    LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)


    From Peter King:

    40m Lab and LASTI PSL
    ---------------------
    A number of optical mounting components arrived from New Focus and
    Thorlabs. Most of the optics from CVI Laser have arrived, only some
    beamsplitters and quarter waveplates remain.
     

    The gimbal/beamsplitter mirror mount support blocks are still in the
    process of being fabbed by the Physics workshop. These should be completed
    by week's end, as the lathe being used is required for another lengthy
    job.
     

    Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2001 10:08:47 +0900
    From: Riccardo DeSalvo <desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu>

    Fred (Lyon)
    Demonstrator drawing of sapphire flex joints sent to manufactures. Let
    see the price. Suggested start wiyh with one or two of the 7 geometries
    designed.
    Flex joint simulation, making drawing and simulation for one dimensional
    and 2 dimensionnal Flex joints. (static for a joint and dynamic for a
    long wire with Flex joints at the extremities). For the thermal
    simulation, will see next week.
    Initial calculation to optimize the length of Flex joints.
    Collecting informations on
    Sapphire quality factor measurement and modelling
    Cluster ion beam
    Ceramics machining
     

    Edwin (Pasadena)
    ran some hardness measurements on some of the TAMA-SAS filter
    attachments.
    Calculating some basic energy dissipation methods on the attachment
    system, only considers mechanical potential energy and some frictional
    factors.
    Need Giancarlo Cella’s help to learn some of the calculations and
    simulations of this type of anti-spring.
    Continued to understand the experimental set-up for the Creep.
     

    Alessandro (Pisa)
    Mechanical machining of accelerometers terminated.
    Found some information on how flex  joint Q-factors may be degraded by
    EDM. We will make the accelerometers for TAMA the old way but will use
    the spares for testing a new scheme and a re-hardening process to
    restore the original Q-factors.
    Accelerometer’s electronics waiting for a component already procured in
    Caltech and presently in transit over the Atlantic.  Otherwise ready for
    shipment to Japan.
     

    Roberto Taddei
    All digital electronics and NIM and VME crates ready for shipment except
    for a DAC chip very late in delivery, now promised for Monday or
    Tuesday.
    Shipping crates already built, will ship asap.
     

    Akiteru, Riccardo, Yamamoto, Kimio (Tokyo)
    The SAS towers, installed last week in the three meter vacuum chambers,
    were completely aligned and secured (specially made screws were
    necessary.
    Prepared ballast masses for final loading.
    Found problem with mirror and recoil mass wires (wrong tensile strength
    listed on a web data sheet).  Assemblying with backup tungsten wires.
    New wires on order will arrive in few days.
    Dry run of a completed double pendulum suspension procedure successfully
    completed.   All modes, checked by un-calibrated, but trained, eyeball
    mark-one sensors, looked OK.
    Suspensions and mirror frozen in position by their shipment struts.  The
    resulting structure is as sturdy as expected.
    Frozen the Tower 1 again with its shipment blocks.
    The frozen double pendulum was moved into tower 1 and hang in position.
    Everything went OK, no wire was damaged. No positioning seems lost.
    Akiteru stepped back, looked at it and made a famous comment:
    "MHM. . ., it looks as in the drawings!"
    No further comments necessary, I guess.
    The shipment struts are so solid that we are convinced that the entire
    structure (SAS+SUS) could have safely air travelled.
    Note, when we will get to it, it will be useful to take advantage of the
    re- frozen structure stiffness to perform the cabling, then the
    components will be released progressively starting from the bottom,
    ballasted and balanced as necessary until the tower is ready for
    operation.
    The latest photos  are located at:
    http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~takamori/images/tamasas/installation2/
    Met at KEK with:
    Colin Taylor, Miyoki, Kuroda (from Kashiwa) and Sato, Suzuki, Shintomi
    and Tomaru (from KEK) to discuss installation of SAS on the KEK
    cryostat.
    Inspected the Hall, found the possibility to reduce the spacing between
    the two vacuum chambers and reduce vertical occupation, for the rest
    there is sufficient space and crane access for the job.
     


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