LIGO Weekly Report

The next site telecon is scheduled for Thursday, March 21, 2001. The list of current actions revised to reflect open actions assigned through February 22, 2001 may be found at ACTION LIST.

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. . .

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

Irene Baldon

Due to illness this report covers approximately one and one-half (1-1/2) weeks.
I was able to process forty-one (41) new trips (including Advance Checks written and hotel/car rental authorizations filled out and FAXed to appropriate vendors in various locations); six (6) trips have been ticketed and are awaiting completion of necessary paper work; and I have nineteen (19) trips pending final approval before tickets can be issued.
With Jim Covington's help, we were able to complete thirty-eight (38) Expense Reports and have twenty-six (26) Expense Reports to work on, and I'm holding three (3) reports that need a check from the traveler before processing. Jim Covington has nineteen (19) expense reports that he is working on at the present time. I continue to train and supervise him on expense reports.
I reconciled sixty-four (64) items on my P-Card and have eighty-eight (88) items to reconcile by Friday of this week. Assisted a few travelers with their reconciling and/or data entry.
Prepared the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for the Week of March 13, 2001. Performed normal recording and filing associated with Travel and Reimbursement. Also performed miscellaneous duties as requested by various members of the LIGO Project here at Caltech as well as from members of the staffs of each of the two (2) sites. I continue to do MIT's travel to the sites for installation activities and also to assist them wherever possible.

Rita Torres

Sent out various documents to either obtain signatures, or to place in file: Attachment 1, with Bagayev in Russia, Attachments D & Z with NAO-TAMA, Attachments D & Z with Braginsky at Moscow State. Scanned Moscow Attachments B, D, & Z, and submitted to the DCC for posting. Did letters to proposers outside competitive range for RFP IPGS-511, SEI Isolation System Mechanical Structural Prototype.
Checking weekly for incoming LSC reports and plans, both pieces arrived for Aciga this week. Obtained Oracle requisition number for regular PO with D.R. Components for a digital analog converter.
Arranged a couple of extra telecons this week. Updated laser safety records. Helped organize resistors in the BD lab, almost done. Covered with my Pcard an item for P. Willems, the purchase was over his card limit. Placed Pcard orders, chased documentation to reconcile some.

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 March 5, 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 helps out in the travel and DCC areas.

Elizabeth K. Wood

Worked with the NSF’s FastLane (tm, all rights reserved) to prepare a proposal for Gary and submitted a revised budget from the big proposal for Phil. In keeping with the tradition of things that don’t quite work with FastLane (tm, all rights reserved), it was impossible to preview or print the revised budget. I sent a message to the FastLane (tm…) helpdesk asking them why I got the error message, “An error has occurred while trying to use this document” and was told to try a different computer. I tried three different computers and got the same error message which suggests to me the problem isn’t at our end. Vic Cook, our program director at the NSF, is looking into the problem.
Our Pcard guru, Criselda, has set me up with travel advance checks to be used only in the event Irene is unavailable. I can also get cash advances by going to a B of A personally.
Please note: If you are having any difficulties with your pcard, whether reconciling, making up the order log, or any other pcard-related difficulties, please call Criselda Rodriguez-Brodheur at x 6283 (email criselda.rodriguez-brodheur@caltech.edu) or Muriel Lampe at x 6273 (email mlampe@acs.caltech.edu).

Advanced LIGO (Frey, Petrac)

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

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)

>       The 4k IFO installation continues to make steady positive progress.The
>mode Cleaner alignment will start today. The MMT3 side PAM screw was
>removed and the 50% OSEM voltage was reset on the MMT3. The MMT3 position
>coordinates were double checked with the COS laser autocollimator beam. The
>beam was retro-reflected off the RM and then onto a target placed on the
>MMT3 structure. The beam path was next aligned to a target placed on the
>MMT2 by steering MMT3. We will now begin to align the PSL beam through the
>IOO optics on HAM1 and into the MC. The ITMx and ITMy and BS optics
>alignment was re-adjusted one more time using the COS laser autocollimator.
>The COS beam dumps in BSC2 were also installed and aligned. Optical lever
>build up continues. The ETMy-4k core optic is waiting its installation
>schedule and the ETMx-4k may require revisiting as their appears to be a
>drift problem(earth quake or optical lever related??).
>
>       The 2k earth quake recover and retro fit is also making steady progress.
>The RM, MMT3, MC1,SM2 MMT2 and MC1(4k) go into the vacuum bake oven today.
>The FMy and ITMy come out and will be re suspended and ready for
>installation on Friday morning. The installation tooling has been placed
>into BSC8 and the normal staging is completed. The MMT3 will be removed
>from HAM 1 today. We had processed the spare MMT3 to expedite the schedule,
>but it turned out that the spare structure side OSEM mounting brackets were
>welded in the wrong location and will need to be replaced so this structure
>is needed. BSC 6 was staged and the ETMy was extracted, tooling was then
>transported and setup for BSC8. The ETMy was missing a side magnet. It has
>been stripped, is being cleaned and will begin to be reprocessed. MMT1 and
>SM1 have been repaired.
>
>       Modifications to both the small and large suspension safety stops are on
>going both here and at LLO.
>
>       RM off axis beam dumps are being machined and readied for cleaning, baking
>and installation.
>
>       The PLX mounting modifications are in the works. This is being done to
>allow us to use them in a vertical position which is needed for a modified
>2k alignment procedure .
>
>Again this work is being accomplished by a BIG LIGO TEAM effort supported
>by local staff members who normally would not be involved in the
>installation and alignment work, by visiting staff that would normally be
>here, but have had to extend stays and working hours and to others who have
>expertise in critical areas that have come up from CIT and LLO and MIT to
>help out and will continue to help us out.
>Thanks for rallying!!!

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)

This was a very busy week at LLO, with preparation and execution of the E3 run on Friday-Monday, overlapping with preparation for the LSC meeting and planning for a major educational outreach event involving approximately several hundred students in Lafayette, LA.

Thanks to all of the LLO staff for their efforts to prepare for the run and then to support it during round the clock operation! This the first time LLO has staffed for round-the-clock operation and it went very well. We assigned two experienced Operations Specialists to each 8 hour shift, along with scientific visitors. Szabi Marka, as run coordinator, was present the entire time except when sleeping, and many other LLO staff were present large fractions of the total time. The X-arm remained locked about 86% of the scheduled "up time". The major contributor to the down time was an error with the tape writing system that occurred at the beginning of the run and which was quickly fixed. Data was recorded for approximately 1 additional day following the official end of the run, and during that time the X-arm remained locked for around 95% of the time.

Operation of the seismic array located along the Y-arm will conclude this week and will hopefully resume in late summer. We have been operating 8 Guralp 40G seismometers in a two dimensional array and have been collecting data in various configurations since the beginning of the year. The seismometers and Reftek data loggers are on loan from the IRIS Passcal consortium at New Mexico Tech University and must be returned to them after this week. We have requested 40 seismometers (or geophones) plus data loggers for a follow-on study this summer. We have also requested an extension on the loan to allow two seismometers to be shipped to Caltech for a one week study in the 40 meter led by Alan Weinstein and are awaiting consent from IRIS to do this.

Rai Weiss will be the featured scientist at a special two-day science event in Lafayette, Louisiana next Monday and Tuesday which will involve about 500 fifth grade public school students. Approximately 200 students, plus teachers and parents toured LLO this week in preparation for next week's event. Bonnie Wascom is coordinating LIGO involvement in this event.

Detector/Technical Support (Whitcomb, Coyne)

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

This week we finalized our plan for obtaining data on sapphire mirrors before the LIGO II COC material downselect date, June 4, 2002, and with the help of Thomas Frey we have begun integrating our group's activities with the other advanced R&D efforts. We are now finishing the second week of this new schedule and are holding to it nicely so far.

Seiji Kawamura visited briefly on Monday and had a lot of useful input on our design. He pointed out that our current plan of locking the arm cavities with the help of broadband Pockels cells might prove difficult to implement, and we discussed alternate schemes. Other lock-acquisition strategies might include feeding around the mode cleaner to act on the PZT, even when the mode cleaner is locked, or replacing the test masses in our arm cavities with lower-reflectivity mirrors to reduce the arm-cavity finesse. Our arm cavities currently have a finesse on the order of 100,000. We chose this number some time ago to achieve a shot-noise limited sensitivity of approximately 2.5x10^-21 meters/rtHz, which we believed was necessary to observe thermal noise in sapphire. More recent estimates of the thermal noise in sapphire indicate that we could tolerate a larger shot noise limit by a factor of ten (or more). Changing the arm-cavity finesse to 10,000 would likely make lock acquisition significantly easier, and we have the necessary fused silica mirror blanks. It remains to be seen whether or not we can have them polished and coated in time to be of use.

Last week we reglued side magnets onto two of our suspended optics: the South arm-cavity input mass, and the back mode-cleaner mass. This week we began reinstalling these two optics. As of this writing the South input mass has been installed, and we are in the process of installing the back model-cleaner mass. No rebalancing was necessary for the South input mass, since we glued the wire standoffs in place after it was balanced the first time. Since no rebalancing was necessary, we were able to install the local-damping sensor/actuator heads the same day and optimize their postitions to produce a mean-zero shadow sensor signal. The optic is now suspended and locally damped. We anticipate having the back mode-cleaner mass suspended and damped by this Friday.

Last week we replaced our laser and measured the frequency noise of the new unit. We analyzed the results of that measurement early this week and find it to be 60Hz/rtHz at 100Hz, falling off to 10Hz/rtHz at 1kHz, well withing spec and a nice change from the previous laser. There is some indication of a pole in the PZT response at 80kHz, which was not present in the other unit. A preliminary measurement of our electronic noise gives a level equivaltent to about 2x10^-17meters/rtHz, flat between 20Hz and 3kHz with a few small peaks.

We have also been designing an upgrade to our vacuum-pumping system. The current system uses a roughing pump and catalyzer trap connected directly to the chamber, and we believe we are getting some backstreaming into the chamber at low roughing pressures. We plan to insert a needle valve in the roughing line to limit the pressure and hence the backstreaming during rough out. Many thanks to Steve Vass for suggesting this approach! The current system also uses a manual gate valve, and we would like to replace this with a pneumatically operated valve with a safety interlock that would close in case of power failure during pumpout. We have finished the design calculations for the flow rate of the needle valve and have now placed orders for all of the necessary components. We also ordered a spare turbo pump.

LASTI (Zucker)

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

Riccardo, Gianni
Updating drawings of TAMA-SAS as built.
Notations for improvements in further units.

Akiteru
Reorganizing Hongo lab.
Building Vacuum vessel 15 cm extension for accelerometers.
Next week presenting SAS expected performance at Kamioka.
Sending vacuum vessel drawings to Gianni for update and production of
new suspension wires.

Alessandro,
Finished and delivered Thesis.
Accelerometer mechanics ready end of next week, electronics OK.
Going to install in Hongo on April 2nd.
Discussions with Faimond to build Ultra Sound cutting machine.

Riccardo
Discussions with Wayne at Sonic-Bell to build Ultra Sound cutting
machine.

Result of discussions,
Sonic’s existing rotary Ultra Sound milling machine is unsuitable for
our uses because it is a contacting machine with a diamond tool, it
would destroy any flex joint. Sonic’s non-contacting heads are not
adapted to NC milling.
Sonic is unwilling to build/develop a single non-contacting machine
just for us, they would provide us with Ultra Sound head (30K$) but we
would have to adapt it ourselves to an existing Milling machine (60K$)
and make its operational software also ourselves.
Faimond would develop for and with us a complete Ultra Sound milling
machine, similar but more advanced than the ONERA one, with software
included for about 100K$ in about 6 months. They already have both the
head and the NC milling chassis for it.
It seems certain now that, as declared by the ONERA people, there is
presently no machine as theirs anywhere in the world.

Frederic
Will go to ONERA to learn the details of the operation of their home
made Ultra Sound Milling machine to be applied to the Faimond machine.
Started simulation of mirror suspension flex joints including the non
linear thermal conductivity of Sapphire at 0-50 Kelvin.

Edwin
Getting DAQ program running on creep facility.
Reconstructed PC cannibalized to run TAMA-SAS tests.
Designing harder clamps and wedges to check out hysteresis problem in
MGASFs

Roberto Taddei
Did not receive the DAC chips from provider, despite repeated promises

Virginio, Roberto
Tracked some DAC chips from a broker in Florida.
Ordered chips for immediate delivery through FedEx to CIT.

Riccardo, Virginio
Next week to LSC meeting in Baton Rouge.
Riccardo presenting the Cryo-LIGO outlook and the Hongo installation.

	Packages	Faxes
In	46	33
Out	14	48

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

Weekly Report for Week Ending March 15, 2001

Special Announcements:

LSC Issues (Weiss)

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

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

Advanced LIGO (Frey, Petrac)

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)

Detector/Technical Support (Whitcomb, Coyne)

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

LASTI (Zucker)

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

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