Weekly Report for Week Ending March 29, 2001

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  April 2, 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)
• Field Change Orders/Contingency Liens/Change Requests
5. WBS 2 LIGO Lab Operations
• Administration (Lindquist)
• Sites (Raab, Coles, Shoemaker, Sanders)
• Detector (Whitcomb, Coyne)
• Campus Research Facilities (Weinstein (40 Meter), Libbrecht (TNI), Zucker(LASTI))
• Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)
6. WBS 3 and 4  Advanced R&D and LIGO II (Sanders)

Special Items:   LHO Building schedule options regarding commissioning/science run interference, temperature control spec, energy reduction options at LHO

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Weiss)

no report

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

WBS 1.2 LIGO Operations--Administration

A site teleconference was held on Thursday, March 29, 2001. Discussion included the end of February costs. We also discussed the schedule for the building in Hanford relative to the schedule for beginning science operations. This item will be on the agenda for the Executive Committee meeting on Monday.  The power costs at Hanford are expected to increase $100K or more as a result of the crisis on the west coast. We will also put on the agenda for the Monday Executive Committee meeting a discussion of possible reductions of power usage and the potential impact on science operations.

The next site telecon is scheduled for Thursday, April 5, 2001. The list of current actions revised to reflect open actions assigned through March 29, 2001 may be found at ACTION LIST.

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

• Created a LIGO Property Loan Agreement Request with Register to maintain accountability of all off-Campus and off-Site Equipment being loaned to other Institutions or subcontracting Companies.
• Assisted J. Camp with the packing and shipping of a Turbo Station, Sn# TSU060/8378 Mdl# C3, acquisition cost $4726.40, to Syracuse University (S.Penn) on a long term loan agreement. Account Number LIGO.00002-7-NSFLIGO.504800.
• Updating the Property Data Base to reflect the updating/upgrading or equipment being provided throughout the LIGO Project by the Systems Administrators, L. Wallace/L.Bogue.

>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

• Dealt with last few LSC presentations.  Only a few remain to process and post.
• Worked with Ed Jasnow on formatting in changes and merges to the latest cooperative agreement between Caltech-LIGO and the NSF.
• For Otto Matherny, spent several days working to locate antiquated documents regarding past ecological and environmental studies conducted for the Hanford site prior to construction.  Also searched for permits extended to LIGO for building on the DOE land.
• Sent out brief questionnaire to approximately half of the LSC attendees for developing an article for the upcoming newsletter.  Response was terrific and quick!
• Began the process for reordering LIGO polo shirts.  An email will go out by first of next week and an order will be placed by mid-April.  Hopefully, shirts will be here by the next NSF review.
• Received and began processing for distribution 11 DCN's.

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

• Finished processing any remaining LSC documents.
• Electronic documents continue to roll in on a steady basis.
• Spent considerable time searching for old documents regarding Hanford Land Use/Permits per Otto Matherny's request.

Press here to access the DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER WEB PAGE.

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

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA.
 
 

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

• Finished up Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley contract renewal through FY2004 and the prepayment was mailed out. Working on Las R Shield and General Optics.
• Placing pcard orders and reconciling monthly charges.
• Working on updating the master list of the LIGO subcontracts which is due today for the DCAA auditors.
• We will be relocating soon and the files will be reduced at the new location; therefore, I'll be going through the old contracts and po's which are closed and sending them off to Record Retention or DCC as appropriate before the move. We expect that we will only keep the correct and prior fiscal year on one time po's along with open subcontracts in the office filing cabinets.

• Provided report of his grant to Greg Mendel.
• Reviewed and made comments on 3 Fabricated Equipment Request Forms from Dennis Coyne.
• Started working on reports for March.

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

• No report this week.

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

• Benton County PUD has announced to its major users that there will be substantial increases in the cost of electricity beginning October 1, 2001. This will cause a major increase in the facilities budget for Hanford in Fiscal Year 2002, which was not addressed in our proposal to the NSF.

Support (Wood)

Rita Torres

• Checking weekly for incoming LSC reports and plans.  Formatted the report from Harvard-Smithsonian.  Scanned year 2000 Attachments A and submitted to the DCC:  LA State U., Brownsville-Texas, Oregon, Dominguez Hills, Penn State, and Florida.  Scanned 2001 documents for Fermilab:  MOU, and Attachments A & Z.  Also sent for LA State U files, their signed Attachment A.  Prepared letters to bidders of RFP IPGS-511 Re: Proposal Cost Estimates Update.
• Researched some resistor part numbers that Newark forgot to ship.  Submitted a list of these to Newark, they can now complete the order.  A pair of prescription glasses arrived in my name from GPT Glendale, I tracked down the rightful owner.
• Reconciled 5 Pcard purchases this week, needed backup information for 4 of them. Updated site trips on the web.

• 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 19, 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.

• The bulk of this week dealt with a number of problems with P-Card charges, reconciling, expense reports, travel audit and meetings regarding P-Card procedures.  I was also ill for one (1) day.
• Processed six (6) new trips (including Advance Checks written and hotel/car rental authorizations filled out and FAXed to appropriate vendors in various locations); five (5) trips have been ticketed and are awaiting completion of necessary paper work; and eight (8) trips are pending final approval before tickets can be issued.
• Completed twelve (12) Expense Reports and have forty (40) Expense Reports to work on.  I'm holding two (2) reports which need a check from the traveler before processing and an additional four(4) which need information from the traveler.  Jim Covington completed ten (10) Expense Reports and has twelve (12) reports that he is working on.  I continue to train and supervise him on expense reports.
• I reconciled seventy-four (74) items on my P-Card.  Assisted a few travelers with their reconciling and/or data entry.
• Prepared the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for the Week of March 19, 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.

• As part of the implementation of travel with the pcard, we need to re-examine how LIGO personnel deal with their trips.  EVERYONE needs to provide Irene with a travel authorization form prior to travel.  In addition, if you have a pcard, when you turn in your travel expense report, please turn in the updated order log to which you reconciled your travel-related expenses.  It will help you and Travel Audit in preparing and auditing your expense report.  We will be announcing and implementing more fine tuning for pcard travel in the near future.
• I have been working on two proposals in FastLane.
• And doing lots of personnel stuff.

Advanced LIGO (Frey, Petrac)

Progress Period from 03.23 to 03.29

Accomplishments:

• Out of Office on Monday the 23rd.
• Proposal plan development for Advanced LIGO MRE.
• Updating on hold until after NSF review and when proposal strategy is announced.
• Development of the TNI work plan and schedule has no change in status.
• Project Plan for the 40-Meter Lab Upgrade continues.
• Followed up on data requests for progress data as of 03.30.01 that are due Friday the 30th.
• Planning process for the LASTI project at MIT is in progress.
• Followed up on data requests for progress data as of 03.30.01 that are due Friday the 30th.
• Received request from David to re-baseline the LASTI plan.  Also received Dennis Coyne's comments regarding same.
• Continue to test the Cost Book Tool. (Highest Priority)
• Continue mapping and formatting of OPS cost data for input.
• Continue preparing data representing the most recent changes.
• Produced weekly status report for Phil due to his work load.
• Development of the Advanced LIGO Project Controls Guidebook continues.
• Project Web Site for posting schedule and progress related data continues to be updated with the latest and greatest.
• See http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/index.html

• Next weekly Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting will be scheduled for April 2nd.
• Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal
• Updating of schedule on hold until after NSF review and when proposal strategy is announced.
• Highest priority is the development of the Cost Estimate.
• Will continue to pursue all other sub system schedules.
• Will initiate the updating of the COC and AOS schedules.
• Will Continue to develop the TNI Schedule.
• Will begin integration into the P3 Database.
• Will Continue to update the LASTI Schedule with progress.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 03.30.01 and  Post to site.
• Will issue data requests for progress data as of 04.13.01 that are due Friday the 13th.
• Will begin to incorporate changes to the baseline plan.
• Will continue updating the 40 meter schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 03.30.01 and  Post to site.
• Will issue data requests for progress data as of 04.13.01 that are due Friday the 13th.
• Continue to test the Cost Book Tool.
• Cost Book Tool development continues.  (Highest Priority Task)
• Will Continue data changes for BK.
• Will continue ops cost data input.
• Will continue the development of the Advanced LIGO Project Web Site.
• Will continue the development of the Advanced LIGO Project Controls Guide Book.

WBS 1.4.1.2   Project Controls (LIGO Construction)

• I have received several contributions for an end-of-February Quarterly Progress Report and the report is in progress.
• Also working with David Shoemaker to set up assignments for Advanced R&D Annual Report. We should be submitting this report (necessary to get FY 2001 funding) over the next month or so.

The following Change Requests have been submitted:
 

Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection.

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

• Completed the February 2001 LIGO Quarterly and NSF Reports.
• Continued working on the Responsibility Assignment Matrix for LIGO construction accounts incorporating negotiated change request's to date.
• Continued with construction contract/work package close-out.

• I received the MIT invoice and the twonk report for the month of February.  Due to the timing of the new money being received by MIT the two did not match up.  MIT will issue a new invoice total next month, and I will get it paid then.
• I continue to reviewed the open encumbrances on the Construction and Advanced R&D accounts to see if the requested removals have been made. I will continue to review these accounts weekly until all encumbrances have been removed (Remember, I can only get these errors corrected if the Task Managers point them out to me).
• The financial reports on the web provide supporting detail.
• http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport
• http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~finance
• Reminder: An updated list of all OPEN LIGO account numbers have been posted on the LIGO internal bulletin board. Please use these lists when you need a LIGO account number (or make yourself a printed copy for quick references).
• http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/
• please note that the FY00 LIGO Operation account numbers expired on November 30, 2000, and that the new account numbers can be found at:
• http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/

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

• The NSF has forwarded comments on the contract for A/E services for the Hanford OSB East Building with NTD. These comments were addressed, and we are awaiting approval.
• Discussions concerning schedule have revealed that the Hanford OSB East Building needs to have the noisiest part of its construction completed by February 2002. Since this is substantially earlier than originally thought, the concept of design/build for some of the major elements is being considered. A decision will be reached after further discussions.

• No report this week.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

• No report this week.

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)

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

Eucon mobilized its gravel crushing operation to North Richland at 7pm
on 3/28. We will be monitoring the effects of the mining operation to
see if it violates the ambient seismic spectrum at LIGO. The distance
is approximately 10 miles from the Y arm.
 

Installation & Re-Installation
------------------------------
(D. Cook)
 

We finally were able to wind up the 4k IO and mode cleaner alignments and
HAMs 1,2,3 have their doors in place. We will place a metal cover over the
cloth cover at the spool opening to reduce air currents and keep things
cleaner. The RM-4k optical lever transmitter will need to be repositioned
on the pier using an offset mounting system to allow the beam to clear the
view ports and IO baffle. The reciever side will need to have some
modifications made as well. Hugh and Gerado have mocked up the optical
lever position and currently have the beam path worked out. The FMx-2k
safety stops and OSEMs have been replaced and the alignment will follow.
The ITMx-2k OSEMs and safety stops were changed out and alignment is done.
The ITMy-2k is next. We will be installing the second verticle PLX and
finishing the  ITMy-2k alignment today. We will steer the ITMx-4k optical
lever beams through the arm cavity baffle, scribe it and remove it hopefully
today as well. Mark Barton is working with Betsy on 2k SOS optics. We are
adding additional camera view ports to several areas to aid with
commisioning and alignment. We have a camera mounted at the APS port ready
to steer the FMx -2k. We continue to parallel the 2k and 4k
activities with the help of many. Thanks once again to All.
 

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)

Operations: We are continuing control room operator support after normal working hours
as needed for the commissioning effort. We are continuing the mix of operations specialist duties as 50% control room support and 50% "other" which consists of LOS circuit board repairs, vacuum bake support for LHO and the 40 meter, LHO optics repair support at
LHO, shipping and receiving, particle counter repair, CDS software upgrades
and refinements, on going work on getting a set of base values for all OSEM
coils (L&R), continuing work on ISCT3 table alignment, ISCT4 installation
of safety hardware, and mode cleaner alignment. (Rich Riesen)

GC: Configured the Fore 2810 in the communications room. This will allow 100
mbit connectivity for several more machines. (Shannon Roddy)

LDAS: The main breaker panel and the wiring has been installed in the Mass
Storage Room for the incoming LDAS equipment. We still need to run the circuits
etc for the individual outlets but the main breakers are in. (Shannon Roddy)

Facilities The construction of the new building is going ahead on schedule.
The changes for the handicapped elevator are being finalized and the
affected drawings will be issued as revision -1. (Gerry Stapfer)
 
 

Detector/Technical Support (Whitcomb, Coyne)

1.1 LHO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

2km & Vertex Re-alignment

• The 2 km re-alignment started this week. A procedure (E010057-B) has been define to allow re-alignment from the two spool pieces already removed for the 4 km IFO alignmen. Tooling/mounting modifications to support this procedure have been completed.
• New OSEM and modified safety/earthquake stop kits have been prepared and installation is well underway. The FMx-2k safety stops have been replaced and I'll finish up the ITMx-2k OSEM and tip change out and alignment by noon. I'll start the ITMy-2k next by installing the second PLX and finishing the alignment today.
• ETMy-2k has been resuspended
• 2 km Small Optics Suspensions are being re-assembled; all new OSEMs have been received for the small optics.
• We will steer the ITMx-4k optical lever beams through the arm cavity baffle, scribe it and put it down (so as not to impede finding the arm cavity) hopefully today as well.
• Preparations have been made for setting up two COS autocollimators: a power cable was ordered for the second 500 mW, 940 nm autocollimator (due to arrive 3/29), the laser power supply was received from MIT, and a second post mount was made. A camera tripod is set up for viewing the output beams

with an IR video camera through the output ports in HAM9 and HAM10.

4-k IOO Installation

The viewports on HAM 1 will be returned to the
conventional centered viewports because some how nowbody told me that we
would be deviating from the 2K in this regard, so I set the output beams
up to come out standard centered viewports. I do not believe that this
will impinge on performance of the modecleaner and the change was
cleared by Dennis Coyne. Unfortunately I only noticed the change when we
had already put the doors back on HAM 1.

The new layout for the 2K PSL/IOO table has been finalized. Guido did the
new mode matching calculations and I independently verified them. Rick
and Malik are in the process of laying out this table.
We are currently staging to replace the optics in the 2K interferometer
and all the 2K optics should be re-installed by early next week if all
things go well.
 

1.2LLO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

Commissioning

Rich Abbott
While at LLO, I worked did some repairs on the LSC system (whitening filter board) and went through the ASC system in order to write a short report on its status.  A list of things necessary to get two wavefront sensors activated was prepared.

E3 Data Analysis

1. The broadband noise on the line monitors (between the line
frequency/harmonic peaks) is about 10x higher at LLO than at LHO. The LHO
line monitors show a lot of structure between the line harmonics, but any
such structure on the LLO lines is masked by the higher broadband noise.

2. At a given site, the coherence between a line monitor and a
magnetometer is essentially unity at the line frequency and harmonics.

3. Coherence between sites: The coherence between a line monitor at LLO &
a line monitor at LHO (@60 Hz) is essentially unity over short time scales
(t < 60 sec), but becomes small over time scales longer than a few hundred
seconds. For example, ten coherence measurements over 1000 seconds (each)
yielded coherence values between 0.01 - 0.1. Over 10,000 seconds, one
measurement gave a coherence of ~0.001.

2.0 OtherEngineering and Scientific Activities

2.1 Design/Analysis/Fab

Embedded Controller Board (MVME162) Upgrade

ASC/LSC/SUS

Optics

I'm building a list of LIGO optics so that the general user can easily find specification/drawing information for individual part optics.

As optics are re-polished they are not always built to the original specification as indicated by the serial number, but may be reused for another purpose.  This list will be filed in the DCC and will provide a means of tracking the current status of an optic.  Under the title "data package" there will be a link to the scanned in test results for each optic.  This process has been started, some Beam splitter data packages can already be found in DCC/OUT.  I will complete those links when the documents have a permanent home in the DCC.
While it's being built the list will reside at:
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~gari/COCAsBuilt.htm

After it is filed in the DCC you will be able to find a link at:
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~gari/

LSC

Sent out the MC Servo PCB to the board house for fabrication. Now doing the new design DC readout module simulations and also fixing some of the PCB errors which are on the LSC Whitening Anti Aliasing Boards which are needed for the 4K arm. All other aspects of the 4k modecleaner electronics seem to be in line for delivery.  Have arranged with Peter King to use the laser in the basement of Lauritson lab to do a high power test of the RFPD in an effort to sort out the saturation problem and match results with the simulations.

PSL

The intensity noise before and after the high finesse pre-modecleaner was
measured.  The cavity bandwidth of the pre-modecleaner is consistent with
the expected value and should provide sufficient filtering of the intensity
noise at around 25 MHz.

NPRO #170 will be returned to Lightwave for repair.  This is the second
time in my project memory that this has happened to this particular NPRO.

Rich Abbott, Peter ing, Ben Abbott
Rich, Ben and I measured the characteristics of the current shunt actuator from 1 kHz to 10 MHz at various points in the system.  Both the transfer function from current shunt drive to light out and current shunt drive to current out were measured. As an aside to the above measurement, the modified PDA-55 response was flat
to 10 MHz, as measured using the test laser at the Wilson house.  The photodetector exhibited some gain peaking at 26 MHz, wherethe peak was approximately 7 dB higher. The data (once analyzed) will yield the response of the electronics and the laser process independently and should help form a basis for the further development of the intensity servo by Rick Karwoski.

Ben Abbott
The intensity servo DC photodiode preliminary design is complete.  The design document is available on my website here (www.ligo.caltech.edu/~babbott).  If  anyone would care to review the design and give me feedback, the input would be most welcome.

Rick Karwoski, Paul Russell

• PSL custom boards -- We have been waiting for components for the final two 80 MHz VCO boards. The boards have been completed, they are in the Lab now and are ready for test. We now have the required quantity of Frequency Stabilization boards for LASTI and 40m.  Testing continues on the Frequency stabilization boards.
• Cross-connect panels -- A single PSL cross-connect panel exists. There has been no progress on a second; PR's attention remains focused on Intensity Stabilization support.
• Intensity stabilization. -- An informal design review was conducted  on Tuesday. As reported last week, photo-detector front-end electronics has been completed;  it is in test and will be integrated with the Lauritsen equipment.

LIGO Tri-Net Stations

PEM Tiltmeters

New OSEMs

GDS

A new DMT machine has been shipped to LLO (dual 1GHz Intel, Linux,
1GB RAM, gigabit ethernet).

DMT

2.1 Issues

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• Ben Abbott has installed all major parts in the Data Aquisition Rack at the 40m. The list of installed components includes: a reflective memory disconnect module, two anti-alias filter boards, an empty VME split backplane crate, a SUN Ultra 60 (frame building and data logging), a disk array, and a +/- 5V power supply. This system will be sufficient to log 64 analog channels to frames (we'll start with PEM seismic equipment), as well as EPICS info from the vacuum and PEM (STACIS monitoring, dust, weather, etc) systems.
• Rolf Bork gave us an overview of the (eventual, full) reflective memory loops for the ISC, the suspension controls, and the DAQ. We'll need Frame Broadcast service and Network Data Serving Repeaters in order to run DMT, dataviewer, and GDS tools.
• Jay Heefner resports that the modifications to the digital suspension controllers for the test mass optics (5" diameter, 2" thick) will be straightforward.
• Ben Abbott reports that the intolerably noisy power conditioner for the PSL will be swapped with a replacement by the manufacturer; if that doesn't reduce the noise to acceptable levels, we will have to purchase a different (probably more expensive and bigger) device.
• Dennis Ugolini reports that all vacuum control hardware is ready for a full system test, to begin this Friday. The EPICS state code and databases have been updated, we can now use EPICS GUIs to control almost all the hardware. This will all be tested thoroughly before we attempt to pump down in the next 2 weeks or so.
• Seismic testing and monitoring: We have completed two rounds of measurements of the STACIS seismic isolators, using a pair of 3-axis Barry Controls geophones on loan from MIT. This past week, Szabi Marka brought over a pair of 3-axis Guralp CMG-40T seismometers, and took data all week. The results confirm the geophone measurements, with higher precision: The floor to top of STACIS transfer function has a broad peak of +3 dB in the 0.5 Hz range, then it falls to -25 dB (vertical) or -20 dB (horizontal) in the 1 - 20 Hz range. (See stacis.pdf for a complete description). Neither instrument has much measuring power above 20 Hz. We have purchased 6 Wilcoxon 731A accelerometers and will use them to probe the 10 - 200 Hz region, where we hope to see evidence of the passive isolation. We plan on purchasing low-cost low-frequency geophones (Kinemetrics EpiSensors?) to replace the on-loan devices for long-term monitoring (along with the accelerometers).
• Rick Karwoski reports that one PSL electronics cross-connect is complete; two are needed for the 40m and LASTI. The PMC and FSS boards are complete for both PSLs.
• Steve Vass is declaring the construction work at the 40m complete(!). Over the next 2 weeks, we will clean up and convert to clean-room conditions, in preparation for PSL installation.
• Steve Vass, Larry Jones, and Mike Smith are compiling a complete list of electrical feedthroughs into the vacuum system, and optical ports. It will not be possible to establish the form of the feedthroughs and the in-vacuum cabling from the optical table down the stack to the feedthroughs, until the question of what cabling is required for the modulated OSEMs (twisted pair or ribbon). This is a high priority!
• Larry Jones reports that the last big piece of vacuum hardware, the 29.5" adjustable bellows, will be shipped on April 23, directly to Allied for cleaning / baking / testing. Steve Vass will package and ship to Allied the remaining big pieces (already in hand).
• Larry is reviewing the design of the mechanical supports for the cameras that view the suspended optics, and the tables that support the optical levers.
• AJW has released an updated "Conceptual Design of the 40 meter Laboratory Upgrade for prototyping a Advanced LIGO Interferometer", 40m_cdr.pdf. This document is still a very rough draft, but comments are much appreciated!
• While working on tolerances for mirror radii of curvature (ROC) it occured to me that we may want to re-evaluate this.
• The plan has been to make 40m arm cavities with flat ITMs (so that we can view the beam waist at the ITM), and an optimally-stable g-factor of 1/3, yielding an ETM ROC of 57 meters, and spot sizes of 3.03 mm at the ITM and 5.25 mm at the ETM.
• LIGO I arms have g-factor = 0.3; ETM ROC = 7400, ITM ROC = 14540 m; and spot sizes of 36.3 mm at the ITM and 45.6 mm at the ETM.
• Ken Strain & Peter Fritschel propose blowing up the beam for Advanced LIGO, to reduce thermoelastic noise; for sapphire, this could be, eg, g-factor = 0.86; ETM ROC = 54,000, ITM ROC = 54,000 m; and spot sizes of 60.0 mm at the ITM and 60.0 mm at the ETM.
Is there any good reason for considering doing something similar at the 40m, given our stated desire to be as high-fidelity to the optical configuration and control of Advanced LIGO as possible?
• no matter what we'll do, we'll never get beams as big as AdvLIGO;
• we'll have fused silica mirrors, negligible thermoelastic noise;
• plenty of brownian noise, however;
• we'll operate with a LIGO I laser, probably at <= 1 watt; so small (I think??) thermal lensing effects;
• perhaps the different problems associated with higher-g-factor cavities (eg, very different Guoy phase shifts) is worth prototyping at the 40m?
Comments, opinions, suggestions on this are appreciated; we'd like to settle on the ROC as soon as possible.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

This week we aligned the TNI suspended mode cleaner and locked it in air.
We also continued checking and repairing our OSEM controllers, and we have
constructed and tested one power-line isolation transformer to be used for
eliminating ground loops.  We installed one of our new, four-pin BNC
feedthroughs on the vacuum chamber, and next we expect to begin aligning
our arm cavities.

LASTI (Zucker)

no report

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)

Telephone conference with LHO
LHO : Rick, Michael
CIT : Biplab, Matt, Andrea, Hiro

(0) Lock acquisition issues, if/what ever it shows up, will be taken care
by Matt, with whatever necessary assistance by others.

(1) In the next 6 months, the main focus is to make the e2e simulation
more realistic to simulate the inlock state LIGO performance by
incroprorating site specific parameters, like seismic motion, stack
transfer functions, etc. After that, the focus is to identify problems
to which simulation can be used to improve the LIGO performance.

(2) Once per month, there will be a telephone conference to confirm the
progress and discuss the next plan.

(3) 1 week per month, Hiro or Biplab or someone will travel to LHO and
incorporate the measurements done by Rick or Michael into the model, and
discuss the future plan.

(4) Hiro will summarize the action items to be done in the coming 6
months.

(5) 4k IFO simulation needs update of a database file, e2eDB.mcr. This
will be tested at CIT, and will be passed around to LHO and LLO.

(6) The noise curve generation will be setup so that people can
easily generate noise curves by various sources.

Code Development
----------------
(Andrea) Implemented a module for linear prediction based on the Burg
algorithm. The purpose is to propose a replacement for the "delay" module
at least in those cases where one-step in the simulation can be accurately
modeled with an IIR filter.

Alfi
----
(Bruce) Finished cleaning code for ports.  Should finish Problem Report
202 (Same port name problem) and be able to start on implementing
connection junctions.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

 

 

Several changes to the frameAPI software began this week. The performance
for
concatenating data from sequential frames has been enhanced through a rework
of the code by about a factor of 30. Also a memory leak in the frameCPP I/O
library was identified and fixed. The effort began to support reading of
frame
files having multisecond frames.

Enough of the eventMonitorAPI code materialized this week to include it in
the
nightly build of LDAS for the development system. It is now up and running
on
the LDAS-DEV system and able to receive and parse data from wrapperAPIs. It
is
also able to separate the database, state, and multidim data from the
wrapper's
output sending the multidim to users and state to file. More work is needed
to
fully support the database.

Guild was updated this week to support the metadataAPI's ability to work
with
multible database table simultaneously.

More test code was developed this week to improve the performance of our
code
test suite. New tests exercise additional components of the lightWeightAPI
and
the frameAPI.

The dataConditionAPI group worked mostly on documentation this week. Some
effort has been put into tracking down a segmentation fault which occurs
sometimes when multiple ffts are performed concurrently.

The big news for this week was the first LDAS user command based on the new
dataPipeline command was stitched together to send data almost fully end-to-
end. Data was read in from frame files using the frameAPI. This data was
then
translated into the ILWD format and sent to the dataCondtionAPI where it was
pushed into a call-chain and a power-spectrum was calculated. The original
time series data along with the calculated power-spectrum were then bundled
together and sent to a wrapperAPI job which was started by the mpiAPI as
part of the analysis pipeline flow control. The wrapperAPI called a
"trivial"
shared object provided by the LSC and the results from this wrapperAPI
search
were shipped off to the eventMonitorAPI where the three sub-components of
data were recognized and parsed out and then sent to their respective
destinations (file, lightWeightAPI, metaDataAPI). Each step along the way
was managed by the managerAPI. No verification of the results have been made
but are on the action list for next thing to do.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

 

 

The first components of the LDAS Phase I procurement (large disk farm and
tape silo) have arrived, and the remainder is either in transit or
scheduled to ship on Fri Mar 30.

The purchase requisitions for the first component of the LDAS Engineering run
Beowulf systems have been submitted.

An integrated system backup, security monitor, and SNMP configuration server
has been specified for each of the LDAS installations and will be ordered
shortly.

LDAS activity at LHO:

1) The move of the LDAS hardware from the mass storage room to the
staging building mezzanine has begun. Thus the ldas system at LHO will
be down Thu Mar 29 and Fri Mar 30. The plan is to complete the move by
Friday evening.

2) A 3Com 8-port 10/100 ethernet switch was installed and tested on the
ldas network. This will provide temporary network support between the
computer user and control rooms and the new ldas location.

3) Plans for backups of the ldas system were investigated and
discussed.  A script was written that can do basic backups, though some
minor fine tuning is needed. More work is needed to develop the best
strategy for backing up the meta database.

4) I've begun installing on my computer lal, lalwrapper, wrapperAPI, and
the supporting packages needed to write search code.

LDAS activity at LLO:
(Roddy)
The main breaker panel and the wiring has been installed in the Mass
Storage Room for the incoming LDAS equipment.  We still need to run the circuits
etc for the individual outlets but the main breakers are in.

Data Analysis Activities

General Computing (Wallace)

Livingstson:
(Shannon & Tom)
-Returned the equipment used at the LSC conference.
-Working on setting up a more permanent network monitoring system.
-Received the SUN Blade100
-Configure the FORE 2810 and have connected a few machines to it.

Hanford:
(Christine)
See Hanford weekly report.

CIT:
(Lisa)
-Wrote a web page on how to configure printers in staroffice (solaris)
-Installed samba version 2.0.7 on luna.  This will give us a good test
environment before installing it on sirius.
-Got scp working on cdssol6 and rana in the 40meter.
-Currently trying to recover files off a virus infected pc.
-Worked on some p-card problems
-Started looking into putting up a new DHCP server.
-This week had a worse round of pc problems than usual.

(Barbara)
- Finished touchups to DCC log search tool and updated number reservation
tool.  I plan to install these next week.
- Posted another iteration of LDAS home page and received comments.  I'm
installing the new page into the cgi script.
- Added a new LSC web page with abstracts for upcoming presentations.
Continued to post LSC transparencies.  Added missing talks to web page as
gray links.  Made other quick web site changes -- bulletin boards, mou's,
talks, etc.
- Ran the pherkab backup by hand because it hasn't been running.  I will
reenter the schedule in TimeTarget to see if that fixes the problem.  Also
restarted the DCC job that compacts and repairs the database.  It still
hangs occasionally so next I'm going to try and break it into several
smaller jobs.
- Continued efforts to get my router working.  According to one web site,
there is a unique situation with my ISP so I'm going to call the router
vendor tomorrow.

(Suresh)
-Installed a PC card in Peter King's Sun workstation and also swapped the two
hard drives from earlier system.
-Worked with Larry to do some cabling in the computer room of the bridge. This
was done to replace Cat 5 cable connected to web/DNS server "ligo" with a new
one.
-Performed thorough testing of ES 2810 switch. Contacted technical support at
Marconi for its replacement which is expected today (March 29).
-Made a backup copy of approximately 53 Giga Byte of old data from sargas to a
AIT tape.
-Resolved the ideas running problem by making appropriate entree in NIS+
table.
-Worked on e-mail aliases.

(Sam)
-Out interviewing.

(Larry)
-Some good news. We finally received the SUN Blade1000 unit that we had ordered
in Oct. of last year. Preliminary tests show it to be faster than a dual SPARC60
in all cases. In Biplap's Modeler test it is run 1.6 X's faster than the SUN450
per CPU (clock speed ratio is ~1.8:1)
The SUN Blade100 unit is still being setup for testing but for the money appears
to be a good box.
-Finalized the FORE maintenance contract and it is now going through the system.
-Repaired a couple of computers. Working on a new configuration for the SUN
Ultra 10's and Solaris 8.
-Made a number of purchases for memory, disk upgrades and related equipment.
-Was able to get the P-card s/w working on a PC that was having problems
with the application.
-Worked a few minor network problems and resolved a couple of application
issues.
 

[Bruce Sears]
* (BS) Ilog maintenance, additions, and development:
        - Small amount of general maintenance.
--

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

Sander Liu
Data Acquisition System - Delivered one LEMO and one BNC chassis to the 40M
 

Peter King
40m & LASTI PSL
Lee is presently gearing up to check out the reference cavity
vacuum chambers. Also during the week he checked the levelness of the PSL
table.
All the commercially sourced PDA-55 photodetectors have been modified for
a lower transimpedance gain (2.5V/mA).
 

LIGO II
-----------
This week I spoke with the local Coherent Laser rep. about their
pump laser diodes. I had mentioned that I received information from their
rep. in Santa Clara. Apparently Coherent is interested in supplying the
pump laser diodes at a price significantly less than their original quote
and is ready to give us some numbers.
At the end of April, or beginning of May, an electrical engineer from GEO
will be visiting for a month as part of the PSL development. During his
stay, Andreas will hopefully pick up on how CDS packages electronics, does
the EPICS interfacing ... all sorts of things that will be needed for a
smooth integration of the Advanced LIGO PSL into the facilities.
 

Janeen Romie
Ordering parts for 4 additional SOSs for LASTI
 

Szabi Marka
40m TRF measurements (I guess Alan will mention this in his report)
We transferred 2 full PASSCAL data acquisition systems from LLO
(complete with datalogger and triaxial seismometers) to aid in the
transfer function measurements of the STACIS units of the 40m lab. We
collected long streches of good data between Thursday and Monday and preliminary checks indicated successful measurements.
 

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

We had no meeting again this week, I was home sick.
 

Unfortunately Frederick has been hired out by a private company and will
leave us next month.  Good luck to him, we will miss him.
 

Finally the DAC chips are in our hands.  Taddei is assemblying them into
the DAC boards and testing.  They should leave for Hongo next Monday
 

Edwin, Riccardo
Made several cable potting tests,  ready for the flanges.  Feed through
flanges, water cutting was blowing up the plexyglass, we had to start
again and made them in Stainless, we will pot the flat cable within next
week.  Should be ready to go to Hongo by the end of the week.
 

Alessandro
Assemblying and testing accelerometers.  Will be shipped to Hongo by the
end of the next week.  Alessandro will fly in to assemble them the same
week end (7th April)
 

Gianni, Carlo
Introduced design of new vacuum tank and redesigned suspension wires.
Started the production of the two double nail head wire, should be made
by middle of the week, then they will undergo the 5 day precipitation
process.  Also redesigning coil for F0 actuator.  Cannot be made until
feed back from Akiteru’s measurements is received.
 

This will complete all parts still to be sent to Hongo.
 

New hard clamp and wedges for hysteresis tests in Pasadena have been
built.  Delivery delayed to wait for Maraging hardening bake and send
together with Penn State MGAS blades that are cooked together with the
double nail head wires.
 

Akiteru
Testing transfer function of the suspensions, preparing cabling hooks,
preparing for Japanese Physics Society which is at the end of this
Month.
 

Szabi
Provided Francesco with Olympia earthquake and train transit
accelerometer time series.
Franesco and Giancarlo will combine it with Akiteru’s simulations MSE
(validated by the oil bearing IP characterisation measurements) and
hopefully confirm that TAMA SAS would have survived totally unscathed.
 
 

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