Weekly Report for Week Ending May 24, 2001

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  May 28, 2001 will be:

CANCELLED DUE TO HOLIDAY

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Weiss)

no report

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

WBS 1.2 LIGO Operations--Administration (two weeks)

A special site teleconference was scheduled on May 24, 2001 to discuss the Joy Fan failures at Livingston.  See comments below (E. Jasnow).

The next site telecon is scheduled for Thursday, May  31, 2001.  The list of current actions revised to reflect open actions assigned through May 10, 2001 may be found at ACTION LIST.

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

• Conferred with D. Coyne concerning a letter received from McMaster-Carr  placing special emphasis on piece of LIGO equipment (Immersible Ultrasonic Transducer) that is considered a possible safety hazard without the appropriate Grounding wire and clamp. These items will be provided to LIGO without cost.
• Assisted Optics Engineer (G. Billingsley) with the preparation of a Commercial Invoice, US Customs Documentation, for Optic (H/Q Fused Silica SN# COC-A001, $100,000, HERAEUS Sample SN # 311 SV, $70,000, and CORNING  Sample Dry Fused Silica Sn# None, $3,000). Copies of these documents are being provided to Caltech Insurance Adjuster (D.Artura).
• Providing a Long Term Loan agreement to Stanford University for a Laser, YAG 10 Watt with Controller and Chiller, Sn# 225 Mdl # 220-1064-10000, $ 75,000.The Laser was shipped from LLO per S. Yoshida. Once the agreement is signed copies will be forwarded to LLO Property Manager (R, Riesen).
• Assisted the Project Office (P.Lindquist) with packing and shipping of three APS Posters to MIT (D. Shoemaker), expected arrival date 5-29-01.

>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

• Continued reviewing with Cleveland procedures and tasks that he will be covering while I'm on vacation in June.
• Worked at organizing current papers on my desk to ensure that no time-sensitive documents are remaining prior to leaving on vacation.
• Assisted in adding substantial changes/additions to the NSF/LIGO Cooperative Agreement document.

• Auditing PSI drawings continues.

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>

• Working on Research Electro Optics, Apollo, and High Precision Devices.  High Precision Devices is on a new poeta which needs to have a budget entered, even if it's a $.01 budget, in order for me to encumber on this new poeta.  I am hoping the new budget wll be entered in today by Federal Accounting so the change order can be completed.  The req was faxed to the vendor to proceed with C/O#1 in the meantime.
• Subsequent to the meeting with the WA auditor, I have touched bases with Otto and he has contacted Yakama, Heritage, and Apollo to request them to charge sales or use tax on applicable services, and to indicate on their invoices whenever tax has been included.
• Closed more PO's and referred some old PO's with open encumbrances to Dorothy for decisions on whether the PO should be closed and the funds removed.  Once the PO's from FY2000 are closed, I will begin with FY2001.
• There have been various changes in the Purchasing Department.  It is now combined with Payables and our new name is Purchasing and Payment Services.
• There was a change made in Oracle yesterday to require an additional flex field to be completed on every purchase order which will be used for categorizing PO's into subcontracts, purchase orders for goods, purchase order for services, consultants, leases, rentals, and a few other choices.

• Worked with Cindy on reconciling staffing count - Cindy's schedule on staffing includes personnel paid by Caltech, temporary workers, and individuals paid occasional consulting fees.
• Completed Visitor Program reports for April.
• Started working with Cindy on preparing report for R&D program similar to format used for Operations Reports.  Goal is to hopefully identify  projected unspent R&D budget available for carryover to next fiscal year.
• Submitted budget realignments requested by Federal Accounting for construction accounts.
• Provided information required for DCAA audit.
• Prepared summary schedule of construction accounts as of the end of April showing Unallocated Contingency and Available Balances for Data Analysis, Detector, and the new buildings at Livingston and Hanford.

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

• No report (on travel to Salem, MA).

• Efforts are underway to repair the Joy fans at Livingston.  Estimates of the costs of the repair and the possible schedule delays are being assessed by Joy representatives.  The contracts for mechanical maintenance are being reviewed to determine if there is any liability on their part..

Support (Wood)

Advanced LIGO (Frey, Petrac)

Progress Period from 05.18 to 05.24

Accomplishments:

• Out of the Office on Wednesday May 23rd.
• No weekly Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting held this week.
• Worked with Phil on Friday and Saturday to complete adjustments to the Continuing Ops Proposal Budgets FY 2002 - 2006.
• Prepared budget commitment sheets for FYs 2002 through 2006 for each funding source.
• Updated PowerPoint slides with revised budget data for comparison and to assist Gary and Barry.
• No Meetings with the DCAA .
• Prepared transmittal cover letters as Phil requested them (13 total)
• Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal (Highest Priority)
• Continuing the development of the Cost Estimate.
• Continue to pursue all other sub system schedules.
• Issued meeting minutes for PSL review meeting for comment
• Completed input of all PSL cost and schedule changes per review meeting.
• Met with the SUS group and worked on schedule development.
• Baseline schedules for COC, AOS, and PSL have been posted to site.
• Project Plan for the TNI Lab continues.
• Updated the plan with progress as of 05.18.01 and  posted to site.
• Issued data requests for progress data as of 06.01.01 that are due Friday the 1st.
• Project Plan for the 40-Meter Lab Upgrade continues.
• Incorporated changes from Alan.
• Updated the plan with progress as of 05.18.01 and  posted to site.
• Issued data requests for progress data as of 06.01.01 that are due Friday the 1st.
• Project plan for the LASTI project at MIT continues.
• Incorporated changes from David.
• Updated the plan with progress as of 05.18.01 and  posted to site.
• Issued data requests for progress data as of 06.01.01 that are due Friday the 1st.
• Continue to test the Cost Book Tool.
• Continue mapping and formatting of OPS cost data for input.
• Testing changes implemented by BK.
• 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 on Friday, May 25th 10:30am at SSCR to discuss AOS MRE Cost Estimate and Schedule.
• Focus of the meeting will be the review of AOS cost data input into the Cost Book.
• Will continue to provide support to Phil regarding DCAA data requests.
• Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal (Highest Priority Task)
• 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.
• Meeting scheduled with Peter King for Friday May 25th at 1pm to review MRE cost estimate for labor and contingency.
• Will initiate the input of the IO cost data.
• Will continue to work with the SUS group as needed.
• Should receive data from the SEI group on Friday the 25th.
• Will Continue to update the TNI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 06.01.01 and  post to site by the 5th.
• Will Continue to update the LASTI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 06.01.01 and  post to site by the 5th.
• Will incorporate  any additional changes provided by David
• Will continue updating the 40 meter schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 06.01.01 and  post to site by the 5th.
• Will incorporate any additional changes provided by Alan.
• Cost Book Tool development continues.  (Highest Priority Task)
• Will finish 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)

David Shoemaker has provided a draft of the Advanced R&D Annual Report for review and comment.

The following Change Request has been submitted and distributed (LIGO-M010136-00-P):
 

We have scheduled a meeting of the LIGO Change Control Board, Tuesday, May 29, 2001 at 9am PDT in the SCR.  We held a Technical Review Board (TRB) on May 18th to discuss design and placement aspects of this building.  Minutes of the TRB are being prepared.

Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection.

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

• Incorporating into the construction baseline the change request's approved at the CCB held on May 8, 2001.  The objective is to reflect these change requests in the budget baseline for the May 2001 Quarterly NSF report.
• Began work on the May 2001 Responsibility Assignment Matrix.
• Continued work on the CDS costs/commitments to complete.
• Continued with the reconciliation of the LIGO Project Change Request Log and the Contingency Lien List.
• Continued with construction contract/work package close out..

• The MIT invoice has been given it to Esther for payment.
• I have been compiling the Advanced R&D data into a report like Florence Kaufman does for the Operations accounts.  We believe that this will provide information in a more timely and detailed manner.
• I am currently updating the LIGO Project Signature Authorization List and will put it out as soon as it is completed. (I am still waiting for input from someone who I will not name... at this time.)
• 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)..

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

• A meeting has been set up for Tuesday, May 29, for an architectural presentation on the OSB East building at Hanford.  The presentation will be given by NTD Architects, and will show several approaches for the exterior and interior design.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

• No report this week.

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)

INSTALLATION AND REWORK
----------------------------------------
 

(D.Cook and CO)
The 2k alignment, earthquake recovery and the retrofiting of the new OSEMs
and safety stops was completed this week. The balance of the corner station
is back under vacuum once again and the 2k commisioning is underway.
Optical levers and ISC tables are being reinstalled.
Sensor values were recorded at the satillite boxes upon completing the 2k
alignment which was just prior to the LHO power outage. After the power was
restored and with the suspension controllers back on line there was
significant changes in the readings (averaging~100mV changes) reflecting
changes in the alignment of the optics. These changes are within the
controller bias ranges and should not pose a problem.
The ETMy-4k installation is posponed for a couple of weeks due to key
players being on travel at this time. The preparations and staging will
continue along with a revised procedure which will omit having to pull the
usual spool piece from the vacuum envelope and hopefully short cut the
process some.
We recieved 400+ PAM screws and brackets which are being cleaned,
assembled and baked for the up coming requirements.
 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
Seismic Systems
---------------------
H.Radkins, G.Moreno, M.Guenther, C.Gray
Coarse Actuation System
We finally got the CAS portable rack to float the SEI at the Yend station.
This required lots of work from Mark & Gerardo getting the portable system
truly mobile. It also required a CAS software upgrade; we'll distribute
this to LLO when we finish the testing. We should wrap this up in a couple
of days and get the system out of the way for the upcoming COC installation.
Fine Actuation System
The Fine-X stages were put on their hard stops for the power outage last
Friday. They have not been powered back up yet. Polytech PI and PI
Germany (manufacturers) are conferring about the problem of power
interruption. They don't have too much concern about the power drop out
but warn of possible problems for power up with the controllers not in a
minimum deflection open loop state.
 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
ISC
----
H.Radkins, G.Moreno, B.Rivera
Optical Levers continue to come on line with 2 & 4K ITMys 'piped' in and
the 4KRM half way there.
Initial Alignment Gear is on its way back to the anxious LLO crew.
H.Radkins continues to eek out bits of time for E3 & E4 LLO arm control
comparison to the predicted tides.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------
LASTI
--------
H.Radkins, C.Gray
We are travelling to MIT next week for buildup of the LASTI system BSC SEI.
In preparation, we are reviewing procedures, parts list and inventory at
MIT for an ambitious two weeks hoping to get from final pier positioning
through dome removal, Support Tube & Expansion Bellows installation and
dome replacement and pump down.It could be close.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------
 
 

IOO LHO Weekly
--------------------
(Corey gray, Betsy Weaver)
2k
Last Friday, we put the doors on HAM 7 and 8 "temporarily" so
that while we had a planned power outage, the chambers could stay clean.
We were not finished cleaning, deionizing, and realigning the small optics
in those chambers, so on Monday the doors were again removed so we could
finish up. The doors were put on a final time on Tuesday and the vertex
section was pumped down. As of today, Stan and Betsy are working on
regaining the 2k MC alignment since the pump down.
All of the SOS targets and alignment fixtures are in the process of being
sent to LLO for their vent and OSEM replacement.
COS LHO Weekly
(Betsy Weaver)
The COS shipment of lasers and alignment equipment was packed up and
sent to LLO (and since received).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------
 
 

4k PSL
-----------
The master oscillator in the PSL for the 4k interferometer failed last
week. The symptom was 5-10 MHz frequency transients with ~ 1 second
time scales occurring almost continuously. Tom Kane at Lightwave
suspects mode instabilities in the pump laser diode. Peter King sent a
replacement NPRO that he had recently purchased. Nergis M. and I
replaced it over the weekend. The sign of the FAST actuator is reversed
relative to all the other NPROs we have seen. The PSL is now back on
line and delivering 7.5 watts to the PMC. The reference cavity
visibility is about 90%. The PMC is only transmitting 3 watts. Our
measurements indicate that it is contaminated (losses > 1000
ppm/mirror). It will be replaced ASAP. Preliminary measurements
indicated that the PSL frequency noise (measured by the MC) comparable
to the 2k PSL spectra and better at some frequencies. It appears that
the new optical layout has reduced the frequency noise. We will know
more when we add acoustic shielding and make more measurements.
2k PSL
The 2k PSL is back on line after the power outage last weekend. We
identified and repaired a water leak caused by a crack in a PVC fitting
on the chiller. Mark Guenther is investigating adding a water level
indicator to the chiller bath. He is also adding alarm channels for
enclosure lights and fans and the controller for the ion pump for the
reference cavity. Channels for monitoring water flow and temperature at
the chiller bath are also being added.

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)

LLO GC: I have been testing some Sun software for maintaining GC tape backups. This software has functioned flawlessly to this point, so we will begin using it on all of the critical machines within the next couple of weeks.I have started developing a script to facilitate the backup of the RDS data from the engineering runs so that it does not have to be backed up manually on the Cybernetics tape library. (Shannon Roddy)

LLO LDAS: Repaired a crash on Dataserver and Metaserver this week. Both machines were down and had to be reinstalled.Expecting the first 12 units for the beowulf today or tomorrow. I will begin installing them as soon as they arrive. I have also been working on installing plug strips etc. on the shelving for them. (Shannon Roddy)

Installation activities: All operators have been extremely busy in preparation for the upcoming in-chamber work. All the OSEM's on-site have been assembled and tested. Bad ones have been sent to MIT for inspection. Both arms are now closed and the vertex has been backfilled. We received today the IAS and SUS hardware from LHO; only one item was damaged. (To everyone, again, PLEASE use UPS to send things to LLO. UPS delivers much earlier in the day and we have generally had fewer problems with damage in transit. We have repeated this message many times and continue to ask for your help.)

Opening of the vacuum system is on hold pending repair of two large fans in the air handlers for the LVEA. We have intentionally shut down one of the two operating fans in order to monitor pressure and dust levels. If we can maintain a satisfactory dust level in the vertex our short term plan is to open one vessel at a time and complete the OSEM and tip replacement on the LOSs. (Jonathan Kern)

Other: The Baton Rouge Astronomical Society visited LIGO Saturday evening. The group toured the facility and then set up their telescopes and viewed the stars while cooking dinner out on the patio grill. prof. Greg Guzik of LSU was the keynote speaker. Thanks to Bonnie Wascom and Jonathan Kern for chaperoning the affair.

Detector/Technical Support (Whitcomb, Coyne)

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• PSL (King, Cardenas):
• Lee Cardenas pumped down the PSL reference cavity last week. The RGA scan looks good. It has bottomed out at 1e-7 torr, and Lee thinks it should go down into the 1e-8's, so he and Steve will look for a small leak. Then, switch over to the small ion pump for the rest of eternity.
• Lee and Peter will fab the PMC today (Thursday), and bring over the laser, optics, and PMC by the end of this week (maybe into Monday). Oh boy!
• Safety: We have settled on a wiring scheme for the laser enclosure sliding doors. With the laser enabled, the doors should be closed; if they are open, the laser will trip off and alarm will sound. Of course, we'll need to have the doors open to tinker; thus, we'll have easily accessible switches to defeat the laser trip and alarms, and rigorous procedures for using them. There will thus be 3 states: SAFE (laser power disabled); HAZARD (laser power enabled, doors closed); and DOOR OPEN HAZARD (controlled periods during which one can work on the laser table with the laser on, at low power). The Laser SOP is being updated to reflect this. (This is different from the sites, because the laser table is in an enclosed building in the LVEA, which does not exist at the 40m.)
• Electricians are wiring the PSL enclosure this week. Steve is getting laser warning signs and replacing faded illuminated signs.
• 2nd reference cavity: In order to perform an out-of-loop measurement of laser frequency noise, we are going to borrow the TNI's "spare" laser reference cavity. Thanks to Shanti, Eric, and Kevin!
• This summer, we will do a full characterization of the PSL, and make a complete documentation, with the help of 2 SURF students.
• PSL electronics (Karwoski, Russell, Abbott, Ugolini): We are assembling all of the electronics, wiring, etc. Rack layout has been defined; it's ever so slightly different from what exists at the sites, and full documentation has been prepared. PSL rack is being assembled today by Dennis and Paul. Goal is to have all the electronics in place by the middle of next week. (A few items associated with the reference cavity temperature stability system are still in the works).
• CDS (Jay Heefner, Ben Abbott, AJW): Jay Heefner is reviewing and updating AJW's first cut at a CDS schedule. goal is to have the lion's share of the CDS in place by next summer. Ben Abbott will assume responsibility for the first major subsystem (after Vacuum control, PEM, DAQs, and PSL, which are substantially complete): digital suspension controllers for the mode cleaner optics.
• Vacuum control system (Ugolini, Vass):
• We've been pumping on the 40m for almost 2 weeks, and all has gone well; we fell below 7e-7 torr, still dominated by water. No significant leaks, and no evidence of significant diffusion through the chamber door annulus o-rings.
• We vented on Wednesday, with N2 up to 25 torr, then dry lab-grade air up to atmosphere.
• Steve and Guillaume are installing the 4 newly regenerated ion pumps onto our new gate valves, today (Thursday), with help from Kevin from the TNI. Steve got support shims to allow the ion pumps to rest on the floor.
• As soon as we figure out how to get the EPICS ARchiving going (the right flavor of time daemon needs to run, and the IOCs need to know how to get the info, and no-one remembers how to do it!!!), we will pump down again to test the cleanliness of the ion pumps. We'll probably continue to pump on the volume (to get the water out) until we again need access to the chambers (maybe not until installation of the mode cleaner vacuum envelope in late June).
• Vacuum envelope and hardware (Larry Jones):
• Larry is still getting quotes for a small pressure balanced expansion joint (to replace the gimbals currently in hand for the vacuum envelope). It's a complicated piece...
• Allied is beginning the clean, test, bake of all of our large vacuum pieces (mode cleaner vacuum envelope, etc). Should be done towards end of June.
• The plan is still to install the bulk of the vacuum envelope changes (new door for input optic chamber IOC, 12m MC vacuum tube and supports, MC curved mirror MCCM chamber, new output optic chamber OOC) in July, then follow up with the new OOC stack, MCCM stack, and cables in IOC, OOC, MCCM) in the fall.
• Larry has designed custom supports for the six small optical tables needed for the 40m (all except for the PSL table and 2 large ISC tables, one of which remains to be ordered).
• In-vacuum cabling (Larry Jones, Jay Heefner): All existing 40m in-vacuum wiring will be replaced. We need in-vacuum cabling for 10 LIGO-I-like suspensions (5 OSEMs each, 3 pairs per osem). We will use two 25-pin kapton ribbon cables (made by MDC, quite pricey) for each suspension. Then we need extra cable runs for misc equipment like motorized mirrors, stages, etc. A total of 35 runs in eight chambers. These must run from the optical table down the seismic stacks and out through flanges fitted with two 25-pin welded vacuum feedthroughs. It is not at all clear whether we will be able to do these cable runs without disassembling all the existing seismic stacks! Larry will order the long-lead-time cables and feedthroughs, then work out the installation details.
• Optical layout (Mike Smith): Drawings with parts lists are in process of being made for all of the external optical tables in the 40m IFO. Latest composite drawing here.
• DAQ (Rolf Bork, Dennis Ugolini): Rolf set up and configured our DAQs system - hooray! It works well, and has been logging frames, trend frames, etc, onto our 500 GB raid array, for the last day. Dataviewer can display it. Currently, we're logging 64 channels of ADCs (nothing plugged into them yet, but accelerometers are waiting in the wings), and about a dozen channels of vacuum and PEM data from EPICS.
• Facility (Vass, Abbott): Our remaining two CDS racks have arrived; still in boxes. Ben and Dennis have assembled most of the control room desks, and Ben is still wrangling about replacements for the chairs that are way too small.
• Computing: We have asked Larry Wallace to order two more PCs, and Lisa Bogue to assemble the remaining two Sun Blade 100's. We should be in good shape for computing, at least through the summer! Dennis Ugolini will work on installing DMT and other online computing tools.
• Optics (Billingsley): Garilynn has submitted a work order to Wave Precision (formerly GO) to polish our 3 mode cleaner optics (plus spares). Hope for delivery in 22 weeks!

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

The biggest news this week is that we have succeeded in acquiring a
transient lock in our arm cavities. The lock is brief (the longest hold
we have observed is 60ms), but it is reproducible. After 8:00pm when
ground noise is relatively low, the system will consistently catch about
once every minute. Typical hold times are 10 to 20ms, and we are
actively trying to improve on this. Lock is lost in a "gradual" way: the
system slides off resonance rather than being kicked off by a
high-frequency resonance.
 

Brief as this lock is, it has allowed us to measure the first
significant mechanical resonance in an arm cavity. By increasing the
gain (and simultaneously the bandwidth) we can extend the duration of
the lock until we begin to excite high-frequency mechanical resonances.
The first resonance appears to be at 33kHz, and we suspect it is an
internal mode of our test masses. We have observed a similar resonance
at 27.8kHz in our mode cleaner mirrors, which are standard small optics.
 

We achieved our transient lock by acting only on a test mass, with
appropriate compensation, while the mode cleaner was locked with an
independent servo. We have tried a number of different servo
configurations in an attempt to extend the lock, including increasing
the bandwidth with which we act on the test mass, which excites the
above mentioned mechanical resonances; increasing the dc gain without
increasing the bandwidth, which has no discernable effect; and acting on
the laser's pzt, which tends to throw the mode cleaner out of lock. We
have a broadband Pockels cell in the arm-cavity path, after the mode
cleaner, but preliminary calculations indicate that it does not have the
dynamic range necessary to assist in lock acquisition. This is largely
due to the shortness of our arm cavities (1cm), which means that a great
deal of frequency actuation is required to keep up with a small length
change in the cavity (30,000 MHz/µm). Nevertheless we are keeping the
Pockels cell in mind, and we are actively pursuing other avenues. These
include implementing a triggered gain boost (Seiji's suggestion) and
acting on both the laser's pzt and the mode cleaner simultaneously
(based on suggestions from both Stan and Seiji).  We are also studying
our arm-cavity lock in an attempt to understand what knocks it out of
resonance after 10ms.
 

In other news, we may have identified the source of a fairly large 28Hz
peak in our seismic noise. This appears to be a resonance in the legs at
the lowest stage in our seismic stack, based on accelerometer readings
taken on the floor and just above these legs. We plan to support this
stage with large blocks of wood, bypassing the legs, and see if that
reduces or eliminates our 28Hz peak. Many thanks to Riccardo DeSalvo for
pointing this out to us as a potential noise source.
 
 
 

LASTI (Zucker)

LASTI (MacInnis, Laliberty, Miller, Shoemaker, Rollins, Mittleman,
Harry, Ottaway, Mason, Mason, Zucker)
 

SEI installation (all): continued preparation and staging for BSC and
HAM SEI installation.  Custom polyester BSC dome skirt &
dome/chamber covers have been received from the garment shop,
fit-tested and laundered. Velcro attachments and lift-hook slits
installed in "cartridge" cleanroom. Auxiliary BSC lifting ears were
modified (dome did not conform to its released drawing) and installed.
Support tube installation fixtures rough-aligned; support piers leveled
and brought to nominal mean nozzle height.  Test of dual-crane BSC dome
lift is scheduled for today (Thursday).  Parts inventory & staging
completed. Hugh R and Corey G will
arrive Tuesday from LH0 to show us how.
 

Vacuum (Mike & Myron): pump location & racks interfered with new SEI
installation staging area, so we moved, rewired & replumbed the pump
system. Added new interlock logic for our tandem roughing pumps to
reduce risk in "fast" leakchecking cycle; trained staff on
pumpdown/leakcheck procedures (in case Mike gets hit by a bus).
 

CDS: Rus Wooley came up from LLO and installed the crates & power
supplies and wired up the crossconnects on rack MY-1 for us.
 

PSL (Dave Ottaway and Jamie Rollins): table layout and modematching
calculations in progress, coordinating equipment list & shipping with
Peter King at Caltech.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
 

Based on the meeting on the E2E simulation for LIGO I held on 22 May,
E2E future action items have been updated and posted in E2E's homepage:
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~e2e.

>From now on E2E's weekly Physics meeting schedule and topics will also
be posted to E2E's home page.
In this week's meeting we mainly discussed  studies of noise
characteristics using E2E simulation which Bill Butler started working on
at LHO, simulation work done by Alain Weinstein and his student M.
Guillaume with final goal of studying effects of burst sources, etc.

Mode-matching
-------------
(Biplab) Mode matching for FP cavity and recycling summation cavity in open
loop was studied. Primitive runs and summation cavity runs are giving same
results (including power in 2nd order modes). Small deviations from
analytical results exist, which need to be understood. For the closed loop
(length-controlled cavity) case of FP cavity, some differences are observed,
which need to be sorted out.

Dual recycling
--------------
(Malik) I was finishing the model of dual recycling cavity based on the
Summation Approximation for the internal fields. This model serves as a
testbed for a more sophisticated E2E module, which is yet to be built.
The new items that were added to the model are:
1) switching the representation for the internal fields from 2x2-block matrix
to 4x4-single matrix,
2) adding RF-modulation sidebands to the model
A draft of a Ligo technical note (with Hiro and Biplab as co-athors) which
summarizes the model under preparation.

Wave-front sensing
------------------
(Andrea) It has been a week full of meetings. It has been decided that I
shall work on the simulation of the wavefront sensing system and possibly
of the servo noise, in collaboration with others interested in this topic.

Frame interface
---------------
(Andrea) It has also been decided, in order to avoid architectural
modifications in the modeler, that the frame I/O interface with the E2E
simulation shall be done without modifying the E2E code but just writing
down two filters from/to the datafile written/read by the E2E: this means
that this work shall take less time than anticipated.

Code maintenance & debugging
----------------------------
(Biplab & Hiro) A minus sign in a wrong place was giving a difference in
results of summation cavity and primitive runs when there was mode mismatch
and the end mirror was facing outside. Also, Hiro found out an indexing
problem in calculations involving lengths in recycling cavity. Both these
have been debugged.
 

Alfi
----
(Ed Maros) 1. (EFM) Added bundle type    2.(EFM) Added block quote tags.
           3. (EFM) Recompiled wxWindows for new GCC compiler

(Bruce) - Major cleanup of ALFI's connection objects in order to facilitate
          the implementation of connection junctions.
        - Continuing work on implementation of connection junctions.
 

LIGO Data Analysis System
 

Software Systems (Blackburn)

The MDC ended on Friday with an overall assignment of success. There were
a couple of "challenge" tests which were not performed due to limited time
and open issues with spectral characterization. The LDAS system performed
well, though the long dataPipeline commands had several random failure modes
due to syncronization/timeout issues with data movement through the various
APIs. Most of these have already been tracked down and corrected. The rapid
rate of fixing problems once we have developed the methods for exercising
has been surprisingly quick.

We have begun testing a new XML C++ parsing library. It is based on the
IBM version we have been using but is now maintained by the Apache group
of webserver fame. The reason for going with this distribution (which is
now called Xerces-C++) is the promise of thread save code. We have made
modifications to the lightWeightAPI which uses this package to allow it
to have threaded calls into this library. Tests are in their earliest
phases and no reports positive or negative can be given yet.

We have also begun testing LDAS using the GCC 2.95.3 compiler. This is a
minor compiler upgrade and now problems are expected. However, we will
wait until next week to commit to supporting LDAS with this compiler. It
has required that we rebuild a substantial basis of development packages
to fully integrate the transistion to 2.95.3. As of this morning a fully
built version of LDAS using 2.95.3 has been built and started running on
the development system. No problems to report at this early a date though.

Parasoft, Inc. has several packages for debugging and maintaining C++
source code. We have evaluated (using a 2 day only demo license) one
produce called "Insure++". It combines several code checking resources
like memory leak checking, datatype consistency, thread safety, and depth
of code checking into a single package which works well with the LDAS
design based on shared objects. We will evaluate other products from
Parasoft which provide C++ lint analysis of source code and automated
runtime testing of C++ code in the upcoming weeks.

The next development phase for the dataPipeline command is to support
output of frames for data products generated by LAL code or the data-
ConditionAPI. This will require new code in the C++ shared objects as
well as in the TCL control levels of LDAS. However the dataPipeline
command syntactically already supports this option. The proper way to
test this functionality is with dynamically loaded shared objects which
generate multiDimData which currently are not available from the LAL
repository. In the meantime we will temporarily add a switch to simulate
this in the wrapperAPI.
 

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

All of the E4 data has been successfully ingested into the Caltech
archive and is initially open to the same set of investigators
as the E3 data.

The LDAS Engineering run Beowulf cluster at LHO is partially configured
with one DOA node. The LLO installation will start next week and
the MIT cluster has been fully specified.

Initial testing of the new LDAS RAID systems has demonstrated that NFS
mounting over Gigabit Ethernet to the CDS framebuilder at LHO will have
sufficient performance to easily meet the expected 6MB/s frame bandwidth
and the small I/O trend frame updates.

A second test of HPSS on a new line of Sun servers has been scheduled
for late June.
 

Data Analysis Activities
Charlton:

* Wrote MDC scripts and tests for inspiral data pipeline and FCT
* Tested the above

* Fixed PR535 "Unsigned integers are converted to signed and may become
negative"

* Wrote design memo and prototype code for passing meta-data (design is
unusable in it's present form due to bugs in g++)

* Working on propagation of meta-data in slice() action, using a
modification of the design above.

Vicere':
 

* Data analysis: I worked with Sanjeev Dhurandhar on topics
    related with coalescing binaries detection.
   We want to understand the computational implications of its strategy
   for network data analysis, and to estimate what would be the
   reduction in detection probability when choosing to set thresholds
   on the individual detectors.
   A related problem is to understand, on the single detector, how the
   hierarchical strategy proposed by Sanjeev reflects into demands for
   the computational architecture. Both are work in progress.
 

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT:
(Keith)
-Replaced failed hdd on Ultra 10
  -rebuilt print server
  -rebuilt code repository
  -rebuilt backup mail server
-Tested out 1GHz beowulf cluster node with RH7 and RH7.1
-Testing and configuring new raid file server for ligo-mit
-Purchasing rest of beowulf cluster for mit

Livingston:
(Shannon)
-I have been testing some Sun software for maintaining GC tape backups.
This software has functioned flawlessly to this point, so we will begin
using it on all of the critical machines within the next couple of
weeks.
-Started developing a script to facilitate the backup of the
RDS data from the engineering runs so that it does not have to be backed
up manually on the Cybernetics tape library. (Shannon Roddy)
-A graph for traffic going across the local T1 line can be seen at:
http://kahuna.net.lsu.edu/mrtg/remrouters/ligo-lsu-t1.html
-Repaired a crash on Dataserver and Metaserver this week.  Both machines
were down and had to be reinstalled.
-Expecting the first 12 units for the beowulf today or tomorrow.  I will
begin installing them as soon as they arrive.  I have also been working
on installing plug strips etc. on the shelving for them.

(Tom)
-Ordered two laptops, and received one. These are for
general use for conferences and trips.
-Still waiting on and checking on quotes for firewalls.

Hanford:
See Hanford Weekly report.

CIT:
(Mike)
-Finished a complete install on an HP computer that was in our workshop.
-Veronica up on the third floor was having problems with real player. Computer
has no sound card. I opened up computer to check out loud noises. It turned out
to be the hard drive, which is making a loud clanking noise. This indicating
that the life span on this hard drive is just about up. A full software reload
on a new HP computer was performed. I will swap it with Veronicas unit today.
I mentioned to Veronica to make sure her important files are transferred to the
network.
-Worked on a Toshiba laptop reloaded with win98se and installed all software.
-Instructed to clean Ugas's personal files from his computer then swap
out computers with Florian, for he is having problems with his current
computer, such as illegal operations and shutting down.
I made a back up of Ugas's files. Florian is working on his computer now
and I will switch computers in the morning.
-A 200mhz Micron computer M18 with 64mb of ram, zip
drive is dead. Floppy drive would not read a floppy disk, and computer is
very slow in performance and will not shutdown.
Upon trouble shooting, I noticed that this computer was an upgrade from
win95 to win98. I feel this may be the cause of the current performance.
I will reload in the morning, after a back up is completed.
Lisa has a few extra sticks of ram in workshop that I will be adding to
this machine in the morning.
-Swapped out Florian's computer M12, with M58 that is Ugas's old computer
and added more ram, this brought it up to 96mb extended ram.
-Started an upgrade for user requesting additional
functionality's on one of our Toshiba Laptops, for loan purposes.

(Barbara)
- Created a nonlabor resource and WBS dictionary reports for the CostBook.
Reworked the reports home page to load faster.  Made cosmetic and
housekeeping changes to the CostBook web pages.
- Resumed efforts on the LDAS equipment database and web forms.  They are
all finished and I am starting a final round of testing.
- Made a few changes to the LDAS hardware block diagrams.   Sent them to
Stuart for review.

(Larry)
-Worked on a number of procurements. A couple of SUNBlade 1000 orders have
been placed for Daniel S. and memory upgrades for the SUNBlade 100's in the
40M has also been ordered. Memory prices are pretty good at this time.
-Worked on a number of PC issues. Replaced hardware in a couple of units.
Had HPC replace some defective hardware in a unit still under warranty. The
other PC issues where mainly educational on how certain applications work.
-Reset a number of the servers and client Unix boxes. There was a problem with
the NIS+ tables and a reboot was needed after resetting them.
-Worked on the financial assignments from Phil.
-Received a number of messages concerning the virus-scan s/w. So far it has
working for well. A number of people called just to let me know that they had
received some viruses but the s/w had taken care of the problem.

(Lisa)
-Working at Hanford this week.

(Sam)
-Cleaned out the conference room.
 
 
 

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

From: GariLynn Billingsley <gbtuned@caltech.edu>
Subject: Weekly report
 

Two Fused Silica absorption samples and a pathfinder piece (01 polished by HDOS) were shipped to Lyon to be used in the metrology technology exchange.  I will be traveling to Lyon in June to participate in this exchange.
 

New OSEMs for 40m, LASTI, PNI etc.
Janeen Romie
Pigtail fabrications has again run into a problem. Pal Pilot has lost 100 of the assembled rectangular connectors. I will have the machine shop make more. We have another fab house ready to finish the work.
 

TNI Electronics
Jay Heefner
- Work has started on a NIM module for the TNI. The module will have selectable
gain and zero frequency. Preliminary design should be complete by next week.
 
 

40m Lab & LASTI PSL
Peter King
I assembled the Eurocard cage and backplane for the 40m Lab PSL.
With the aid of Ben and Dennis, the VME crate, Eurocard cage and VME modules
were installed.
The reference cavity vacuum chamber has been roughed and pumped down. Lee
has scanned the chamber with an RGA. Things looked like they were
proceeding well when I last saw it.
After a few cross-checks with Alan about the frequency of the resonant
phase modulator, a figure of 29.486 MHz was settled on.
The Motorola IOCs bought for the 40m Lab and LASTI PSLs have been returned
to the vendor. Replacements are expected by the end of next week, or the
week after.
Pricing and availability of the Minco process controller was obtained and
the paperwork for ordering this item has been initiated.
I have been chasing up a few quotes for items for the PSL/IO table.
Currently I have the paperwork for ordering a laser spectrum analyzer and
control unit - aka a Tropel - and the 29.486 MHz phase modulator for the
suspended modecleaner.
 

Advanced LIGO PSL
Peter King
I met up with two reps. from Coherent who happened to be on campus.
They wanted to get an idea of our requirements for laser diodes and needs
information, timescales etc. I walked away with the impression that they
were going to revise their original quote, down from the current $7500 per
diode. They told me that they could do better on the price, just how much
better remains to be seen.
The hardware costs and schedule for the Advanced LIGO PSL were reviewed
last Thursday.

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

Virginio, Florian
Coil driver trouble,  three  channels suddenly dead, probably  the three
in function, replaced with drivers of big tower.  Power surge? Overload?
 

Re-diagonalizing sensors.
 

Alessandro
Trying a magnetostrictive Ultra sound head.  Better, cheaper and
faster.   Better, working at 30 kHz instead of 22, and driven at 100V
instead of 1000V of piezo electric head.
Cheaper and fast delivery from the US, Faster, higher frequency and
better power controls should make faster cuts.
Spare LVDT coils produced and shipped to Japan.
 

Riccardo
Still no bid from Sonic mill for sapphire machining (they promised it
again).
Now in Japan.
 

Riccardo Akiteru
Designed recoil mass damper, in construction.
Redesigned weaker actuator yokes, in construction.
Ordered new connectors for in vacuum wiring.
 

Riccardo, Yukioshi
Leak tested cable feed through flanges,  small leaks in the obvious
place,  main leak through the 6 m of gauge 22 wire strands.  Problem
solved dipping the flat cable heads in vacuum oil.  Nasty but workable.
 

Akiteru
DSP-PC dialogue problem found.  Dialogue cable must be contain flipped
pairs.  Purchasing correct cable.

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