Weekly Report for Week Ending October 25, 2001

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  October 29, 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:

Special Announcements:

Most of you are aware that Jordan Camp has elected to take a position with Goddard Space Flight CEnter  in their gravitational research program. Although Jordan remains in our LIGO Scientific Collaboration and will continue to be associated with LIGO, most of his LIGO Lab responsibilities need to be re-assigned to others within the laboratory. These responsibilities, as well as a clarification of LIGO Laboratory personnel roles within the optics development area, are defined below.

1) Jordan Camp continues to lead the technical oversight committee for the Australian Gingin high-power test facility. This is really an LSC assignment but I mention it as one place where Jordan will continue to provide his expertise.

2) The Cognizant Scientist for the LIGO Laboratory optics activities is Bill Kells.

3) Sapphire Development:

In the interest of protecting proprietary information from our two contractors for sapphire materials development, we must take care to avoid inappropriate transfer of information between the two contractors. With this in mind, we have separate Technical Managers for each contractor. Thus:

        a) Technical oversight & management for sapphire development at SIOM is provided by Ren-Yuan Zhu.
        b) Bill Kells will provide science direction, from the LIGO Laboratory, for the sapphire development program at SIOM.

        c) Technical oversight & management of the sapphire development at Crystal Systems will be done by GariLynn Billingsley.
        d) Peter Fritschel will provide science support, from the LIGO Laboratory, for the sapphire development program at Crystal Systems.

        e) Bulk absorption measurements, in the materials research phase, will continue to be done by Alex Alexandrovski, Martin Fejer et. al. at Stanford. We are very lucky that they are continuing to provide this very skilled and expert measurement and analysis capability. The LIGO Lab liaison for this work is Peter Fritschel.

4) Coating Development:

        a) Technical oversight & management for coating development at SMA-Lyon, MLD and REO is provided by Helena Armandula.
        b) The Cognizant Scientist for the coating efforts is Greg Harry.
        c) Note the item on surface absorption in coatings below.

5) Polishing & Inhomogeneity compensation:
        Technical oversight & management by GariLynn Billingsley. This currently involves contracts with Goodrich and CSIRO.

6) Metrologyand other optical characterization:

        a) Phase map measurement will continue to be GariLynn Billingsley's responsibility.
        b) The transmission/reflection scanning and birefringence testing will be performed by Lee Cardenas and Bill Kells. (Note that this apparatus may be extended to enable surface absorption measurement as well.)
        c) Surface absorption measurement, in the coatings research phase, will be done by Alex Alexandrovski, Martin Fejer et. al. at Stanford. We are also grateful for this collaborative effort. The LIGO Lab liaison for this work is Bill Kells.

7) Contamination cavity/materials qualification: Lee Cardenas and Bill Kells.

8) Lasers:   Peter KIng will be responsible for this effort and will serve as the manager of all of our laser R&D and production contracts.

One consequence of the above separation of responsibilities is that GariLynn Billingsley is the single Technical Manager for all interactions with Crystal Systems, CSIRO, Goodrich and Veeco. Likewise, Helena Armandula is the single Technical Manager for all interactions with SMA, MLD and REO. All LIGO personnel should work through these individuals when they need the services of these vendors. If you have any questions regarding these assignments, please contact myself or Dennis Coyne.

II. From Phil: Policy on Charges to the Cost Accounts of Others

General:

Charges sometimes go through the LIGO Procurement System where the individual making the commitment uses an account number for which he or she is not responsible.  The intent of the following policy is to minimize mischarges as well as to ensure that the individual responsible for an account is informed regarding all charges against that account.

Policy:

It is LIGO Policy that when any procurement is made against an account number, the individual responsible for that account number must be notified of the commitment.  Project Controls is responsible for notifying the account manager of all purchase commitments against his or her account.  This is accomplished via a copy of the purchase request (PR) forwarded to the responsible manager.

Clearly this will be implemented when, and only when, the account manager responsible for the account has not explicitly requested or approved the procurement.
 

Weekly Report Highlights

The Livingston 4K interferometer was able to achieve and hold lock in a power recycled configuration during night time operation Wednesday evening.

"The big news comes in this message from Nergis and Rana: "

LSC Issues (Weiss)

No report.

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

WBS 1.2 LIGO Operations--Administration

There was a teleconference on Thursday, October 25.  Items discussed included:

• Audio Visual Equipment is required for the OSB East in Hanford.  These costs are in addition to the $2.5 million approved by the Change Board.  A line will be entered into the Contingency Liens List and a Change Request Prepared.
• Action #93 to prepare a policy statement regarding notification of the individual responsible for an account when commitments are made by someone else is closed.  A Policy Statement has been issued and will be put on the internal web site.
• The Gov'mint (NSF) is meeting tomorrow afternoon (October 26) to discuss the subcontract for the OSB East, the new Cooperative Agreement, and the Laboratory Charter. Hopefully they will then take action on all of them.  David has been apprised of the need to update the Caltech-MIT MOU.
• The Livingston Staging Building is "proceeding in a reasonable way."  What that means is that crew 3 has been accomplishing in three weeks what two previous crews did not do in five months.
• Catalyzed by Elizabeth's departure into the Math Department, we are reorganizing the LIGO Administrative Group at Caltech.  Our goal is to better serve our customers as well as to provide those within the group opportunities to do bigger and better stuff.  The most significant change so far is that Cindy Akutagawa will be assuming responsibility for all Employment related activities including Payroll, Hiring, Termination, Reporting, etc.  Issues related to employment formerly taken to Elizabeth, should now go to Cindy.  The exception will be VISA issues, which should go to Ed Jasnow.  Cindy will be shifting the responsibility for the financial reporting on the Construction Project over to Florence Kaufman.  More changes will follow as we figure out what we are doing.
• Caltech is about to decide on a non-mandatory campus-wide travel agency.  This agency will be in a position to negotiate favorable rates.  Caltech did $2 million intravel last year, of which LIGO was $400K.  "City Pair" rates will be negotiated with selected airlines for routes fequently traveled.  So, expect some changes.

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

• Assisted the Campus Research Group (J.Romie) with the packing and shipping of 253 pounds of Stainless Steel and Aluminum Hardware to the LHO (B.Weaver) in support of SOS and TM Suspensions for the 40m Lab. Account Number  LIGO.00008 1.6.2 NSFLIGO. 000002.
• Assisted the Data Analysis Group (A. Wilson)  with the packing and shipping of computer Serial Number D7207U  being returned to HP Centralized Repair, Irving TX . No cost to LIGO , shipment was prepaid.
• Assisted the WA 4km Optics Fab (K. Mailand with the packing and shipping of  a Tripod to the LHO (R. Savage) via Customs Global Logistics, delivery was made on 10/22/01. Account Number LIGO.5F600 1.4 NSFLIGO.5F6000.
• Assisted the WA 4km Optics Fab (K. Mailand) with the packing and shipping of a Tripod to the LHO (R. Savage) via Federal Express expected delivery time10/26/01 Account Number LIGO .5F600 1.4 NSFLIGO.5F6000.

>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

• Progress continues in the conversion of archived financial records to .pdf files.  Account charge files for 1994 and 1993 have been copied, scanned, and bookmarked.  They are now ready to be burned to CD.  Currently, work order files for 1993 through 1995 are being prepared.  When these three years are completed, both for the account charges and the work orders, we will be nearly half way through the process (and about 10 boxes lighter!)
• Preparations began  for the LIGO Christmas party, only 6 weeks away (that's hard to believe. . .)

ACTIVITY

• processing of electronic submitted documents remains fairly steady
• processed and distributed 3 DCN's
• progress continues on converting old account financial files to electronic form for archiving

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>

• Processed the change orders to Excel Group, Box City, and Burns.
• Three blanket po's were closed out per Dorothy's request, which are: MarVac, Accusembly, and Palpilot Bestmult.
• Working on the order for the gazebo for LLO.

• Submitted requested POETAs for FY2002 Ops and R&D for all accounts except for capital (fabrication) accounts to Sponsored Research.
• Prepared an analysis of charges to Supplies in the 5J and 5F accounts for the period from November 2000 through September 2001 for Stan's review for possible capitalization of some of these charges.
• Cost Transfers have been made for transferring costs related to Seismometers from the Management Reserve account to Task # 1.8.1, as a result Indirect Charges have been reduced by approximately $4500.
• Noticed that installation charges for equipment at Livingston (Accoustic Systems) had been classified as Supplies, verified with Property Accounting that all charges related to property acquisition including Installation, Freight, and Taxes should be classified as Equipment, have requested that correction be made.
• Requested Federal Accounting to close all FY1999 Operations Accounts.
• Working with Travel Audit to close remaining Travel Encumbrance in FY2000 Ops accounts; Irene Baldon has verified that these need to be closed.
• The reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport

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

• Nothing significant to report.

• The sites were informed about pending changes in Caltech travel with the selection of an Institute travel agency.  This may allow for the the use of "city-pairs," in which deeply discounted fares are acquired for trips between specific pairs of cities where there is a large amount of travel done between those cities.
• Training for site personnel on the new P-card travel application is still being scheduled.

SUPPORT

PLEASE NOTE:  This report only covers four (4) working days.

• Processed the paper work for nine (9) new/revised trips (including Advance Checks written and hotel/car rental authorizations filled out and FAXed to appropriate vendors in various locations).  I have eight (8) trips in various stages of completion before ticketing can be done.  Worked on several trips that were extensively changed or modified and assisted several more travelers with questions regarding their existing or potential travel.
• Jim Covington now has (4) expense reports he continues to working on and completed one (1).  I completed twenty-nine (29) reports (including a couple of very involved/time consuming foreign trips) and there are five (5) reports to be done.  I'm holding one (1) report that needs additional information from the traveler before submitting and five (5) that need a check from the traveler before submitting.  I spent a considerable amount of time contacting travelers who have very old outstanding trips still open.  I will continue to contact these and other travelers as time permits.  Some progress is being made.
• Reconciled fifteen (15) items on my P-Card which required telephone calls to vendors who do not enter the traveler's name on their charges.  Assisted a few travelers with their reconciling and/or data entry.
• Worked on the preparation and distribution of the Travel/Vacation Itineraries for October 22, 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.

• Received and processed invoices for payment on-line. The total incoming invoices received for this period can be seen in  "Cost Schedule Control Systems" report by Esther Cunningham. Tracked and followed up on various invoice problems.
• Processed the usual requisitions and change orders on-line.
• Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther the week of October 15.
• 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 supports Irene (travel) in the mornings and Linda and Cleveland (DCC) in the afternoons.

• Placed Attachment A for CaRT onto the small web page for review.  Submitted to the DCC the progress report for GEO.
• Continue to prepare forms to accompany circuit boards, along with schematics that I printed out then folded.  Updated the database with board information, and prepared some labels.
• Scanned for the DCC an updated DCN.  Ensured that the update accompanies the appropriate boards.  Updated the draft Electronics Traveler in Word, the form should be approved soon.
• Placed some Pcard orders, and per usual, chased after the paper work to reconcile.  Updated site trips, caught up on three week's work of info.

Advanced LIGO (Frey)

Progress Period from 10.18 to 10.25

Accomplishments:

• Weekly Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting not held this week.  Per Gary, we are scheduling our next meeting for November 13th.  I am in the process of preparing material that will allow management to review the current status of the MRE effort.  Met with Dennis Coyne and determined material needed for meeting.
• Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal (Highest Priority)
• Continuing the development of the Cost Estimate.
• Continue to pursue all other sub system schedules.
• Updated web site with latest data.
• The following is a summary of status by sub system:
• COC - Work on action items per second review continues.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.  Followed up regarding preparation for review meeting of Adv. LIGO.
• PSL - Issued cost and resource loaded reports and awaiting comments.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• AOS - Work on action items continues.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• IO -  Work on action items continues.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• SUS - Working with SUS group to incorporate current comments.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.  Followed up regarding preparation for review meeting of Adv. LIGO.
• SEI - Work on action items continues.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• All other subsystems have yet to be scheduled for their first review.  These dates are pending per direction from Gary Sanders and Dennis Coyne.
• Continue to update the TNI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Nothing new to report.
• Continue to update the LASTI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Nothing new to report.
• Project Plan for the 40-Meter Lab Upgrade continues.
• Nothing new to report.
• Continue to test the Cost Book Tool.
• Continue to work on coding changes to the resource database to accommodate resource loading and leveling by discipline.
• Continue to run tests on reports using other sub-system data.
• Verifying and checking business rules using PSL cost loading as pilot effort.
• Mapping and formatting of OPS cost data for input on hold pending finalization of co-operative agreement.
• 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 November 13th at 1pm at the SSCR.  Will continue to prepare and follow up with system leaders.
• 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.
• PSL - Will schedule next meeting.
• AOS - Continue inputting changes to and prepare for next meeting TBD.
• IO - Continue inputting changes to and prepare for next meeting TBD.
• SUS - Continue inputting changes to and prepare for next meeting TBD.
• SEI - Continue inputting changes and prepare for next meeting TBD.
• COC - Work in action items by Garilynn continues.  Anticipate schedule changes prior to next meeting TBD.
• Will import cost data and complete schedule integration.
• Will Continue to update the TNI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 10.26.01 and  post to site by the 30th.
• Will Continue to update the LASTI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 10.26.01 and  post to site by the 30th.
• Will continue updating the 40 meter schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 10.26.01 and  post to site by the 30th.
• Cost Book Tool development continues.  (Highest Priority Task)
• Will continue ops cost data input when available.
• Will continue to work with BK importing data and executing action items.
• 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)

The end-of-August Quarterly Progress Report has been sent to the NSF.  We were expecting DCAA to initiate an audit of our revised proposal for LIGO Operations this week, but it was cancelled or, at least, postponed.

There are no change requests currently in the queue.

Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection.

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

• I am jumping (head first) into my new position as the LIGO HR person.

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

• The contract for the Hanford OSB East Building is scheduled to be discussed by the NSF Coordinating Committee this Friday, October 26.  It is hoped that approval will be granted to award this contract.
• Construction on the Livingston Staging Building is proceeding much more rapidly with the new team in place.
• Both sites are in the process of selecting audio/visual equipment for their new auditorium facilities.  This selection is expected to be completed by the end of November.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

Finalized travel arrangements for the Hanford Safety Audit (November 8th) team members.

Conducted computer fire suppression system discussions and walk through of room 215, Synchrotron with representatives of CalProtection. Turns out that this is also the company which provides the fire protection support services for Caltech.  They will submit a bid by early next week. A second vender is planned for a visit next week.  A major challenge (cost) to installing a suitable O2 depletion system in room 215 will be the cost/difficulty in making the room "air tight".  An alternative would be to build a separate room within 215 surrounding the computers which could be easily sealed off if the fire suppression system were activated.

Arrangements have been made for getting cost estimates next week for increasing the raised floor area in room 215.
 

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)

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

Commissioning activities (reported elsewhere) are the main activity this week, with efforts continuing to involve operators more as hardware set-up needs decrease. Attendance of operators at commissioning meetings is now the default. We experienced a day of 50+ mph winds this week that effectively shut down most commissioning activities. Even the transmitted beam on the PSL reference cavities were visibly "hopping" around in the camera views and gusting winds often threw the mode cleaners out of lock. We may want to consider, for the future, steps to "harden" the WA interferometers against such interruptions. I would not fancy explaining to NSF why bad weather caused us to miss a nearby supernova.
 

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)

The Livingston 4K interferometer was able to achieve and hold lock in a power recycled configuration during night time operation Wednesday evening. Multiple lock periods of around 10 minutes have been demonstrated. The high current LOS controllers at the end stations were used for this work. High current controllers for the ITM's have also been installed but were not utilized for these initial studies. We will now see how we can extend the capabilities of the interferometer to lock during the day by using these additional controllers. We are also modifying the controller boards for the BS and RM so that we will have the same control authority over them. We still have a lot to learn about the interferometer, especially some features of the side band power and asymmetry in the PRM that are not yet understood, but this achievement is an important milestone in the commissioning effort here. Congratulations to everyone for their contributions towards this achievement.

From another message from Mark:

From: Mark Coles <coles@ligo-la.caltech.edu>
Subject: Lock of the LLO 4K Interferometer

At approximately 9 pm Thursday evening, the LLO 4K interferometer began locking in a power recycled state for durations of several minutes of continuous locked operation! The locks were interspersed with brief unlocked periods and then the interferometer would quickly reacquire. Power buildups in the arms exceed 1000.

The interferometer is operating with the "zipped up" ETM controllers. (Zippy ITM controllers, also installed, have not yet been utilized. Wave front sensing for LOS control has also not yet been implemented.) Ground seismicity is around 20 counts at 20 Hz in the vertical direction at the Y end station (vs 200 during the day).

Congratulations to everyone for their help achieving this important milestone.
 

Optics and Installation: Laser Safety Interlock hardware installation is completed. The new surveillance cameras have been installed, and about half are functioning as of today. Balance should be online by week's end. They we begin programming the system logic. PSL table legs were removed, and the original leveling screws have been replaced by HD machine wedges. Completing modification of PSL safety enclosure to accommodate new acoustic enclosure. Manufacturer of PSL acoustic enclosure promises engineering drawings early next week. Made swept sine measurements of the new PSL periscope, driven acoustically. See i-log. (Jonathan Kern)
 

GC: Spoke with Computer Associates about some software that may make GC more reliable and ease some of the time requirements of Tom and I.
Trying to track down a Nimda infection at LLO. A couple files are getting copied to shared directories on a windows machine that are infected.
LDAS: Gathered all of the information for the QFS licenses and sending the information on. I have prepared a document on installing BigBrother in the ldasadm home directory. I have it installed in this manner on ldas-la. I am using ldas-sw as the machine to create the documentation from. This machine has not had a local install of bigbrother so it is easier to use for the documentation. Shannon Roddy
 

Detector/Technical Support (Whitcomb, Coyne)

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• PSL (Abbott, Ugolini, Vass, Smith, King):
• We were having problems with the the frequency servo error signal so Ben increased the sub-optimal frequency reference output by changing resistor values in the "T" attenuator that is built into the circuit. Once this was done, the reference output was right. He then repaired a faulty RF photodiode whose output SMA connector was snapped off the circuit board, yet still making intermittent contact. These repairs resulted in a textbook looking error signal.
• Ben and Dennis re-measured the transfer functions and re-optimized the gain. Now the frequency stability servo in-loop noise looks good - 0.01 Hz/rtHz up to 10 kHz. However, There are strong peaks at 60 Hz and odd harmonics, and also strong peaks at 3 kHz, 8 kHz, 12 kHz, 18 kHz, and a big whopper at 30 kHz.
• Summary: Other than those peaks, the PSL is operating according to specs, with no significant problems. Dennis is writing up a test report.
• Peter King is ordering a heating jacket for the frequency reference cavity.
• Ben has drawn up the PSL enclosure wiring diagram that has been implemented. A "make-before-break" switch has been installed to ensure that bypassing the door interlocks doesn't break the interlock during switching.
• Optical layout and scattered Light control (Smith): The 40 m Auxiliary Optics Support and 40m Optical Systems and Sensing Design Requirements and Conceptual Design documents were completed and presented at the Design Requirements review on 10/18. Revisions to the two documents are in process.

Mike has followed up on the comment from Bill Kells that the MMT between the mode cleaner and the IFO might need to be suspended or better isolated. A calculation indicates that the relative motion between pairs of steering mirrors, between the IFO mode matching telescope mirrors, and between the telescope and the IFO may cause excessive phase noise on the IFO input beam. The relative motion between the telescope mirrors can be reduced by supporting the telescope on an additional isolated platform stage. One of the MMT mirrors is a fast PZT steering mirror - it's not clear how that might interact with the stack resonances.
However, the relative motion between the telescope and the IFO can not be reduced because the telescope and the PRM are on separate isolation stacks and do not share a common motion.
On the other hand, one could relax one's requirements on such sources of common-mode phase noise to be less than other noise sources at 200 Hz rather than 100 Hz, and all of these problems go away. We're still thinking about it...
• Optics (Billingsley):
• Wave Precision is still polishing our MC optics. Hope to have them delivered back to us by mid-November.
• WP declined to quote on our core optics - they're too busy. CSIRO quoted a rather large sum of money (twice what we expected from WP). But it's our only quote, so we'll go with it. Expect polished core optics by Feb 2002. Gari will investigate other vendors, for the long term.
• Pending approval from Dennis Coyne, we have finalized the specs for the coatings for all suspended optics, summarized here. The coating will be done by REO.
• Suspension controllers (Ben Abbott, Heefner): Ben continues to work on the detailed ProTel wiring diagrams for the ETM suspension controllers (the diagrams for the 8 suspension controllers near the vertex are complete). We will do a detailed internal review and then start ordering the components. See his Design Requirements & Conceptual Design talk on the 40m suspension electronics.
• Facilities (Vass, Jones, Smith, AJW):
• Our last optical table (5'x12'x2') has arrived, and was brought to the lab, on its side (to get it through the door). Caltech transportation guys didn't feel qualified to flip it horizontal (it weighs 2 tons), so we contracted the Halbert Bros to do it. They did a fine job - and charged us $1500.
• Steve has Caltech workers drilling holes in the floor to permit all optical tables to be bolted down. That work is now complete, for all but the last 3 tables (whose supports are still being worked on at CES).
• The leaky output optic chamber annulus valve has been repaired.
• We have been pumping on the 40m vacuum with the maglev turbopump and the 4 ion pumps; total pressure is down to 3e-7 torr.
• Dennis has updated our vacuum transition procedures. 40m Vacuum System States and Sequences procedures.
• Caltech sophomore Eric Lin is "reverse engineering" the STACIS controllers to learn how we can read them out through EPICS control. The manufacturers have no idea how to do this.
• Wire for all the in-vacuum cables have been ordered (Cooner wire, 12 twisted pair, braided shield; 35 such cables, each around 8' long, with 25-pin D-connectors).

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

This week we closed the vacuum chamber and pumped down.  The pressure is
now in the mid 1e-6 torr range, and we have begun measuring transfer
functions in preparation for attempting lock.

LASTI (Zucker)

LASTI (Bayer, Fritschel, Harry, MacInnis, Mason, Miller, Mittleman,
Ottaway, Phinney, Rollins, Shoemaker, Zucker)
=======================================================================

INFRASTRUCTURE:

The modifications to the cartridge clean room has been completed. The
modifications made were to make the leg height adjustable and provide
openings in the top to allow the stack masses to be lifted with a crane
and dropped into place.

A meeting was held with Harry Overmeier and Gary Traylor from Livingston
in preparation for their trip to MIT to assist in the assembly of the
BSC stack on 11/5 thru 11/9.

HYDRAULIC ACTUATORS:

A schedule for the hydraulic isolators has been completed by Ken Mason
and Brian Lantz and handed out to members of the seismic isolation team.

A finite element analysis of the springs designed for the hydraulic
isolators revealed stress concentations on the ID of the spring. Design
refinements are being done to reduce this excess stress.

The prototype pump stand is nearing completion in the shop. Josh machined
the flow resistors and plumbing adapters and finished the motor
electrical panel.

CDS/DAQ/GDS:

Our GDS RAID disk woes will be temporarily resolved by swapping in a
spare unused "old style" unit from LHO (thanks Dave!).  The
manufacturer's firmware revision which disabled Sun support on all the
newer units is still being worked.

NOISE BUDGET:

Gregg H. went through the noise model and checked it against all the
factor-of-two errors that have been found in bench recently.  Everything was
fine, except there was an extraneous two on thermoelastic damping that was
removed.  So the internal mode thermal noise estimate for sapphire mirrors on
the graphs shown at our LSC review were a factor of root 2 too high.

PSL:

This week the commisioning of the PSL has been delayed while we wait for
delivery of electronics and the enclosure. The electronics have arrived so
commisioning of the PSL will become a major focus for next week.
Preparations continue for the installation of the SOS optics in HAM 13 in
the near future.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
 

E2E for LIGO-I meeting
----------------------
Luca gave a talk on his recent progress in characterization and modeling
of LSC. There was discussion on Stan's questions (from last week's e2e
Physics meeting) and how and who to follow those up. Details are available
from http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~e2e
 

Modal Model
-----------
(Hiro) In process of summarizing the analytic calculation of fields in a FP cavity when
 curvature mismatch and tilt exist, up to 4th order, and adding them to
 the e2e ModalModel document (T990081). This note explicitly discusses how a few
 of the null tests that are used actually work, and can may used for the validation of the e2e code.
 

(Biplab) Did a null test for the effect of waist size mismatch of the input
 light with that of the eigenmode of a cavity. A back-of-the-envelope
calculation shows that the effect should be same as sending a beam of matched waist-size
 but of different wavelength so that the Rayleigh range remains to be same
 (Note that the round trip phase should be appropriately adjusted to get the resonance condition to be the same for both cases). E2E passed this test nicely.
Doing other mismatch studies.
 

Mechanical Simulation
----------------------
(Andrea) Written a document (T010126) which outlines a proposal to integrate
 existing mechanics simulation models in e2e. This has been prepared to provide
 a starting point for the discussion in a future meeting on this topic. This
 document will soon (in a week) be submitted to DCC and circulated.
 

(Virginio) Rewriting the code for the LIGO2 suspension simulation because of the
 necessity to have a better code maintenance ( No more C/C++ mixed code).
 Some very minor bugs need to be fixed.
 

 Implementing just one leg of the HAM stack to evaluate the feasibility of using
 MSE to simulate the entire stack. The aim of this simulation is to have a tool
 able to estimate the effects of short-circuiting one of the attenuation stages.
 The expected benefit is a reduction of the rms displacement noise. This
 modification can improve the stability of the Livingston mode cleaner. The
 seismic attenuation should not be endangered because in this case the HAM stacks have ample performance margin.
 
 Beam object still under debugging.
 

 Next week I'll have some freshman students playing with an inverted pendulum
 prototype I designed (60cm long) for the freshman lab course.
 see http://m8.ligo.caltech.edu/Phy003 for more details.
 

PSD Estimator
-------------
(Andrea) still working on the modifications to the E2E spectral estimation
 routines to implement automagic whitening and de-whitening.
 

Code maintenance and improvement
--------------------------------
 Biplab tested the parallelized runs with ordinary runs and found differences.
 Hiro fixed a bug in the simulation engine when threads are used for
parallelization. After that results matched with each other.
 

(Hiro) Fairly extensive modification of the simulation engine is completed
 and all changes will be committed to cvs very soon. This will be the base
 of the next release of e2e.
 

CVS
----
(Ed Maros) Created CVS account for Andrea Vicere.
 

Alfi
----
(Bruce) Continuing work on Alfi 5 port and connection widgets.
 

(Melody)
- Worked on event processings for the member nodes (displaying internal and
  external view, popup menus, etc)
- Worked on the alfi5 schedule and submitted it to Hiro.
 

LIGO Data Analysis System
 

Software Systems (Blackburn)
 

The long awaited new release of LDAS will happen later today.
A final freeze for source code and scripts took place earlier
and only two more documentation changes will be made before
the LDAS CVS repository is tagged for release 0.0.21. New in
this release are the following:
 

a) the ability to generate a quality channel base on an SQL
   query's result using DMT metadata.
 

b) the ability to send N-tuples of simple data sets in the
   form of flat tables (N - sequences) to the search codes.
 

c) the ability to extract spectra from the database for use
   in search codes.
 

d) the ability to enable debugging modes in the wrapperAPI
   without recompiling through a resource file.
 

e) a DB2-ready metaDataAPI from the /ldas rsync site.
 

f) a much much more stable multi-parallel job handling
   environment through significant changes to the mpiAPI.
 

g) a release of LDAS which is "nearly" compatible with the
   new libtool standard adopted for lal and lalwrapper code
   development. (one issue reported for the framecpp and a
   patch is needed to the libtool distribution).
 

h) first draft of documentation for building a full complement
   of ldas on a single computer (not distributed across hardware).
 

i) supports for new one-sided power spectral density standards
   in the dataConditionAPI.
 

j) support for returning data products from the dataCondtionAPI
   to the users in the form of processed frames.
 

k) better handling of frame file directory caches.
 

This is a significant amount of new functionality and we have
worked very hard to test it all and get the bugs out. Of course
there are still some bugs and the problem tracking captures these
however, we do feel that this is a release we can be proud of
even if it was significantly delayed in its delivery. This new
version should be available at all sites tomorrow.
 

A.L. NOTE: Kent and the LDAS team should be very proud of their accomplishment. The full benefit of the investment in the infrastructure is starting to manifest itself by the way in which substantially new functionality can now be added as the need is identified and requirement is defined.
 

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)
(Al Wilson)
(Stuart Anderson)

The order for the next set of 8 LDAS servers was placed with Sun with the
exceptional help of Gina Salone.

A semi-permanent floor space allocation was obtained in the CACR machine
room for 3 racks of LDAS equipment. The first installation was to move
1 rack of disk storage from the ldas-test system across campus to operate
as the cache for the LIGO archive system.

Started testing RedHat 7.2 and a recent kernel patch to RedHat 7.1 to
determine the next upgrade path for LDAS Linux machines.

Added additional software mirroring functionality (rsync) via a secure
web interface.

MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)

ordered cables/converters from NTI
patched Solaris machines
installed Greg's backup script (w/o fssnap) into cron

Livingston
----------
(Shannon Roddy)

Gathered all of the information for the QFS licenses and sending
the information on.  I have prepared a document on installing BigBrother
in the ldasadm home directory.  I have it installed in this manner on
ldas-la.  I am using ldas-sw as the machine to create the documentation
from.  This machine has not had a local install of bigbrother so it is
easier to use for the documentation.

Hanford
-------
(Greg Mendell)

1) Worked with Stuart Anderson, Dan Kozak, Shannon Roddy, Dave Barker,
and Sun to obtain QFS licenses and install QFS.  Currently working on
configuring QFS on the LDAS dataserver and CDS fb3 hosts.

2) Completed changes to backup script to turn off xntpd while running
fssnap on Solaris hosts. Sent script to ldas_admin_all.

3) Logged a memory problem on metaserver with Sun.  Sun will replace the
suspect CPU if the problem occurs again.

4) A leak in the valve that brings water to the Liebert AC unit's
humidifier was shutoff by someone, and fixed by Otto. This cause the
Liebert unit to shut down its humidifier when the bulb associated with
the humidifier became too hot.  The LCD display does not show this (it
still showed the humidifier was running), even though the humidity
dropped from 43% to 21%. However, a reset button underneath the water
pan must be pushed to restart the humidifier when this happens. The unit
is now working and the humidity is now back up to normal and within
Sun's specifications for data centers.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT:
(Keith)
-MIT PPP dial in service now operational.
-Ordered laptop for new postdoc.
-Investigating wireless options for use in building next door.
 

Livingston:
(Shannon)
-Spoke with Computer Associates about some software that may make GC
more reliable and ease some of the time requirements of Tom and I.
Trying to track down a Nimda infection at LLO.  A couple files are
getting copied to shared directories on a windows machine that are
infected.
 

Hanford:
(Christine)
- Investigating a problem with slow disk access when running Framemaker,
compilers, and Matlab.  Appears to be related to having the application
software and files on separate computers and then accessing each of
those computers from a third computer.
-  Setup a new travel laptop.
-  Investigating using encrypted passwords with Samba.
 

CIT:
(Mike)
-Daily administration on the NTSRV's, keeping up with system logs and
keeping up with security; created an additional website for Veronica on the
Amaldi server.
-Hard Drive failure on the Steve Vass PC, replaced his hard drive then reload PC
with all General Computing software.
-Jay's laptop is broadcasting what looks like the Red Worm virus that was
affecting the Caltech community. LIGO was not affected by this virus, which
means that our users are keeping their virus software updated.
I downloaded red-worm utility to clean this from user laptop and installed
service pack 2 and critical updates.
Users on the LIGO project must install the critical updates then install
service pack 2; this well prevent being affected by the red-worm virus or
any other security problems.
-Installed Solid Works for multiple users that included,
Ken Mailand, Janeen Romie
'having a problem with her SUNPC card running solid
works', we are still looking into this problem.
Dennis Coyne's and Calum Torrie also have the s/w installed.
-Problems with office 2000 causing Mike Smith's computer to freeze up on him, I
uninstalled office and system works that was running on his computer also
then reinstalled office and things seem to be okay for now.
-Instructed a user on how to run exceed to launch XMGR for him to plot.
-This week I had a lot of onsite and phone support to take care of.
This is a good thing, users are letting me know right away when they are
having software and hardware problems with their PC's before matters get worse.
 

(Lisa)
-Rebuilt canopus (internal ftp server) with solaris 8.  Helped users set up
their ssh connections to canopus after the rebuild.
-Resolved an ssh1 problem with sargas.
-Chased down a laptop that had code red worm running. Mike did the
disinfection.
-Built an ultra30 as the frame broadcaster for the 40meter martian network.
-Troubleshooting license issues with solid works on sunpci.  Once I got past
the licensing problem, we discovered a video incompatibility.  I'm currently
trying to find a fix for that.
-Looking into wireless security issues.
-Updated more pcard users for travel.
-Added a couple of new FAQs to the GC web pages.
-Was really grateful that Larry came back from SANS.
 

(Bruce S.)
 Gnats maintenance:                             (2.0 days)
- Ongoing attempt to set up gnats for the detector hardware group.
 

(Larry)
-Spent time working with Veronica trying to get her up to speed on things.
There is quite a learning curve and it will be some time before she learns
all of the logistical procedures one has to go through on the WEB servers.
-Worked a number of procurement issues. Mainly updating service contracts.
-Returned from the SANS conference. A lot of things are happening in the
computer security world. There are number of things we will have to start
investigating in more detail. Two of them being; the new laws related to
computer usage and security, and home usage. We are working on some steps
for users to apply when using their home computer and that will be on-line
the first of next week.
-Worked on a couple of servers and network hardware.
-Worked a couple of virus issues. Just a reminder that everyone using
MS should keep their virus-scan s/w up to date.
 

(Lazzarini)
- I convened a meeting among General Computing, LDAS, and CDS this week to discuss the network topology we wish to implement across the laboratory sites (with the exception of MIT). The discussion focussed on how to create secure firewall protection at several levels without impeding people's work. We have a rough draft in mind That separates out www services from user directory services from LDAS, from CDS, and from GDS in a way that will allow users who need to access these LIGO  subnets to do so while providing the benefits of programmable protection via a firewall.
 

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>

Q measurements
Two more thin substrates have been measured at Syracuse.
There is a new coating schedule that will be discussed with Mackowski. After his review, it will be implemented.

AdvLIGO PSL
Peter King
I received information from Shally Seraf about the current state of
the 10-W laser (SN #104) and contacted Lightwave about an upgrade. I have
not heard from them as yet.
 

AdvLIGO SUS
Calum Torrie
I spoke with about 10 machine shops in the Los Angeles area and a few in northern California about the possibility of doing work for us. I am waiting to receive brochures and a list of there capabilities.
The design for the mode cleaner suspension is very close to the design for the signal recycling design in GEO 600. I have been having a lot of contact with both Both Mike Plissi and Harald Luck in GEO group and have obtained several engineering drawings and sketches of these suspensions.
This is not a complete set that could be sent to a vendor immediately, there are several reasons for this including the fact that the signal recycling suspension has not yet been installed in GEO. My priority is to work on these in order to obtain a complete set, in English, for our prototype.
Started discussions with Eoin Ellife in Glasgow to model the curvature of the blades we will use in the first prototype.
 

Mark Barton
This week I got the wire-bending parts of my model mostly debugged,
in the sense of producing plausible results that pass assorted
consistency checks. Unfortunately the fix for one bug that I found cause
the recalculation time to go up significantly (about an hour for
producing the matrix elastic constants). However that shouldn't be a
showstopper because the wire-bending terms make little difference to the
normal mode shapes and frequencies, so they can be left out of most runs
and only included to check the thermal noise. And there are several
points where more optimization could probably be done if necessary. I
also reverse-engineered the Bench program to extract the parameters it
uses and the thermal noise estimates it produces and am in the process of
doing detailed comparisons.
 

Q measurements
Helena Armandula
Two more thin substrates have been measured at Syracuse.
There is a new coating schedule that will be discussed with Mackowski. After his review, it will be implemented.
 

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

Charlotte
Study of metal diving boards samples.

Charlotte, Riccardo
Update on creep, please see report
LIGO-T-10123-00-R.
Gathering informations on glassy metals.

Riccardo
we submitted to NIM the actuator paper (after long delay), can find
under
LIGO-P010026-00-D.
Going Nov 4 to 14 to Italy to start Ultra Sound Milling Machine
construction at Faimond

Akiteru @ Hongo
Now we have a tower completed and get started with the Michelson
measurement in a few days.

Alessandro @ Pisa
Participating to the Fermi 100th anniversary celebration.
Happy birthday Enrico

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