Weekly Report for Week Ending March 28, 2002

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  April 1, 2002 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:

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Weiss)

no report

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

LIGO Operations--Administration

A Site Teleconference was held on Thursday, March 28, 2002.  This meeting focused on "Lessons Learned about 24/7 Operations during the Recent E7 Engineering Run," and Financial Status as of the end of February.  The status of the site construction projects was also discussed.

Twenty-four/Seven Operations

We reviewed the successes and problems encountered during 24/7 operations during the recent engineering run (E7) at the end of December and beginning of January.  There were three issues: How many bodies are needed to support 24/7 operations, how those bodies to be divided between scientists and operators, and organizationally how are we supposed to provide these bodies.  It was noted that to some extent resources are disipated on airplanes, etc., during travel.

At Hanford, Fred estimates that one operator and several (2-3) scientists are needed per interferometer per shift for commissioning.  One operator and one scientist is still deemed adequate for operations.

Factoring in the planned ratio of time for operation of the interferometer relative to time spent on other duties, Fred estimates that 20 to 30 scientists (head count) would be required to support commissioning of both interferometers.  Currently there are six plus one open position at Hanford. Need to increase residence of existing staff plus component from other organizations.

A comparable estimate for scientists at Livingston is 10 to 15.  This is thought to be less of a problem given current staffing and the LSU resources.  The current model for operations is two people, a scientist and an operator per shift, and this should still work for operations.  It was noted that there is a shortage of Post Docs world wide.

The problem is different for commissioning and running.  People are working to establish commitments from other organizations for grad students, visiting scientists, LSC members, etc.

Currently the sites do not foresee a problem supporting operations during the first science run (S1) this summer.  For S1 the configuration will freeze weeks ahead of time, and round-the-clock operation will start maybe a week before the actual start. Before that some time will be dedicated to making the machine reliable.

An unknown: what is the likely burden for things like calibrations, repairs, other kinds of support?

Concerning shift lengths, Fred reports that 12 hour shifts did not seem to work well because the staff was much too fatigued at the end of the shift. Ten hour shifts seemed to work, but in actuality reduced performance was noted in the wee hours.  This seems to be a biological fact of life.  Eight hour shifts simplify rotation of personnel through the less desirable shifts.

In the middle of April we will need to have materials to start training additional operators.

Bottom line...need to staff the sites adequately...longer term solution will depend on a better understanding of operations.

Safety

What are the rules for activities that can be performed by one operator, what requires two people, etc.  Bill Tyler, Kaz, and Gary are to look at it. It was noted that the science runs represent the period of safest operation because all noisy activity is curtailed.  On the other hand commissioning provides lots of opportunities to do things wrong.  It is expected that something should be added to the safety procedures about shift rotation concerning acceptable lenghts of shifts, shift rotations, etc.

Kaz noted that having and super "gate keeper" monitoring shift operations is good, a role that Fred performed during E7 of checking the condition of the operators and intervening when necessary. Fred's observation that people are not as good in the wee hours is useful. Have to give people more rest.

Construction

BRUNT is making significant progress on the Storage and Staging Building at Livingston. On punch list 85 percent of interior items have been addressed while about 15 percent of exterior have been fixed, but it must be recognized that the contractor just got the list last Thursday. By next Friday the contractor will be ready for the final punch list for new part of building.

The building is expected to be finished by April 26 with one possible exception: the Fire marshall taking exception to the layout of one men's rest room relative to the needs of handicapped persons. The architect is preparinjg drawings for fixes. The ruling is being appealed, but it is not clear that an appeal is warranted. Fixes fall under the errors and ommissions claus and should be addressed by the architect.

At Hanford, the OSB East Building is behind schedule due to late material deliveries.  However, work-arounds are being considered to catch up.

Finances

Financial Reports have been distributed summarizing the status as of the end of February for Construction, Advanced R&D, old Operations, and new Operations. We expect to review this data in the Executive Committee meeting on Monday, April 1, 2002.

The list of current actions revised to reflect the status of open actions assigned through March 28, 2001 may be found at ACTION LIST.

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

• Assisted the Detector Group (H. Armandula) with packing, shipping, and preparing Customs Documents for four (4) Substrates, Serial Numbers (Type A #7 and # 8: Type B#13 and #14)  valued at $5000, to SMA-VIRGO (Dr.JM Mackowski), Lyon, France. Account Number LIGO.00002  7 NSFLIGO.504800.
• Assisted the Detector Group (C. Torrie) with arranging for the removal and transportion of an Optical Table from the 40M Lab to the Synchrotron Lab. Account Number LIGO.SUS 5.10 NSFLIGO.FY02ON.
• Assisted the LLO (J. Kern) with arranging transportation for one (1) crate containing Theodolite Alignment Bride at the weight of 485lbs, the equipment is being transported to LHO  (D. Cook) via Roadway Express. Account Number LIGO.HAN 2.8.1 NSFLIGO.FY02OF.
• Assisted the Director's Office (D. Tomlinson) with moving arrangements for Osamu Miyakawa  who will be arriving at CALTECH from the University of Tokyo.

>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

• LSC, LSC, LSC!!  Over 100 presentations have been processed and posted to the web.  There are approximately another 30 to 40 presentations still to be submitted.  Began making a list for email reminders to presenters who haven't yet turned in their presentations.
• Met with Albert, Bill, and Ryan to review work completed to date on the LIGO policy manual and orientation process for new hires.  Following discussion, recommended changes were implemented into the forms and lists.
• Met with Dave and Ryan regarding progress on the press kit.
• Participated in a meeting with the Gang of Five where the latest rendition of the policy manual was reviewed.
• Met with Veronica to discuss the current DCC database design.  Also discovered that documents in the database were not appearing in searches.  It appears that there was a malfunction of the links between the DCC database and the web search.  Veronica is eliminating possible human causes before determining if there is a hardware problem.
• Working on several problem documents electronically submitted to the DCC.  Many of them involve numbering inconsistencies, revision discrepancies, and other such difficulties.  Reminder to LIGO staff:  Please make sure that as a minimum, each document submitted has a LIGO number, author's name, and date.  It's surprising how many documents are missing one of more of these essential pieces of information!.

ACTIVITY

• Most of my efforts for the week were focused on processing of LSC documents.
 

03/28/02	Packages	Faxes
In	34	29
Out	11	37

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

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA .

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

• Transferred funds to FY2002 on the following:  Coastal Bridge, Thomas Staffing, W Tyler, George Grant, Great Impressions, Perkins Coie.  Completed change order 6 to John Desmond, and change order 21 to Butler.
• Closed Excel Contractors.
• Changed the buyer's name on a list of PO's in compliance with Purchasing Services' request.

• Submitted Cost Transfers to move expenditures from FP2001 to FY2002 accounts.
• Notified Federal Accounting regarding the amount of funding realignments required to correct Oracle budgets for Construction and Operations.
• Met with Tracey Fraser, Ann Margaret and Ed Chargois regarding LIGO equipment issues.
• Reviewed information to be provided to DCAA by Aylin Yu and informed Aylin of possible error in the data.  Response received from Aylin that they will investigate the discrepancy, however the information will be provided to the DCAA.

 
• Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport

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

• Butler: CO No. 21, adding funds for the projected FY'02 support, was released to Purchasing.
• HYTEC: CO No. 22, adding 2 complete fine actuator systems (for LIGO I SEI), is in Detector group review.
• Wave Precision, Inc.: CO No. 15, definitizing a verbal order for polishing of additional LIGO supplied substrates, is in Detector group review.
• Frequency Devices, Inc.: Purchase Order (PO) for VME-ADC module design development phase (with the goal to demonstrate enhanced noise performance) is in Data Controls group review.

No report--at Livingston for meetings with Construction contractor.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Torres, Lloyd, Tischler)

• Processed the paper work for five (5) new/revised trip.  I have thirteen (13) trips in various stages of completion before ticketing can be done and paper work completed.
• Completed twelve (12) Expense Reports and there are five (5) reports yet to be done.  I'm holding one (1) report requiring a check to close.
• Reconciled sixty-two (62) P-Card items which require extensive telephoning to vendors in order to track down which traveler incurred which charge.
• Worked with Montrose Travel clarifying questions through Tuesday, March 27th.  As of 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, June 28th, LIGO was switched back to ProTravel (see Gary Sanders' e-mail announcing this).  Sent out several e-mails regarding this, fielded numerous phone calls, and handled the switching of several trips over to ProTravel.  Generally picked up the ball wherever things might have been hanging.
• Worked on the preparation and distribution of the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for March 25, 2002.  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.

• Transfer of contracts, blankets and POs to FY02 POETAs are still ongoing, but just about complete.
• Began working with Ruth to close out complete POs with remaining encumbrances.
• Processed the usual invoices for payment. For the total number of incoming invoices received for this period see "Cost Schedule Control Systems" report by Esther Cunningham. Tracked and followed up on invoice problems and reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther the week of March 18.
• Processed the usual requisitions and change orders.
• Continue to monitor contract and blanket order encumbrance and notify task managers when supplements are needed.
• Managed to spend some time on update of PO Log books.
• Jim continues with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

• Scanned several LSC documents and submitted these to the DCC out file.  Captured several LSC reports submitted through the web.  Formatted a GEO report submitted by email.  Also formatted the 7-page annual report from Carleton College.  All reports are now in review.
• Formatted and converted to .pdf the text for the Isola d'Elba workshop.  Passed this along to R. Tischler who submitted through Fastlane.
• Prepared a fax along with another list of parts to order from Digi-Key, also placed an order with Newark.  These components are going onto boards for Noise Voice Coil Driver.
• Updated site trips.  Placed more Pcard orders, chased invoices to reconcile several at once.  Followed up on a delayed order for oil, and returned to a vendor for refund some substandard parts.
• Changes to the LIGO Roster: Ashfaq Khan at Wilson House, and Michael Hall, a visitor to LIGO beginning April 1, and Laura Cadonati, a postdoc at MIT.

• Preparation for meeting to present Press Kit to Gary -Linda and Dave collaborating.
• Meeting for added input regarding work of Gang of Five -Albert, Linda, Bill, Veronica collaborating.
• Meeting with Gang of Five
• P-card issues: reconciling and security codes on cards-Criselda, Muriel.
• Fastlane submission/division approval -2002 Gravitational-Wave Detector Workshop -per Syd Meshkov
• VISA support letter -per Ed Jasnow
• More HR training: time sheets and new visitor set-up -Cindy

Advanced LIGO (Frey)

Progress Period from 03.22 to 03.28

Accomplishments:

• OUT SICK on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• Weekly Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting was not held this week.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal (Highest Priority)
• Met with Irena and discussed with her upcoming major procurements per the detailed estimate and current plan.
• 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.
• PSL - Finished inputting changes to the cost book and schedule.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• AOS - Work on action items continues.  Inputting / reviewing data provided by David S.  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.  Janeen is still executing the update and has committed to provide progress data through 3.29.  Executing outstanding action items and preparing revised meeting minutes.
• SEI - Work on action items continues.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• ISC - Continue to review data.
• 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.
• Met with the TNI group and we discussed how the work plan is currently up in the air pending the resolution information gathered during LSC.
• Per Eric, we will report progress against the current revised work plan pending further changes as information becomes available.
• 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.
• Cost Book Tool.
• ROSTER DATABASE:
• Continue work on my action items providing BK with needed data.
• Attended the "Gang of 5" meeting.
• COST BOOK DATABASE:
• Continue review of changes and updates to procedures / online help.
• DCAA - Work started again on the proposal audit.
• Prepared / revised 2 transmittals for the incurred cost audit.
• 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

• OUT OF THE OFFICE from 4/1 through 4/5.  All email is being forwarded to me and I will check my voice mail regularly.  If you need to reach me immediately, pager 800-470-7089, cell 949-422-2846, fax 800-850-8210.  I will be executing my regular duties while away.
• Next weekly Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting to be scheduled.
• 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 complete estimate and schedule changes.
• AOS - Continue inputting changes to and prepare for next meeting TBD. (New data from David to be input).
• IO - Continue inputting changes to and prepare for next meeting TBD.
• SUS - Continue inputting changes to and prepare for next meeting TBD.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 03.29.02 and  post to site by the 4th.
• SEI - Continue inputting changes and prepare for next meeting TBD.
• COC - Work on action items by Garilynn continues.  Anticipate schedule changes prior to next meeting TBD.
• ISC - Finish review of data.  Input data and change WBS as requested.
• Will issue updated meeting minutes for every subsystem as action items from most recent review are completed.
• Will Continue to update the TNI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 03.29.02 and  post to site by the 3rd.
• Will Continue to update the LASTI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 03.29.02 and  post to site by the 3rd.
• Will continue updating the 40 meter schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 03.29.02 and  post to site by the 3rd.
• Roster Database
• Will continue to work with BK and executing action items.
Cost Book Tool development continues.  (Highest Priority Task)
• Mapping and formatting of OPS cost data for input will now continue with co-operative agreement approved.
• Will continue to work with BK executing action items.
• Will continue to provide support to PL for DCAA audit(s).
• Will continue the development of the Advanced LIGO Project Web Site.
• Will continue the development of the Advanced LIGO Project Controls Guide Book.

I have started to assemble a quarterly report for the Construction effort.  The goal remains to prepare a short report comparable to the old Monthly Reports without bothering the task managers.

The following change requests have been submitted:
 

Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection.

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

• Took care of miscellaneous accounting details.
• Attended several meetings related to HR duties.
• Various personnel/payroll /HR related work.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

No report this week.
 

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)

-------------------
FACILITIES
-------------------
The new building construction progressed well this week. Four different
trades were working at the same time. Trying to make up for some of the
lost time due to late material delivery.

The Staging building columns are being beefed up to accept a five ton crane.

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)

I've been learning the administrative software for the Laser Safety Interlock system, and now understand the routine operations necessary to manage day to day issues.  Fabricated and installed 5 new beam dumps for the upper periscope mirrors on ISCT 1, 3 and 4. Received and am assembling components for the ITM integrating scatterometers. Also working on a spatial system as well as a 2-omega detector. (Jonathan Kern)

CDS: Installed new slider to enable the removal of the DC offset from the MC2 control signal by adjusting the mode cleaner path length with MC1. Ordered 4 Pentek 6102's. Installed the tidal servo summing module and the seismic feed-forward safety. Ordered spare anti-aliasing filters. Completed the testing of the new shielded cables in 1X8(ASC). Initial noise plots show a decrease in 60Hz noise by a factor of 10.Replaced blown up photo diode on ITMX. (Rus Wooley)

LLO VIDEO SERVER for the virtual control room is online and is accessible through the CDS web page. Created a javascript - epics interface to bring up the camera buttons on the web page for users of the Video Web page to dynamically select cameras. The interface creates an medm screen type feel for selecting the cameras replicating the video medm screen on CDS machines. Currently the buttons are inactivated by the Epics Security installed. Will investigate on how to provide secure camera access before activating the buttons.Virtual Private network was installed both at LLO and LHO and tested. Found we cannot have same subnets on both sides of the VPN tunnel. VPN tunnel cannot have UDP broadcasts through it. This is a big show stopper as Channel Access Clients (remote machines) cannot get their UDP broadcasts on to the CDS LAN at the observatories. In the mean time, the VPN box broke and I am working with the tech support to get it fixed. More testing needs to be done. Dave and I are looking at other possibilities for secure tunnelling.

Control3 was rebooted and the nfs mount was corrupted. Fixed the corrupted disk and mounted it on control3.
Wrote a perl script for checking syntax on ASC Coefficient files. Working on Epics Channel Access security. Installed a supervisor processor. Loaded the security databases. Loaded a security database on the PEM processor for testing. Found some problems with permitting access from outside. Changed the processor and created medm screens to permit and deny access to gateway and gdssmt machines from operator stations. We will plan on migrating security database to all processors. (Chethan Parameswariah)

Worked on optimizing the code for the LIGO Online Data Client. Began to study the plot library code that will allow plotting capability by the Online Data Client. Will alter power supply schematic for the end station microphones so
that we can get them powered up by the end of next week. (Doug Lormand)
 

Detector/Technical Support (Whitcomb, Coyne)

See also the daily electronic logs for the installation and commissioning activities:
Hanford Detector Log
Livingston Detector Log

1.1 LHO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

2km Commissioning

The arm cavity visibility was measured using the RF modulation, rather than the DC reflected power (which has a strong dependence on alignment and beam aperturing effects). Perfect anti-resonance of the RF sidebands at f_m in the locked arm cavity coincide with resonance of the 2*f_m. Based on measuring the minimum in the 2*f_m reflected signal, an upper limit of 3% was put on the cavity visibility. DC reflected power measurements had shown cavity visibilities as high as 7% in the Y arm, so there is an inconsistency in the measured arm cavity losses.

After replacing a faulty fast photodiode used to detect the Spob signal, the 2k ifo returned to good locking. Since then we have been working on understanding the excess noise being generated in the suspension controller in the presence of rather low level signals. It was found that the excess noise is strongly dependent on the ASC biases applied to the coils. Some hopeful electronics modifications have not yet given fully understandable results, though we may have some inadvertent improvement.

4 km Commissioning

1.2LLO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

Commissioning

The cleanup of the EMI and RFI has begun with the installation of shielded ribbon cables in the ASC system. We are doing this iteratively by observing the noise after each major change and then going on to the next change. The LSC wiring will be shielded in the next iteration.

NOISE: The strain sensitivity since the E7 run has improved by almost a factor of 3 at frequencies above 700 Hz and has a good chance of being improved further as we learn how to operate the recycled interferometer at higher power and also allow more light to be incident on the photodetectors. The noise at 100 Hz has not changed despite a significant effort which includes: removal of noisy D/A converters, application of two stages of de-whitening, cleanup of the bad grounding and more adequate buffering of the signals to avoid ground loops, improved application of the common mode servo and improved filtering of the optical levers as well as centering of the beams in the levers to balance against amplitude noise in the lasers. There may have been a significant discovery at Hanford in the noise mixing of the coil driver due to non-linearity in the power stage. Measurements at Livingston indicate that the amplifiers have harmonic and intermodulation distortion at levels consistent with their specification and are, at least at our current level of sensitivity, not responsible for the noise at 100 Hz.

WAVEFRONT SENSORS: The antisymmetric wavefront sensor (WFS1) has been brought on-line and is now able to control the alignment against differential motions of the long arm cavity optic axes. The wavefront sensor still has significant inhomogeneities between quadrants and will therefore be alignment sensitive. The major improvement has been reduction of vignetting in the electro-optic shutters. The next steps are to bring more wavefront sensors into operation, however it would be advantageous to push harder on the optical redesign being planned for this subsystem.

PIER TRANSFER FUNCTION MEASUREMENT: An isolation system support pier on one of the ITM was unloaded by using the air bearing while under vacuum to make measurements of the beam compliance. The operation was followed on the optical lever and showed little if any change in the ITM alignment. This bodes well for attempts to install the feedback system to reduce the seismic motion at Livingston.

DATA VISUALIZATION: Two different versions of histogram programs are now beginning to operate. These will help in diagnosing glitches and give an important different cut at understanding the interferometer than power spectrum methods that have been the mainstay of the commissioning. During the next few weeks the programs will be improved to become a standard display for the operators.
 

GENERAL COMMENT ON OPERATIONS: The 4 km at Livingston has currently been blessed with reasonably short acquisition times and, when the seismic noise is small as at night, by robust operation. One could attribute this to skill and care in execution but it would be safer to attribute it to luck. This becomes evident when one wants to change experiment parameters such as increasing the power and it becomes difficult to acquire. We will ask the operators to begin systematically exploring the range of the parameter space around the mean for acquisition.

2.0 OtherEngineering and Scientific Activities

2.1 Design/Analysis/Fab

Seismic Retrofit Project

Changes to the interfaces between the hydraulic actuator and the spring/actuator assembly are being incorporated into the design (based on the welded version of the hydraulic actuator). Quotes are pending on the large weldment. All small parts are already in fabrication; A few may need to be re-machined to accommodate the changes for the new smaller, welded actuator version.

A spare HAM bellows will be shipped to MIT for stiffness testing (apparently only the BSC was stiffness tested in the development program). Acoustic transmission tests will also be conducted.

Hydraulic External Pre-Isolation (HEPI)
The design of a smaller, welded version of the hydraulic actuator is nearly been completed. We have decided to go forward with this version for the LASTI prototypes rather than the bolted version.

Tests on new nozzles for the outflow ports in the hydraulic servo valve are pending from the shop.

All components have been received for assembly of the pump station. Detailed layouts are in process. The transmission line and load are being soldered/assembled. The balance of the pump station will be assembled/soldered in the next couple of weeks. In the interest of keeping to schedule and getting some experience with the layout & assembly, there are a number of connections with threads wetted by the fluid (mineral oil or glycol). The plan is to retrofit these joints later in the prototype program if/as feasible.

Electro-Magnetic External Pre-Isolator (MEPI)
Received shipment of the BEI linear electro-magnetic motor for bench testing. The unit was not properly secured in shipment and suffered some damage to the magnets, but is still useful for testing.

Internal Stack Damping

Optical Modeling

Optics Testing

PSL

A new version of the common mode tidal correction sequencer has been written.  In testing at LLO last night, the sequencer correctly picked up when the interferometer was locked and halted when the interferometer dropped out of lock, as well as when the engage/disable button was activated.

A granite slab, ordered to help in the fabrication of optically contacted pre-modecleaners, has arrived.

Lee Cardenas
New mode matching is in progress in order to bring laser beam into the reference cavity.

Rich Abbott, Flavio Nocera
Intensity servo design is complete for the inner loop including dynamic AC coupling (auto-zero).  Flavio is adding the hooks to allow analysis of our best effort on the outer loop as well.  Ben is completing his revised DCPD to be compatible with the auto zero function.

LSC/ASC/DSC

Jay Heefner
The schematics for the differential driver and receiver boards for the links between the penteks and the Euro card crates are complete and have been sent around for final comments. Board layout should begin next week.

Advanced LIGO DAC

EO Shutter Controller

Antialiasing Filter Chassis

Microseismic and Tidal Correction

DMT

I also worked with Ed Daw on installing the GDS software tree on alvar (the linux DMT node at LLO). Ed has just upgraded the operating system to RedHat 7.2 which made it possible to install and run the new GDS tree.

Szabi Marka
We took advantage of the "down time" following the LSC meeting and completed the slightly invasive maintenance and upgrade tasks on our list. We installed new and hopefully more secure version of Zlib and OpenSLL libraries on SAND, which were mirrored to Delaronde. We installed the new release (v3.1p1) of OpenSSH, which will be the primary ssh for Delaronde. The bootable image of the system disk was also transferred to the spare backup disk. I also improved the DMT monitor web output sofware (based on the LSC feedback) and now it can handle histograms.

40m Bake Ovens

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• Optics (Billingsley, Armandula):
• We have now received all the mode cleaner optics: MCCM01 (curved mirror, no spare!), MCFM01, MCFM02, MCFM03 (2 flat mirrors plus spare). MCCM01 radius of curvature is out of tolerance, according to GariLynn's measurement procedure, but it is still usable.
• Helena: Checked the coated surface of MCCM01 for defects. A 0.42mm coating defect can be seen at ~8mm from the center (out of the central 10mm). Another coating defect 0.70mm in size is seen at 22mm from the center.
• Helena: Inspected the coatings on the MCFM's. The coating on MCFM01 looks very clean, however, the surface shows numerous fine sleeks. By previous experience I do not think these defects could be seen at 1064 nm, so, I think this should be the optic to be used first. MCFM02 has a coating defect like a piece of lint under the coating looks like a line ~3mm long x ~0,25mm wide and is about 4mm from the center. MCFM03 has also a small coating defect ~0.52mm at about 8mm from the center.
• We'll keep MCFM02 as a spare. Since it is a flat mirror, and requires damping only, we may be able to use it (if necessary) by sending the beem through away from the center.
• These optics are now ready to be suspended!
• CSIRO has finished polishing our PRM's, SRM + spare, and BS + spare. GariLynn has asked them to ship these to us.
• CSIRO is having difficulty meeting the specs for the 5" test masses, outside of the central 30 mm diameter. It turns out that these specs were overly stringent, so Gari will loosen them. We expect the test masses to be complete within the month.
• As soon as the polished core optics are received, GariLynn is ready to send them off to REO for coating. We can hope to have them back and ready for suspending by summer, so we'll try to get Betsy back by late summer or early fall.
• Suspensions (Romie):
• Todd Etzel has completed the osems for the 3 small suspensions, and they were sent to LHO and received friday. Stan signed off on the RGA this afternoon.
• Helena and I assembled the mechanical parts under the flow hood in the So. Annex and checked that all parts were there along with other supplies.
• Helena and I have queued parts for assembly. We'll clean and air bake fixtures tomorrow. The counterbored, silver-plated screws for safety stops were cleaned and baked last week; they were the last mechanical parts to be baked.
• Betsy Bland will arrive at Caltech April 2. She has sent an 85 lb. army-green case down to Caltech which has all the equipment and supplies we'll need for the SOS jobs. This has been received and is being delivered to the 40m lab.
• Betsy will be bringing the stand-alone suspension controller from Richard McCarthy.
• We await SOS tower "slit" alignment targets from Dave Ottaway (MIT).
• Before Betsy's arrival Tuesday afternoon we will also assemble magnet/standoff assemblies.
• Bob will ask Steve Vass to have the cleaning person clean the So. Annex before Monday.
• All systems go for suspending the 3 mode cleaner SOS's in the first 2 weeks of April!
• Suspension Controllers & other CDS (Ben Abbott):
• I have finished the video, illuminator, and shutter wiring diagrams for the 40m lab except for labeling the components that will go into the new short racks because I'm not yet sure where these will end up, so I don't know how to label them.
• I have completed the epics databases for the suspension controls. They need a final check over, but should be about right.
• I am in the process of making a satellite box for use next week in damping the mode cleaner optics during hanging.
• I am redesigning the ISS DC photodiode per new information coming to me from Flavio Nocera. The design will be finalized in the next day or two, and should go to the boardhouse sometime next week.
• I have done an inventory of the parts that we will need for the mode cleaner controls, and found that the vast majority of needed components are in hand, the remainder are on track, and should be arriving shortly.
• Bob is completing the DC voltage distribution for the suspension controller racks cross-connects.
• Jay will get the mode cleaner control rack cross-connect wiring to Bob Taylor, who will build it.
• Ben and Bob are gearing up for making all the cables for the suspensions and mode cleaner controls.
• Jay is working on redesigning the reflected memory layout for the 40m, and needs some of Rolf's time.
• Jay warns us that getting all the software required for the mode cleaner (front end, DAQS, GDS, etc) requires significant time from Jay and Rolf, which may not be available in the next month due to pressures from "higher-priority items". This may indeed make it difficult to be able to commission the system in the next month! A big worry.
• Optical Layout (Smith):
• IO PERISCOPE: The periscope is completed, and the remaining mounting hardware and alignment fixture will be in house by 3/29/02. A modification will be made to the PZT steering mirror mount spacer to stiffen the mounting to the periscope. The Uniblitz shutter mount will be modified to isolate electrically the housing from the periscope body. Mike and Ken Mailand will test the mechanical resonances of the periscope, and then deliver it to the 40m lab.
• IO OPTICAL TRAIN: The mounting post for the first IO PZT steering mirror and the modified 2 in mirror mount are due to be received by 3/29. A 95% R beam splitter-turning mirror and optical mount for the intensity stabilization detector on the PSL table, with an associated 5% T beam splitter attenuator with a beam dump, will be ordered. Mirrors for the in-vacuum input and output modecleaner optical trains will be ordered.
• IMC_R and IMC_T OPTICAL TRAIN: The lens values for transforming the spot sizes on the various photodetectors in the IMC_R and IMC_T optical train will be calculated and ordered.
• ILLUMINATOR: Design modifications are pending. A 20W illuminator was received and will be evaluated prior to completing the design.
• PARTS ORDER: The IO, IMC_R and IMC_T parts have been received from all vendors except for the following items: five 1 inch optical mounts from Newport; the Dynamic Light mirror mounts for inside the IFO are in process.
• PSL (Ugolini, Vass, Abbott B., Abbott R.,): The PSL has been running continuously, with the PMC in lock, for the last few weeks while work has gone on elsewhere.
• Facilities (Vass):
• A portable HEPA filter, ordered by Ben, was received and is now operating in the lab. It doesn't have much impact on the overall particle count in the lab, but will help reduce it in the vicinity of the chambers when they are open for installation.
• Steve Vass has order two larger HEPA filters, as well as a frame for mounting it overhead, at the entrances to chambers that are open for installation. Call it a poor-man's portable clean room (we are too cramped to make it a real portable clean room by surrounding the area with a plastic enclosure).
• Caltech HVAC estimates $92K to upgrade our air system to reduce the particle count in the lab. This seems outrageously expensive. For the time being, we will try working with portable HEPA filters, as described above; this is 2 orders of magnitude cheaper, and might even do a better job.
• We still, however, must get better AC in the control room. Caltech HVAC estimates $15K to upgrade the AC in that room. Again, outrageous. We could put in a wall unit for an order of magnitude less $$. BUT it might generate acoustic noise, or electronic noise as it cycles on and off. We need advice on this...
• Vacuum envelope (Jones, Vass):
• Steve and Larry have installed the most of the output optic chamber (OOC) seismic stack. The top plate (optical table) could not be installed because the holes for the earthquake stop rods were in the wrong place: the OOC is 180degrees rotated with respect to the input optic chamber, but the top plate was built for the latter, not the former. The plate has been re-machined. Bob Taylor cleaned it, and it is now being vacuum baked in our new bake oven E. It will be installed on Monday.
• Steve and Larry installed the cables in the OOC, but one cable has a bent pin. It will be replaced in the next day or 2.
• Early next week, Steve will pump the 40m down again, to gauge the effect of the new seismic stack and cables.
• Next month, when we install the new mode cleaner suspensions and folding optics, we'll also install the new optical viewports. This will complete all the mods to the vacuum envelope (until we're ready to install the rest of the interferometer and cabling, maybe in 6-9 months).
• South Annex Bake Ovens (Taylor, Cardenas):
• Bake oven #E is now fully commissioned. In its first 2 test pumpdowns, the RGA scan was far from super-clean. Adjustments were made to the heating tape locations, and the inside was wiped clean. The scans are steadily improving. It is hoped that the current bake will render it up to spec.
• Bake oven #E is currently being used to vacuum bake the output optic chamber seismic stack top plate (see above). It went in around noon of Wednesday for a 2 day bake, and it will cool down over the weekend.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

no report

LASTI (Zucker)

LASTI (MacInnis, Mason, Mittleman, Ottaway, Rollins, Shoemaker, Zucker)
=======================================================================
 

VACUUM ENVELOPE:
 

Myron removed the internal vibration sensors and cabling, replaced
the BSC door and pumped the vacuum system down since there was a 2
week hiatus in EPI vibration testing (LSC meeting and spring break).
Pumping and instrumentation system performed well as usual.
 

EXTERNAL SEISMIC PRE-ISOLATORS:
 

Initial transfer function results from in situ BSC stack
characterization were reviewed with Joe Giaime at LLO and appear good
in quality. Although the EM shakers did not provide enough drive to
obtain coherence over a wide frequency band when oriented in the
vertical direction, the Cambridge ground noise provided plenty of
energy by itself and the transfer functions look very clean.  Next week
when people are back we will re-orient the shakers horizontally, vent
and reinstall the sensors, and complete the suite of tests.
 

Stanford submitted substantial modifications to the hydraulic piston
design (e.g., size reduction, welded vs. bolted assembly) .  Ken
updated the corresponding structural drawings and is now traveling to
vendors to update their drawing packages.
 

We received a BEI electromagnetic actuator from Caltech with some
damage to the magnet.  DHS succeeded in cleaning most of the magnetic
particles from the gap with sticky tape and will proceed to test it
as-is; revised shipping procedures have been developed and shared with
the team.
 

DHS and Ken working on preparation of documents for the upcoming
design review (4/12).
 

PSL (Ottaway and Rollins)
 

No progress as folks were out of town.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

NO REPORT

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

From Peter King:
AdLIGO PSL

The spare laser cable set from LLO was shipped to Stanford, on loan.
Should an emergency arise at LLO, Stanford is obligated to return the
cables overnight.

From Rich Abbott
Sent out the chassis and ordered all the parts for the +/- 10 amp voice coil drivers.  PCBs are in house and being stuffed.  Chassis will take 3 weeks.

Took in the verbal requirements for the inductive position sensor interface electronics, the hydraulic pump servo, and the L4C interface electronics.  These designs will begin immediately.
 

From: Peter Fritschel <pf@ligo.mit.edu>

Presented our trade-study of the low-frequency cutoff for the advanced
LIGO interferometer at the LSC meeting. The write-up has been submitted to
the DCC under T020034-01.pdf. The basic recommendation is that the test
mass suspension's highest vertical mode be 12 Hz or lower. This is higher
than the heretofore target of below 10 Hz. The recommended change is
driven by a combination of: the lack of any clear impact on source
detection; the possibility of recovering the spectral region around the
vertical mode by line removal from the data stream; technical and
performance risks in the suspension design associated with a low vertical
mode; the real possibility that the spectral region below ~15 Hz will be
obscured anyway by gravitational gradient noise.
 

From: Mark Barton <mbarton@ligo.caltech.edu>

    This week I reworked the provisions for blades in my quad model to
allow the user to specify the elasticity of a blade explicitly as a list
of parameters rather than implicitly as a hand-crafted potential term.
This had previously been done for the wires and makes it easy for the
user to specify a system and easier for me to implement the dissipation
dilution. In the process I allowed for a slightly more general blade
model with optional crosscouplings. The new blade code produces exactly
the same results as the old and is only marginally slower, despite the
added generality. I then implemented the corrected calculation of damping
and thermal noise incorporating dissipation dilution. This has not been
fully validated but is at the point of running without obvious errors.
 

From: Janeen Hazel Romie <romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu>

40m Suspensions
The osems for the 3 small suspensions were sent to LHO and received friday. Stan signed off on the RGA this afternoon. Helena and I have queued parts for assembly. We'll clean and air bake fixtures tomorrow. Before Betsy's arrival Tuesday afternoon we will also assemble magnet/standoff assemblies. Bob will ask Steve Vass to have the cleaning person clean the So. Annex before Monday.
AdLIGO Suspensions
Waiting for a quote for the LED and photodiode circuit boards. Continuing parts designs and assembly drawing of MC suspension. Norna Robertson will be here on Monday, April 1st to work with us for a month.

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

Advanced LIGO Coatings

I circulated a "near future" coating plan to evaluate mechanical loss in coatings with the information gathered at the LSC meeting and at the telecon we had with J.M. Mackowski during his visit at Caltech.

As it stands now the next coating runs will be as follows:

SMA/VIRGO
Coat 2 thin, 2 thick substrates with 30 layers of Ta2O5/SiO2 (1/8 - 3/8 wave thickness)
The substrates have been shipped to be able to get them coated before the next run of VIRGO mirrors.

MLD
Coat 2 thin, 2 thick substrates with Nb2O5/SiO2 to obtain maximum reflectivity at 1064nm.
The parts are in Oregon. One thick substrate has also been shipped as control to get just annealed with the 4 coated ones.
MLD will make interferometric measurements after coating and after annealing to assess changes.

I'll get quotes for the next MLD runs:
1)      A Nb2O5 / Al2O3 coating run for maximum reflectivity @ 1064nm on 2 thick and 2 thin substrates
and
2)      An Al2O3/SiO2 coating run for maximum reflectivity @ 1064nm on 2 thick and 2 thin substrates
 

On these runs I will include 1"dia. substrates to evaluate coating absorption.
 

From: ctorrie <ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>

Suspensions

We now have a complete set of drawings for the wire fixtures and jigs for the LIGO Mode cleaner suspension. This includes several assembly drawings.

Janeen and I have been working on various sub-assemblies for this suspension using SOLIDWORKS.

Janeen and I have been working on preparing the lab area, including making some posters, for the visiting Students on Friday. I am now onto my project in my weekly machine shop class.

For Thomas I have been working on a drawing information sheet for the LIGO Mode Cleaner suspension

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