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The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday October 21, 2002 will be:
(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)
Open meeting 10:30 - 11:30
Executive Committee only 11:30 - noon
Topics:
Special Items: NSF review prep.
See:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021017-4.html
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Revised LIGO Lab Publication Approval Process policy is now located at:
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/docs/L/L950002-02/L950002-02.pdf
AND
LIGO M020395-00-M - The S2 Schedule
Our prior memorandum LIGO M010216-A-M of
August 2001 laid out the strategy
for transition from commissioning to scientific
operations, and
interleaving these operational modes. Our
memo LIGO M020136-A-M of 12 March
2002 defined the progression of early scientific
running in additional
detail and created a basis for planning
the important data analysis and
interferometer commissioning and development
work between the scientific
running periods. These memos defined the
schedules for the E7 and S1 runs
and pointed towards the S2 and S3 runs.
We have just completed a very successful
S1 run. Analysis of the data from
this run and further interferometer commissioning
and modification is
underway. A plan for commissioning work
prior to S2 has been developed and
it is being implemented. The LSC has just
held an important teleconference
to display the status of the data analysis
effort with the S1 data and to
define the program leading to reports of
the results near the end of the year.
The S1 run also involved coincidence running
with the GEO 600
interferometer and the TAMA300 detector.
This coincidence running also
promises additional results and early experience
in running a network of
detectors across the globe. We have consulted
with our partners in these
efforts, as well, regarding accomplishments
and plans for the future.
Our overarching mission is to accomplish
the scientific reach planned for
the LIGO interferometer system and to exploit
the system, with the LSC, to
accomplish the science. Our approach has
been defined in the memos listed
above. The next step is the S2 run. Following
the S2 run we have a plan for
additional commissioning including the
important installation of the
Livingston seismic preisolation system.
An extended S3 run will follow that
commissioning interval, marking the beginning
of true search running.
Given that scientific analysis should be
completed near the end of the year
and that the planned commissioning should
be accomplished in January,
permitting an interferometer configuration
freeze prior to S2, we set 8:00
am Pacific time February 14, 2003 to initiate
S2. Given our goal for
increased sensitivity, search volume and
time in search for each
progressive run, and the long preisolation
commissioning period following
S2, we plan S2 to last approximately 8
weeks with completion at 8 am
Pacific time on April 14. With anticipated
improvements in strain
sensitivity and this duration, S2 will
provide an opportunity to set very
significant upper limits on sources.
With the planned preisolation commissioning
after S2, we anticipate
initiating S3 in autumn 2003.
Gary Sanders and Barry Barish
GEO message:
Currently the GEO600 detector is at an advanced
stage of commissioning. The
first operation of the power-recycled Michelson
interferometer for two
weeks in January 2002 was followed by an
optimization period in which the
sensitivity of the detector was improved
by more than an order of
magnitude. Furthermore the reliability
of the detector was improved
substantially which lead to a duty cycle
of more than 98% in the second
two-week test operation of the detector
in August/September 2002.
Detector and environmental data were acquired
in the January as well as in
the Aug/Sep run and used in the Detector
Characterization Group to get a
better understanding of the interferometer
and to improve the different
detector subsystems.
Both data taking periods were arranged to
coincide with the LIGO
engineering run E7 and the LIGO/LSC first
science run S1 to allow for a
common data analysis effort within the
LSC upper limit groups. The long
collaboration between GEO and LIGO scientist
within the LSC data analysis
groups on source modeling and search code
development is now extended by a
common data analysis effort and is expected
to lead to first common science
publications in Early 2003.
During the Aug/Sep run GEO600 was not operating
in its final optical
configuration. A major commissioning step
towards a dual-recycled
interferometer is currently in progress.
Furthermore two of the main
interferometer mirrors and the beam splitter
have to be replaced by the
final high-quality optics on fused silica
suspensions. The conversion to a
dual recycled detector and the installation
of the final optics is
scheduled to be finished by the end of
2002.
An intense optimization period will start
early next year with the goal to
be ready for a third data taking period
in coincidence with the LIGO / LSC
science run S2. This run was scheduled
by LIGO / LSC in consultation with
GEO to start 8:00 am Pacific time February
14, 2003 and end at 8 am Pacific
time on April 14. The goal of this optimization
period is to achieve a
sensitivity and a duty cycle which allows
GEO600 to make a valuable
contribution to the S2 science result of
the LSC data analysis.
no report
LIGO Operations--Administration
There was no site teleconference held on Thursday, October 17, 2002.
The list of current actions revised to reflect
the status of open actions assigned through October 10, 2002 may be found
at ACTION
LIST.
From: Ed Chargois <chargois_e@ligo.caltech.edu>
>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
ACTIVITY
| For Week Ending
10/17/02 |
Packages | Faxes |
| In | 38 | 40 |
| Out | 10 | 33 |
From: Esther Cunningham <esther@ligo.caltech.edu>
Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA .
From: "Brambila, Ruth" <Ruth.Brambila@caltech.edu>
From: irena@ligo.caltech.edu (Irena Petrac)
CONSTRUCTION:
SUPPORT (Baldon, Torres, Lloyd, Tischler)
>Irene Baldon
I will be attending the Primavera User's Conference at San Diego on Monday and Tuesday (21 and 22 of Oct.)
Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal (Highest Priority)
Project Web Site for posting schedule and progress related data continues to be updated with the latest and greatest.
A fairly clean draft of the Quarterly Status Report for the LIGO Construction Project for the end of August 2002 has been prepared, and a pointer has been distributed to the Executive Committee for review and comment as needed. Dave Beckett is doing a final edit. I will distribute it to the NSF tomorrow in time to support the NSF Review.
The following change request was considered during the
Executive VCommittee Meeting on August 14, 2002:
| CR-020016 | WBS 1.1.4 | Landscaping for Hanford Laboratory Building | O. Matherny |
The request is for $60,000 for irrigation, erosion protection, and landscaping around the new Laboratory building at Hanford. The amount requested is less than the amount that was held for this purpose on the liens list for LIGO Construction. The request was approved. Minutes of the meeting have been distributed (LIGO-M020393-00-P).
From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu>
No report this week.
Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (compiled
by F. Raab)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(see ilog for details - if it's not in the ilog, it didn't happen...)
Alex is up this week working with Dave Barker on programming for DSCs
and solving EDCU problems. Nergis and Peter Fritschel were up working on
4K commissioning.
2K IFO (H2)
-----------
Some problems reported last week concerning biases on the RM were traced
to hardware problem (bent pin) and fixed. In the process an oscillation
was discovered and traced down to a lack-of-revision problem and fixed.
Other boards are being checked for this rev' issue. Also found in checking
modules was a bad connector on the BS module that has been repaired.
4K IFO (H1)
-----------
Optical lever filtering was customized to the seismic conditions at
Hanford, eliminating a resonant gain stage and changing filtering and gains.
This and a number of other fixes (detailed in e-log) allowed an improvement
to the noise equivalent strain for this interferometer, resulting in a
broad plateau at approximately 7e-21 /rHz from about 150-800Hz. This is
a very significant improvement at low frequencies relative to S1. We also
see that we are near dark noise near 1 kHz, so we need to start pushing
the light level up in the near future, although this is not the problem
in the newly exposed plateau.
Facilities
------------
We saw a number of loss of lock events in S1 that were coupled to a
large vibration event at the mid-x station. There seemed to be some correlation
with a diurnal cycle. Robert Schofield was able to use PEM sensors after
S1 to narrow down the location of the vibration source, eventually indicating
it came from an LN2 dewar outside Xmid. Otto and John have found what appears
to be the smoking gun - a loose nut securing the Dewar to ground. The current
belief is that temperature changes cause slippage of the dewar footing,
accompanied by a big bang. John Worden is tracking down the proper tensioniung
specs on these tie-down bolts.
Interferometer: The interferometer is now locking again after installation
of the digital suspensions. There are many parameters that now must be
tuned, but this is an important step in implementing the new system.
I've been working with Gaby and Andri on measuring the cross talk in
WFS segments and doing end to end test of electronics chain. In parallel
I continue working on configuration tool to restore and modify the setting
for a group of channels. I am trying to read values from channels that
are read only to test the code. (Valera.)
CDS: Rolf is visiting LLO from Tuesday to Friday. Working with Rolf
on updating the DSC, LSC and ASC code. the change in the DAQ memory map
to accomodate the MC2_L signal requires to recompile the whole world. We
will also be doing timimg tests either today or tommorrow. I have installed
Solaris 9 on the new Sun Blade 2000's and will be swaping two of the machines
in the control room with these.
Implemented Tidal Servo for Livingston site. The code needed to be split
into two controllers because of the magnitude of the code size. Updated
the CVS repository for the new DSC code. Mode Cleaner AutoLocker has been
implemented. Work in progress on CVS updates and MC enhancements. (Chethan,
Ash)
HEPI / LASTI The first welded actuator was delivered on Tuesday to Stanford
for characterization. We're in the process if installing it in the test
stand and routing the hydraulic and control systems. Minor issues have
appeared with some of the bleed valves but we've been able to fix those
by reworking the parts in the machine shop. We expect to run the system
later today or Thursday. The leakages reported last week in this unit have
been repaired by rewelding some parts, and Loctite. This would not be appropriate
for LIGO's clean installation but will suffice for testing. I think we've
identified the cause of the leaks reported last week, and much advice was
sought within the project (Sibley, Worden, Jones, Coyne, Weiss) as well
as the bellows manufacturer. Best guess is that we caused the leak by an
overly aggressive attempt to make sure the bellows had a solid weld. I'm
now using a different sequencing of our welding to minimize the heat buildup,
and permit more time for cooling prior to initiating the next pass. The
second actuator is being assembled this week using the revised procedure.
(Kern)
ETF / Advanced LIGO pod bases: Bases and covers both suffer from serious
manufacturing errors that would ordinarily demand remanufacture, except
that the design is in error and building to print results in interference
with the actuator magnet. On top of this, last weekend we discovered an
entirely new set of problems, with the locking mechanism. Mostly manufacturing
deficiencies from the same shop that messed up the pod base and cover.
All we have is a bunch of parts that cannot be reworked; everything needs
to be remachined. Joe G, Gerry and I stewed over this and have a quick
fix that will at least let us get on with ETF testing. That is, for the
moment we junk the idea of a pod. We'll reassemble the GS-13s in their
factory cans and fabricate a base plate of a shallow vee design which the
cylindrical body of the GS-13 will sit in, and clamp it in position with
a band clamp. Gerry points out that although we won't have the ability
to remotely cage the GS-13, we can clock the cylinder so that the factory
screw is easily accessible for manual operation. I have brought a GS-13
to Stanford with me, and will field fit the unit before cutting any more
metal. (Kern)
LDAS admin: 1) Sent pre S1 injection data to Caltech; 2) Translating
frames with excitation data into a format that LDAS can read so that calibration
analysis can be performed. About half of this data is now available for
LDAS jobs. 3) Replaced failed T3 disk. Discovered that 4 batteries need
to be replaced on T3.
LDAS data analysis: 1) Debugging waveDSO; 2) Wrote a first approximation
of an LDAS script for calibration analysis for Gaby. (Igor)
LDAS Support: Verified that the output from the script that I wrote
last week is correct. Started working on documentation for the setup/installation
of the VPNs for all four sites. I will be installing the software on one
of the ASA boxes here to verify that the documentation is correct. (Shannon
Roddy)
GC: Spent all of Monday testing and terminating network cables in the new building. Began evaluating some anti-virus software for our mail server. This will also provide some anti-spam functions. Worked a little more with the SolSoft software for the PIX firewalls. Locked out some old unused accounts. Some valid accounts were locked for unknown reasons. This was discovered when I did a listing of accounts that were locked. This was not a result of the additional accounts that I had locked on that day. (Shannon Roddy)
no report
This week at the TNI we opened the vacuum chamber and began trying to
improve our noise floor by modifying the optical layout. On Seiji's
suggestion, we removed two lenses that collimate our output beams,
introduced over the summer. There was the suspicion, based on a similar
experience at TAMA, that these lenses were contributing to our noise
floor.
We also removed the broadband Pockels cell inside the chamber,
originally intended to provide us with an additional method for
calibration. We discovered over the summer that the response of this
Pockels cell can deviate wildly from the manufacturer's spec, so it
did
not provide us a reliable calibration. Given this, and the fact that
we
confirmed our original calibration via the laser's PZT, we felt that
there was no need to keep the broadband Pockels cell inside the chamber.
Finally, we realigned the instrument to maximize the visibility
(transmission) of the arm cavities, achieving almost exactly 67%
visibility in both cavities. The mode cleaner now has about 85%
visibility.
no report
Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
E2E Physics meeting
-------------------------
Luca (from LHO) reported about Common mode servo for H1, aspects of
the
improved sensitivity curve, optical lever and wave-front-sensor. He
will
supply control loop parameters of the mode cleaner to Matt who will
use
those in SimLIGO. Virginio talked about his plan to measure angular
noise
spectra with one arm locked and with different angular offsets in mirror.
SimLIGO
---------
(Matt) Worked on SimLIGO wave-front-sensors, which now operate in closed
loop to stabilize the ETMs, ITMs and RM in both pitch and yaw.
The quad's
used for BS and MMT3 alignment are not yet functioning, so the BS
still relies on optical lever servos. (MMT3 is not yet present
in SimLIGO.)
Dynamics of FP tilt
-----------------------
(Hiro) Dynamics of a cavity with rotating mirror was calculated analytically.
e2e is used to understand the dynamics more throughly, together
with the validation of the e2e implementation of the modal model.
This topics was discussed with Bill Kells about the LIGO data and
possible application for the measurements of the optical quantity.
Code development and maintenance
----------------------------------
(Biplab) After recent changes in summation cavity pitch-yaw misalignment
calculations, a new problem was found when mismatch is ON. That problem
is
traced out and some conditional statements in code are changed to ensure
that
the mismatch matrices are updated properly, if needed.
(Hiro) Code developments went on to support (features and speed) the
SimLIGO package and to match with the new feature of alfi (support
of merged box files).
Alfi
-----
(Bruce)
- Continued implementation of cut and paste.
(Melody)
- Finished fixing some PRs for alfi5.
- Continued working on the automated tester for alfi5.
LIGO Data Analysis System
Software Systems (Blackburn has been traveling all week)
People have been hard at work trying to prepare a 0.5.0 release of LDAS
by this Friday.
It appears that the deadline will not be met due to continuing code
instability in a number of areas
associated with incorporating the new frame format specification in
the famrepp and its use by the frameAPI code.
A severe memory corruption error was finally isolated last night, but
there is at least on more obstacle to release 0.5.0, namely
that the frameAPi suffers from a huge memory leak error. As of this
report Ed Maros is working hard to isolate the problem.
On a positive note, we have been able to exchange rev6 formatted frames
with Virgo and read each other's frames with the framecpp library.
The dataconditioning API is almost ready for 0.5.0 release. frHistory structures, needed to be able to reconstruct post processing manipulations, are now properly handled for RDS frames. There are two outstanding issues related to the use of frames to store frequency series data from FFTs, e.g., SFTs for pulsar analysis. These are needed to eb able to produce the large number of SFTs to represent the S1 datain the frequency domain (needed as part of the upcoming supercomputing 2002 demonstration for griphyn).
The handling of LIGO frame data catalog by the diskcacheAPI has been fixed and it can now handle missing data (gaps) and deleted data (discovers that data are missing).
Hardware Systems (Anderson)
Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)
* HPSS: Lots of work with migration (adding tapes, working around
stuck/bad tapes/files).
Power plant people momentarily turned off the
power to one of the FC switches
in the T3 rack which caused hpssmvr2 to
hang and have to be rebooted
(and problems with AIX and fibre channel
means that it isn't really
up and running for hours). Helped clean up
the mess that resulted...
* Installed SysKonnect GigE card in ldas-cit and ran/patch 50 micron
fibre run back to Booth where it is connected to the HPN router.
(Al Wilson)
* Node15 and node 9 on the DEV system have been restored to service.
* Datacache1 has had it's cdrom swapped out.
* Datacache2 had OS drive fail. It was swapped out with the one from datacache8.
* The bad drive from dc2 that was moved to dc8 has been swapped with
a
good drive from our test raid on the 6th floor.
* Ldasbox1 has a problem with its motherboard, will have to contact GST.
* Wiring up the new LDAS servers to the new 24-port KVM switch.
(Stuart Anderson)
* Worked on testing the response of the diskcacheAPI to a failed filesystem
server--since we had the first IDE server failure this week.
* Solved the problem with DEV system Beowulf nodes booting RedHat7.3
without
a keyboard by switching the bootloader back from GRUB to LILO.
* Released 3 more ldas-in-a-box servers with for LDAS programmers
to pursue parallel development and testing efforts.
MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)
* Troubleshot/swapped out failed UPS.
* Contacting APC to verify warranty status on failed unit.
* 3 20amp power circuits are 'currently' being installed into ldas lab.
* Turned on 2 extra ethernet jacks in ldas lab for Shannon's VPN equip.
Livingston
----------
(Igor Yakushin)
* Sent pre S1 injection data to Caltech.
* Translating frames with excitation data into a format that LDAS can
read so that calibration analysis can be performed. About half
of this
data is now available for LDAS jobs.
* Replaced failed T3 disk. Discovered that 4 batteries need to be
replaced on T3.
(Shannon Roddy)
* Verified that the output from the script that I wrote last week is correct.
* Started working on documentation for the setup/installation of the
LDAS VPNs
for all four sites.
* I will be installing the software on one of the ASA boxes here to
verify
that the documentation is correct.
Hanford
-------
(Greg Mendell)
* Sent tapes with pre-S1 injection data from June to Caltech for
ingestion into HPSS.
* Addressed temperature control problems in the LDAS room in the
staging building at LHO. A fan in the door is temporarily
helping
circulate warm air from the LDAS room the the rest of the building;
this
was needed since the building AC is not running as often now
that cooler
weather is here. LDAS will move into a much better room
in the new
building at the beginning of November. Plans for a move
starting
November 4 are on track.
* Provided the usual support to users of the LHO LDAS system.
Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)
Igor:
1) Debugging waveDSO;
2) Wrote a first approximation of an LDAS script for calibration
analysis for Gaby.
Mendell:
1) Continuing to characterize the SFTs generated on the S1 data. The
problem with an H2 SFT I identified last week as been traced to a large
glitch in the data that occurred 1 second before H2 dropped out of
science mode. The quick fix is to avoid data near loss of science
mode
(e.g., near a loss of lock). The PULG group discussed this morning
general strategies for dealing with glitches in the data.
2) Working with the PULG group to debug LALDemod.
3) Upgraded the knownpulsardemod DSO to include options to normalize
SFTs with the mean spectral amplitude of the noise and to remove the
mean value of the input time series data. The next step will
be to use
the calibration to calibrate SFTs before normalizing, once that is
available. SFT data will still be stored in uncalibrated form,
as
specified in the SFT specifications. The calibration and normalization
are only done right before SFTs are sent to the LALDemod function.
4) Provided support to the GriPhyn effort to create a demo using the
knownpulsardemod DSO.
MIT Data Analysis Activities (http://ligo.mit.edu/ldas/
=======================================================
Tania is currently working on the S1 analysis for the stochastic group:
1. hardware injection analysis (post S1)
2. monte carlo simulations (produce injected frames, modify
pipeline.tclsh)
Laura continued work on S1 playground and final bursts analysis
as well in porting GEO data at MIT as itemized below:
S1 playground studies:
Completed montecarlo jitter studies for the slope ETG. Used gaussian
and fixed-Q sine gaussians to tune tfcluster and slope threshold.
Calculated efficiencies and power vs strain for the gaussian and
sine-gaussian simulations. Worked with Stefan on veto threshold tuning.
S1 final:
Produced tfcluster output and noise vs time plots for S1 triple
coincidence segments. Revising macros for the full S1 analysis.
GEO:
ported to the MIT-LDAS system a new set of GEO playground data (frame
version 4), produced by Martin Hewitson with the new calibration
technique. Tested the data with DMT tool and preparing to run the Burst
ETG over it.
Stefan produced L1 veto triggers based on AS_DC channel. Continued
work on H1 and H2 veto selection. Reloaded LHO data from tapes after
deleting non-locked time to save space.
Erik incorporated vetoes in the TFClusters and Slope DSO search
on the S1 playground in the fixed window burst search approach
proposed two weeks ago. Looked into algorithmic details of multi-IFO
coincidence issues. Discussed analysis scheme for the Power DSO
with Alan W. and Patrick B.
Weinstein:
- Studying the behavior of the power DSO, with Erik and Patrick.
- Submitting lots of power DSO jobs to ldas.
General Computing (Wallace)
MIT:
(Keith)
-Continuing to work with CSR sysadmin on network bandwidth
-Spec'd out and ordered laptop for grad student
-Ordered extra SVGA cable spare for NSF review next week
-PFSC has added extra wireless unit for conference room in NW22 (NSF
review)
-Ordered extra RAM for laptops
Livingston:
(Shannon)
-Spent all of Monday testing and terminating network cables in the
new
building.
-Began evaluating some anti-virus software for our mail server.
This
will also provide some anti-spam functions.
-Worked a little more with the SolSoft software for the PIX firewalls.
-Locked out some old unused accounts. Some valid accounts were
locked
for unknown reasons. This was discovered when I did a listing
of
accounts that were locked. This was not a result of the additional
accounts that I had locked on that day.
-Went over a number of logistical issues for the new network with Larry.
Hanford:
(Christine)
- Connected and tested the network wall jacks and wireless network
in
the new building. Network connections in each office are ready
for the
move on Friday.
- Worked with Larry, Stuart, and Cullen from PNNL trying to troubleshoot
a network slow down between ligo-wa and ligo caltech. Found some
interesting phenomenon, but no reason why.
- Installed the drivers for the internal SCSI RAID on fortress, that's
working again. Installed the latest OS patches on fortress.
- Friday I will be helping with the move to the new building and will
be
setting up the printers and computer user's room in the new building.
Caltech:
(Mike)
-Had to troubleshoot the shares on Pherkab & Antares. I thought
I fixed
this issue but they ended up timing out once again. I made some adjustments
to the registries so far this seems to have worked. The electronic
links
for DCC seem to be automatically updating now.
-Reloaded Dennis C.'s engineering workstation with 2000 PRO; plus installed
120Gig hard disk to allow more data storage.
-Reloaded a PC for Steve V. with 2000 Pro. Plus upgraded the memory
and video
card on this computer.
-Loaded a PC with win98 for Mike to run certain software that is not
compatible with 2000 Pro.
-Performed some maintenance work on all NTSRV's that included backing
up
registries and defragmenting hard disks. Going over security logs and
accessed shares looking for changes made by unknown users (Hackers).
There
were some strange things happening but everything seems to be okay
for now.
-Upgraded the Ansys's license server.
-Reloaded a computer in the 40M, with win98 for test equipment that
is not
compatible with 2000PRO.
-Loaded a LapTop for loaner pool with 2000 Pro and GC software.
(Lisa)
- Reconfigured the webmail server to run over a hardware accelerator
card.
- Compiled a STARTTLS version of sendmail on becrux.
- Working on getting STARTTLS imap and pop working (again) on becrux
now that
the server configuration has changed.
- Worked on Phil Willems laptop.
- Worked out some glitches with the backup of the PC web servers.
(Veronica)
- LIGO website: posted the new newsletter. Updated various pages. Edited
and published Livingston's group photo. Posted a webpage about the
S2
schedule.
- LSC website: posted various updates. Working on the backend of the
progress report submitting application.
- CaJAGWR website: compressed the video of last week's talk and posted
it
unpublished for a review by Kip Thorne. I need to edit the video with
Adobe Premiere or a similar package; we don't have it, so need to contact
Digital Media Center.
(Larry)
-Reconciled a number of procurement items including the P-card items.
It appears that the order for the new networking equipment for the
Livingston Observatory has gone through.
Checking with Dell to find out what the delays are on a recent order
of Laptops.
-Received more information for the consolidation of the Matlab licenses.
I will
be going over the information next week. The present sales representative
appears to be
attentive to our needs, which has been a help.
-The network cabling switch over went well and saved us a lot of down
time.
-Worked with Mike and others on the VRVS. This last seminar went a
lot better
than the previous ones. The share utility definitely is a plus.
-Spent a good deal of time working on the network issue with Hanford.
(See Christine's report) More work on that issue will continue until
it
is resolved. We've also narrowed down some of the equipment that is
to
be purchased for the upgrade that should start taking place the end
of this
year if all goes well.
-Going over a lot of documentation for Albert as he prepares for the
NSF
review.
-Tested out a number of s/w pkgs. for generating network maps. So far
there
is one that may be able to do what we want. It will be distributed
to the
other locations to test out, next week.
-Resolved a number of PC issues. Mainly configuration and driver problems.
-Helped the DCC out in a couple of areas including going over the new
FAX
unit they are planning to purchase.
From Benno Willke:
LSC LASERS WORKING GROUP
Minutes of telecon Oct 10 th and Oct 14 th 2002:
LZH
- investigation on the mirror heating problem continued, different coating
materials and
mirror mounts were tested, specific mirrors work alright, not all effect
are understood
- system changes underway:
pump light homogenization by means of 600um fibre bundle and quarz
rod,
change linear cavity to ring to try injection locking within next two
weeks
- investigations on the 12W linear half-ring oscillator (which will
be mirrored towards
compose the 25W front end laser) are almost finished, set up will be
changed to a ring
with the next two weeks
Stanford
- major lab clean-up and reorganization took place over the last three
weeks to
accommodate a new supply of pump diodes,
- experimental effort to demonstrate the 100W laser will continue next
week
- MLD committed to deliver the new slabs for the 200W end-pumped set
up by end of
October
Adelaide
- re polished slabs will be back next week, new slabs are cut, polished
and the coated slab
are expected to arrive this or next week
- sample of new pump-diode fibre came in to be tested
- 10W laser performing well, components were transferred to temperature
stabilized base,
injection locking expected within the next two weeks
high power stage decission
- Ivos “Advanced LIGO laser concept evaluation tests” document was discussed,
only
minor changes and some additional explanations were suggested
- Shally preferred to have the test in the next term break (less visitor
and students traffic in
the lab), unfortunately this is not consistent with the decision making
progress outlined in
LIGO T020122-00-Z which calls for the test being made late November,
a detailed
travelling schedule will be developed soon, due to the Thanksgiving
holidays the test
period might be extended to early December
- the Adelaide groups expressed their worry, that they might not be
ready for the test by the
first week of December;
they will check delivery times and the expected work, available manpower
and the
availability of the master laser for injection locking and inform Benno
if it sensible to
include Adelaide in the travel plans for the laser test
From: Janeen Romie <romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu>
AdLIGO Suspensions
Working on GEO questions for their PPARC meeting.
Working on mode cleaner design tasks.
LIGO I
Working on alternative earthquake stop designs.
From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>
Advanced LIGO Suspensions
Silicate bonded several SF4 1/2"dia. substrates to fused silica.
The parts cleaned readily and the bonding process went as usual.
After 10 days of curing the bonds will be strength tested.
From: Bill Kells <kells@ligo.caltech.edu>
Have now finished, in outline, the analytic demonstration that
RF SBs should be balanced (SB+ = SB- behaviour) under abrbitrary
small mirror geometrical distortions. This was the remaining
piece of the generaly puzzle of SB balance in a fully complex interferometer.
It means that essentially all sources of actual SB imbalance
are due to conflict between servoing the ifo optimally for CR
vs what would be appropriate for the SBs alone.
This is background for a talk I will be giving on Dec 3, and
for paper Erika and I have in prep.
From: ctorrie <ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>
AdLIGO Suspensions
Mode Cleaner
Work has started in both the Central and Physics machine shop on some optimizations to the suspension. In order to incorporate the pitch adjustment, discussed last week, upgrades had to made to the table cloth and the upper mass, these are also currently in the machine shop.
I have been working on parts to allow us to use the travelling microscope
on loan from U of Glasgow and also on a Spacer for the Structure, that
will ensure that the centre of the MC optic is in the same position as
the centre of the RM optic.
I have received input from Larry Jones for some of these parts and
Larry has also been checking the drawings.
Russell Jones and I have been working on a design for a 2x2 array eddy current damper and the drawings should be ready today, the plan is to get enough made so we could possibly test these on the MC suspension.
Mike Perrier Lloyd, an engineer and designer, from U of Glasgow will
visit Caltech for 5 weeks, from November 4th. During his visit
we hope to start work on parts and drawings for the Recycling Mirror suspension.
From: Hareem <htariq@ligo.caltech.edu>
Riccardo:
In Hongo, Japan. Reviewing Akiteru's thesis.
Reviewing final modifications to TAMA SAS design before final production.
Commenting on Maddalena and Barbara’s reports.
Stoyan:
Installed new oven setup with Riccardo. Working properly and ready
to test amorphous-crystalline transition temperature of MoRuB samples after
X-raying.
ANSYS: "Voodoo mystery" solved for 2D models (the problem was the type
of Ansys element - only Plane183 8-node structural solid is suitable for
our model!). Began work on 3D models and trying to find the best element
to use in order to have the same deformation as in 2D.
Splats: Showing the technique to Charles. Splatting Boron17 and the
new Boron16.5% alloy. Good overall quality. Will need more splats, organizing
another run for next week.
Xavier:
Did a splat run overnight.
Cryostat: finished the power scatter fits (at length) and fixed the
vacuum problem by charcoal regeneration. Ran a timed conductivity measurement
over all temperatures. Documented Mike's work
ANSYS: Tried to use a new method for modeling (through sub-modeling)
the flex joint. Not yet working but work is ongoing.
Charles:
Tried to reorganize work done by Alessandro and Stefano, to orient
and understand.
Electropolishing done with some different solutions, need to have a
look with a basic microscope to estimate the results.
Braze: Brazed a sample without NiP, just surface activation. Suspended
on it almost 10 kg, the sample broke because of some twisting of the load
but the braze remained intact.
Learnt to splat with Xavier and Stoyan.
Hareem:
Busy with classes. Overseeing everyone’s work while Riccardo’s away.
For additional information about this report, contact sanders@ligo.caltech.edu