Weekly Report for Week Ending December 5, 2002

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  December 9, 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)
7. CHANGE CONTROL BOARD/TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD SESSION AS NEEDED

Executive Committee only 11:30 - noon   Topics:
 

Special Items:  PAC meeting reprise

Special Announcements:

The LIGO interferometer sensitivities are periodically documented at:

http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~lazz/distribution/LSC_Data/

These plots may be used in public documents and talks.
 

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Weiss)

no report

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

LIGO Operations--Administration

There was no site teleconference scheduled for Thursday, December 5, 2002 due to the PAC meeting at Livingston.

The list of current actions revised to reflect the status of open actions assigned through November 21, 2002 may be found at ACTION LIST.

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

• Provided support to the Detector Group (D. Coyne) with packing and return shipping of an IBM Laptop Computer, SN# FX75645, to IBM located in Memphis TN, for warranty repairs.
• Provided support to the Detector Group (L. Jones) with packing and shipping of parts to Northern Safety Co., Farnkfort, NY.  Account Number P204324.
• Provided support to Advanced Suspensions and Fibers (P. Wilems ) with packing and shipping of parts to THROLAB (M. Somers), Newton, NJ.  Account Number P204317.
• Provided support to the Detector Group (H. Armandula) with packing and shipping of  three (3) dia. x1" thick sapphire substrates SNs: M05, A01, and A02, and four 1" dia. M-axis, total value $5,000.  Account Number P157746.
• Provided support to the Detector Group (H. Armandula) with packing, shipping, and US Customs Documentation for optics being forwarded to CSIRO Telecommunications and Industrial Physics (Dr. B. Martin), West Lindfield, Australia.  Account Number P157746.
• Provided support to the Detector Group (H. Armandula) with packing, shipping, and US Customs Documentation for Optic Handling Materials being forwarded to the Universitat Hannover (Dr. H. Luck), Hannover, Germany.  Account Number P204324.

>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

• No report this week.
• 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

• Much documentation is in the process of being organized and filed into the shelves.
• Began reviewing a very extensive list of all "C" document numbers that have been reserved and verifying if they have been entered into the DCC database.
• Electronic document activity remains steady..

 


For Week Ending  12/5/02	Packages	Faxes
In	32	17
Out	8	4

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

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA .

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

• Completed change order 3 to Moon Security, change order 7 to Syd Meshkov, change order 10 for Newark, which added funds for Fy2003, change order to University of Florida, change order 7 to MLD Technologies, and change order 32 to Northrop Grumman.  Completed change order #19 to MIT and routed it for further approvals in BSB.
• Attended a Purchasing Meeting on closing out po's and was requested to close out all po's since the inception of Oracle through December 1, 2001.  Many of the LIGO po's have been closed as Dorothy and I have regularly checked payments on po's and closed out the po's with zero or low balances.  I have printed out the lists of all the open po's and am checking it.

• Processing POs and doing the vendor followup, invoice corrections, etc.
• Always looking for ways (GSA quotes) to save LIGO $$$$s.

• Worked on monthly reports for November.
• Prepared a summary of charges from Physical Plant department to the Suspensions accounts for Janeen Romie.  The majority of these charges appear to be eligible for transfer to the fabrication account thus resulting in a savings of Indirect Charges.  Cost Transfers will be submitted once an analysis of these charges have been made.
• Cost transfer submitted to relieve overspend in fiscal period 2001 accounts has run into a snag, I am working with the Project Accounting Department to make sure that the transfer is processed.

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

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

• MIT: CO No. 19, allotting the first half of FY'03 funds, was released to Purchasing [we have received some proposal updates from MIT--pel]
• Butler: CO No. 24, allotting FY'03 funds, was released to Purchasing.
• EGO: CO No. 02, adding money to cover the currency conversion short fall, was released to Purchasing.
• Subcontract Extensions through FY'03: No-cost period of performance extensions are in process for all open LIGO subcontracts. .

No report--Ed Jasnow has been in Livingston all week attempting to close out the contract with Brunt Construction for the Staging Building.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Lloyd, Tischler)

>Irene Baldon

• PLEASE  NOTE:  As of December 1st I will be handling all calendar scheduling and teleconferencing calls.  I would appreciate it if each of you took a look at the calendars to see if you have old/outdated meetings scheduled that should be removed, or if you have a new/existing meeting that is not on the calendar but should be.  Please contact me with any changes that are necessary.  Also contact me with any changes, deletions, or additions to teleconferencing.  I'll be more than happy to assist you wherever I can.
• Processed the paper work for five (5) new/revised trips and there are eight (8) trips which are in various stages of completion before ticketing can be done and/or paper work completed.
• Completed twenty (20) Expense Reports and there are ten (10) reports yet to be done.  I continue to contact travelers who have outstanding Expense Reports (more than one (1) month old) to ask for their cooperation in sending me their receipts so that I can close their trip(s).  Travel Audit has gotten tighter with outstanding trips since October 1st.
• Reconciled eighteen (18) P-Card items which required numerous phone calls to hotels, etc. in order to track down which traveler incurred which charge; and the pulling of each traveler's file to assure that charges are correct for each fee incurred.  Assisted a few travelers with their questions in regard to their P-Card and/or reconciliation.
• I continue to do MIT's travel to the sites for installation activities and also to assist them wherever possible.

• Processed the usual invoices for payment and tracked and followed up on invoice problems. Reviewed and recorded payments processed November 18-27.
• Processed the usual requisitions, change orders and payment requests.  Continue to monitor contract and blanket order encumbrance and notify task managers when supplements are needed.
• Attended training class for P-card.
• Jim continues with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

• PAC13 meeting at LLO.

Advanced LIGO (Frey)

Weekly Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting was held at Gary's office on Monday 11.25.  For list of documents discussed, see http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/Cost_MTG_082002/

Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal (Highest Priority)

• Continuing the development of the Cost Estimate.
• The following is a summary of status by sub system:
• COC - Work on action items per second review continues.  Garilynn continues to execute action items.
• PSL -  Management to secure commitment from LZH for laser development.  Executed meeting at Gary's office on Tuesday 12.03.  Peter is working on re-distribution of scope between LZH and LIGO.
• 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 Janeen doing updates and action items.  Assisted Calum and Mike regarding Excel formulas.
• Executed meeting at Gary's office on Monday 12.02.  Janeen is working on costing adjustments and re-distribution of scope between Glasgow and LIGO.
• Updated the plan with progress as of 11.29.02 and  posted to site.
• Sent out update data requests for progress as of 12.13.02.
• SEI - Work on action items continues.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• ISC - Mike continues to work on the WBS dictionary.  No comments as of 12.05.02 on the draft detailed schedule and no WBS dictionary.
• LDAS - Corresponded with Albert.  Albert is in process of putting together revised data.
• INSTALL - Continue prepping cost data for import into cost book.  No comments as of 12.05.02.
• DAQ - Corresponded with Jay.  Jay is in process of putting together revised data.
• Per Gary and Dennis' direction, I should begin receiving data for all subsystems to prepare for submittal of January 17, 2003.

• Updated the plan with progress as of 11.29.02 and  posted to site.
• Sent out update data requests for progress as of 12.13.02.

• Updated the plan with progress as of 11.29.02 and  posted to site.
• Sent out update data requests for progress as of 12.13.02.

• Updated the plan with progress as of 11.29.02 and  posted to site.
• Sent out update data requests for progress as of 12.13.02.

• ROSTER DATABASE:
• Continued to run tests to confirm that the hot fix has corrected the issue.
• Working with Larry and Barbara to set up a process by which the roster database updates selected alias lists.
• Corresponded with BK and she is working creating a single form for data entry.

• COST BOOK DATABASE:
• Continue to verbally communicate the username and password to users.
• Will be working with BK to correct similar technical issues as roster database.
• BK is continuing work on action items.

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

The annual report is due to be submitted to the NSF at the end of December, covering activities from December 2001 through November 30, 2002.  This Annual Report is required for the old (Construction Funds) Cooperative Agreement, and the focus is the end of Construction, Installation, and Commissioning, not Scientific Results.

There are currently no open change requests to be considered by the LIGO Chnage Control Board, and there were no change requests addressed during the Executive Committee Meeting on Monday, December 2, 2002.

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

• Various personnel/payroll /HR related work.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

No report this week.

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) and Interferometer Operations (Raab)

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...)
 

Changes were made to locking code and both interferometers are locking quite well. It is hoped this is related to the code changes. We also exceeded the "beer prize" requirement when H1 held lock for ~ 29 hours over Thanksgiving weekend. We thirst for Stan's return from Australia.
 

2K IFO (H2)
-----------
The PSL Frequency Stabilization servo board was modified and tested to include rev's from MIT and incorporate other changes. Unity gain frequencies of 750 kHz and higher were measured, with gain at 10 kHz around 28 dB. Previously the UGF was 75 kHz. Work is ongoing to take advantage of this improvement in the over-all frequency control for the interferometer.
 

4K IFO (H1)
-----------
The WFS 1 system for H1 now meets angle control specs. WFS 2 is installed on POX and appears operational, although it increases rather decreases dark port power. WFS 3 and 4 heads are checked out and installed. Work continues on WFS as the main line of H1 commissioning.
 

A number of improvements to filtering in optical-lever and ifo control loops converged to provide improvements, with minimum noise equivalent displacement of 5e-18 m/rHz near a few hundred Hz and 1e-16 m/rHz at 50 Hz. The DARM loop now meets its RMS displacement spec, with ~ 7e-14 mRMS. The AS_I servo was shown to work in the sense of reducing the RMS in AS_I. Previously the AS_I fluctuations had prevented us from raising power on the AS port photodiode, but we are now seeing no improvements with increasing power. The reason is unknown at this time.
 

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) and Interferometer Operations (Coles)

no report

Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• Core IFO: We continue to work towards constructing a short-arm Michelson with our three newly suspended optics (BS, ITMx, ITMy). The digital suspension controllers are nearly ready and we hope to have 3 suspended optics (BS, ITMx, ITMy) damped in the next week or 2.
• Suspended mass mode cleaner (Ugolini, Miyakawa, Vass, Abbott):
• Currently, work on the digital suspension controllers (DSC) means that the MC cannot acquire lock. We hope to get back to MC lack in the next few days.
• Osamu measured the intensity noise after the PSL PMC, and estimated its contribution to the frequency noise in the PSL as monitored by the MC. It is ~ 50db below the observed frequency noise (ie, negligible). It contributes due to a non-zero offset of the MC servo from exact resonance; Osamu estimates this to be around 6e-12 m. It's different from lock to lock; Osamu will study the variations. It is possible to better zero this offset, but Osamu does not think that it will be necessary, since the contribution to frequency noise is so small. However, this intensity noise will contribute to noise in the main IFO GW channel due to the imperfect contrast defect; so it definitely should be reduced (by the ISS servo, being commissioned now).
• Steve and Osamu have searched for couplings of mechanical and/or acoustic noise onto the beam in the PMC and MC. They find no evidence for noise from the air conditioning, vacuum pumps, room lights, etc.
• On the other hand, they have determined that the PMC, mounted firmly on the PSL table, is very sensitive to mechanical and/or acoustic noise at the PSL table. A small tap on the table or table legs is easily seen in the PMC servo error signal. This introduces intensity and frequency noise onto the beam. (No such coupling was observed for the frequency stability servo). This noise is clearly seen in the MC frequency noise spectrum.
• Osamu and Steve are investigating two fixes: the first is to better isolate the PMC from noise. Steve is trying out different acoustic shields, and is thinking about placing the PMC on a sheet of rubber. He will check out the effect of the laser cooling water.
• Another fix is to increase the PMC servo gain to tie it better to the quiet (FSS-stabilized) input beam. Osamu noted that the PMC servo gain was limited by a 66 kHz (mechanical) resonance; the notch filter in the servo card was not well tuned to that resonance, even with the trim pot turned all the way. Osamu changed a capacitor on the board, and successfully notched out the resonance. He was able to turn up the PMC gain slider from 15 dB to 30 dB, increasing the UGF from 1.5 kHz to 5.8 kHz (spec is 3.0 kHz). He will check the effect of these changes on the beam (as monitored by the MC error signal) as soon as th upgrade of the DSC system is complete (so that we can re-aquire MC lock).
• Still on the to-do list: permanent (3m long) MC servo LO cable; cable for 16K readout of MCR and MCT power signals.
• Core digital suspension controllers (DSC), and other Electronics (B. Abbott, Taylor):
• Alex Ivanov has been working hard on software for the DSC system: upgrading the SOS controller software, new code for core optics controller hardware, DAQS and EPICS links, new EPICS screens, etc.
• Ben has finished re-drawing the wiring diagrams for the 40m vertex suspensions. These changes include moving MC2 controls from 1Y5-7 to 1Y4-33 and SRM controls from 1Y4-8 to 1Y4-33. It also included all of the associated epics control and other changes that was dictated by these other changes.
• Ben has most or all of the modules in place, and he and Bob are making the wiring changes. Hope to be complete by the end of the week!
• Dennis is helping with the CPU boards, boot software, EPICS data bases, etc, in the DSC electronics rack (1Y4).
• Bob continues to work on the wiring of the south end (1Y9) rack, the east end (1X4) rack, and the auxiliary controls rack (1X1).
• The stand-along SOS analog suspension controller that we borrowed from Betsy will be used by Paul Russell for Janeen's earthquake stop rework prototyping (which ises an SOS borrowed from us).
• Optical sensing (Smith):
• OPTICS PARTS LIST, Received parts: 1.5 in and 2.0 in fixed vacuum mirror mounts.
• Orders pending: 3 each, 1in mirror mounts are pending from Newport; input mode-matching telescope off-axis parabolic mirrors are pending from SORL; Faraday rotator from EOT; 3 PZT tilt platforms and 2 servo control drive electronics and strain gauge read-out electronics from Piezosystems Jena.
• In-vacuum mirrors and beam splitters are being cleaned and baked.
• FARADAY ISOLATOR: Faraday Isolator mechanical parts are being cleaned and baked. Polarizing prisms for Faraday isolator have been cleaned by Helena and are ready for baking. The half-wave plates from KLC, for the Faraday isolator, are being re-worked to vacuum-compatibility standards. Expect the Faraday Rotator in a couple of weeks. Hope to have a complete system within a month.
• IFO MODE-MATCHING TELESCOPE: Telescope mechanical parts are in process of being fabricated. Expect off-axis parabolic mirrors in a month, Hope to have a complete system shortly thereafter.
• OPTICAL LAYOUT: An ASAP ray model of the 40m IFO optical beams is complete. An evaluation copy of Hijaak, file conversion software, was used to convert the ASAP graphic files to DWG drawing files, which were then x-refed onto the integrated layout drawing. Ghost beams were generated; beam dumps, baffles, and pick-off mirrors were placed and oriented in the integrated layout drawing to agree with the ASAP model.
• OPTICAL LEVER: IR laser and projection telescope for optical lever prototype were received. Working drawings for magnified focus lens are in process. A cheaper and more local source for a suitable 830-nm laser has been found. The laser power / controls must be designed.
• INITIAL POINTING BEAM A pick-off beam to monitor the position of the initial pointing beam on the power recycling mirror was added to the integrated layout drawing.
• Optics (Billingsley, Armandula), suspensions (Romie), OSEMs (Bob):
• Our BS, ITMx, and ITMy, are suspended and sitting on the South Annex clean room flow bench. They have clean OSEMs, are balanced and have been damped successfully, and are ready for installation as soon as our DSC system is ready for them.
• Mods to the ETM suspension parts (MOS) are complete. Bob Taylor has the traveler and reworked parts for cleaning and baking.
• Facilities and vacuum envelope (Ugolini, Vass, Jones):
• Steve replaced the backup batteries on the maglev turbopump (TP2) power supply.
• Larry Wallace ordered a UPS system for our vacuum rack, to replace the one that tripped off 2 weeks ago, bringing the vacuum controls down.
• The misbehaving STACIS seismic isolator (SENW-x) was repaired by TMC and is enroute back to us.
• CES is working on the anodized custom beam tubes (between chamber viewports and sensing tables) that were designed by Larry Jones; should be ready by January.
• CES is working on the camera viewport mounts and in-vacuum mirror mounts for the cameras that view the core optics beam spots, that were designed by Larry Jones; should be ready by January.
• South Annex Bake Ovens (Taylor, Cardenas):
• Bob is working through many bake jobs for the coming months, including parts for the Faraday Isolator and MMT, in-vacuum mirrors, OSEMs, and 6 loads for Janeen.

Bob has received a re-worked RGA head for oven C. A second re-worked RGA head (a spare) was sent back due to many problems.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

In our last report, we noted that the transient, 30ms locks are again
plaguing the TNI, and we resolved to do some modeling to find out if we
could understand why. We did two kinds of modeling: First, we modeled
non-linear lock acquisition analytically, obtaining a non-linear
differential equation that describes an unconditionally stable servo.
Second, we set up our PSL to reproduce the modeled servo and check its
predictions. (The actual TNI is not unconditionally stable and is
harder to model analytically, so we thought we would start with
something simpler.)
 
Once we had set up the PSL, we tried driving it with a sinusoidal
signal on the PZT of the laser to see if we could reproduce the
transient locks. We were able to reproduce the transient locks with all
of the characteristic signatures we have already identified in the TNI.
This narrows down dramatically the candidates for the cause(s) of the
transient locks, since the PSL does not include any independently
suspended optics (inertia terms in the cavity length), shadow sensors
(scattered light), or actuators on the reference cavity (reaction
terms). We feel fairly confident now that the cause of the transient
locks is the large peak in the cavity-length noise at 21Hz, or in the
laser frequency at 27Hz. We expect that, since the transient locks are
reproducible in a system that is essentially just an error signal and
servo filter, we should be able to resolve them into permanent locks by
changing the filter response.
 
We are now working on a new lock-aquisition filter, with a numerical
solution to our analytical model and the PSL as guides.
 

LASTI (Zucker)

LASTI (Coyne, Forbes, Hammond, Kern, Mason, MacInnis, McKenzie,
Mittleman, Ottaway, Rankin, Rollins, Shoemaker, Zucker)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

PSL
--------------
no report

HEPI design and installation (Abbott, Mason, Rankin, MacInnis,
Coyne, Mailand, Kern, Hammond, Zucker)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Helium leakchecking has been completed on the hydraulic piping.  No
leaks were found except in the face seals of the commercial servo
valves; we are looking at options for repairing these. Electrical
mods to the pump controller are in progress.  The hydraulic
sensor readout and motor speed electronics are on their way back
from Caltech after retrofitting to include additional sensors and
interlocks, which are needed to support safe 24/7 operation in the
MIT lab. The fluid selection has been signed off and a supply is on
its way to MIT.

There is a mechanical alignment problem with the "tripod" force transfer
bearings on each of the actuators, possibly due to distortion during
welding.  We are working the problem with the designers and hope that
the existing assemblies can be made to work without extensive rework.

Unless this is a showstopper, we expect to get through the remaining
punchlist and fill the system with fluid to begin
testing by end of next week.

MEPI characterization & modeling (Mittleman, Ottaway, Coyne, Zuo)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We have been working on making the mechanical transfer functions of the
4 HAM piers all the same.  After the first round of system ID and model
decomposition we found that inconsistencies between the piers produced
a non-intuitive modal decomposition (none of the modes looked like a
vertical motion). Using experience gained from installing the BSC
actuators Ken and Myron realigned piers #1 and #3 to reduce the torque
on the support springs.  We are currently examining the new system ID
to determine the results of this effort.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
E2E Physics meeting
-------------------------
Valera Frolov discussed his plan of using SimLIGO for studying
the WFS response matrix and understanding the signals from LLO-IFO.
Currently the IFO signals do not match with either SimLIGO or Mathematica
Program outputs.

Frequency Response, Misalignment calculations
----------------------------------------------
Hiro and Biplab continued working on improvement of the Frequency response
of the power recycled Michelson cavity formulation.

Some discrepancies were observed in misalignment calculations even though
the WFS of SimLIGO was generating correct signals. These problems were
closely analysed and some changes in code were made to make things consistent.

Alfi
-----
(Bruce)
  - Working on implementation of dynamic redefinition of E2E_Path
    by user (PR 359).  This is fairly complex and has brought to
    light a few minor (but not trivial) inconsistencies in the Alfi
    engine which have otherwise remained hidden.  I am working at
    fixing these problems before continuing with the task at hand.

(Melody)
  - Continuing optimization work on the modeler.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)
A version of LDAS which has been ported to work with Linux GCC 3.2.1 (previous
version was 2.95.3) ran over night for the first time, completing TFCluster
jobs. This is only the first small step in our testing. However, it represents
the first successful test after many weeks of porting of the code on the part
of Masha Barnes. [1700 tfcluster datapipeline jobs ran over night on a stand-
alone linux box.] An issue with the configuration of the DB2 installation has
prevented other tests from being performed at this time. This should be fixed
this afternoon. The next step in the port is to get LDAS to compile with GCC
3.2.1 on Sun Solaris boxes - one doesn't guarantee the other.

The new frameCPP library now has support for compression and static data. This
is currently being tested. A sample frame file with both of these new features
has been shared with Benoit Mours of VIRGO to validate our code. We are also
extending LDAS commands to support the use of compression and static data in
the reading and creation of frame data. The frameAPI is also being reworked
to push more of the frame creation task management into C++.

The managerAPI has been extended to check and report on disk space usage. It
will stop processing of jobs when the diskspace is critically full. It will
no longer be necessary to restart LDAS once the diskspace has been cleaned
up as was the case in earlier versions.

A new execution shell was created within the mpiAPI to increase the reliability
of starting up mpirun commands on the Beowulf cluster. This will now detect
the sudden failures of mpirun which were occasionally missed in the past. It
will also allow for the proper registration of mpirun errors.

The power spectral density action {psd()} within the dataConditionAPI was
changed to address a long standing problem report. The previous behavior
silently trough out data in the calculation causing on occasion a lose of
power in the estimate. It will now throw an exception if asked to generate
a PSD with the wrong length of data. This caused several of the search code
strategies to fail and all authors of the scripts in question have been
informed of the issues. A new resample action was added to the dataConditionAPI
which allows users to specify the target sample rate instead of the downsample
factor used in the first generation resample action. Work continues on the
promotion problem between complex and real vector objects in math operations.

A very successful meeting took place this morning to centralize all LIGO
databases managed under LDAS. This will allow all LDAS sites to share metadata
with other LDAS sites and allow jobs to use metadata at remote sites as part
of a job on any local site. The technology for doing this is almost entirely
contained within IBM's DB2. We will need to make only very minor changes to
LDAS.

New accessors actions were added to the dataConditionAPI for getting metadata
such as sample rate, step size, individual elements and for setting individual
elements of a time series.

Peter Shawhan:

This week I used the CIT LDAS system to do some real science!  I ran several
hundred jobs, using the inspiral search code to detect "inspiral" candidates
(basically just instances of broadband noise) in five auxiliary channels and
writing about 30000 events into the LDAS database.  There was just one job
failure, due to some glitch.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)
Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)

* LIGO files on 3590 media in HPSS represent .6% of the files scattered
  across 22% of the tapes.  The 3590s are still supported, CACR will be
  moving data off the 3590s anyway and we'll be moving LIGO data out of
  HPSS entirely.  Given the small number of files, it doesn't make sense
  to go to any special effort to copy these to 9940 media outside of the
  normal migration.

* I'm still working with Dan Heller at Qlogic to try to get the 2Gb FC
  HBAs to work on ldas-archive.

* I'm still working on copying files between SAM-QFS, HPSS and IDE-RAID
  in order to make all three systems contain the same data.

MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)

* Upgraded ldas-pcdev1 to current linux cluster revision.
* Continuing to investigate Pentium cluster node specifications.

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

* Archived the LHO S1 v6 RDS frames onto tape and sent them to Igor at
  LLO.  Igor has sent me the LLO S1 v6 RDS frames.  I have not yet put
  these on disk a LHO.

* Replaced disk 4 on t3-4 raid box. The disk automatically
  reconstructed upon replacement, as is should have, without loss of data.

* Worked with LDAS and CDS on a plan for generating RDS frames for S2.

* The 5 ton Liebert AC unit from the staging building was moved into
  the LDAS room in the new building at LHO.  This adds backup to the 10
  ton Liebert unit in the room and will allow additional cooling as LDAS
  expands.  This completes all contract work for the LDAS room; facilities
  needs for LDAS should be set now for the immediate future anyways.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)
Weinstein:
- wrote note on interpreting burst search results in terms
  of a uniform density of fixed luminosity sources.
- Working on interpreting post-S1 hardware injections.
- Helped Laura Cadonati debug LDAS submission script
  (burstprod.tcl) problems.

Shawhan:

* Continued veto studies for the S1 inspiral upper limit analysis.  I ran the
inspiral search code on several additional auxiliary channels and found that
H2:LSC-AS_I (processed in this way) is quite useful as a veto.  In fact, it
turns out that inspiral "events" found in AS_I and REFL_Q make good vetoes
for gravitational-wave candidates in ALL THREE interferometers; besides being
aesthetically pleasing, it is notable that these are the two interferometer
signals which are not used by the servo, and thus it seems inherently "safer"
to use these particular channels as vetoes.  I also re-optimized the veto
conditions, concentrating on the highest-snr inspiral candidates in the
playground data, since we are doing a loudest-event analysis.

* I did a careful read-through of the burst upper limit report and made
a number of comments.

Mendell:
1) Resolved remaining problems to get the knownpulsardemod DSO and
driver scripts to work with the 0.5.0 release of LDAS.

2) I have started scripts to regenerate the 2048 second S1 SFTs for LIGO
data using LDAS 0.5.0 (output in v6 frames). These should be available
from LDAS at LHO and LLO by the end of the week. I have also subtracted
30 seconds from the end_times of the lock segments posted at
http://www.phys.lsu.edu/faculty/gonzalez/S1LockStats/. This is to avoid
large glitches that can occur some seconds before the IFO drops out of
science mode. Otherwise, the unlocked data is padded with the mean value
of the locked data, as before.  The input option to the code is still
set to output the SFTs uncalibrated but normalized by \delta
t/\sqrt{T_{SFT}} (so units are counts per root Hz as before).

Lazzarini:
Put together the latest h[f] curves for the DCC for LHO 4km.
This should soon be available from http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~lazz/distribution/LSC_Data/   -> Post S1 Run
 

General Computing (Wallace)
MIT:
(Keith)
-Wireless coverage has been expanded to NW22
-Shutdown raw xdm X login access to a number of Sun machine
-Rebuilt o/s on laptop w/ failed harddrive
-Built Calcium calendar service (under Caltech site-license)
-Building secure HTTP server to host Calcium calendar service

Livingston:
(Shannon)
-Continuing to work on the firewall configuration.
-Met with Charlie McMahon, and Terry Doub today to discuss
issues with LSU's network.  Making a bit of headway with a
couple of issues.  Some issues are still up in the air.
-Attended the annual LSU computing meeting on campus today.
There are a couple of issues that may affect LIGO, but nothing
major.
-LSU is installing an IDS system at the border router.  This
may be an issue, though it will probably be transparent.  They
will start  blocking port scans in the near future.  This will
be a huge step in protecting their network.  This includes our subnet.
-I will be meeting with Terry and Charlie again concerning some
more issues with the network.
-No new news on getting a better network connection to LLO. We
are still stuck at two T1s.
-Found out that it is relatively easy to get an  account on
LSUs beowulf cluster.  Anyone that is interested can contact
me.  This is the 2nd fastest cluster in the world owned by an
academic institution.  17th fastest overall in the world.
-Worked on setup for the PAC meeting.
-Worked with Larry on VRVS setup and doing some netmeeting testing. Still
a number of problems to workout.
 

Hanford:
(Christine)
- Made a disk image and restored the image onto a new disk for a laptop.
- Installed some more sun freeware.
- Followed up on the tape drive that had been sent in for repairs.
- Purchased some more PCs to replace old ones.
- Added some code to all Solaris computers to close a Solaris security
bug in priocntl.
- Upgraded some e-mail software.
- Lots of user support and network problems.

CIT:
(Lisa)
- Trying to nail down a final problem with the starttls configuration of
pop/imap on becrux.  I currently have it working with eudora and macintosh mail
but not netscape.
- Recompiled sendmail to include milter support.  This should be installed
today.
- Did monthly backups.
- Started creating a mysql database for the inventory information.
- Worked on some permission issues with the document web servers.
- Finished working with the caltech telephone office to switch the 800 number to
a hunt group of ISDN lines.  The performance on the 800 number should increase
significantly.

(Veronica)
- LIGO website: updated Aspen Winter conference webpages. Added new
postings to various pages (fellowships, employment, conferences). Updated
the Science Runs links at the Research Bulletin Board. Minor user support
(a request to be removed from a mailing list). Working on Albert's request
of providing a secure location for certain LSC documents; several
DCC-related databases need to be modified. Met with Ryan w.r.t. a project
of posting pictures of LIGO employees at the roster webpage; the backend
script needs to be rewritten to allow this. Per Mike's request, did a few
checkups on Project Science databases. Attended a presentation on digital
cameras.
- CaJAGWR website: taped and compressed the video of the talk by John
Armstrong. The file will be made public as soon as JPL clearance is
issued. Posted a few updates to the website.
- GNATS database: modified the GDS part according to Szabi's requirements.

(Mike)
-Worked on a number of PC server issues. Rebuilt projectscience server.
-Setup the VRVS conference system for the Tuesday meeting.
-Started working on the builds of a number of new PC's.
-Rebuilt a laptop.

(Larry)
-Worked and still working on a number of software procurements. Also, looking at
getting a new set of vendors to work with. We've lost a number of contacts to
promotions and moves and we are not getting the deals we have in the past.
-Worked a number of DCC issues. Linda and Veronica are looking into the
logistics of making changes to the database, in-order to accommodate a new form
of documents.
-Worked a couple of network issues. Nothing major. Still working on getting
quotes for the new routers.
-We now have over 1100 e-mail sites that are being blocked for spamming and
related incidents.
-Working with CIT security on getting a virus situation with AOL cleared up.

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

From: ctorrie <ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>
Advanced LIGO Suspensions

Mode Cleaner
There are now 2 triple pendulum suspensions in the Synchrotron that are balanced and suspended at the correct height above the optical table. The next stages of the installation is the arrangement of the local control coils, the earthquake stops and the  global control Osems.

We met with Paul Russell this week to discuss the installation of the electronics, Paul is going to oversee the interfacing of the various stages over the next few weeks.

Eddy Current Damper
Working with a stand alone prototype eddy current damper adjuster we have set up a continuity test to investigate its properties. Further work is required before a set are made for testing on the triple pendulum here at Caltech.

Recycling Mirror
Phil and I are currently considering a heavier mass, m2 =   12.7200kg, for the intermediate stage, made from a combination of steel and Alum.
This would lead to     vertical: [1.1381 4.0423 36.6148]  Hz. (Each stage would be ~12kg)
I hope to continue work on this in Glasgow next week and work with Mike Plissi on a detailed a blade design.

Michael Perreur-Lloyd and I have been working on several aspects to improve our knowledge of SolidWorks and how best to implement these to our needs with Advanced LIGO. Michael has outlined this work and other work he has been involved in during his visit below
 

From: Larry Jones <ljones@ligo.caltech.edu>
Advanced SEI

Met with Dan DeBra, Joe Giaime and Brian Lantz at Stanford and reviewed specifications for the AdvLIGO SEI Structure prototypes; viewed the Proof-of-Concept Demonstrator and Technology Demonstrator. Continuing work on writing the Statement of Work and the Design Requirements for the Prototypes Contract.
 

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

Gingin
Submitted the ITM-specific drawings to John Jacob on Nov 27th. Must make a small change to the dummy mass and submit the drawings to the machine shop on Friday the 6th. Will start procurement of off-the-shelf parts then also. We will be delivering a non-cleaned and baked ITM suspension, with a dummy mass, in February. The cleaned and baked ITM and ETM suspensions will be delivered in April or May when their cleanroom facilities are finished.

AdLIGO Suspensions
Working with Larry Jones on suspension weights and positioning. Specifically, he's looking at the BSC optical table that will hold an ITM and an FM quad.

Designed and submitted more drawings to Ric at the Physics machine shop for parts needed early next week.

Paul Russell met with Calum, Mark and I to talk about the digital electronics he and Jay will be delivering. By visiting the Synchrotron, he was able to determine the proper length for the cables needed.

Proposal
Met with Thomas and Gary Sanders about the suspension portion of the NSF proposal. I will be working on the action items for this meeting the week of Dec 16-20. I will be separating out the actual hours from the estimates for the preliminary design. I'll also be separating out the GEO work from the CIT work for the all sections of the suspension cost book.
 

From: Jay Heefner <jay@ligo.caltech.edu>

Adv LIGO Suspension Prototype
================================
- All modules are now stuffed and being tested. aAssembly of the electronics will nbegin this week and should be done by the end of next week.

Adv LIGO DAQ, Networking and Supervisory Control Cost and Schedule
====================================================
- Work has begun on a cost and schedule estimate for the Adv LIGO DAQ, Network and Supervisory Control systems.
 

From Riccardo DeSalvo

Xavier:
ANSYS:
- Total model done. Still study upon to be done.

Heat capacity:
- Measurement w/ only glue done.
- Measurement w/ Morub done. However, only one layer was used. Another one is about to be done. The purpose is to improve the measurement. For now, the first result has been done w/ 33% of accuracy.
- In order to do another measurement, learnt from Charles the basics for the conception of the samples.
- Cut new samples. More samples needed.
- Documentation proceeding.

Thermal transport:
- The first complete analysis done. However, only a few results among the data were useful, essentially because of the shoes.
- This problem is about to be removed through a new measurement running wherein the parameters are better set. Indeed, the timed measurement is for the first time used for the shoes study.
- First double sample broke on mounting. It was slightly too big, and so did not fit in the puck. Photos were done to check how the Nickel deposition worked out. The result was not too good. Still is to be checked w/ Riccardo.
- Attempt to do another double sample. The number/quality of splats is not sufficient.
- In the meanwhile, has been asked upon the efficiency of the Nickel deposition. Checks by Electron Microscope did not show anything really trustable. Other samples are about to be done.
- Of course, the documentation is proceeding.

Stoyan:
Ansys:
Natural frequencies analysis of MoRuB flex-join suspension with Vitreloy fiber and comparison with fused silica suspensions. Analysis performed for different masses, stress loads and fiber diameters.

Heated 3 MoRuB B17 samples up to 750C, 835C and 930C for 5 min. X-ray diffraction revealed some problems while calculating crystalline percentage (probably due to background scanning). Prepared more B17 samples to be heated and analyzed during this week.

Made a temperature profile plot for the gate-valve furnace. Now can achieve better control on the temperature while heating.

Stoyan and Charles:

Designed and built a command circuit for the automatic valves for the splat-quencher. Tests went OK. Ready to install it.

Splatting with Charles and Xavier  B17, B21.
 

From Benno Willke

LSC LASERS WORKING GROUP

Minutes of telecon Nov 7 th 2002

LZH
- changed from linear to ring cavity
- 600um fibres with quarz rod for homogenization of pump light installed
- problems with fibre ends: reflected or scattered pump light causes “burning” of glue that
hold fibres in place, a number of design iterations lead to design that run without
problems for more than two hours,
- 20W front end: changed as well from linear to ring resonator
- thermal lens of Faraday isolator measured to design FK51 thermal compensator

Stanford
- after lab reorganization and cleanup the some problems with first edge pumped slab:
some pump lasers for the first slab were “lost” (were operated without cooling due to
closed valve), now back to 35W behind first slab
- birefringence measured to get indication of losses due to thermal lens
- cylindrical modematching lens in place between slabs
- all components for end-pumped slab experiment will arrive in November, switching on of
end pumped system expected for end of November

Florida
- waiting to get FK51 repolished
- started experiments with index matching fluid
- expect to have fully compensated TGG isolator by Feb03

Adelaide
- all slabs (Litton and local supplier) back, corrected Litton slabs are now in specs but due
to the correction very close to the end of tolerance range -> used slabs from local supplier
- still problems with laser diode fluctuations (LZH will borrow some of their 800um fibres)
- first lasing experiments started
high power stage decision
- due to a request of all three groups the “laser decision” is delayed to the Spring LSC
meeting
- the decision making process stays like it is
- suggested times to do the measurements:

LZH: Feb. 24 - Feb. 28
Adelaide: Mar. 3 - Mar. 7
Stanford: Mar. 10 - Mar 14
LSC meeting: Mar - 17 Mar 20
 

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