Weekly Report for Week Ending January 23, 2003

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  January 27, 2003 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

Special Items:

Special Announcements:

I regret to inform you all that Otto Matherny suffered a severe stroke
while preparing breakfast at his home on Thursday morning, January 23. He
is currently in the critical care unit at Kadlec Medical Center in
Richland, WA. We are keeping in close touch with his family and providing
whatever assistance they can use. This is an extremely difficult time for
his family and I am concerned that we not overwhelm them with phone calls
to the hospital. They have a number of contact phone numbers and we are
having someone meet with them several times a day to ensure that they have
the help they need. Our best wishes go to them for Otto's successful recovery.

In his absence, we need to do our best to handle the numerous tasks that
Otto made look so easy. Until further notice, please address all
facilities-related matters to John Worden and please address all financial
matters to me.

Fred
 

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Weiss)

no report

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

There was no site teleconferences held on Thursday, January 23, 2003.

The list of current actions revised to reflect the status of open actions assigned through January 16, 2003 may be found at ACTION LIST.

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

• Provided support to the Detector Group (H. Armandula) with packing and shipping of two (2) Coated Sapphire Substrates (3"dia x 1" thick) serial numbers A01 and M05, and the preparation of U S Custom documentation for clearance to the University of Glasgow,  attention: Dr. Peter Sneddon.  Account Number P204296.
• Assisted the LLO with the repair of a General Services Administration Vehicle (2000 Ford Contour SE, Lic.G12 26231).  Submitted a letter, repair estimate, and the LLO Incident Report  to the Caltech Insurance Adjustor.  Repair approval was received.  This information was forwarded to the LLO Site Administrator and the Facility Manager.

>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

Finished the 7-page Large Optic Process Traveler Form as well as the 4-page Vacuum Process Traveler.

Scanned in four more months of IFIS budgets.  It looks like only five months from 1995 and the year 1993 remain to be scanned.  CD's will then be burned of all the scanned files and originals will be shredded.

Scanned and processed several publications and theses for the archives.

Began work on all the 2002 travel files from Irene.

• 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

• Continued organizing and filing documents.  Began resolving issues with a stack of documentation with a variety of problems including number duplication, incorrect numbering, missing pages, wrong revisions, etc.
 

DCC Activity




WE 01/23/03	Packages	Faxes
In	32	39
Out	7	20

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

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA .

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

• Completed change orders to Triad.  Completed change order #20 to Wave Precision.  Worked with Sherri Weed, Rob Kuppens, Esther Cunningham and Florence Kaufman to effect a cost transfer on two invoices paid under the Crystal Systems subcontract.  The cost transfer has created an over-encumbrance of approximately $15k only reflected on the PO, but not in OGM.
• Placed and reconciled pcard orders.
• Receiving and following up on updating certifications and OMB circulars for all change orders processed in December and January.
• The CPSR auditors will be on campus auditing Purchasing and Payment Services for one week next month from February 24th to 28th.
• In our weekly meeting yesterday, it was mentioned that the cost transfer policy has been updated recently to require Federal Acctg to approve cost transfers involving two federal accounts.  The exception was given to LIGO's cost transfers as all LIGO accounts fall under the main umbrella of the NSF grant.

• Completing Purchase Orders for Tape Drives
• Preparing for February Audit
• Jan 22, 2003 met with P Somer and T Heregewyn regarding leased equipment for CALTECH. I will be spending the next few weeks preparing reports fo the LA County Tax Exempt Office.

• Identified a problem in that payroll charges for Jill Andrews were not being correctly charged to LIGO.  Notified, Cindy about this, and we have now been informed that the problem with the proper account distribution for her payroll has been resolved.
• All Cost Transfers required for R&D Award PHY-98-01158 have now been made and posted in Oracle.  However, the reduction to Indirect Charges required as a result of these Cost Transfers have not yet been posted in Oracle, I have been told that these reductions will be posted as part of month end adjustments.
• I am now working on trying to get the few remaining Open Encumbrances in the R&D Award PHY-98-01158 either closed or transferred to other POETA's.

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

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

• Nothing significant to report.

• NTD Architects is preparing the drawings and cost estimates for the changes to the LHO Laboratory Building.  These are the double glass doors and the sunshade.
• The interior walls of the LLO Staging Building are nearly complete, with plans to move personnel into the building sometime in February.

• A policy is being formulated regarding the use of site vehicles.  Additionally, the number of site vehicles is being reviewed.

>Irene Baldon

• Processed the paper work for seven (7) new/revised trips and there are six (6) trips which are in various stages of completion before ticketing can be done and/or paper work completed.  Also assisted P-Card holders with their travel plans/reservations or revisions.  Until further notice I will be doing travel for LHO travelers.
• Completed six (6) Expense Reports and there are twenty-four (24) 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).
• Reconciled fourteen (14) 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.  And did final reconciling and monthly closing for one (1) traveler who was out of the country.
• Worked on the reading and arrangements for Leasing a home in Livingston, LA, for two (2) visitors to LLO (Ke and Wang) in lieu of staying at The Crestwood Suites for the next year.  Final Lease was signed and I sent Deposit & 1st Month's Rent Check to finalize arrangements.  Ke and Wang will move in on February 1st.
• Worked on the preparation and distribution of the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for January 21, 2002.  Arranged teleconferences and entered reservations on the LIGO Calendar as needed.  Performed normal recording and filing associated with Travel and Reimbursement.
• I continue to do MIT's travel to the sites for installation activities and also to assist them wherever possible.

• Processed invoices for payment. Tracked and followed up on invoice problems. Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther the week of January 13.
• 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.
• Jim continues with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

• No report this week.

Advanced LIGO (Frey)

Weekly Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting was held on Thursday the 23rd of Jan.  The subject of the meeting was the status of the detailed cost estimate and a forecast of a request amount.

For list of documents that are being used to develop Adv. LIGO Cost and Schedule, 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 -  Received revised data from Peter King, data input in progress.
• AOS - Work on action items continues.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.  Finished input Photon Drive cost data.  Need data for Initial Alignment System and Optical Levers.
• IO -  Work on action items continues.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• SUS - Working with Janeen doing updates and action items.  Input revised BOE and posted updated report.
• SEI - To date, no work on action items has been completed.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• ISC - Mike continues to work on the WBS dictionary.  No comments as of 01.23.03 on the draft detailed schedule and no WBS dictionary.
• LDAS - No action required at this point in time.
• INSTALL - Dennis to begin review and scrubbing.
• DAQ - Data input is complete.  Posted detailed estimate reports and issued BOE template to Jay.
• PM - I have data provided by Phil and started processing.
• FAC - Dennis provided WBS definitions, BOE, and schedule.  Data input complete.  Need detailed cost data to finalize.
• Per Gary and Dennis' direction, I should begin receiving data for all subsystems to prepare for submittal of January 31, 2003.

• ROSTER DATABASE:
• Working with Larry and Barbara to set up a process by which the roster database updates selected alias lists.
• Worked with Cindy and Irena for training / access purposes.

• COST BOOK DATABASE:
• Continue to verbally communicate the username and password to users.
• Will be working with BK to modify reports / web reports per comments.
• BK is continuing work on action items.
• Prepared updated reports and cost profiles in preparation for meeting with mgmt. on the 23rd.
• Continue preparing updated reports and cost profiles by Subsystem as requested by Gary.
• Prepared data for Phil to generate equipment lists.
• Started preparing cost data by NSF code by FY for Phil.
• Started preparing resource profile data for Dennis.

Worked with Mike Pedraza regarding change to Pictor Server.  Researched P3's compatibility with Windows Server 2000.

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

Also working on the Advanced LIGO Proposal.  Psyching up for FastLane submittal next week.

Change Request CR-030002 to adjust the FY 2003 operating budgets to reflect actual staffing during the first quarter has been prepared.  Additional information is required.

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

• Various personnel/payroll /HR related work.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

A LIGO safety audit of the 40M laboratory was completed.  The audit team consisted of representatives from both LIGO and the Caltech safety office. The audit found only a few minor items that need attention.

In summary, this LIGO facility has established and is practicing a good safety program including good housekeeping.  The 40M staff is to be also congratulated for their success in successfully correcting and/or eliminating safety action items identified in last years audit.

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

Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (compiled by R. Savage)
January 16, 2003 - January 23, 2003
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Final preparations for the E9 engineering run this weekend are underway.  The configuration of the H1 interferometer was frozen on Friday, 1/18.  The H2 configuration will be frozen on 2/3.

H1 has been locking reasonably well and, although we have not been able to measure a calibrated spectrum for the past few days, it seems to be fundamentally ready for S2.

H2 has had a number of difficulties this past week but seems to locking reliably now which should enable serious noise hunting session.

Visitors: NergisM and PeterF have been here all week working on ifo. commissioning.  BillK was up until last weekend and StefanB is also here. AdrianO, DavidC, DuncanB are here for the E9 run and we expect others will be showing up soon.

4k IFO (H1)
-----------

MichaelL upgraded his autocalibrator for both H1 and H2 to reduce the errors resulting from the pole-zero fits (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/19/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:19:21:29:58-landry_m).
BillK conducted a long investigation of thermal lensing in both the 2k and 4k ifo. (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/18/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:18:22:58:21-BillK).  Continuing this investigation, PeterF and NergisM increased the power into the 4k ifo. to 2.7 W.  They saw some increase in the sideband power buildup, but had difficulty  locking (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/21/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:21:16:46:10-peterF).  This work revealed that the maximum power that can be directed into the MC is lower than expected.  DougC and RickS measured the power levels on the PSL table and discovered that the laser power is down to about 5.5 watts, the PMC transmission is down to about 66%, and there is a large amount of scattered light emanating from the middle EOM in the IO path (Details:http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/23/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:23:11:10:42-rick).

PaulS and RickS upgraded the frequency servo card for the PSL resulting in performance close to the design specifications (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/17/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:18:00:07:07-rick).

DanielS and PeterF have implemented new digital filters in the optical lever servos that notch out all of the peaks up to 100 Hz and give 10-15 deg. more phase margin at the unity gain frequency of 2.5 Hz. (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/18/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:18:14:48:33-peterF).  With the new filters, the rms residual differential arm length fluctuation level is about 8e-14 m (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/22/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:22:16:40:19-peterF)

LucaM and PaulS continue work on the wavefront sensing system.

HughR and MichaelL re-measured the ETM calibrations and found them to be within about 10% of the previously-measured values (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/21/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:21:11:04:56-hugh).

DougC discovered that a number of optical lever lasers are failing at an alarming rate and may not make it through S2 (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/21/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:21:18:08:40-doug).

NergisM studied radiation pressure induced mirror torques as a function of light level (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/21/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:21:22:24:39-nergis).

2K IFO (H2)
-----------

DanielS implemented a low frequency boost in the common mode servo (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/18/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:19:01:33:56-daniel).

DickG made another measurement of sampled beam powers that indicates that the AR coating on ITMX might be nonexistent (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/17/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:17:19:10:05-gustafso).

NergisM and PeterF calibrated the ASPD1 and POB photodetectors and determined that the AS_Q spectrum is shot noise limited between 1 kHz and 1.6 kHz (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/19/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:19:12:09:24-peterF).

DickG and DanielS are preparing the second AS photodetector for implementation of the AS_I servo to enable increasing the power at the AS port.

HughR and BetsyB determined that when the RM is misaligned the input beam lands on the suspension cage for MMT2, and sometimes other optics, resulting in thermally-induced misalignment from which it takes several hours to recover once the RM is aligned (Details: http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=01/20/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:01:20:22:48:19-betsy).  The optimum misaligned RM position has yet to be determined.

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

Interferometer: The original all analog intensity stabilisation servo was installed as a back up for S2. A modified photodiode and modified intensity stabilisation servo board is being checked to see if it will work properly. It has the advantage that its gain can be controlled via an epics screen.

Wavefront sensor loops 1, 2A, and 2B are now routinely (more than once) engaged. WFS 4, acting on MMT3, has also (once) run in conjunction with the other three. WFS 3 is the next priority.

CDS: Preparing CDS stuff for E9. Working with Rolf and Lori to get the new ASC WFS Phase code and test points working. Installed new LSC code optimized for end station calibration excitations. Installed a new epics on Sun blade 100 and running Status screens. Installed epics on the DMT machine - pickerel to run the seismon and time mon epics interface. Fixed the statevector code for bugs and flickering bits. Installing a new Sun A1000 for backups. Chethan

The following is my progress report,
1) Working with Rolf and Lori on the asc bug fixes,
2) Working with Rana and Mike Landry on Mode Cleaner Autolocker sequence,
3) Developing a Test Diagnostics for Target Monitoring,
Ash

GC: Investigating some connectivity issues between LLO and LSU. This seems to be only affecting a couple of machines, however I am not sure what is causing it yet. Terry Doub at LSU seems to think that it is probably their IDS system putting temporary block on certain IPs. I explained to him that this could be a critical issue in the next few weeks as we go into the S2 run. I have his pager # in case this happens again. Looking into the use of a cvs archive to help Marcel and the people working with Solid Works models. This would provide version control, etc. The main question is whether or not cvs would handle binaries well and also whether or not there is a better product available. I have received hardly any (5 total) replies to the computer usage policy. I am going to send out a reminder email to remote users and probably send out a hard copy to local users. It has been 30 days or so since the email went out. Made a couple of changes to the firewall configuration to allow some ports to ldas-jobs. Upgraded touro to Solaris 9 on Saturday. There have been no problems with it so far.

LDAS: Ordered a new 16 port KVM switch for the LDAS equipment. I am waiting on the rack mount kit to install it. I have received most of the cables and associated items for it. Still working with the LDAS beowulf evaluation unit. I replaced the memory and the system is now stable, though I did have a problem trying to install redhat 8. This is probably due to a bad CD. I am going to try a network install next.
 

LDAS admin:
1) Finished upgrade to Solaris 9 on LDAS servers at LLO.
2) Installed DB2 at LHO and MIT after Solaris 9 upgrade.
3) There was a power outage in the new building this Monday. No damage
to LDAS. Hopefully, it would not happen again during E9 and S2.
4) Replaced broken CD drive and hard drive on metaserver.
5) Preparing for generation of AS_Q only RDS at both sites and
distributing the data between the sites.

LDAS data analysis:
1) Fixing last minute problems in waveburst DSO.
2) Preparing scripts to run waveburst DSO in real time during E9 and S2.

Other: Tifany Findley (Southeastern Louisiana University physics major sophomore) started to work at LLO on a regular basis from today. She will spend every Thursday at LLO. Her main project at LLO will be e2e simulation of input optics. She started to learn basics of e2e. To begin with, we made a little e2e.box to simulate the model pendulum that she setup on SLU campus. - Sany
 

Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• Plans for 40m: In the next few months, we expect to install most/all of the remaining instrumentation (suspended optics, DSCs, optical sensing trains, etc) to begin our interferometer experiment, *except* for the length and alignment control systems (LSC and ASC). These are complex and expensive systems. Without them, we can only control one or 2 degrees of freedom at a time. However, Jay points out that it is clearly too early to design a real Advanced LIGO control scheme, and thoughts on how to "do it right" are only beginning to take shape. One doesn't want to start too early, because computers and ADC/DAC modules keep getting better. Also, the 40m doesn't have multiple suspensions, and this will be a central issue in the design of the Advanced LIGO LSC and ASC systems. So, we should not rush into our "Advanced LIGO controls" experiment. However, we are eager to proceed with our "Advanced LIGO interferometry experiment". It should be possible to do so, with an Initial LIGO controls architecture, which might then have to be replaced with a better-thought-out Advanced LIGO controls architecture later on. We have to decide how to proceed in the near term!
• Suspended mass mode cleaner (Ugolini, Miyakawa, Vass, Abbott):
• Osamu continues to investigate the origin of various noise sources in the PSL frequency noise as measured by the MC.
• He has traced the 60 Hz harmonics peaks to the MC2 DSC. If he length actuates instead with MC1 or MC3, the 60 Hz harmonics peaks go away. Under investigation.
• The large 7 Hz oscillation, by contrast, is associated with actuating with MC1 or MC3, and goes away when actuating with MC2! Recall that MC1 and MC3 DSC's are in rack 1Y5, and operate at 2048 Hz; MC2's DSC is in rack 1Y4 and operates at 16384 Hz.
• A big peak at ~16.5 Hz is believed to be the suspension bounce mode. Dennis has tried several notch filters designed with PHOTON, but they don't have much effect. Under investigation.
• Loose screws in the PSL and AP1 tables were tied down by Steve and Larry.It made a small (~ 3 dB) improvement in the broad-band frequency noise.
• The cluster of peaks from 500-700 Hz are likely due to vibrating mirror mounts on the PSL table. Osamu moved one mount from the periscope to the table and eliminated one peak at ~ 600 Hz. Osamu is pretty sure it's due to beam jitter (due to vibrating mounts) downstream of the PMC. We are considering stiffening the periscope.
• Broadband frequency noise above 2 kHz is due to PMC and FSS noise. The frequency stability servo (FSS) has not been tuned up since we started actuating on the VCO with the MC error signal. The UGF is worse than before (it's ~ 250 kHz, should be > 1 MHz!). Osamu will continue to look at this.
• Still, the frequency noise is now bettere than spec over most of the spectrum!
• Core digital suspension controllers (DSC), and other Electronics (B. Abbott, Taylor):
• Dennis and Ben found numerous problems with the DSC software, and then Alex Ivanov came in and fixed almost all of them! Now the DSC software loads correctly for all 6 DSC's in rack 1Y4 (ETMx/ETMy, PRM/BS, and SRM/MC2). There were lots of problems with the databases, and Dennis has fixed most or all of them. The rack power supplies were current limiting, so the current limits were set higher, but still safe. Numerous cabling problems were found and fixed.
• Dennis and Ben have now checked out all of the new 6 DSC's, and they all damp MC2 well. All 8 satellite amplifiers (including ones for the ETMs) have been checked out. They have some problems (wrong gain resistors) which will be fixed, next.
• Alex fixed it so that if the frame builder is rebooted, or if for any reason the DAQS crashes, it will automatically restart.
• Still some problems: most but not all excitation test points work. Alex is still looking at it.
• Also, the new Pentiums forget where they are supposed to go to find their startup.cmd; we don't know why. So, if/when they get rebooted, a laborious procedure must be followed to get the DSC code running again.
• We still need to implement appropriate filtering for our 5" ("MOS") test mass suspensions; Jay says that, to lowest order, only the gain needs to be adjusted.
• Ben has inventoried all the electronics we need to complete the end racks (with DSC's for the ETMs) and the mode cleaner WFS system. He's working with the CDS group to obtain all the hardware, and he just ordered 2 new VME crates that are required. Alex says that he will be ready to install the ETMx/y DSC software as soon as the hardware is in place.
• We will push for completion of the MC alignment control. We need a PZT driver from CDS. Ben reports that Laurie will be available to implement the digital control software for the system during the "E9 lull in CDS workload" ;)
• PSL and ISS (O. Miyakawa, B. Abbott, R. Abbott, F. Nocera, D. Ugolini, S. Vass):
• The laser power fluctuations observed by Osamu and Steve appear to be correlated with chiller temperature variations, and we suspect that the latter variations may be due to the ISS system; this is under investigation.
• Flavio continues to make good progress on the ISS at the 40m PSL.
• Ben is working with Fred Mann on a better design for the DC PD box, to allow for changes in height while staying as rigid as possible.
• Osamu and Steve plan on improving the mode matching into the PMC to increase the transmitted power.
• Optical sensing (Smith):
• OPTICS PARTS LIST, Received parts: Most of the mechanical parts for the mode matching telescope were received. Mounting collar for mounting the PZT tilt platform onto the DLC vacuum mirror mount and the mirror holder were received from CA Machine; but because of wrong hole pattern information, the mounting holes of the secondary mirror holder don't match with the PZT tilt platform and the mirror holder will have to be reworked..
• Orders pending: Input mode-matching telescope off-axis parabolic mirrors are expected end of Feb. from SORL; re-worked half-wave plates are expected this week from KLC, for the Faraday isolator; drive electronics to drive the x and y axes of the 2nd PZT vacuum IFO steering mirror are pending from Piezo-Jena.
• IFO MODE-MATCHING TELESCOPE: Because of wrong hole pattern information, the mounting holes of the secondary mirror holder don't match with the PZT tilt platform and the mirror holder will have to be reworked. Alternative mirror holders for holding spherical mirrors were designed and are being fabricated; spherical mirrors will be used in the interim until the parabolic mirrors are received. Hope to assemble system in next few weeks.
• OPTICAL LEVER: Some of the mechanical parts for magnified focus lens are still in process of being fabricated.
• FARADAY ISOLATOR: The HWP assembly from KLC is in shipment. All of the other parts have been cleaned and baked. Hope to assemble system in next week.
• Facilities and vacuum envelope (Ugolini, Vass, Jones):
• Loose screws in the PSL and AP1 tables have been fastened down.
• Steve is working with Larry on a particle filter for the N2 purge line.
• Steve is working with Larry on aluminum racks to hold chamber doors, to replace the wood ones.
• CES mounted an in-vac mirror for camera viewing onto one of our viewports, but they chipped the glass on the viewport. Steve will do a vacuum test to see whether it presents a risk for installation.
• South Annex Bake Ovens (Taylor, Cardenas):
• In-vacuum mirrors are being prepared for installation by Steve and Bob. They have been marking the mirrors with an etching pen, on the sides. They learned that mirrors from CVI need special low-temp baking or the coatings will peel off!
• Bob is cleaning, baking, and testing the OSEMs that he built to complete all the 40m optics. He notes that we can expect a ~ 25% failure rate, but he can catch the failures early and reliably.
• All bake ovens are in good repair and available.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

This week we confirmed our data-analysis conclusions from last week,
that the noise in the South Arm Cavity (SAC) is back down to a level
comparable to our previous best spectrum. The noise in the North Arm
Cavity (NAC) is now comparable to that in SAC, though not quite as good.
Both spectra are shown in the attached graph.

Our current lock is quite robust. We first obtained a good noise
spectrum in SAC with a very marginal servo, which took about two hours
to acquire lock and would only acquire late at night. At that time, NAC
also took a long time to acquire, but its noise level was at least an
order of magnitude above SAC's at all frequencies. Now, we have a much
more reliable servo that acquires both cavities within minutes, at any
time of the day or night, and holds them for hours at a time. Moreover,
NAC's noise is now at least comparable to SAC's. Implementing the
better servo was the easy part. Getting the noise back down to the
low-10^-18 m/rHz level was harder. Surprisingly, a major source of
noise was two collimating lenses in the reflected beams from both
cavities. These lenses were in vacuum and securely bolted to the
seismic-isolation table, so we did not expect them to contribute an
appreciable amount of noise. Nevertheless, removing them has
substantially improved our noise floor.

Also surprising was the level to which, with good alignment, we had to
reduce the total laser power before we could acquire lock. The
transient locks that we saw before are apparently related to the amount
of power inside the cavities. Placing a 1.0 ND filter before the
cavities allows us to lock, but placing it after the cavities, in front
of the photodiodes, does not, even when the electronic gains are
compensated accordingly. The problem does not appear to be scattered
light in the OSEM heads.

We are now in the process of trying to identify the current dominant
noise sources in both cavities and reduce them, and we are
experimenting with increasing the laser power after lock acquisition.

On another front, the photothermal data for fused silica is looking
good.
This week, we changed the distribution of power in the sidebands and
carrier
of the laser and encountered what appears to be a resonance in the
frequency response of the RF photodiode. Experiments are ongoing to
determine if this is dependent on experimental parameters, such as the
light power.

LASTI (Zucker)

LASTI (Lantz, Hardham, Coyne, Hammond, Kern, Lilienthal,
Mason, MacInnis, Mittleman, Ottaway, Rankin, Rollins,
Shoemaker, Zucker, Zuo)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 

HAM/MEPI characterization & test
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
We have been trying to see how much control authority we can get on the
current HAM plant before the planned mechanical stiffening modification
next week.  We have managed to close local control loops around all 8
actuators, and have achieved modest isolation in the 1-10Hz band.

#MZ Great!

The effort on modal control hasn't made much progress due to a lack of
man power. Dave Ottaway is being diverted from other work and will dig
into it this week and next.

The design of the HAM crossbeam stiffeners has been completed and
material ordered. The machined and fabricated parts will be delivered
on Friday. Myron and Bill have built molds for epoxy which will be used
to replicate the crossbeam surfaces. This process is similar to
grouting except it will produce a removable epoxy shim to take up the
differences in the two crossbeams.

BSC/HEPI characterization & test
-------------------------------------------------------
Brian Lantz and Corwin Hardham (Stanford) have been here since Monday.
After puzzling for a time over a very strange actuator frequency response,
we found out that the wrong pin valves had been installed in all of the
actuators.  This produced a leak between the bellows which resulted in
a lack of authority at low frequencies.  A complete set of new valve
stems have been installed and the actuator transfer functions
now appear to match Brian's model.

#MZ Matlab and DSpace should consider marketing to the plumbing and
heating trades...

Last night Brian and Corwin closed a stable control loop in the
coordinated vertical direction using the displacement sensors. Upper unity
gain frequency was about 10 Hz.

#MZ Another milestone! Cool.

AdLIGO Triple Suspension (MC) Prototype Test
-------------------------------------------------------
The spacers used to set HAM 21 at the new lower height have arrived from the
fabricator. They will be sent out this week for cleaning and bakeout.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

SIMULATION AND MODELLING (BHAWAL)
 

E2E MODELLING:
 

WEEKLY PHYSICS MEETING:
 

Matt, Luca, Virginio, Hiro and Biplab discussed about WFS and the
newest version of SimLIGO.
 

NEW SimLIGO PACKAGE:
 

(Matt)
 The latest version released on 18th January is available from the E2E
 webpage.  You can also find it, along with old versions, noise curves, and
 other goodies, at http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~mevans/SimLIGO/
 This version requires an update of modeler.
 Here is an excerpt from "SimLIGO/Boxes/changes.txt":
 030118 - Multimode Lock Acquisition with QPD control of BS, QuickLIGO
    SimLIGO now works with curvature mismatch computation enabled.  This
  makes the behavior of the sidebands in the PRC more realistic thereby
  allowing lock acquisition (which otherwise suffers from an unfortunate
  matrix singularity very near peak power buildup).  Lock acquisition
  is not robust, but works for n+m=2 and n+m=4 (gLRef must be modified
  to run n+m=2, see LHO4k.mcr).
    Angular control of the BS has been added to the ASC system,
  so all of the core-optics are now controlled (and the optical
  levers disabled) in the locked state.
    A variable attenuation shutter has also been added to the ASY
  port.  Due to as yet insufficient gain in the DARM loop, this
  shutter can only be opened to 10% transmission (was fixed at 2%).
  Greater transmissions, in the presence of seismic noise, cause
  ADC saturation.
    This version includes a less accurate, but much faster, optional
  environment (read "seismic") model in the "EnvQuick" directory.
  Angular motion of the ground, but not the suspension point, is ignored
  and the cross-coherence function is simplified.  SimLIGO can also
  be made to run much faster with n+m=0 if ASC/QuadADC.box is replaced
  with ASC/QuadADC_empty.box.  This disables the ASC system, which is
  of little use in a plane-wave simulation.
 

NEW E2E PACKAGE RELEASED:
 

(Hiro) A new e2e package 1.7.10 was created and made available from e2e
homepage. This has been announced through ligo-e2e maillist.
This includes changes of the code and primitive interface of the input
matrix. The latest SimLIGO uses this new interface, and it needs this
simulation package. Han2k needs to be modified to use with the this
simulation package and one box file is provided to make the transition easy.
 

(Ed Maros) Helped in making the release of the new version of e2e package.
 

WFS SIGNALS:
 

(Biplab) Some differences between the '97 paper by Fritschel et al and
 e2e's ouputs have been observed. One difference is: while the paper says
 the RM signal and COMM-ITM  signals are different by about 50% at the
 reflected port, E2E predicts same signal for both kinds of perturbation.
 FFT qualitatively agrees with E2E on this observation but quantitatively
 differs with E2E. Differences between FFT and E2E are being looked at.
 

ALFI:
 

   (Bruce) [4 days]
        - Implementing the saving of options, search paths, and other
          information from session to session.  This is rerquired in
          order to complete the implementation of the Web Start
          distribution system.
 

    (Melody)
        - Fixed an alfi5 performance problem.
        - Continued with the automated tester for alfi5.
 
 

LIGO DATA ANALYSIS SYSTEMS
 

SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (BLACKBURN)
 

A pre-release of LDAS was pushed to MIT, LLO, LHO, and CIT over the weekend.
These systems were all up by late Tuesday with no major issues. The time that
is required to build the frame cache seems unusually large, though this may
be do to the inability to optimize the compiling of LDAS with GCC 3.2.1. All
sites now have the new databases and table designs requested by the LSC for
E9/S2 in place.
 

The three main issues with the code continue to be a problem:
 

a) the 3600 second time out in the frameAPI - there is more evidence this
   week that this is due to an assumption in the TCL layer of the frameAPI
   which is causing it loose unique counting for the running threads. A
   possible fix has been identified twice now...the first one failed, the
   second will be tested tonight. This failure mode is still at about 0.07%
   of the time.
 

b) the MPI_INIT error - This is almost certainly due to a bug in the TCL
   layer of the mpiAPI. In evidence of this is a test in which we ran over
   the three day weekend with the old 0.5.0 version of mpiAPI integrated
   into the LDAS 0.5.64 pre-release on the LDAS-TEST system. The old 0.5.0
   mpiAPI only failed once in the 80 hours instead of the nominal 30 times
   per day seen on other LDAS 0.5.64 system with the new 0.5.64 mpiAPI. An
   attempt to modify the 0.5.64 mpiAPI with what was thought to be a fix
   did not resolve the problem. We are still working towards a solution.

c) the dead-lock condition between the lightweightAPI and the metaDataAPI -
   no progress has been made on this issue. We do have a way of causing the
   failure...and it is a serious failure in that the system is completely
   locked up for any request that uses these APIs until human intervention.
   There is also a minimum of 15 minutes required to fix the problem once
   it occurs. We do not know if the "magic" combination of jobs will be
   rolled out during E9 to cause this problem, but it is very likely that
   in an eight week S2 run this will make the "spot-light". Kent and Ed
   had some discussions on possible ways to remove or greatly reduce the
   possibility of this deadly combination, but there is not time before
   E7 to implement and test a fix and it will be very difficult to do all
   that is needed before S2. We will have to monitor closely the system
   looking for this problem.

With all the serious bugs in the system, we have not had a chance to carry
out the complete suite of tests before the E9 run. For the roughly 60% of
the tests carried out, the system passes (outside of the three issues above).
DMT triggers are known to work; creation of RDS frames are known to work;
reading of calibration frames are known to work; support for gaps in data is
working; database accessors are working. A minor bug in the PSD code within
the dataConditionAPI was discovered and fixed. This is the majority of what is
needed for a run so E9 should be in good shape. We will continue to test and
fix bugs between E9 and S2.
 

Now that the CDS frameBuilder is generating version 6 frames, we have begun
concurrently testing against these new frames as well as against the version
5 frames written in the first science run. An issue with bad checksums was
discovered in the new CDS frames earlier this week and has subsequently been
fixed.
 

The new web pages to allow LDAS users to extend the expiration date for
their passwords has been completed and should be installed later today. A
fixed 3 month extension is the only option available at this time and should
be sufficent to get users through the E9 and S2 runs.
 

We are presently building the version of LDAS to be run during the E9 run.
The LDAS CVS repository has been tagged and we will push this LDAS along with
the new LAL and LALwrapper libraries to the sites late today.
 
 

HARDWARE SYSTEMS (ANDERSON)
 

CALTECH:
 

(Dan Kozak)
* Placed order for another 1200 9940 tapes.
* Worked on getting quotes from STK (I have received some, but
  corrections are necessary) for 9940 maintenance, 9940 tapes and the
  L700/9940B drive order.
* Got new media license for SAM 4.0 (for ldas-archive) and am working
  getting tape archiving up and running on SAM 4.0.
 

(Al Wilson)
* Completing the install of BigBrother at LHO and LLO.
* Removed Red Hat LAM rpm from desktop machines at CIT.
* Monitoring the machines at CIT for heat problems. CIT is on reduced
  cooling for the next couple of days.
 

(Stuart Anderson)
* Finished upgrading the remaining 6th floor Millikan desktop Ultra10
  machines to Solaris 9.
* Attempted to keep the various LDAS pre-release software versions
  properly synchronized between the 6 Lab LDAS installations.
* Signed up for a beta evaluation program for additional Fibre Channel
  equipment.
* Working with Dan Kozak to obtain quotes for the ~700 slot robotics
  for each Observatory.
 

MIT:
 

(Keith Bayer)
* Upgraded Solaris boxes to v9.
* Removed some old job output from /export.
* Researching large IDE drive replacement for new PC Raid.
* Received Rambus 2U Pentium cluster unit today.
* Received new power supply for Penguin cluster node 10 (went dead last week).
 

LIVINGSTON:
 

(Igor Yakushin)
 

* Finished upgrade to Solaris 9 on LDAS servers at LLO.
* Installed DB2 at LHO and MIT after Solaris 9 upgrade.
* There was a power outage in the new building this Monday. No damage
  to LDAS. Hopefully, it will not happen again during E9 and S2.
* Replaced broken CD drive and hard drive on metaserver.
* Preparing for generation of AS_Q only RDS at both sites and
  distributing the data between the sites.
 

(Shannon Roddy)
 

* Ordered a new 16 port KVM switch for the LDAS equipment.  I am waiting
  on the rack mount kit to install it.  I have received most of the cables
  and associated items for it.
* Still working with the LDAS beowulf evaluation unit.  I replaced the
  memory and the system is now stable, though I did have a problem trying
  to install redhat 8.  This is probably due to a bad CD.  I am going to
  try a network install next.
 

HANFORD:
 

(Greg Mendell)
* Completed the upgrade to Solaris 9 on the LHO LDAS Sun computers.
* Prepared the tapecontrol script to archive the raw E9 frame data.
  Igor and I will handle this.  As usual, monitoring of the script will be
  set in the control room. The log files will be here:
 

    For LHO:
    http://www.ldas.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ldas_outgoing/tapecontrol/logs/clientlog.html
 

    For LLO:
    http://www.ldas.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ldas_outgoing/tapecontrol/logs/clientlog.html
 

* Preparing the rdsloop script to generated the level 2 RDS frames during E9.
* Ordered a replacement disk and a set of UPS batteries to replace
  failed parts.  Neither failure will impact E9.
 
 

DATA ANALYSIS (BLACKBURN)
 

CALTECH:
 

(Teviet Creighton)
This week I wrote routines to convert data from radio-pulsar
catalogues into a form suitable for LIGO targeted pulsar searches.
 

(Weinstein)
- preparing online running of burst dsos
- prepared plan for hardware inections of bursts during E9,
  and preparing detailed configuration files.
- preparing to quickly look at hardware injections after they happen.
- continued testing of time-dependent calibration info for burst simulations
 

LHO:
 

(Greg Mendell)
The main activity of the last week was to update driver scripts for the
knownpulsardemod DSO to run under the dsorun package.  This will allow
the DSO to run real-time, driven by a loop script that is controlled and
monitored by the Search Summary web pages developed by Duncan Brown and
Patrick Brady.
 

LLO:
 

(Igor Yakushin)
1) Fixing last minute problems in waveburst DSO.
2) Preparing scripts to run waveburst DSO in real time during E9 and S2.
 
 

GENERAL COMPUTING (WALLACE)
 

MIT:
 

(Keith)
- Spec'd out desktop server
- Submitted group's matlab licenses to MIT Volume License Group
- Submitted paperwork for several more IP addresses
- Ordered RAM upgrade for geraint
 

Livingston:
 

(Shannon)
- Investigating some connectivity issues between LLO and LSU.  This seems
  to be only affecting a couple of machines, however I am not sure what is
  causing it yet.  Terry Doub at LSU seems to think that it is probably
  their IDS system putting temporary block on certain IPs.  I explained to
  him that this could be a critical issue in the next few weeks as we go
  into the S2 run.  I have his pager # in case this happens again.
- Looking into the use of a cvs archive to help Marcel and the people
  working with Solid Works models.  This would provide version control,
  etc.  The main question is whether or not cvs would handle binaries well
  and also whether or not there is a better product available.
- Received only a few (5 total) replies to the computer usage
  policy.  I am going to send out a reminder e-mail to remote users and
  probably send out a hard copy to local users.  It has been 30 days or so
  since the e-mail went out.
- Made a couple of changes to the firewall configuration to allow some
  ports to ldas-jobs.
- Upgraded touro to Solaris 9 on Saturday.  There have been no problems
  with it so far.
 

Hanford:
 

(Christine)
- Performed some network testing with PNNL to troubleshoot the poor
  bandwidth coming on to the site.  After configuring the router port
  going to the atm hub to be half duplex on both sides the network
  performance improved dramatically.  Before we were getting 3 or 4
  Mbits/s going off-site and only 200 kbits/s coming on-site, we are now
  getting up to 6 Mbits/s going off-site and up to 4 Mbits/s coming
  on-site.  The next step is to program both the atm hub and router to
  fullduplex and see if that improves the performance.  The router is also
  scheduled to be upgraded.
- Continued installing Solaris 9 on GC Suns.
- Setup a new laptop.
- Investigating new Network Analyzer software.
- The usual user support and purchasing.
 

CIT:
 

(Mike)
- Continuing to load PC's with OS patches and General Computing
  software.
- A lot of user support this week, that mostly included software issues
  that I corrected.
- Worked on a few printers, by swapping out components, chemicals and
  cleaning them up.
- Still working on two PC's that I have loaded with 2000 pro but still need
  G/C software loaded these well be used to swap out users with older computers.
- Swapped out Ed's old computer with a newer computer.
- Reloaded a laptop for a user that got hacked; this laptop had to be
  wiped clean and reloaded from scratch. I was able to recover most of the
  users data. This user is back up and running.
- Loaded a laptop with O/S and G/C software for the loaner pool.
- Setup the backup air-conditioning unit for the temporary downtime of the
  Campus air-conditioning.
 

(Lisa)
- Rewrote the monthly backup scripts.
- Did a security check on luna.  I need to make a couple of changes and run the
  current patch set.
- Installed staroffice on the ultra10's on the 6th floor.
- Did some cleanup on the home account disks.
- Got FVWM running on the ultra10's on the 6th floor.
- Worked with Sun to get a list of our current support contracts.
- Contacted the ITS person who manages the Sun software contract about getting
  our solaris 9 update.
- Worked on a problem with the rsh on luna.  This is still unresolved.
- Started showing people how to configure their e-mail to use starttls
  (encryption) on becrux.
 

(Veronica)
- LIGO website: Negotiating with Digital Media Center about processing of
  LIGO VHS tapes. Posted several updates (Aspen webpages, Undergraduate
  projects, Roster front-end).
- Working on Advanced LIGO proposal.
- LSC website: updated 'Talks to be Presented' to include a section on the
  April APS meeting, per Rai Weiss' request.
- CaJAGWR website: updated the website. Compressed the video of last
  week's talk in preparation for web posting. Working on merging the videos
  and visuals of past talks that will be posted as a combo.
 

(Larry)
- It has been a short week for me. Most of the time was spent working on
  procurement issues. Just a lot of small orders.
- A few more people have sent in their notices agreeing to comply with the GC
  usage policy. At the end of the month a list of those that have not sent in
  a reply will be generated. Each account on the list will be addressed on a
  case-by-case basis.

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

LSC LASERS WORKING GROUP
Minutes of telecon Jan 9th 2003

LZH

- single transversal mode operation after redesign of resonator: 82W, M 2 = 1.2 goes to
90W with M 2 = 1.8 for higher pump power (with brewster plate in resonator, self-injection
locked)
- all electronics in place for injection locking to 2W NPRO, PZT actuator under
characterization
- plan to optimize the resonator for one more week for higher power and better M*2, then
start injection-locking
- polarized multimode operation of Nd:YAG front end at 23W

Stanford

- crystal shop did not get brewster cut and length of chipped second edge pump slab right,
second go under way
- edge-pumped laser heads remachined
- end-pumped slabs (more than 10 slabs) delivered
- pump-diodes for end-pumped slabs from LaserLine have wrong central wavelength
(800nm), temperature control do not work yet (software problem)
- Shally hopes that with temperatur controller 806nm might work because of the long
absorption length in the end-pumped design

Florida

- FK51 AR coated rod delivered
- get ready to try fully thermal compensated isolator
- EOM tested for 60h at 30W with w0 = 60um

Adelaide

- LZH fibres installed, work much better than old fibres
- wave guides for homogenization of pump light came in damaged, are currently redone
- worked on thermal control of the slabs in vertical direction to avoid beam walk out of
gain region
- injection locking of 10W laser planned for next week
- work in progress to increase NPRO temperature to >100C to match core temperature of
slab
high power stage decision

- all groups agreed on test dates

LZH: Feb. 24 - Feb. 28
Adelaide: Mar. 3 - Mar. 7
Stanford: Mar. 10 - Mar 14

Shally plans to come to LZH and Adelaide, the Adelaide LSC meeting participant might
come earlier to the US to take part in the test at Stanford, Maike and Benno go to Adelaide
and Stanford
 

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

    This week I revisited the identification of modes in the MC prototype
because I wasn't quite happy with the agreement achieved last week. I did
an audit of the vertical distances between the wire attachment points and
the centres of mass. I found two that were larger than in the conceptual
design by around 2 mm each, which accounts for most of the discrepancy in
the pitch mode frequencies.
 

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

SolidWorks
I have been updating the Excel sheet that generates for example a Bill of Materials to include the material of all of the parts. This involves defining the material of each part in its properties. This will also allow us to split the overall Bill of Materials into sections according to material which will be very useful for a traveller.

Assembly
Janeen and I have been working on creating a full assembly with all of the parts, assemblies and fixtures.

Mode Cleaner Suspension
Mark Barton and I have been measuring the various parameters on the suspension in order to allow us to compare the measured and theoretical mode frequencies.
Helena and I have prepared one of the suspensions in order to transport it over the Central Machine Shop for the measuring of the structural resonances.
Russell Jones, Caroline and I met this week to discuss some of the concepts I had worked on while I was in Glasgow. Amoung other things we are looking at alternative blade wire clamp designs and obtaining data sheets for the library of angled clamps.
 

From: Michael Smith <smith@ligo.caltech.edu>

40 METER IFO

OPTICS PARTS LIST
Received parts:
Most of the mechanical parts for the mode matching telescope were received. Mounting collar for mounting the PZT tilt platform onto the DLC vacuum mirror mount and the mirror holder were received from CA Machine; but because of wrong hole pattern information, the mounting holes of the secondary mirror holder don't match with the PZT tilt platform and the mirror holder will have to be reworked..

Orders pending:
Input mode-matching telescope off-axis parabolic mirrors are expected end of Feb. from SORL; re-worked half-wave plates are expected this week from KLC, for the Faraday isolator; drive electronics to drive the x and y axes of the 2nd PZT vacuum IFO steering mirror are pending from Piezo-Jena.
 

IFO MODE-MATCHING TELESCOPE
Because of wrong hole pattern information, the mounting holes of the secondary mirror holder don't match with the PZT tilt platform and the mirror holder will have to be reworked. Alternative mirror holders for holding spherical mirrors were designed and are being fabricated; spherical mirrors will be used in the interim until the parabolic mirrors are received.

OPTICAL LEVER
Some of the mechanical parts for magnified focus lens are still in process of being fabricated.
 
 

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

AdLIGO Suspensions
Input Jay's electronics/software proposal data.
Gin Gin Suspensions
Submitted the ITM magnet gluing fixture drawing to CES on Monday.
 

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

Advanced LIGO Coating Development
Received from MLD two 3" dia. x 1" thick sapphire substrates coated with 30 layers of Ta2O5 / SiO2. The parts were sent to Glasgow for "Q" measurements before annealing.
The annealed substrates, thick and thin, coated with 30 layers of SiO2/Al2O3 are expected to arrive to Caltech from MLD on Friday the 24th.

Silicate bonding - SF4 glass
The 1/2" dia. bonds under test for a week are still holding.
One, being tested in sheer, is loaded with 4.5 kg. The other, being tested in tension, is being pulled with 20 kg of force.
 

From Riccardo:

Francesco Cordero
from the Acoustic Institute of Roma joining the team.
Measured the Q-factor of Vitralloy, found a Q-factor of 6000 at room temperature growing to 40000 at 100 K.  Using this data to estimate MoRuB Q-factorat room temperature, correcting for the different Tg,  yields Q > 30000.
Francesco came to Caltech for a week to prepare MoRuB samples and organize a measurement program.

Charles
Continuing misery with brazing but better success rate.  He can now wet well MoRuB even without sputtering (it is a relief) but we need a very fast de-oxydizing and solder wetting sequence to avoid oxydation and the success rate is not 1.  For the future will prepare an Argon glove box to avoid re-oxydation between steps.  With Vitralloy we still have problems even with sputtering.  Will try with more aggressive sputtering.

Alessandro
Written accelerometer paper, circulating for comments this week.
The aluminium accelerometers now have a Q factor above 1000, with correspondingly better performance.
May be useful to get one of the CuBe accelerometers back from Japan to measure how much better it can be.  The cheaper aluminium version is probably perfectly good for TAMA damping.
Installed the Ultra Sound Milling Machine in Pisa.
 
 Mike
Writing sapphire fiber roughness paper.

Hareem, Charles
Splatting samples.

Stoyan
Turned in report.

Xavier
Starting studies of flex joints in INSA.
 

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