Weekly Report for Week Ending July 3, 2003

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  July 7, 2003 will be:

CANCELLED DUE TO AMALDI MEETING

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Saulson)

   The Executive Committee of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration met on 27 June 2003,
and considered three of the S1 papers (Stochastic, Pulsar, and Inspiral) for
possible approval for publication.
   I am pleased to announce that the results presented in each of the three papers
were approved as the final S1 results of their respective searches. This means that
the LSC Executive Committee authorizes the use of these results as approved and
final results.
   We did, however, find some editorial problems in each of the three papers.
For this reason, none of the three papers is yet approved to be distributed
outside the LSC, posted on the archives, or submitted to a journal for publication.
The LSC Executive Committee created ad hoc subcommittees to work with each of the
three Search Groups to resolve these issues. We expect that this process can be
completed shortly. After a subcommittee is satisfied, the paper will be posted for
final checking by the LSC. As long as nothing wrong is found after one week's
posting, the Spokesperson will authorize the posting of the paper to the
gr-qc archive.
   A tremendous amount of good hard work has gone into the S1 analysis. We should
all be very proud of how well it has gone, and how close we are to concluding it.
 

Peter Saulson
LSC Spokesperson

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Lindquist)

A site teleconference was held on Thursday, July 3, 2003.  The following were among the items discussed:

The Construction effort is complete and we are accumulating the final costs.  Current estimates indicate that we will be within $20K of the $292.1 million target cost.

Finacial reports for Operations as of the end of June 2003 have also been published on the web.  Our current expense rate is slightly less than $3 million per month, which is up a tad since we have moved all cost away from Construction.  Also procurements are increasing.  Seven purchase requisitions have been prepared for the external pre-isolation.

Livingston Construction: the storage building is complete, and the gate is basically complete (missing only the actual gate).

The list of current actions revised to reflect the status of open actions assigned through July 3, 2003 may be found at ACTION LIST.

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

• Nothing significant to report.  Conducting Caltech's Property Inventory.

>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

• Worked with George Stokes throughout the week to help diagnose the problems encountered in the linking of available electronic documents to the web searches of the DCC database.  In the process discovered duplicate fields, some fields with no relationships, and sundry of other issues that may have contributed to an unstable database environment.  George has made several signficant changes both to the design and nomenclature that should make everything run smoother and more stable.  We have been "testing" the changes and debugging using a "dummy" database of over 7,000 records.  We both feel confident that we can install everything for live production early next week.
• Visited Bonelli Park last Friday for consideration of using it for the LIGO summer party.
• Worked with Dennis to provide solutions for the UK group's submittals of documents, both those for public use as well as those with sensitive or procurement data.  A new group ID was added (K) so that they can do a search and pull up all documents submitted by authors within their group.  Larry will be setting up a folder similar in design to the ScienceDocs directory in docspublic.  It will be called UK and will be password protected so that only UK members can access those designated with restricted circulation.
• Handled a large number of electronic drawings that were submitted as email attachments or through links in emails.  Most of these have been submitted into dcc/OUT and processed for permanent archival in docspublic or docsinternal.
• Reminder to LIGO staff:  Please make sure that as a minimum, each document submitted has a LIGO number, author's name, and date.  Many documents are missing one of more of these essential pieces of information!

ACTIVITY

• Electronic document activity has been steady.  Organized, sorted and filed documentation.

Press here to access the DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER WEB PAGE.

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

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA .

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

• No report this week (vacation).

• No report this week.

• Reports for Operations and Construction as of the end of June have been posted on the network.
• In the process of closing out encumbrances related to the Construction Award we have discovered that occasionally when a purchase moves from the Purchase Requisition to the Purchase Order stage some portion of the encumbrance for the requisition is not deleted when the encumbrance for the purchase order is created.  This results in the encumbrances being overstated.  Fortunately, the dollar amounts involved  have been minor and are easily corrected.  I have talked to Dot, Ruth, and Gina about this and we have come up with a strategy to try to eliminate this problem.
• Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport

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

• ADLIGO SEI Mech. Structures: A letter clarifying Phase II proposal requirements for cost detail, updating selection criteria for Phases II and III, providing a summary of cost and schedule history regarding our Tech Demo contract with High Precision Devices Inc., and amending Phase II documentation requirements was distributed to Phase I contractors.
• AdLIGO Optics Coating R&D: Addendum No. 1 to the RFP for Coating Research and Development and Production Coating of Advanced LIGO core Optics was processed. The addendum clarifies issues raised at the Proposers Conference and responds to additional questions posed. Proposals are due July 16th.
• CRDF: CO No. 11, adding FY '04 funds in support of AdLIGO low noise suspensions and readout systems research at the Moscow State Univ.was released to Purchasing.
• University of Oregon: Invoices covering the FY '03 effort to date are being re-issued to correct mischarges.

CONSTRUCTION:

• The Cooperative Agreement for the Construction of LIGO officially ended on June 30, 2003.  The current financial reports show an overrun of approximately $20,000 on a $292,100,000 program.  Many thanks to all who participated in bringing this program to a successful conclusion.
• The pre-fabricated storage building at LLO has been completed, and plans are being made to move items from the storage facility in the Town of Livingston to the new building.
• The access gate at LLO is nearly complete.  Only the installation of the gate itself is needed to complete this facility.

• The package stating the LIGO position on the proposed Maiden Wind Farm construction has been submitted to the Benton County Board of Adjustment for review at a hearing scheduled for July 10.
• P-Card training and purchasing classes are being scheduled for the sites.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Lloyd, Tischler)

>Irene Baldon

• Processed the paper work for thirty-six (36) new/revised trips.  There are approximately nine (9) trips in various stages of completion before ticketing can be done and/or paper work completed.  And an additional three (3) general inquiries.  Until further notice I will be doing travel for LHO travelers.
• The annual LIGO/SURF Field Trip has been arranged and this year 20 plus Ken Libbrecht will be traveling to LIGO/Hanford on August 14th and returning on August 15th.  Many of the students will be taking the opportunity we offer them to layover in Seattle for the weekend on their return.
• Completed fifteen (15) Expense Reports and there are twenty-six (26) 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 they can be closed in a timely manner.  Presently there is one (1) report more than 30 days old at this time.
• Reconciled ninety-eight (98) P-Card items which required numerous phone calls to hotels, car rentals, 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.
• Worked on the preparation and distribution of the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for June 30th and July 3rd, 2003.  Arranged thirteen (13) new teleconferences and arranged eight (8) new reservations on the LIGO Calendar.
• I continue to do MIT's travel to the sites for installation activities and also to assist them wherever possible.

 

 

• No report this week.
• Jim continues with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

• Reviewed several recent press releases from NASA, addressed file maintenance: electronic and hard-copy, updated calendars.

Advanced LIGO (Frey)

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/

• Continued development of a proposal for implementing Primavera Project Planner Enterprise.
• Started to prepare travel request for attendance at the Primavera User's Conference this November.
• http://www.primavera.com/events/conference.html

• The following is a summary of status by sub system:
• COC - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.
• PSL -  No action items pending.  Followed-up with Peter regarding changes to scope assignment per discussions with Benno.
• AOS - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.
• IO -  Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.
• SUS - No action items pending.  Will meet with Janeen after the holiday and begin the schedule changes for time recovery.
• Met with Caroline C. and Justin G. to answer questions regarding cost and schedule for SUS.
• Updated the plan with progress as of 06.27.03 and  posted to site.
• Sent out update data requests for progress as of 07.18.03.
• SEI - No action items pending.
• ISC - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.
• LDAS - No action required at this point in time.
• INSTALL - No action items pending.
• DAQ - No action required at this point in time.
• PM - No action required at this point in time.
• FAC - No action required at this point in time.
• SUP - No action required at this point in time.

• Updated the plan with progress as of 06.27.03 and  posted to site.
• Sent out update data requests for progress as of 07.18.03.

• Updated the plan with progress as of 06.27.03 and  posted to site.
• Sent out update data requests for progress as of 07.18.03.

• Continue input of changes and comments from Mike Zucker.

• ROSTER DATABASE:
• BK is continuing work on action items.
• Input of supervisor, dept., and specialty codes will continue on June 30th.
• Continued modifying the authorship queries to format data per Albert's specifications.
• Continued ongoing co-ordination with Irena P. on the authorship data entry.
• Added fields and modified forms to accommodate special needs for authorship list.

• COST BOOK 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 Construction Project Quarterly Report for the end of February has been sent to the NSF.

I have distributed a proposed outline and writing assignments for contributions for the Operations Annual Report and Work Plan for FY 2004.  I am requesting input by Friday, July 25, 2003 (sooner if possible).  I am also preparing a strawman for the budgets, to be distributed shortly.

During the executive committee meeting held on June 23, 2003, we discussed the fact that once the Construction effort is closed, we must submit a final report for Cooperative Agreement PHY-9210038.  This can be handled simply as just an obligation to be completed or as an opportunity to brag about very significant accomplishments.  So far a preferred approach has not been settled.

As previously reported, the following change requests were reviewed during the executive committee meeting on June 23, 2003:

CR-030008	Furniture for the auditorium lobby, interaction area underneath the skylight atrium in the OSB, and on the second floor interaction area of the new laboratory/office building. (ON HOLD pending additional cost data.)	M. Coles	April 29, 2003
CR-030011	Seismic External Pre-Isolation at LIGO Livingston Observatory	D. Coyne	May 16, 2003
CR-03--13	Atomic Clock Timing System	Marks, Sigg	June 9, 2003

Change Requests CR-030011 and CR-030013 were both approved.  New quotes for the furniture proposed by CR-030008 substantially reduce the cost estimate to an amount less than the threshold, and approval is not required.  Minutes are being prepared.

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

• Various personnel/payroll /HR related work.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

• Nothing significant to report this week.

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

no report

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

LIGO Livingston Observatory (Zucker et al)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Commissioning:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A productive week. We are concentrating on baseline measurements in preparation for
an upcoming vent to alter the Schnupp asymmetry and recycling cavity length and
to install the anti-light-saber baffles. Highlights (and bummers) include:
 

- A power-damaged EO modulator was removed and diagnostics initiated.
A power budget was made for the PSL and losses localized to help
us consider further steps.
 

- Our NPRO master oscillator laser appears to be going multimode over a
significant fraction of its tuning range. We have a complete MOPA waiting in the wings for a swap
opportunity,  so rather than fix it we're limping along avoiding the trouble spots to get other
measurements done.
 

- Due partly to this problem, which frequently triggered laser frequency stabilization disease, we have backtracked to a prior version of our frequency stabilizer, which is less twitchy than our newer "high bandwidth" model.
 

- We had an intermittent connection in an ETM coil driver which prevented going to RUN (low noise) mode without breaking lock; this fixed itself during diagnostics, and will  be monitored to see if we can isolate it if it fails again.
 

- Despite these issues we are getting an S2-like (low noise) strain spectrum and  have been able to engage all 5 wavefront sensors such that the alignment is well  optimized. We feel we're close to a routine and robust WFS operating mode sufficient
for S3.  We will do further characterization of the sensing matrix and work on optimizing filters after the asymmetry/recycling length change.
 

- Our remote PSL power adjust is installed and working.
 

- We haven't made much progress understanding the anomalous PRC-->AS_Q coupling highlighted last week by Rana; in addition, a strange temporal
variation in the optimal demodulation phase has been added to the open
mystery list.
 

LLO PSL (Peter King)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The laser power at various places on the PSL table was measured with a
Scientech calorimeter.  The laser output power was 4.80 W.  After the
pre-modecleaner the power was 3.13 W and at the base of the IO periscope
the power was 1.88 W.  The 24.483 MHz Pockels cell was visibly damaged and was replaced.
 

The mode-matching to the pre-modecleaner was improved slightly, with the
transmitted power being increased to 3.39 W.  The output of the laser was scanned with the pre-modecleaner and the number of modes between TEM00s was counted.  The count was constant at the positive end of the SLOW actuator adjust slider.
 

A quote for new phase modulators was received.  New Focus have
not told me if we'd get a discount of any kind.
 

ISC table acoustic enclosure & misc. (J. Kern)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acoustic enclosure for ISCT-4 was delivered Tuesday, considerably
blemished externally because of carelessly applied tarps by the common
carrier. http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~jkern/AcousticEnclosureDamage/
Refused delivery, but worked with the vendor to locate a local shop that
could receive the unit and repair it locally.
 

Spec-ed and ordered RD
modulated, fiber coupled laser diodes for Rai.  These to make RF PD
calibration of ISC tables easier.
 

Outreach (B. Wooley)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A relatively quiet week before the July 4th holiday.
 

Site construction actiivity (Sibley, Kern):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The storage building is complete, just waiting to complete the exterior grading (delayed
by weather, i.e., mud).
 

Our front entry gate is complete except for hanging of the gate proper
and finish grading (again,  weather).
 

The LDAS repowering and HVAC rework
is done but we need to revise some air conditioning routing to suit the as-built heat
loads (see LDAS report below).
 

The facility pneumatic line rework is done except
for backfilling the holes.
 

Cabinetry installation in the laboratory is completed.  Worked with the
installer and signed off on the DI water plant tonight.
 

LLO seismic retrofit (Kern):
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Working closely with Ken Mason and Marcel Hammond
to complete the checking, and
release of fabrication drawings for the External Pre-isolator. Marcel
has traveled to MIT to help Ken with detailing. 4 large purchase
requisitions for catalog items, and 3 for machine and fabrication work
have been sent to Ed Jasnow. Engineering estimates of projected
procurement costs for LLO/LASTI installation are still in the works.
Working on a Solid Works model for the actuator bypass, and ordered misc
fittings to build a prototype.
 

General Computing (Shannon Roddy)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Installed a new web server for support issues at support.ligo-la.caltech.edu.  The only page up currently is a page detailing how to install printers, but more will be added in the coming weeks.  Much of the informatin that we have scattered around will be moved to this new web site.
 

Performed a security audit on our web server in preparation for the "hacker contest" that was announced on some of the news outlets which is supposed to happen this Sunday.  I may block our web site at the firewall for Sunday.
 

Setting up a .6 TB server to perform some testing with various backup software.  Eventually this will be a larger scale server (2 to 4 TB) for workstation/laptop backups.  I will test a couple methods of backups for windows and UNIX clients.
 

Patched a few machines with security patches this week.
 

Tried to contact Sun sales to find out about charges for the LDAP server offered by them, but their offices are closed all week.
 

Troubleshooting one of our servers here.  I suspect it is having memory problems.  It will not make it completely through an OS install.
 

LDAS (Shannon Roddy):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Installed a KVM extender for Igor.  There may be some issues that I will have to work on with the
vendor, but I have not had a chance to look at it yet.
 

LDAS (Igor Yakushin)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LDAS admin:
 

1) Continued working on the new cluster hardware installation: wiring
(with Excel), labeling (with Paul Armor from UWM), putting property
tags, etc.
2) Together with Paul labeled all the tapes for L700.
3) Ordered more LC-LC FC cables to connect servers to FC switch.
4) The existing AC does not dissipate heat behind the rack fast enough
(the temperature behind the rack was 83F while the rest of the room was
cold as usual). I had to buy a few fans as a temporary solution (now it
is under 70F behind the racks) until the new AC is installed.
5) Bought some tools for LDAS room.
6) Datacon and beowulf machines passed 90 hours of memtest86 without
errors. Running memtest86 on the nodes, so far no errors.
Node 3 has no LED lights. Node 33 at the beginning had problems with the
network connection which seem to disappear later.
 

LDAS data analysis:
 

Looking at the injection data using waveburst and wavemon to see how
well waveburst detects the injections and how well wavemon's vetoes
work.

Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)

no report

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• Alexei leaves next week. In his six months at the 40m, he has made major contributions to all aspects of the project, often working for 14 hours a day. Amongst his more major contributions: He laid out most of the sensing beamlines. He helped assemble and commission the Faraday Isolator. He developed a powerful and easy-to-use Gaussian beam propagation analysis tool. He assembled, installed, and fully commissioned the EOS system. He has assembled and commissioned the MC ASC system, almost single-handedly; a tremendous acheivement. We are immensely grateful to Alexei, and hope he comes back soon!
• Core digital suspension controllers (DSC), LSC, ASC, and other Electronics (B. Abbott, Heefner, Bork, Taylor):
• The vertex DSC's have been running fine since Rolf's changes.
• The end DSC's are still being commissioned by Rolf and Ben.
• Ben has been testing the auxiliary (EPICS) controls in the ETMY rack. He found and fixed problems with switching the dewhitening filter (the XY220 outputs need to be re-set via an epics screen after reboot). Aside from this, ETMY looks ok, and Ben is moving on to ETMX.
• Bob replaced the fiber link to ETMX. Rolf is now working on getting the ETMX and ETMY front end code running.
• From Rolf: Continued installation of 40m lab ETM controls. We were having problems with ETMY controls, as the 110B ADC was only reading zeros, and, after a few hours, the reflected memory would lock some bits. We replaced the RFM card, and now everything seems fine. Don't have a clue what this had to do with the ADC readings.
• Ben has stuffed the ASC & LSC racks as much as can be done for now. All of the VME and Eurocard crates are in, and are stuffed with the modules that we have so far. Todd is keeping Ben appraised when the new modules will be complete.
• The cross connect lists for the ASC and LSC have been generated by Jay. The 1X3 rack was put into place last week. Art is busy making up the cross connects for the LSC/ASC racks. 1X2 is now complete, and 1X3 is coming along nicely. Ben will be helping Jay and Rolf install and commission these systems in the coming weeks.
• From Jay: The QPD to ICS110 interface module layout has been completed and the board was sent out for fab by 6/27. Boards should be received back in two weeks.
• Lisa has more-or-less completed the cabling of the video cameras to the switch and the monitors; she needs a bunch more ables to complete it. Her EPICS-based controls work well.
• Suspended mass mode cleaner (Ugolini, Miyakawa, Vass, Abbott):
• Osamu adjusted the MC gains, and it is now locking quite robustly. It didn't even lose lock when holes were drilled into the concrete floor to secure the LSC and ASC racks.
• Osamu measured the OLTF and the the frequency noise of the MC servo, and comparing it to what it was before the DSC re-wiring (2 months ago, when it met specs over almost the entire frequency range). At first, it was 100 times worse, in the 20-700 Hz range; due, presumably, to changes in the MCL actuation path. He added a low-pass filter for MC2, which improved the noise but it was still 15 dB higher than before. He and Dennis searched through all the changes, and found problems with the control that switches between software and analog dewhitening. Ben fixed that. Software dewhitening contributes to the noise, so we are using analog dewhitening.
• Still, changes to the analog and software filtering that no longer adequately filter DAC noise appear to be causing the excess noise.
• Osamu found that a resistor in the coil driver was not the right value; changing it would reduce this DAC noise, but also reduce the dynamic range of the coils. He will consult with Jay about what to do.
• Osamu measured the OLTF of the DSC loops for the MC2. With a gain of 1, he measured a Q of 4. Then he turned down the damping gain to 0.1 (Q ~ 40), and found reduced noise in the MC servo. We don't understand this, but for now, we're keeping it that way.
• Mode Cleaner WFS system (Ourjoumtsev, Abbott, Eichenfield):
• Alexei has been working like mad; he's leaving next week. Conor and Matt have been helping and learning about the MC WFS system from him.
• Alexei found a 3 MHz oscillation on one WFS head, and traced it to a wrong component on the board; he fixed the board and eliminated the oscillation.
• He changed some capacitors on WFS head 1; Ben will do the same for WFS2.
• Now, Alexei give a clean bill of health to all the WFS hardware (modulo the point above).
• Alexei checked and tuned the gains and RF phases on all 2x4 WFS quadrants, to give zero readings for aligned MC mirrors and maximal signals for misaligned mirrors. The gains on all the demod boards are within 20% of each other.
• He adjusted the Guoy telescope lens for WFS1 to provide maximal signal from a misaligned MC2, and is now in the process of doing the same for WFS2 -> MC3.
• If we intend to feed back on the PZT input beam steering mirrors, we'd set the relative Guoy phases of WFS1 and WFS2 to be 90degrees apart. But, instead, we think we'll beed back to MC2 and MC3. MC3 is 60degrees of Guoy phase away from MC2. So, the Guoy phase for WFS2 will be set accordingly.
• Alexei saw some pitch/yaw coupling from MC2 -> WFS1. He developed a simple alignment procedure to minimize / eliminate this, by adjusting the height of the Guoy telescope lens.
• Alexei chose some default digital filters and gains, and closed the WFS1->MC2 loop. First he misaligned MC2; when he closed the loop, it brought MC2 back to the right spot, maximizing the transmitted beam intensity. He observed a marked reduction in fluctuations in the transmitted beam intensity with the loop on. ie, it works!
• Then, he measured the 2x2 DC transfer matrix from MC2,MC3 -> WFS1,WFS2. He inverted this and input it into the servo matrix. Then he turned on the full 2x2 loops in both pitch and yaw. Again, it worked quite nicely, taking out misalignments and reducing the transmitted beam intensity jitter.
• Much more tuning is necessary to optimize the MC ASC servos, including better filtering and calibration and Guoy telescope optimization; this work will be continued by Matt.
• Matt is developing a Simulink model of the full WFS alignment system for the Mode Cleaner. He's making good progress, with help from Hiro, and papers by Mavalvala and Sigg.
• PSL and ISS (O. Miyakawa, B. Abbott, R. Abbott, F. Nocera, D. Ugolini, S. Vass, C. Mow-Lowry):
• Conor is ready to re-layout the PSL, to (a) reduce the number of mirrors in the main beam path by 2, and (b) pick off the FSS beam after the PMC, rather than before.
• A problem with (a) is that mode-matching lenses will have to be placed after the first PZT steering mirror. Since this doesn't sound like a good idea, Conor is evaluating how much worse the beam steering will be if the two steering mirrors are both on the periscope, close to each other.
• A problem with (b) is that it didn't seem to help at LLO or at LASTI. Conor will talk with Nergis and Peter Fritschel to see if they think it is a bad idea or not. Meanwhile, Conor is prepared to do only (a), and (b) later if desired.
• The box panels for the ISS PD boxes are now complete. Their PCBs are being stuffed, and a few should be available next week, as Mike Smith wanted me to make a set for him, and then we will have more for the ISS testing.
• Jay and SURF Ian plan to test out their Digital Demod board, which operates out to 207MHz, on our PSL PMC servo loop. Tentative plan is to do this on Monday Jul 7.
• Optical sensing (Smith, Ourjoumtsev, Goggin, Miyakawa, Arai):
• OPTICS PARTS LIST, Orders pending: 1 q-switch E/O shutter from Fast Pulse.
• MODE MATCHING TELESCOPE: Assembly is complete, awaiting installation.
• FARADAY ISOLATOR: Assembly is complete, awaiting installation. Mike and Alexei measured a transmission of 97% and extinction ratio of 4e-4, better than specs.
• OPTICAL LEVER ASSY: Updated parts list was given to Naman. Aluminum coated mirrors and additional mirror posts and clamps were ordered.
• IFO STEERING MIRRORS: Steering mirrors mounts with PZT platforms were assembled. The mirrors were ordered (off the shelf).
• SPS BREWSTER PRISM MIRROR: Assembly is complete, awaiting installation.
• MISSING PARTS: All is well that ends well; the 10 DLC mounts were found in the 40m optics lab, and are ready for installation.
• IN-VACUUM MIRROR: A list of in-vacuum mirrors was made and the mirrors are in the process of being assembled with the appropriate mirrors and beam splitters.
• A camera for looking at the beam entering the Faraday Isolator, and associated telescopic lens and in-vac mirrors, is being prepared for installation.
• PHOTON DRIVE R&D: Tom Essinger-Hileman is designing the optical system using the ABCD matrix formulation with Mathematica. He has made a preliminary layout of the 40m photon drive experiment using ACAD. Most of the parts have been received for the apparatus. Steve Vass will place a 3ft x 4ft optical table at the end of the MC chamber for mounting the apparatus and will move the OSEM wiring to the side viewport; the actuation beam will enter through a new viewport in the end of the MC chamber and will reflect from the back side of MC2 mirror. No steering mirrors will be needed on the MC2 optical table inside the chamber. Tom has written a progress report. Aidan Crook has made a Simulink model of an SOS mirror suspension having displacement and pitch motion with photon force actuation on the mirror; the model includes velocity damping for both motions. He has written a progress report.
• Optical levers (Bhatt, Goggin, Smith, Vass, Taylor):
• SURF Naman Bhatt and Bob are working on completing the remaining cabling for the oplev photodiodes for all 7 core optics. Most of the vertex optical levers are cabled; the ends will be done soon.
• Naman is learning about the oplev system and pursuing some relevant calculations. She's playing with the oplevs that are already set up near the beamsplitter chamber. She's working on getting the signals into EPICS and the DSC front end, and calibrating the response.
• Electro-optic shutters (Smith, Ourjoumtsev):
• Alexei completed the installation and tuning of the EOS on the MCR beam line, and has documented the system and tuning procedure. We will complete the other two EOS's (for the SP and AP beamlines) later; we're still waiting for delivery of a 3rd Q-switch.
• Facilities and vacuum envelope (Ugolini, Vass, Jones):
• We plan to vent for installation next Tuesday, Jul 8. Dennis has written an installation plan. Over three weeks, we will install and damp the remaining core optics (ETMx, ETMy, PRM, and SRM). We are debating whether the PRM and SRM will be installed in their correct location, or temporarily in another chamber. We'll install the Faraday isolator, mode matching telescope, PZT steering mirrors, input and output beam folding mirrors and pickoffs, shutter flags, irises, baffling. We'll install optical quality output port mirrors, including one on the MC2 chamber for photon actuation.
• Then we'll align everything. Mike Smith is writing up an alignment procedure using his autocollimator. We hope to re-commission, with the PSL in air, by the 3rd week in July. So, this is a very major installation!
• After the first few days of vent, when the PSL beam path is fully defined via irises and initial pointing spots, Conor will re-layout the PSL.
• Dennis, Conor, and Matt calculated the effect of refraction on the (IR) beam over 40m of air and estimates it to be displaced by 28 microns (28 cm for 4km). Negligible for us!
• Steve is completing an inventory of all the things that will be installed. He's getting the remaining items: cameras, oplev mirrors, beam dumps, and cables for the MMT picomotor, shutter flag picomotors, and PZT steering mirrors.
• Steve has received all the remaining cameras and lenses we need.
• Racks 1X1, 1X2, 1X3, 1X4, and 1Y9 are being bolted to the concrete floor.
• Modeling (Miyakawa, Goggin): Lisa continues to learn about Finesse and develop a model of the 40m and AdvLIGO with that tool.
• South Annex Bake Ovens (Taylor):
• Bob lost then found the DLC in-vac mirror mounts.
• Bob continues to work with Steve to get all the parts to be installed in the vacuum prepped and ready, including the cables for the shutter flags and PZT steering mirrors.
• Bob is assembling 11 more hybrid OSEMs for Janeen & Calum.
• Bob is preparing several big bake jobs for Gingin suspensions.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

no report

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

--------------------------------
Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
--------------------------------
 

Mirror Phase map
-------------------
Raghu Dodda wrote a program to convert the measured phasemap data into
the format which can be used by the FFT program. This is still limited
in the central region. The discussion to run FFT using these phasemaps
will be held this afternoon among, Bill Kells, Biplab Bhawal, Raghu Dodda
and Hiro Yamamoto. This will be the first run evaluating the LIGO I
performance using the real phasemap. Extension of the measured data to
cover the entire region is being developed by Hiro, and will be completed
together with Raghu.
 

Signal simulation
-------------------
Jeff Jauregui studied how the GW strain signal affects the phase of the
laser propagating between mirrors of a cavity. He has started writing C++
codes (1) to generate a source and (2) to convert the strain to phase
changes in the two arms. Once these codes are completed, the phase
distortion can be used as a input to a propagator so that e2e can simulate
the effect of the GW signal. Some of the calculation done by K.Cooksey, 2001
SURF stundet, are used.
 

Noise hunting
---------------
Xiao Xu has start running SimLIGO to understand the difference between
the SimLIGO best and SimLIGO nominal. SimLIGO nominal is a sensitivity
including all known noises and SimLIGO best is the one which suppresses all
known noises amap, including the 16 bit digitization noise by using 30 bits.
Hiro found that SimLIGO best has some problem, and is hunting for a fix.
SimLIGO nominal is reasonably close to the Hanford 4k measured noise, and
we hope this study will shed a light which noise is the most problematic.
 

Dual Recycling Code
----------------------
Keiko Kokeyama worked with Osamu Miyakawa to start validating the
approximation to be used in the dual recycling summation
cavity module. Using old matlab code written by Malik as a guidance,
she tried to start the code in matlab.
 

LLO SOS modeling
--------------------
Sany Yoshida and Tiffany are working to build a SOS box to simulate the
small optics suspension using the LOS box as a template. They studied the
effect of the control gain and measured spectrum, and overall behaviors
look OK. They are studying the details. Hiro will provide the fit of the
seismic motion so that they generate the HAM table top motion by combining
with the HAM transfer function.
 

Transfer Fn of LIGO for changed length
----------------------------------------
(Biplab) Rainer Weiss suggested Ken Yoshiki Franzen of U. Florida to use e2e
 in order to check how the fact that "RM is displaced 2 cm at LLO" affects
 the output signals. Helped Ken to make his model and run it.
 Also interacted with Rana and Ken on some issues related to validation of
 signals.
 

Code development and maintenance
---------------------------------
(Hiro) Dynamic linking of FUNC code:
 In SimLIGO, FUNC (expression parser) module is spending majority of the
 simulation time. Code improvement has been done by Hiro and Melody, but
 not much of gain has been accomplished. Now Hiro and Melody are designing
 to use a dynamic linking. I.e., all FUNC codes are compiled using a c++/c
 compiler to generate a dynamically linkable library so that FUNC modules
 are be executed much faster. The algorithm toward this direction was
 discussed, and Melody is preparing a simple example and a wrapper needed
 to minimize the overhead doing this.
 

(Melody)
 - Evaluated several products/research projects in search for an API
   to dynamically compile a C module during runtime.   Came to the
   conclusion that doing incremental compiles is a more doable
   approach.  Started working on a prototype that performs dynamic
   linking.
 

Alfi
-----
(Bruce) - Writing full Alfi documentation.  ugh.
 
 

----------------------------------------------
LIGO Data Analysis System Software (Blackburn)
----------------------------------------------
 

The issues with using optimizations with the new GCC compiler have been traced
to changes in the nightly build process. We are now definitely compiling at
night with the -O2 -finlining options that we want to target for the next
release of LDAS. There are some issues in the frameAPI and eventMonitorAPI
at this optimization level, but it is thought that these are issues that would
exist without optimization only less frequently - the optimization level is
giving us a better look into existing bugs. The performance of typical data
pipelines jobs is now up by about 40% from the optimization and the RDS frame
creation is up by about 10%.
 

A set of changes to the LDAS resource files between the 0.6.0 release which
is currently running at UWM and the 0.7.0 release which is currently running
at the Lab sites was posted on the LDAS website under the FAQ link. This will
facilitate UWM's efforts to upgrade over the next couple of weeks to the
current official LDAS version.
 

Significant progress was made in getting the metaDataAPI treaded this week.
The infrastucture for writing to the database has been developed and is now
being heavily tested. Sevearl issues with this code have been discovered in
testing and are being worked on. The infrastructure for reading concurrently
from the database still needs to be developed.
 

A new utility called ldasinfo is being developed to trace the metadata about
how LDAS was compiled each night. This will provided better visibility into
changes in how LDAS code is built.
 

Testing of the controlMonitorAPI on the LDAS-CIT system as new nodes are
becoming available has revealed several issues with configuration and the
management of our new much larger Beowulf cluster there. These are being
addressed in the form of problem reports and bug fixes as they are discovered.
 

Building LDAS against the new IBM DB2 version 8.1 continues to cause issues
under both Redhat9 and Solaris. This week a set of fixpacs were installed on
a test Sun box to determine if any of these issues have been fixed in recent
updates to the database. IBM has been contacted and some initial feedback has
taken place with IBM, but no solution has been provided at this time.
 
 
 

-------------------------------------------------
LIGO Data Analysis System Administration (Stuart)
-------------------------------------------------
 

Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)
 

* Got Sun to send us a replacement 3510 controller for the one that failed.
 

* Configured all but one of the 3510s with 10+1 RAID 1 and 1 hot spare.
 

* Working to figure out why ldas-archive can't utilize disks bigger
  than 1TB.
 

* Continued re-archiving data in SAM-QFS to higher density tape format.
 

* Packed up all beta test Qlogic hardware and had it shipped back to them.
 

* Started prep work for LHO visit (L700 set up).  Arranged travel for LHO trip.
 
 

(Stuart Anderson)
 

* Diagnosed and fixed problem with Linux SMP kernel and the Copper GigE
  device driver (tg3) for the IDE-RAID servers.
 

* Investigated problem with new 15-slot GigE switch--1 slot appears to
  be bad and Foundry will be out Monday morning to look at it.
 

* Brought up the first 39 new beowulf nodes into production use in the
  LDAS-CIT system.
 

* Identified 2 more dead-on-arrival nodes out of the 210 units at Caltech.
  One spontaneously reboots itself after 10's of minutes and the other
  refuses to boot or generate a video sync signal to get to the BIOS.
 
 

MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)
 

* Retrieved new NDAS frames from Caltech and mounted NDAS
  on ldas and dmt machines.
 

* In contact with ASA regarding configuration for new pcraid boxes at MIT.
 

* Working with Al to update our cfdefs files for new beowulf/datacon boxes.
 

* Received test cluster node from Ben at LHO.
 

* Beginning transfer of S2 double coincidence data via LDR utility.
 
 
 

Livingston
----------
(Igor Yakushin)
 

* Continued working on the new cluster hardware installation: wiring
  (with Excel), labeling (with Paul Armor from UWM), putting property
  tags, etc.
 

* Together with Paul labeled all the tapes for L700.
 

* Ordered more LC-LC FC cables to connect servers to FC switch.
 

* The existing AC does not dissipate heat behind the rack fast enough
  (the temperature behind the rack was 83F while the rest of the room was
  cold as usual). I had to buy a few fans as a temporary solution (now it
  is under 70F behind the racks) until the new AC is installed.
 

* Bought some tools for LDAS room.
 

* New Datacon and beowulf machines passed 90 hours of memtest86 without
  errors. Running memtest86 on the nodes, so far no errors.
  Node 3 has no LED lights. Node 33 at the beginning had problems with the
  network connection which seem to disappear later.
 
 

(Shannon Roddy)
 

* Installed a KVM extender for Igor.  There may be some issues that I wil
  have to work on with the vendor, but I have not had a chance to look at
  it yet.
 
 
 

Hanford
-------
(Greg Mendell)
 

* A level 2 RDS with the LLO L1:LSC-AS_Q channel for S2 is now
  available at LHO.  On fortress the data is under
  /frame40/rds/S2/LLO/L2ASQ/Data[0-310]. To access the data from an LDAS
  framequery specify the interferometer as L and the frametype as
  RDS_R_L2.
 

* Currently working with Robert Schofield to create an intersite S2 PEM
  RDS for his analysis.
 

* Ben Johnson has continued to work on installing the new beowulf
  cluster. All but two of 140 nodes have passed memtst.  (The two that did
  not would not even boot. One other node also would not boot, but worked
  after reseating cables.)  The failed nodes were sent back to the
  manufacturer and have returned, but have not yet been tested.  The
  current effort is to install RedHat 9 and configure the nodes using
  systemimager.  As usual, there are some issues with getting this to
  work, but we expect these will be overcome soon.
 
 
 

-------------------------------------------------
Data Analysis Activities (Anderson for Lazzarini)
-------------------------------------------------
 

(Greg Mendell)
 

Mike Landry and I have begun work on the stack-slide algorithm to search
for periodic gravitational waves. At the PULG F2F meeting June 16-17 we
gave our initial report and discussed various versions of the algorithm
and how to implement it.  What targets to consider, based on the
available computing power, was also discussed. Mike's priority for the
past week has been to get the calibration ready and mine has been to get
the knownpulardemod code working with latest versions of LAL.  The
former is need by all the S2 analyses, and the latter code will form the
basis of the stack-slide code.  The stack-slide code will be designed to
incoherently add the power from either SFTs for the F-statistic,
correcting for spindown and modulations induced by the detectors
motions, and will run in parallel under LDAS.
 
 

(Igor Yakushin)
 

Looking at the injection data using waveburst and wavemon to see how
well waveburst detects the injections and how well wavemon's vetoes
work.
 
 

(Laura Cadonati)
 

- Continued detector characterization glitch investigation with Mayur
  Desai and with the rest of the S2 glitch team. The status report is
  available at http://ligo.mit.edu/ldas/dc/dc20030703.html - Completed a
  set of S1 Zwerger Muller injections and efficiency determination
  (simulations performed by B. Shields, UROP student for the spring
  semester) and produced a smaller set of the same simulations for S2.
  Performed also efficiency studies for sine gaussians and gaussians in
  a portion of the S2 playground. Roughly speaking, the analysis being
  the same, we gain about a factor 10 in sensitivity from S1. Plots and
  numbers, for a first analysis of the S2 playground,  are available at
  http://emvogil-3.mit.edu/~cadonati/S2/PlaygroundFirstPass/index.html
 

- Completing the hardware-software injection comparison with fits of
  ETG response vs injected amplitude:
  http://emvogil-3.mit.edu/~cadonati/S2/Inject/S2injections.html
 

- Preparing my r-statistics talk for Amaldi
 
 

(Peter Shawhan)
 

Working with Evan Ochsner (SURF student) on filtering for inspiral
chirps, first with a simple program, and now moving toward using the
standard search code in LAL/LALwrapper.
 
 

(Alan Weinstein)
 

- Reviewed the comments from the LSC reviewers on the S1 burst draft.
- Studied the characterization of burst amplitude with h_char.
- Calculated poisson upper limits on S1 burst results.
 
 
 

---------------------------
General Computing (Wallace)
---------------------------
 

MIT:
-Working on X30 laptop with memory problems
-Investigating DVD burner with linux (for ldas laptop users)
-Looking onto large external SCSI drive as backup for gc fileserver
 

Livingston:
(Shannon)
-Installed a new web server for support issues at
support.ligo-la.caltech.edu.  The only page up currently is a page
detailing how to install printers, but more will be added in the coming
weeks.  Much of the information that we have scattered around will be
moved to this new web site.
-Performed a security audit on our web server in preparation for the
"hacker contest" that was announced on some of the news outlets which is
supposed to happen this Sunday.  I may block our web site at the
firewall for Sunday.
-Setting up a .6 TB server to perform some testing with various backup
software.  Eventually this will be a larger scale server (2 to 4 TB) for
workstation/laptop backups.  I will test a couple methods of backups for
windows and UNIX clients.
-Patched a few machines with security patches this week.
-Tried to contact Sun sales to find out about charges for the LDAP server
offered by them, but their offices are closed all week.
-Troubleshooting one of our servers here.  I suspect it is having memory
problems.  It will not make it completely through an OS install.
 

Hanford:
 

-Setting things up for the OC3 upgrade. The upgrade was delayed a few days and
should take place on July 7th.
-Setup new alias lists and updated existing lists.
-Working on a e-mail vacation message program/setup.
 

CIT:
(Mike)
-Performed the end of the month back ups on all NTSRV's and updated OS &
security patches; this also included updating firewall software.
-Loaded three PC's with OS & General Computing Software plus multiple
engineering packages, for surf students that are working under Riccardo. I
also had to enable/test multiple data ports for these additional workstations.
-Swapped out Lee's old computer with an updated PC. This included loading
2000 pro and all GC software and recovering his old data setting up e-mail
and network printer.
-Loaded a PC with OS & GC software plus added additional hardware for
backup purposes; plus I run a separate data drop from DCC to our Server Room.
-Backed up Ryan & Cindy's computer plus updated OS & Security patches.
-This past week I have been real busy with onsite support that includes
networking, printing and e-mail issues. I also had to load additional
software for surf students.
 

(Lisa)
- Began looking into new spam software.  Blackhole looked promising but requires
every individual user to forward their e-mail into the blackhole program.  This
clearly won't be appropriate in our environment.  There are a couple of other
open-source programs I am going to look at before looking at commercial
software.
- Fixed a problem with a rav loop that one user was getting between their ligo
account and their ITS account.
- Did monthly backups.
- More user support.
 

(Veronica)
- LIGO website: Prepared high-resolution images for a UK Government
Research Council. Burned a CD with copies of the images for Dave Beckett's
archive.
Obtained pricing and ordering information on a software package for Larry.
Working on issues of access to Internal Bulletin Board.
Evaluating a proposed DCC system setup change. Working with George Stokes
on troubleshooting of the DCC database.
Videotaped part 2 of a lecture on LIGO by Alan Weinstein for SURF
students.
Caltech Public Relations office requested video footage of aerial overview
of LHO for a PBS special. I checked the existing video archive of VHS and
DV tapes to see if we have it. We don't, so I offered the PR office DV
videos of Hanford construction progress. Awaiting a reply.
Edited the roster database. Posted updates to LIGO home page and to
several subpages. Captured a LIGO-related web article by GSFC as a
complete package of files/images/animations and migrated it to LIGO
webserver for archiving and long-term access.
- LSC website: continue working with Peter Saulson on
updates/modifications of the website. Posting updates as they come.
- Project Science: user support. Provided Sydney with an 'address book'
importable to Pine for mass announcements to the PS mail list.
- CaJAGWR: website update. User support.
 

(Larry)
-Spent a great deal of time setting up accounts and getting visitors, SURF
students and others setup. It appears we will shuffling things around for most
of the summer.
-Worked a number of procurements. Most are supply or low-end items.
-Setup another color printer for testing. So far it looks pretty good. Started
checking out a color B-size laser printer for a couple of areas.
-Worked a couple of network issues. Spent time on a LDAS Foundry switch and a FE
will be coming in to work on it.
ITS has scheduled the CISCO upgrade in the server room for the week of July
14th.
-Helped out the DCC with some minor issues. Mostly printing and file movement
problems.

Advanced LIGO Development (Shoemaker)

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