LIGO Weekly Report

A site teleconference was held on on Thursday, August 7, 2003. The following items were discussed:

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. . .

ACTIVITY
Processed and distributed 3 DCN's.


08/07/03	Packages	Faxes
In	29	25
Out	11	26

ADVANCED LIGO (Cost Schedule Control Systems) T. Frey
From: Thomas Frey <tfrey@ligo.caltech.edu>

Project Web Site for posting schedule and progress related data continues to be updated with the latest and greatest.

The following change requests have been distributed Executive Committee for possible discussion July 28, 2003.


CR-030015	FY 2003 Livingston Observatory Detector Maintenance Expenses (Increment)	R. Wooley	July 14, 2003
CR-030016	Hanford Facilities 2.2--Divide the Large Equipment Access	J. Worden	July 31, 2003

Change Request CR-030016 was discussed during the Executive Committee Meeting on August 4, 2003. Three questions were raised:

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

Summary of Commissioning Activities at the LIGO Hanford Observatory (compiled by R. Savage)

A number of improvements to H1 yielded sensitivity levels close to the best obtained with the L1 interferometer (see here) The H2 interferometer has returned to full locks and power buildups in the arms have progressed during the week from 1100 to 1250 and up to 1650. Damping materials to mitigate duct noise were tested and work is proceeding toward installing one of the acoustic shielding rooms around the H1 AS port table during the week of the LSC meeting.

New ETM coil driver modules were installed and tested in both run and acquire modes (also here).

The shot noise levels at the ASPD2 photodetector were measured and found to be about a factor of two below our noise level in the 300-900 Hz band.

The "h1_fullup" locking script was significantly modified for "low-noise" mode operation.

A corrected measurement of the AS port detected power fraction indicated that even full laser power may be a factor of two short of that required to reach the SRD levels. A third PD was installed at the AS port.

An anomalous relationship between the AS1_Q and AS2_Q signals was discovered and remains a mystery.

Work on the wavefront sensors is proceeding. The photodetectors for WFS1 and WFS2 were characterized.

The POB PD on ISCT10 died (apparently due to mechanical impact) and was replaced.

The piezo-controlled mirror for the MC WFS servo, located at the top of the IOO periscope, was replaced.

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

L1 Commissioning (Zucker for LLO team)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recovery of alignment through the post-modecleaner input
optics proved more arduous than expected at last week's
report. We found we had a significant residual translation
to deal with even though the mode cleaner mode was clean and
stable. We have finally aligned everything to some degree in
the corner, and tonight briefly opened the X arm to look for
the beam at the other end; to our relief it was within 15 cm
of the ETMx center. We just got the arm locked
and are aligning for best power throughput before
proceeding to peek down the Y arm.

In the meantime this week we also characterized the mode
cleaner length (very slightly changed from pre-vent) and
storage time (about the same), but remain puzzled over its
power transmission. We achieved fringe visibilities in
excess of 95%, and the storage time is within a few percent
of the prior value; however the apparent transmission, using
the same fiducial detectors, seems to have dropped by about
30%. This degree of loss is inconsistent with the storage
time and visibility numbers, so we are theorizing there may
be a bad optic, "evolved" coating, or a non-obvious
clipping effect downstream of the mode cleaner. Stay tuned.

Rai has done an analysis of the residual gas in each station
and the beam tube (see ilogs) with a direct view toward
qualifying us to open the vertex gate valves, but also as a
general health assessment. Among many findings, Rai notes an
interesting asymmetry between X and Y end stations; X has
significantly more water vapor and air signature than Y,
which is almost exclusively hydrogen (like the beamtube).
There is also a clear air signature in the corner station,
small enough not to be bothersome but indicative of a real
or virtual leak somewhere. Finally, Allen observed that he
is spending much more on liquid nitrogen than before; Rai
made numbers for the total exposure since VE commissioning,
and sure enough we would expect a layer of water ice inside
each trap thick enough to elevate the IR emissivity, such
that it is warmed by radiation from the ambient
surroundings. Joe Langdale is analyzing the LN2 records to
confirm this and back out the progress of ice. We should
discuss whether to go ahead and regenerate (seal and warm
up) all these cryopumps at some point before S3.

Part of the motivation for this comprehensive assay was a
series of three vacuum-related mishaps last week. While no
permanent damage was done in any of the cases (see ilogs),
they were all "near misses" of one kind or another and
highlighted shortcomings in our equipment as well as in
operating procedures and training. Allen and I have
initiated a comprehensive review and solicited
recommendations to better protect our vacuum system.

Bonnie Wooley/Outreach
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Participated in the Mandeville Share Fare in which I did a
"train-the-trainer" presentation giving various middle
school teachers instruction on conducting hands-on
experiments with their students. Presentation included two
lesson plans, a list for materials and an invitation to LIGO
for future field trips.

The Livingston Parish School Board Technology Council made
use of our outreach area to hold a meeting to prepare for
start of school.

Rich Riesen/Safety & Security
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Conducted a weekly scan on the PSL table and the 4 ISC tables and found
no errant beams.
2) Working with Allen and Ed Chargouis in getting the off site warehouse
cleaned out. A rep. from the FDA was here yesterday and took 2 transformers
and some plastic weatherproof containers.
3) In process of indoctrinating Willie Hawkins (new tech. area cleaning
person) to site safety rules and duties.
4) In process of site safety walk thru.
5) Working with Bill Tyler on past safety issues that need to be resolved.
6) Continuing work with Excel on the card swipe system.

Igor Yakushin/LDAS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
LDAS admin:
1) The AC replacement work started this week and will
continue next week. Most likely LDAS will be shutdown next
Monday and Tuesday.

3) IDE RAID box froze again with the latest SMP kernel
although it did run for couple days (with previous version
it could not run for more than 2-3 hours). I switched to the
old UP kernel. So far no crashes since Monday. I still have
not solved the problem with the degraded array since the
system was under heavy use and I could not take the IDE box
offline.

LDAS data analysis:
1) Running waveburst with the new calibration data on the whole S2.
        a) injections;
        b) simulations;
        c) production run.

2) Started vectorizing waveburst since to run the above I
had to completely use all the LDAS resources at LLO, CIT and
LHO for 3 days. However, I need also to do time shift
analysis and run waveburst for different time-frequency
resolutions that would increase running time by a factor of
10*5=50. Also, eventually much more simulation runs would
have to be done (at the moment only sine-gaussian signal is
used). Currently, each waveburst job is using only single
node and no more than 20 jobs can run at a time on the
system without creating bottlenecks in the job queue despite
the fact that only tiny part of the available nodes are
utilized. Vectorizing the code would allow to utilize all
the nodes without increasing the number of concurrent jobs
that should improve the performance dramatically.

J. Kern/LLO Seismic Retrofit
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
At MIT earlier this week working with Ken Mason and Marcel
on the EPI integrated assembly model and drawings. Studied
the LASTI pump station and piping layout anticipating
scaling the LASTI configuration to LLO. Traveled with Ken
to visit Arland Tool and Southbridge Sheet Metal, two shops
in New England that have produced components for the LASTI
EPI. Presently in Elyria, Ohio at the Parker Hannifan
Corporation, the manufacturer of the proportional valve that
controls the HEPI actuator. Toured the manufacturing
facility Wednesday and meeting with engineering staff
learning about assembly, calibration and handling of the
valves.

Competed a quantity of prototype test manifolds manufactured
per Stanford's design. Will QC back at LLO and sent to
Stanford for dip brazing.

V. Frolov
----------------------------------------------
I worked on input optics aligment, MC cavity pole and length
measurement.

B. O'Reilly
----------------------------------------------
Working on finalizing the S2 calibration in preparation for
the upcoming LSC meeting in Hannover.

Gave a tour to approx. 15 LSU summer students on Thursday
and to a reporter from the Atlanta Journal Constitution on
Friday.

Rupal Amin
----------------------------------------------
Ringdowns of MC: I conducted a set of ringdowns on the
modecleaner using available DTT channels. Preliminary data
was poor due to the sampling rates on the IOT MC channels. I
learned from Joe Kovalik how to realign the MC and obtain
the fundamental pole of the MC using a sine sweep of one of
the resonant EOMs.

Assisting alignment of the input optics and vertex:
Initially, Valera and I tried relying on the reflected port
camera to observe reflected flashes from ITMX with ISCT 1's
EO-shutter fully open. I gimballed the MMT mirrors in an
effort to obtain a coaxial retroreflection. This was
unsuccessful, so Tuesday morning, I aided Joe Kovalik, Ash,
and Valera in installing a set of output port cameras.
After Joe gimballed the MMT, SM, and ITMX, he successfully
obtained light at the reflected port. I then removed the
aforementioned cameras and realigned the AS port beam. I
did not realign ISCT 1's beam since I thought it would be
better to move the table by 0.5 cm westward instead of
contending with a phasefront problem incurred by ISCT 1's
periscope lens. Earlier today, Valera and I found some of
the missing light, a discrepancy noticed by Valera and
Andri. We found that the beam was clipping the half-wave
plate frame. I also found that the recycling mirror's
optical lever had been "bumped." Brian, Stephanie, and I
repaired this and restored the recycling mirror's damping.

UF HPLF at LLO Sany, Ken, and I are preparing to run a
wavefront experiment on the damaged EOM. This EOM was
removed from the input beamline on June 19, 2003. We would
like to study the nature of the damage since no study (that
we are aware of) was conducted at LHO. I am waiting on
reviews of the standard operating procedures for the HPLF. I
have begun learning Melody. UF intends on building a
revised simulation of the AdvL MC for Melody and E2E.

Ash Khan/CDS computing
------------------------------------------------
1) Continued work on the Mode cleaner alignment with Joe
Kovalik.

3) Rewriting the tidal server so that the paladin file is
automatically created and loaded at the end of each
expiration.

Chethen Paramasawariah/CDS computing
------------------------------------------------
Found the UPS at the Y end station dead on Friday. Restarted
the vacuum controller to find the cryopump drained. Allen
filled it manually and restored its operation.

Rearranged users directories under ops account. Working on
setting up the Fiber channel StorEdge 3510 1GB disk array on
LLOFb0. Read through documentation and have finally setup
the device. I have reconfigured the Logical drive to have
all disks under LUN 0.

Setting up the new Sun Blade 2000 to work as a frame builder
with Solaris 9. Copied all required files. Will be
installing a PCI Reflective memory card on it tommorrow and
doing some experiments with frame builder network.

K. Franzen/E2E modeling and S2 glitch hunt
----------------------------------------------
1) I am still working on my e2e investigation of the LLO ASQ
response functions versus the RM position, the ITMy position
and the BS transmission respectively. A problem related to
the ASQ and ASI mixing angle was solved and hopefully the
simple model should now produce realistic results. The aim
of this work is to try to understand the by Rana measured
low ratio between the ASQ response functions from dETM and
RM wiggling respectively. This work is done in collaboration
with B. Bhawal and H.Yamamoto.

2) I continued my S2 data glitch investigation as suggested
by G. Gonzalez. The approximate timing of each of the 40
largest glitches for the ASQ channel in both the L1 and the
H1 S2 data were found from the minute data files . These
outliers were examined more in detail by using the matlab
specgram function. Then the spectrograms at the
corresponding time in the ASI, POBQ, POBI, REFLQ and REFLI
channels were examined. The results will be documented
somewhere within short.

Yun Yong Wang/Inspiral Veto Analysis
----------------------------------------------
I continue doing the veto investigation for inspiral data
analysis pipeline with LLO/S2 data last week. I examed
the frequency spectra of 5 loudest 'events' which selected
from the LLO/S2 playground data in AS_Q channel and checked
the same data frames in channels of
L1:LSC-POB_I,
L1:LSC-POB_Q,
L1:LSC-REFL_I,
L1:LSC-REFL_Q.
Since the glitches are not apparent to the eye in the original
signals I filtered the data into an appropriate frequency bands.
The interesting results are following:
1) all the four channels except L1:LSC-REFL_I have clear coherent
   with the glitches in the 'low frequency band pass' ( 20-80 Hz).
   so they could be good candidates of Veto Channels.
2). All these four channels have not coherents with the glitches
   in 'High frequency bans pass' ( 150-350 Hz).
I will study the details of this very interesting effects.

T. Findley and S. Yoshida/E2E Suspension Modeling
----------------------------------------------
For the purpose of deepening our understanding on the
dynamics of suspended optics and the simulation algorithm of
the SOS and LOS e2e boxes, we simulated a model pendulum
that we set up on the campus of SLU (in air). This model
pendulum dose not have a local damping control and can be
excited at the suspension point with a purely sinusoidal
motion given by a mechanical oscillator. We have measured
the transfer function from the suspension point motion to
the pendular motion by varying the frequency of the
mechanical oscillator and measuring the motion of the center
of mass. We made an e2e box file by using the dimensions of
the model pendulum and experimentally determined natural
frequencies (1.03 Hz and 3.2 Hz) and the quality factors (30
and 40) in the pendular and pitch degree of freedom. The
simulated transfer function shows good agreement with the
experiment, showing the beat between the pendular and pitch
motions. The simulation shows that the energy transfer
between the two modes is a sensitive function of the quality
factors; a change in the quality factor of either mode by
10% causes a substantial decrease in the relative height of
the 3.2 Hz peak to the 1.03 Hz peak (the former is an order
of magnitude lower than the latter). We enjoyed this little
project very much.

Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)

DETECTOR SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

see also the Revision Technical Review Board (RTRB) status here

Seismic Upgrade Project

see also the LASTI report for experiment/prototype progress

Jonathan Kern

At MIT earlier this week working with Ken Mason and Marcel on the EPI integrated assembly model

and drawings. Studied the LASTI pump station and piping layout anticipating scaling the LASTI

configuration to LLO. Traveled with Ken to visit Arland Tool and Southbridge Sheet Metal, two

shops in New England that have produced components for the LASTI EPI. Presently in Elyria, Ohio at

the Parker Hannifan Corporation, the manufacturer of the proportional valve that controls the HEPI

actuator. Toured the manufacturing facility Wednesday and meeting with engineering staff learning

about assembly, calibration and handling of the valves.

Competed a quantity of prototype test manifolds manufactured per Stanford's design. Will QC back

at LLO and sent to Stanford for dip brazing.

Ken Mailand

The fluid biological growth test is showing nothing after 35 weeks.
The assembly of the dummy load network is in process at CIT. MIT will modify the pump station base and install part of the plumbing which will mate to the dummy load sub-assembly.
Need a response from LASTI re. relief valve availability and type of connection.
The basic configuration has been approved by Brian, Ken Mason and I have to decide on the dimensions for the attachment points, these are affected by house plumbing and space issues.

The LASTI manifold configuration has to be decided on I sent out two configuration drawings for comments.
With installation questions re. spacing and fillet vs butt welding.
The pressure sensors are not available in stock in the o-ring seal style [8-10 weeks] other types are in stock and can be used for LASTI. The LLO manifold sensors will be the o-ring type. Other parts, the accumulator and the special stainless fittings are in stock.

I put the tech reports on the LASTI fluid, 3 micron filter and the IMO screw pump in the elog.
T030164-00-R
T030165-00-R
T030166-00-R
Also two manifold sketches are in the elog
D030430
D030432

Atomic Clock

Successful test of the optical fiber based timing distribution system

(Szabi, Daniel)

During the weekend we successfully set-up and tested the the optical

fiber based timing distribution system. The test equipment was loaned to

us by the manufacturer (Timing Solutions Inc., Boulder, CO) and it is

equivalent to the proposed LHO system, except for the detail that it uses multimode fibers, while our system will rely on single mode fibers to bridge the 4 kms between the end and corner stations.

The setup was straightforward and the system performed as advertised.

The end-to-end test indicated that indeed the system can keep the input

and output within 5ns.

We also tested that we can measure the difference between the GPS Pulse

-Per-Second(1PPS) and Caesium 1PPS rising edges with a nanosecond

resolution. The outputs of the system (difference measurement and the

IRIG-B output, indicating the date/time) can be easily integrated into

the existing LIGO infrastructure and therefore can be trended and

alarmed as desired.

We also identified the space and cabling requirements for atomic clock

and distribution system installation

Location:

- The caesium clock, the rubidium clock, the main hub of the timing

distribution system as well as the 36h UPS for the caesium clock will be

located in the Mass Storage Room (MSR).

- A time code translator and a general purpose time-frequency counter

will be installed in each end/mid station as well as in each main rack

location of the LVEA.

Connections:

- The timing distribution system uses single mode fibers. The current

prototype has LC connectors. For each ifo it will require a pair of

single-mode fibers from the MSR to each of the mid/end stations as well

as the LVEA racks (3 pairs for LLO, 6 pairs for LHO).

- A connection from the local 1PPS signal to the general-purpose

time-frequency counter is required in each mid/end station as well as

the LVEA racks.

- An additional IRIG-B 16KHz DAQ channel should be set aside in the LVEA

to connect to the time code translator (one per site).

- An isolated RS232 EPICS interface for each of the time-frequency

counters.

- Power cables to all units.

Rack space requirements:

- End/mid stations, LVEA racks

o 1U for the time code translator

o 2U for the general purpose time-frequency counter

- MSR

o 4U for master timing unit (master clock assembly)

o 4U for time distibution hub (LHO ONLY, distribution assembly)

o 2U for caesium clock

o 5U for rubidium clock (requires shelf)

o 13U for UPS (e.g., SU2200RMXLNET + (2)SU48RMXLBP)

CDS

see also weekly CDS meeting minutes in the commissioning archives:

CDS Software

Rolf Bork reporting

- Setup the HEPI controls for MIT in our development system. Completed the

initial set of software (VME, PC, EPICS) and display screens and some testing.

The interface electronics should be completed today and ready to ship to MIT

tomorrow. Alex and I will begin installation and test at MIT this weekend and

continue thru next week.

- Worked to improve the performance of the end station software using some of

the same methods which proved successful in the LSC software. With the recent

addition of QPD digital filtering and GDS DAC outputs, the latest software at

LHO runs at 55-60usec. With the new optimization, the code now runs in our

development system in about 40usec. We will probably install this new software

at LHO after my return from MIT.

- Started work to make all the new software which was recently installed at LHO

compatible with LLO. Main difference is LLO has microseismic feedforward and I

want to verify that this still works with the latest software. After our

discussion at today's CDS meeting, it appears early September will be the best

time to install the new code at LLO. (Could be moved up to week of Aug.25 if

there is an urgency.)

CDS Hardware

no report

PSL

PeterKing

With help from Jay, the PCB files for a high power photodetector were

sent off to PCBExpress for the board fabrication. They should be back

early next week provided there are no hiccups.

I have been measuring the beam pointing drift in the 10-W laser as the

laser warms up. The beam appears to move on order of +/- 0.6 mm, mostly

in the horizontal plane (for this laser at least). After a 4-hour warm up

the maximum observed beam drift is +/- 0.25 mm, although typically it is on

order of +/- 0.05 mm. A simple servo loop did not have enough dynamic

range to combat the drift but this should be overcome with a moderately

high voltage PZT driver.

Errant Beam Blocks

Ken Mailand

The MC1 and MC3 baffles are being re made to eliminate any possibility of the beam striking a wire when the baffle is rotated at a high angle to the SOS, will be ready for high temp bake process by 8-12.

Optical Metrology

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

OTF Lab. (W. Bridge)

Contamination Cavity # 1

The chamber is pumping down and cavity is locked with the new sample in (4 each) anodized Aluminum wire spool for the OSEM. We are taking ring down and beat frequency every day.

So far, We can tell from the ring down measurements that has decreased(~85%), mirrors got contaminated.

Beat frequency increased shows an increased of absorption.

Results from the plots for absorption, ring down and thermal lensing will be released.

New test sample PEEK wire spool for the OSEM is ready and it will go in next week.

Another sample collected.Solder joints for the OSEM assembly is in preparation as more samples needed.

Absorption Test Measurement prototype in standby ( New laser coming soon?)

Scatterometer system

Complete Modification in Progress. Meeting with Mike Gerfen to coordinate new base design

(Main shop) to hold the new Sapphire ITM mirror (~13" dia. X ~7 3/4 thick).

The new optical train plate for the RTS scanner is completed and fabrication is in progress.

OTF Lab at Lauritsen ROOM 38

Cavity #3

I have installed two new mirrors from REO and hung the cavity again.

mode match completed and new alignment is in progress, cavity visibility is ~55% so far.

chamber is pumping down &RGA is in progress.

Cavity #2 Test cavityin STANDBY.

We will be installing a new cavity with clean mirrors.

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

LASTI (Ottoway)

LASTI Weekly (Mittleman, Mason, Kern, Hammond, Rankin, Shoemaker,
Rollins,Sarin, McInnis, Bakr, Allen)

This is Bill Rankin's last week with the LASTI team. We thank him for his
contribution and wish him well in his future endeavours.
Time was spent preparing for the LASTI review at the LSC.

EPI Design and Installation
A purchase order was given to RenTec to add the additional lines to the
two HAM chambers at LASTI which will be retrofitted with the HEPI
pre-isolator.

Visits were made along with Jonathan Kern to the machine and fabrication
shops building the production quantity EPI assemblies. The shops which
have purchase orders have been given the ok to order material.

Rich tried to re-produce the initial shaker pier stiffening using a shaker
and found that there is instabilities in the transfer functions which
made reproduction difficult

Progress has been hampered by electronic problems, which are continuing to
destroy OSEMs

A high frequency loop was constructed utilizing an amplitude modulating
EOM. This was done to suppress the intensity noise between 60 kHz and 200
kHz which is difficult to suppress using other means. It was feared that
large noise signals in this band were being down converted to the signal
band and were causing the 1e-8 noise floor. It was found however that
significantly reducing the high frequency intensity noise had negligible
impact on the noise at low frequencies.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
Weekly Physics Meeting
------------------------
Bill Kells described his comparison of shot noise formulae with the theses of
T. Lyons and B. Bochner. The possible reason behind the observed LLO contrast
defect and results from FFT runs with phasemaps was also discussed.

FFT simulation with actual phasemap
----------------------------------------
Raghu developed a code to extend the measured phase map in 15cm diameter to
the full mirror surface of 24cm. The measured phase map is fit using
Zernike polynomial. But, Zernike polynomial is unstable in the region
with large radius. To make is stable, 12 cm is used as a normalization
radius, instead of 7.5 cm. The validity of this method will be tested by
using the data within 10cm diameter to see if the region between 10 to 15cm
region can be reproduced.

Radiation Pressure for LIGO I
-------------------------------
Xiao kept working on analyzing the mirror motion using SimLIGO with and
with radiation pressure, under different ASC.
Juri has built a FP cavity with radiation pressure. He is now ready to
study the effect systematically. He will start to simulate the case
discussed in the Danniel's paper, then go to more realistic case.

GW simulation
----------------
Jeff has finished writing primitives to generate a chirp signal and to
induce proper phase change for the field propagation. He is now testing his
module with analytic calculation based on Danniel's note.

Wave Front sensor signals
----------------------------
(Biplab) Generated WFS signals for the recycled Michelson configuration
and sent those to Luca who is working on automatic coarse alignment before
lock-acquisition.

Code development and maintenance
---------------------------------
(Hiro) Modeler on linux behaves oddly. With the same code, SimLIGO runs
locked under certain condition, but the lock easily breaks on linux.
Hiro is working to find the cause of problem.

(Melody)
- Finished the prototype which dynamically created C++ source from
    FUNC_xxx equation modules. They were compiled, combined to a shared
    library, and used during runtime execution.   Started looking into
    how the e2e source should be modified to integrate this enhancement.

Alfi
-----
(Bruce) Bundle design work (PR 272)

Software Systems (Blackburn)
Migrated the nightly builds onto two newer faster servers. As an added
benefit, we can now do scheduled builds during the day in about half the
time require previously. It now takes about an hour and 45 minutes to build
the LDAS software - excluding the post build unit testing that is integrated
into the procedure.

The new threaded database insertion code for the metaDataAPI has now been
tested for one day on the LDAS-DEV system (after 3 days of successful tests
on the smaller two server LDAS system. The API demonstrates about a 25%
improvement over the previous version of the metaDataAPI. Estimate it to be
about 5 times faster than the previous 0.7.0 release of LDAS and capable of
significantly higher concurrency than in that release.

The new threaded diskCacheAPI has successfully passed several days of tests
on standalone systems. A minor issue with the renaming scheme used in the
creation of RDS frames was discovered why testing on the standalone systems
and has been fixed. The new code will begin testing on the LDAS-DEV system
today.

Began prioritization of the open problem reports in an effort to assure that
the most significant PRs are closed out before the next release of the LDAS
software.

The number of core dumps from the APIs continues to drop as improvements are
made to the C++ source code. The most common coding mistake involves using
corrupted containers as a result of poorly managing the methods that manage
and manipulate SL (standard library) containers, in particular iterators.
There is still a week or two worth of effort required to finish this clean
up.

UWM is having difficulties bringing up there cluster to run the 0.7.0 version
of LDAS released in January. Several LDAS software developers and system
testers have been providing support this week in an effort to streamline
the process for their new system administrator.

Began implementing a new command to allow users to remove data products which
they produced on the LDAS system in order to enable them to
perform there own clean up. This is in response to disk space shortages on
the LDAS-CIT system during extended analyses by the stochastic group and
experiences from running driver scripts for RDS frame generation.

This week I've been working on the GUI for managing production of reduced
data sets (RDS) using LDAS, in preparation for S3.

I've also made some changes and corrections to LDAS web documentation
regarding the updated "ouput()" command, which now allows users to set the
names of data products (for example, channel names in frame files).
I also added documentation for the "rmvm()" function for line-removal,
provide by Eric Rotthoff at PSU.

* Finished re-archiving all trend data in SAM-QFS that was on the
original low-density 9940A format to 9940B format tapes.

* Continued retrieving S2 second trend data from HPSS and archiving it
in SAM-QFS. By doing the retrievals in the same order that files are
on HPSS tapes and running two instances of hsi, I've been able to get
the transfer rate up to the network maximum. All S2 LHO second trend
data should be in SAM-QFS by COB tomorrow and the LLO data should be
done by the end of next week.

* Started re-archiving full frame data to 9940B format tapes. Still working
on automating this process.

* Worked with STK field service to upgrade one of our 9940Bs that was
having problems to the latest firmware. It's been working well for the
last 24 hours, so we'll be upgrading the other drives soon.

* This week I was just trying to install VDT on ldas-grid, which I have put
on hold till a more stable release comes out.

* Got conformation of the two Beowulf units sent to ASA for repair. They
are being burned in and should ship next week.

* Received new monitor for the cit nodes. Decided to swap with a 15" in the
conference room.

* Upgraded the network archiving script for trend frames to archive frame
files directly from the Observatories into their final GPS range based
directories in the central archive system at Caltech.

* Brought on old E450 on-line with Solaris 9 to operate as an LDAS Solaris
test/development machine.

* Finished configuring and brought on-line a Linux nightly build machine
for LDAS-DEV as well as a Linux database server to compare performance
with the Sun machines in preparation for a hardware upgrade for S3.

* The AC replacement work started this week and will continue next
week. Most likely LDAS will be shutdown next Monday and Tuesday.

* IDE RAID box froze again with the latest SMP kernel although it did
run for couple days (with previous version it could not run for more
than 2-3 hours). I switched to the old UP kernel. So far no crashes
since Monday. I still have not solved the problem with the degraded
array since the system was under heavy use and I could not take the IDE
box offline.

* Continuing to work with Robert Schofield to create an intersite S2
PEM RDS for his analysis.

* Foundry Networks came by, Tuesday August 5, and updated the firmware
in the GigE switch. All ports that are in use appear to be working at
the moment.

* Finally incorporated the new dual 3GHz Xeon beowulf box into LDAS.
The missing piece appeared to be the "in.rshd" server.

* All of rack 4 (nodes 101-140) has passed the burntest, rack 3 (nodes
61-100) should be finished by the end of the week. That will be the last
of the mass burntests here.

* Continuing to work on software for the new LDAS archiving system
arrangement. My portion is be a set of Tcl/Tk scripts that handle the
copying of data from the framebuilders' filesystem into LDAS, subsequent
monitoring, and interface for the control room operators.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)
Creighton:
Still working on all-sky pulsar search template placement. I found a
problem with strong metric degeneracies when observing for short
periods, and need to include a workaround to avoid ``bad''
(degenerate) regions of parameter space.

Mendell:
1) Continued work on the stackslide DSO with Mike Landry. Progress
continues towards having the first working version of this code ready by
the August LSC meeting.

2) An updated version of the knownpulsardemod DSO was included in the
new tagged version of LALWrapper put on the LDAS systems this week.
This version handles the special case when the F-statistic is requested
for a single freqency bin. (This is done by setting the requested
bandwidth for the F-statistic to zero in the filter parameters.)

3) Continued worked with my SURF student Anah Mourant on her pulsar
parameter estimation code for LALapps. Her code is complete and bugs are
being sorted out.

Reilly:
Nearly all of my time this week was spent working on the DSO
code. I was hoping that I would have been able to run some preliminary
tests of the new DSO by now but I was plagued by a couple of bugs
which I have now fixed or worked around. The first problem is that
the DSO need the calibration factors in adifferent form than given
in the orginal stochastic pipeline. The second problem was a bug in
ldas which causes incorrect calibration factors to be passed. I submitted
a bug report. Once these problems were taken care of I was able
to run a test of the old DSO on 60 second segments. This test was done using
174 H1H2 segments and I used it to get a number for omegagw. I ran
this test within ldas and in standalone mode. This will make it
possible to test my changes to the DSO in standalone mode.

Shawhan:
* Continuing to work with Evan Ochsner on distinguishing "garbage events"
from reasonable inspiral candidates in the S1 data. He has now run through
all of the S1 data from LLO. It looks like his tests will be successful
in getting rid of the several loudest event candidates, with minimal
inefficiency for simulated inspiral signals.

* Discussed BCV inspiral templates with B [Alessandra Buonanno] and C
[Yanbei Chen], who have repeated their earlier studies using the LIGO
S2 noise curves and extending to lower masses. The inspiral analysis
group is planning to use these templates to search for high (and not
so high) mass binary inspirals in the S2 data.

Yakushin:
1) Running waveburst with the new calibration data on the whole S2.
        a) injections;
        b) simulations;
        c) production run.
2) Started vectorizing waveburst since to run the above I had to
completely use all the LDAS resources at LLO, CIT and LHO for 3 days.
However, I need also to do time shift analysis and run waveburst for
different time-frequency resolutions that would increase running time by
a factor of 10*5=50. Also, eventually much more simulation runs would
have to be done (at the moment only sine-gaussian signal is used).
Currently, each waveburst job is using only single node and no more than
20 jobs can run at a time on the system without creating bottlenecks in
the job queue despite the fact that only tiny part of the available
nodes are utilized. Vectorizing the code would allow to utilize all the
nodes without increasing the number of concurrent jobs that should
improve the performance dramatically.

General Computing (Wallace)
MIT:
(Keith)
-Spec'd and ordered a thinkpad laptop for new postdoc
-Upgrading firmware on wireless hubs
-Patched windows machines for RPC security hole
-Installed new virus software on windows computers
-Updated office assistant's computer based on Larry's security probe
user issues
-Installed new 170GB SCSI drive for failover/backup of filesystem

Livingston:
(Shannon by Larry)
-Worked on Security audit at Caltech.
-Attending LINUX conference.
-Working with Tom different user support items.

Hanford:
(Christine)
- Downloaded and began installing Calcium on the web server.
- Downloaded some updated printer drivers for AutoCAD.
- Larry has been working to get access for LHO computers to the Caltech
software site licensing web page. Our IP addresses were blocked.
- Put in a phone call to Cisco Technical Support for help with router
and switch configuration. I'm trying to get a Cisco technician to come
out here and walk me through the configuration. I've purchased a gige
interface card for the Cisco router.
- Further testing of the OC3 WAN has shown no change in bandwidth for
TCP traffic after "tuning" the host computer's TCP buffer sizes.
However, the LAN is all running at fastethernet and UDP traffic on the
WAN is being transferred at fastethernet speed. More study is needed
and hopefully the Cisco technician can find a solution to the problem.
- Set up a new laptop, requested modem accounts and user accounts from
Larry, requested Caltech ITS accounts and VPN accounts and working with
Larry to get special software for two new employees.
- Lots of user support for the SURF students.
- Per Ed Chargois' request I am getting together all broken computers
and monitors for him to dispose of next week.
- Purchased more Matlab toolbox licenses.
- Installed an additional wireless access point in the new building.

CIT:
(Lisa)
- Attended a 2-day Dreamweaver class through the Caltech learning
center. The class was really good and I highly recommend it.
- Tried to make the Matlab licenses fail over to the ITS license server.
This worked under matlab12 but isn't working with matlab13. I will
need to spend some more time working on this one.
- Added many more subject strings to the spam filter.
- User support, new accounts.

(Veronica)
- LIGO website: Posted updates to various pages. Posting Amaldi 5
presentations. Addressed a DCC issue. Working with George Stokes on the
makeover of the DCC databases. Testing a new proposed layout.
Prepared and installed a webpage for the upcoming S1 papers. Posted a
pointer at the LIGO and LSC homepages.
Transferred the media files of the SURF lectures by Alan Weinstein to the
streaming media, and posted the pointers at the LIGO Seminars.
Installed latest security patches to m46 and m82. However, it seems that
m82 is infected with a virus; I am looking into how to deal with it.
Posting updates to the roster.
- LSC website: posting updates.

(Mike)
-Finished up loading and setting up a new Dell on the 6th floor conference
room; plus I ran tests on the VRVS video conference software.
-Worked on a virus issue on Ben Abbott's computer that I was able to
correct by cleaning out registry and updating OS patches.
-Worked on some printing problems at the 40M; this included
paper jams, swapping out toner cartridges and cleaning rollers with alcohol
to keep this printer from jamming up.
-Worked on setting up and testing a VRVS broadcast from the Science
Conference Room.
-Worked a networking problem on one of Szabolcs, surf
students. I ended up having to disable the integrated network card and
install a PCI network card for a temporary fix. I called Dell and they are
sending me out a new motherboard.
-Worked on the 4500-color printer that required many hours to fix. This
was due to someone else that tried to fix the printer,
which made things worse than they really were. It would be appreciated if
the printer has a problem and is flashing an error message please contact
someone from General Computing to handle the problem and don't make an
attempt to fix the problem. This printer could have been fixed in a few
minutes but ended up taking hours to fix.
-Made some back-up DVD copies for Szabolcs of some directories in his home
account.
-Ran OS and security patches on all PC's on the third floor of W/B; plus
updated the engine to 8.0 for Norton Anti Virus software.
-On Janeen Romie's computer she was having a network problem that turned out
to be a hub that needed to be rebooted. I also troubleshot a hardware
issue (CDRW) she was having, that turned out to be a software reinstallation.
-Worked on Helena's laptop for Janeen to borrow, while on travel. This
included setting up e-mail and configuring users login/desktop environment.
-Installed MatLab 13 for Seiji and made some security adjustments to his laptop.
-Worked on a workstation for Charles Bordier who he wants to switch
computers with Eric Kort who has left the project. This is a faster
computer that will help him in the work he is doing for Riccardo.
-Worked on Barry Barish's laptop looking onto a wireless issue he is
having on his home DSL wireless network. I found a setting I enabled that
automatically detects the different networks on the fly. I scheduled &
waited for an IBM technician to replace a part on his laptop that was broken.
-This week also included a lot of phone support that included software,
e-mail, and networking issues.

(Larry)
-This has been a busy week working on the PC's. Updating the patches, fixing
infected machines has taken up most of the time. Also, cleaning off junk files
and defragmenting the disks has been a time sink in getting the PC's to run
better. Overall security related items has been our focus this past week.
-Assisted the DCC with a number of services.
-Procurements has also taken up some time. There have been a number of orders
for different groups. The FEMLab s/w has just arrived and Phil W. will be
checking it out. The new printer for the 40M should arrive tomorrow.
-Worked with all of the LIGO locations on getting new accounts setup and making
changes to existing accounts. Requests for Campus to update different tables has
taken a little more time this week than normal.
-Reworking a number of the budget items and hope to have those items off to Phil
and Albert by the end of the week. We have a number of procurements that will be
pushed into next year.
-Worked with Mike and Veronica on the VRVS setup. Also, helped Ryan get it
installed on his PC.
-We have been adding a number of locations to the block list for spam mail.
We've had to unblock a few locations which has increased the amount of spam mail
coming through. The locations need to remain open so the legitimate mail can get
through.
Checking for false positives is still continuing.
-Tried wrapping the the security audit with Shannon but too many interruptions
had made it to where I will have to finish up after I return in a couple of
weeks.

Advanced LIGO Development (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO and supporting R&D

Seismic Isolation

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

Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure

Design/Fab Contract:

Phase I, Value Engineering, is expected to be completed by the end of the month. The Value Engineering Reviews will be held at the three contractors' sites as follows:

8/28: Hytec, Los Alamos, NM
8/29: Alliance, Pasadena, CA
9/2: HPD, Boulder, CO

The contractors will present a VE report, as well as CPFF proposals for Phase II (design and prototype fab, one each, of units for the BSC and HAM chambers), as well as proposal estimates for Phase III (production). Evaluation of the proposals and award of the contracts for Phase II is expected during September.

Actuator Testing and Redesign:

Kyle Ryan has finished setup and the initial thermal vacuum testing of the large actuator at LHO, at currents up to 2.75 amps. Bobbin temperatures exceeded 70 C with aluminum heat sinks mounted. Rich Abbott and Joe Giaime will be evaluating the data. Kyle will be performing another 24 hour test at 1.0 amp.

A coil winder in Rosemead is setting up to rewind an existing bobbin from a small actuator with square wire. A new bobbin was made without anodizing for assembly RGA outgassing measurements. It was apparently discarded with the packaging material when received at the coil winder, and will have to be remade.

Auxiliary Optics

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

PHOTON DRIVE R&D
Tom Essinger-Hileman has closed the loop of his 0.5 watt intensity stabilized laser servo system. A relative intensity noise close to 1E-7 was measured. The initial result was obtained with PDA 55 photodetector, and subsequently Ben found the problem with the intensity stabilization PD and similar results were also obtained. Tom had spacers made to raise the height of the external optical table to be compatible with the optical table in the mode cleaner chamber. He has designed an optical system which will allow initially 4 bounces from the MC2 mirror, with the addition of 8 bounces if necessary.

Aidan Crook has calculated the bandwidth of the photon acuator for the mode cleaner based on the available effective laser power (which is proportional to the number of bounces). He is in the process of designing the filter functions for the additional photon actuation servo loop.

Allyson:
I was gone on Monday and Tuesday but I have been continuing to melt MoRuB
samples. All is going well with that project. I have sanded 3 new samples
and am waiting for them to be x-rayed so I can begin my hardness
measurements. My last day of work is August 15th and I am confident that I
can have all the measurements for B-14 through B-22 by then.

Mike:
Consulting with Chiara while she measures the thermal conductivity of
Metglas and MoRuB. Writing what will (hopefully) be the final draft of my
paper. Should be completed in the next few days.

Charles:
Asked Stefano about the new stress strain machine... Francesco is going to
continue this project. I started also to characterize the filters that
Szabi made to notch the noise in the Interferometer output spectrum.

Francesco:
I am working on the spectrum of the thermal noise, the spectrum depends on
the stiffness of the joint and I'm looking for a correct formula for the
stiffness of the central part of the joint, maybe I'll need ANSYS
simulations in order to have an idea of the strain energy and of the
behaviour of the fillets.
I'm also working on the splatter, I have centered the coil and obtained
two good splats of MoRuB.

Greg:
This week was somewhat abbreviated, as I was away for part. I prepared
the samples and sent them off to Francesco for Q factor
measurement. Also, I continued working with Rick from the glass shop to
design a better nozzle for casting.

Chiara:
I did thermal conductivity measurements on the first sample of metglass. I
mounted this sample in the same way we use to mount sapphire fibers that
is with epoxy to attach copper leads on the sample. Analyzing results we
see that there are some problems; first of all the long (very long!) time
to reach steady state condition it's a problem to have a good DeltaT! I've
started today a run with a new sample which is mounted differently with
copper leads soldered on thin strips of copper tape, attached on the
borders of the sample. The reason for these tests is to compare the
results, in order to find the best way to mount MoRuB sample.

Xavier:
Still working on ANSYS Analysis. 80% load almost done. Initiating max
angle.

Enrico:
Continuing doing the report and waiting for Finn and Willems to work with
me.

Simone:
I found a better alloy Pd43Ni10Cu27P20, prepared here at Caltech by
Schroers and Jonhson. Bill told me to speak with Chris Veazy, who is
working on the same alloy. On Monday Chris gave me a total amorphous
sample and its related DSC curve [stopped at 793 K], I will try to
reproduce that curve arriving to 873 K. I have done a XRD curve, helped by
Greg, of the sample, proving its amorphous composition.

Weekly Report for Week Ending August 7, 2003

Special Announcements:

LSC Issues (Saulson)

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)