Weekly Report for Week Ending October 16, 2003

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  October 20, 2003 will be:

 (Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

STAFFING COMMITTEE MEETING

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Saulson)

no report

Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Lindquist)

A site teleconference was held on Thursday, October 16, 2003.  The following were among the issues discussed:

Budgets  - We are still comfortable with our estimate of $6 million for the carry-forward. FY 2003 costs being expensed in October are close to $1 million so far, but some of these items were on the list of items to be covered in the carry-forward..

University of Oregon  - The University of Oregon has billed for more than is in their contact for R. Schofield.  There appears to be some confusion here.  This will be a priority item for Irena to straighten out when she returns.

Property - Ed Chargoiswill travel to Livingston to help with the sale of the excess property..
The list of current actions revised to reflect the status of open actions assigned through October 16, 2003 may be found at ACTION LIST.

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

• Provided assistance to the Detector Group (H.Armandula) with packing, shipping, and preparation of US Customs Documentation for ten (10) 1/2 inch Sapphire Substrates and ten (10) 1/2 inch Fused  Silica Substrates to SMA-VIRGO (Dr. MJ Mackowski), Lyon, France.  Account Number P2042996.
• Prepared a letter to the National Science Foundation (Kevin Rorer) requesting the renewal of LIGO's General Services Administration purchasing privileges in accordance with the New NSF Award No. PHY-0107417.
• Provided support to the Detector Group (C. Torrie) by providing equipment and furniture for the Suspension Workshop held in the Synchrotron Hi-Bay.
• Assisted in a property audit with Audit Services and Institute Compliance (Kevin Caporicci) all twenty-five pieces property was located..

>From: Linda Turner - turner@ligo.caltech.edu>

ACCOMPLISHMENTS (This report reflects activity for the past month.)

• With George Stokes, completed work on the diagnosis, redesign and implementation of a more stable environement for the linking of the electronic file directories with the DCC database and the Web search tool.  The only last detail remaining is to automate the copy of the database from Antares to Pherkab, now done nightly, so that the links are dynamic with the search tool.  George has provided Veronica with the code needed for this final step.

Developed a phase II Statement of Work with George Stokes which includes three main areas that need consideration:  1) further system design, architecture, and maintenance enhancements; 2) automated processing of new electronically submitted documents; and 3) improved website search capabilities.  This will be submitted to Phil by the end of the week.

• Researched multifunction units that provide color scanning, printing, and copying to replace the HP unit now in my office.  The machine has unstable memory and will be out of maintenance coverage on November 1.  Larry and I have reviewed several companies' products and the one which seems to meet our needs is by Canon.  I've spoken with two different companies who are putting together quotes for two different models.
• Spent several days working with Ed Jasnow and Larry Jones to reworking the contract with Alliance Spacesystems; just finished two additional contracts with France and Australia for Research and Development for Coating of Advanced LIGO Core Optics.  Final compilation of the contracts should be completed tomorrow after receiving all the cited exhibits.
• Processed over 50 close-out contracts into the database.  These files represented nearly eight feet of paper and our sub-basement storage is now at full capacity with no room left.
• Negotiated and renewed the maintenance contract for the three main copy machines located in Milliken, Wilson House and on the 3rd floor of Bridge Annex.  Subsequent service calls were made and all machines have been serviced and are working fine.
• Remained up-to-date and current with all LSC presentations, including the few stragglers that are still infrequently being submitted.  Preparations are already in progress for the November meeting at LHO.
• Handled multiple problem electronic documents, many with number or revision discrepancy, some with printing problems, numerous files with wrong file nomenclature, and a host of files needing to be distilled into the required PDF format.  In spite of this, 311 new electronic documents were added for on-line retrieval.  This total is broken down by category as follows:

 


C	D	E	G
6 records	51 records	8 records	83 records
8 files	56 files	10 files	126 files
L	M	P	T
5 records	29 records	7 records	46 records
9 files	30 files	9 files	58 files

The records represent the actual document submittals while the file numbers reflect that actual number of documents handled due to many submittals encompassing more than one document format.  In total, the DCC processed 543 documents last month.  This figure includes both electronic files and those documents received only as a hard copy.

• Conducted an interview with Peter Saulson for an article on the LSC in the upcoming issue of the LIGO newsletter.
• Scanned in numerous MOU attachments and progress reports from Irena Petrac.
• Swapped contents from old laptop to new one.  This was quite a chore that required significant time from both Mike and Larry.  Also worked with Mike and Larry to clear up ongoing email issues that peaked at the past LSC meeting and continued after returning to LIGO.
• Met briefly with UK collaborators to find an effective way of identifying their LIGO submittals and a process that streamlined everyone's effort.  A new group ID (K) was added to the database to facilitate sorts and searches.
• The dcc/OUT directory is 100% current with no documents in queue.


ISSUES

Storage - We have accommodated the last large batch of documents and are down to piecemeal slots on the shelves as they correspond to category.  I estimate that storage will be non-existant by the end of January.  If all documents were processed that are currently in my office, there would be no place to file them.  This is a large part of the encroachment problem seen in my office today.

Moving - Should there be a move for our group in the near future, we need at least a 3-4 week window to pack.  This is no easy task and will require methodical preparation to ensure that the files remain intact and that piles currently stashed for processing can be carefully situated into a new environment.  Also, if there are discussions regarding space allocations, the DCC needs additional space than what is the current allotment, including the subbasement area.  The track files need to be relocated and there are problems with three of the stacks because of stripped wheels due to eight years of use.  The manufacturer/company of these files is no longer in business, but I've located a company with similar equipment should there be interest in adding/replacing/repairing what we currently have.

ACTIVITY

• Worked on eliminating a list of orphan files (documents that are located in docspublic/docsinternal but not in the DCC database)
• Processed and distributed four DCN's.

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>

• Completed change order #10 to Excel Engineering.  Currently, working on change order #11 to Excel Engineering.  Working on change order #25 to Butler, change order #21 to Support Services.
• Completed change order #6 to Air Liquide and prepared the letter to the vendor to exercise the option to extend the 3-yr contract with Air Liquid, with Ed Jasnow's concurrence.
• Placed single shot purchase orders for the sites and Caltech.
• Placing and reconciling pcard orders and doing follow up on pending shipments.  Internal modifications on old purchase orders.

• No report this week.

• Started working on reports for October 2003 for both FY2003 and FY2004.
• Submitted PTA Set Up for Award from MIT re Deploying LIGO Data Grid.
• Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport

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

• LSC process of semi-annual updating of MOU Attachments and of submitting associated Progress Reports, and posting the same on the web has been resurrected. Petrac and Lindquist improved an Excel Status report format that Rita Torres has put together a while ago.  See Status Report.
• University of Washington - A draft MOU and associated Attachments D and Z have been prepared and are in the final review by the PI.
• The University oif Southern California - The MOU and Attachments No. 1 and No. A. are in the sign-off cycle.
• Draft-versions of most recent updates on LSC Attachments are being processed for web posting, pending LIGO review and sign off, per Barish' okay.

• The NSF has favorably reviewed the proposed contract for the internal pre-isolation system, but has asked some questions regarding cost controls.  An answer is being prepared and will be sent next week when Sandy Pool returns from vacation.
• The contract packages for the Advanced LIGO optical coating have been completed and are ready for review by General Counsel.  That review will begin next week.
• The contract with Air Liquide to provide LN2 to the Livingston Observatory has been extended for three years.  This was done with the unilateral exercise of an option in the contract.
• The statement of work for a new electrical maintenance contract at Livingston has been completed and will be reviewed next week.  This will be incorporated into an RFP which is scheduled to be released at the end of October.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Lloyd, Tischler)

>Irene Baldon
(This report covers four working days, October 9-14).

• Processed the paper work for four (4) new/revised trips.  There are eighteen (18) trips in various stages of completion before ticketing can be done and/or paper work completed.  And an additional five (5) general inquiries.  LIGO/Hanford has now been trained on P-Card and should be doing their own trips in the future.  I'm working closely with Terry Gunter in acquainting her with travel procedures, etc.  I will continued to close out existing trips and/or assisting where necessary.
• Completed 31 Expense Reports and there are thirty-two (32) 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 these can be closed in a timely manner.  Presently there are eight (8) reports more than 30 days old.
• Reconciled twenty-four (24) 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.  Still dealing with a multitude of problems associated with the compromise of my P-Card last month.
• Worked on the preparation and distribution of the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for October 13, 2003.  Arranged one (1) new teleconference and two (2) new reservations on the LIGO Calendar.

• Processed the usual invoices for payment. Tracked and followed up on invoice problems. Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther the week of October 6.
• Processed the usual requisitions, change orders and payment requests.
• Continue to monitor contract and blanket order encumbrance and notify task managers when supplements are needed.
• Jim continued with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

• Suspension Workshop -provided event details, support, follow-up
• Photo Project -check out the roster
• NSF Review and PAC details
• PMA space survey
• Proposal for funding for LIGO bicycle package -DeSalvo

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

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.

Continue working on draft / text of implementation.
Clink on links to view the Draft Work-plan and Estimate.
Continue testing of Primavera Enterprise version 3.5.1.  See the links below for information / technology demonstrations: (From Local Primavera Dealer)
Primavision - http://primavision.drmcnatty.com:8080/phoenixwl/login_p3ec  Login using Username:  admin and Password:  admin.

Progress Reporter - http://www.projwebsite.com/GroupServerP3e/en/  Login using Username:  admin and Password:  admin.

Static HTML Example - http://ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/SUS_WebProj/ (AdL Suspensions Only)  NOTE:  This is after importing and before any data corrections.

Static HTML Example - http://ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/DAQ_WebProj/ (AdL DAQ Only)  NOTE:  This is after making adjustments to the WBS so that it displays as expected.

Will attend the Users conference in November at Orlando, Florida.  See http://www.primavera.com/events/conference.html

Finished work inputting additional coding as requested by Carol to identify deliverables, milestones, and interface activities. (SUS Only)

Phone conferences with Carol regarding preparation for the SUS Workshop and input of codes.

Prepared reports for SUS meetings scheduled for the week of Oct. 13 - 17.

Attended meetings with SUS group regarding Project Management and Scope.

Prepared spreadsheet that compares SUS / US and SUS / UK key events as discussed at the meetings.

Started preparing resource analysis information for meeting with SUS Group on Friday AM.

The following is a summary of status by sub system:
COC - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.  Received update date for COC with progress through 09.26.02.

PSL -  No action items pending.  Followed up with Peter and Benno has provided data.  Peter has yet to review.  Received update date for PSL with progress through 09.26.02.

AOS - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.

IO -  Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.

SUS - No action items pending.

SEI - No action items pending. Working with Larry to update SEI with progress through 09.26.02.

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.

ROSTER DATABASE:
Continued input of changes / corrections regarding supervisors and departments.

COST BOOK DATABASE:
Reconciling cost account listing from cost book and schedule loading.

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

Have started a draft of a Final Report for Cooperative Agreement NSF PHY-9210038, the cooperative agreement that covered construction, installation and commissioning, and initial operations of the sites.  This cooperative agreement ended June 30, 2003.  I have been able to dredge up information from previously submitted documentation, specifically the annual reports, the Advanced LIGO Proposal, the Procurement Plan for the LDAS Hardware, etc.  Have requested Albert's group to provide some additional information.  The target is to have a draft on the web page in time for the NSF Review, November 17, 2003.

The following change requests are open.

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 to Facilitate Movement of Large Items (currently assigned to FY 2004 liens list)	J. Worden	July 31, 2003

Additionally we have received a request to add budget to the Louisiana Facilities account to cover items moved there when the Construction Project was closed.  We will do this, but we are waiting for the final numbers for FY 2003 so that we can address all of the Louisiana accounts.

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

• Various personnel/payroll /HR related work.
• The final agenda for the October Staffing Meeting is complete and posted.  The Staffing meeting is Monday at 10:30 and I believe it will be a long one.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

• Nothing significant to report this week.

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

Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory  (compiled by M. Landry)

2K IFO
The H2 IFO posted its greatest NS-NS inspiral range so far (444kpc).  All WFS d.o.f. have been
engaged, although this application degrades spob and arm powers.  Work on debugging the WFS
and adding the QPDs continues.  ASI problems were debugged.  Power was increased into the
IFO.

Bill Kells visited LHO and worked on 2k scatterometer measurements.  Initial findings include that
the predominant mechanism for scatter is from discrete point scatterers, likely coating imperfections
or contamination on the optic, and, the newly replaced ITMX shows far less scatter than the old
(replaced) test mass.  High-resolution beam spot images are given here.

4K IFO
As the 4k has been frozen, it has mostly been left to lock in full or acquire++ modes.  Fundamental
violin modes remain apparently high, perhaps three times thermal excitation.  New calibrations are
being performed (to ensure we've not introduced too much systematic error since S2 and the
violins are in fact simply thermally excited).
 

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Interferometer commissioning:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Continued commissioning and stabilization work in preparation for S3. We
have made about a thousandfold improvement over the excess
noise reported this time last week but are still stumped by a
persistent broadband excess, holding us
about a decade off the previous best sensitivity. Tests have eliminated
numerous candidate mechanisms (see Rana's nice <A HREF="http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=10/15/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:10:15:14:48:55-rana" TARGET="_top">summary</A>).
At present attention is focused on anomalous behavior of the signals
derived from the beamsplitter pickoff (POB) which control the minor
degrees of freedom (Michelson and recycling cavity lengths),
and on an observed but unexplained discrepancy in the gain of the
common-mode wavelength control additive offset (AO) path.
 

Some other highlights:
 

o in the process of commissioning the new atomic clock timing system we
noticed a failed GPS clock module at the Y end and replaced it
 

o the new ISS was tweaked up to improve reliability and fault recovery
 

o a failed mirror mount adjustment micrometer was replaced on the PSL/IO
final output periscope
 

o an F2P filter was added to MC2 to match those on the core optics and
tested
 

o the thermal controller on the PSL reference cavity was updated to an
improved revision like those at LHO
 

o the ETM tidal offload servo continued to suffer from bugs which caused
unlocking; these may have been fixed, or at least temporarily swept
under the rug.
 

o A nasty bug was found in the end station EPICS processors causing
timing hiccups every 64 seconds; it was eventually fixed by swapping in
a different type of processor.
 

o The control room remodeling is largely finished, with new projectors,
operator and scimon workstations, and fixed displays for data
figures of merit.
 
 

Safety/security (Riesen)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Completed weekly IR scan on the PSL and the 4 IOT/ISC tables, Found no
errant beams.
 

Found no safety concerns on the weekly site tour.
 

Continuing work on the LLO Laser SOP.
 

Re-established Laser Safety System control computer access;
there are now 3 access levels on the LSS;
a) Read only. Allows minimum access in controlling the system (without
operator log-in).
b) Operator Control.  Allows Operators (after operator log-in) to control
the LSS for daily functions.
c) Administration. Has full function capabilities including program
modification.
 

The man door between the large equipment airlock and the LVEA is now
alarmable to the control room.
 

General Computing (Roddy)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Spent some time making sure that we are fully recovered from last weeks
disk crash.
 

Received the server that was ordered for Jonathan as the PDM Works
server.Spent a couple hours setting it up.  The next morning the power
supply blew.  ASA is working on getting me a replacement.
 

Spent much of the night last night working on LDAP.  I finally got it
working with SSL so that the entire session is encrypted.  This is for
Solaris only so far, but I feel confident in deploying it at this point.
 I will repeat the process again and document all of the needed steps.
 

Expecting the new RAID disk server from ASA today or tomorrow.  As soon
as it gets here I will start working on it and burn it in.  Afterwards I
will begin moving GC files to it.
 

LLO Seismic retrofit (Kern)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Our last large contract has been received by the vendor, and all of the
machine and fabrication work can now be termed 'in progress'.  Chips are
really falling on the floor.  The machine shop manufacturing complete
sets of parts for 12 actuators by November 14 is on schedule, meaning we
will be able to begin the welded assembly before December begins.  The
Parker valve test manifold is back in the shop for manufacture and
installation of sleeve bushings in the plug valve bores.  The new
configuration control software (PDMWorks) for the SEI effort is
installed and serving us well.  We're pleased with its functions and
learning to operate within it's constraints.  This is just what it is
intended to do.
 
 

CDS networks (Parameswariah)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Finishing up on work needed to be done before E10/S3.
 

Completed a initial check of the automatic Daily Summary plot program -
ROBO-PLOTTER. This will complement the ROBO-SCIMON and run during S3.
 

Worked with Rolf last week to fix the End Station front end problems.
We found the CPU load hiccuped evry 62-66 seconds periodically.
Traced the problem to mv162 epics processor. Fixed the problem by putting
in a baja.  Cause of problem still needs to be understood.
 

Added all the requested channels to the master.config file. This has now
added 2400 channels to the frames. I still have to estimate the disk space
available for S3 with this change. Even though the thinking is that this
addition is equivalent to adding 2 16KHz channels, this is only true for
full-frames. For trends this is equivalent to adding 2400 channels.
 

Installed the Refl port half wave plate  with the help of Ash and Rupal.
 

Moved the autoburt snapshots for the previous 3 years to a backup disk on
control4.
 

Control room suns are now mostly in and I have been checking to make sure
they all have the same environments/paths. Updated the video database and
software for the new projectors and monitors.
 
 

Detector Commissioning, High Power Testing (Amin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
WFS 2: The WFS 2 sensor at LLO has been dissuaded from its obstinate ways.
Following Rich Abbott's repairs to the detector head, the WFS team
found that the headaches of a dynamic I-phase resulted from four LEMO
backshells not being secured. Once Rich Abbott torqued the backshells,
the I-phases of all three segments with respect to the number two
segment were stationary and easily cancelled in the digital phase
settings. WFS 2 is now ready for running.
 

ISCT 1 Redesign: All equipment and optics have been prepared for Daniel
Sigg's arrival at LLO.  ISCT 1's new half-wave plate controller has been
installed and tested thanks to Chethan and Ash's assistance.
 

RM Camera Installation:  Prior to the vent, we noted some
operators and scientists wanted a camera looking at the recycling
mirror. Mike Fyffe and I installed the camera on BSC3's new viewport
only to find a dimensional problem. The camera housing being used
partially occludes the view of the RM. Unfortunately we do not have a
housing that sits 45 degrees offset to viewport axis.  Such a housing
would grant a camera full view of the RM.
 

High Power Laser Facility (HPLF): The HPLF's first high power laser is
expected to arrive this week. Our vendor has informed us that this lower
power laser may be kept until the arrival of the 100 W device. The SOP
governing the lab is one day from final delivery and review by both
UF-LIGO and LLO.
 
 

CDS software (Khan)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Detector commissioning, modeling and data analysis (Franzen)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Weili Ken and I tested the new MC2 f2p filter installed by Brian
O'Reilly.
 

2) The S2 RDS107 frame data necessary for my WaveMon veto analysis was
mounted to alvar. Veto triggers are now being produced.
 

3) Amber Lynn Bullington at Stanford discussed the AdLIGO MC class of
Melody with me.  She is planning to release a new, more realistic
version within short. This is good since the UF IOO group needs the
model very much.
 
 

LDAS (Zucker for Yakushin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Igor is busy installing the final pre-run version of LDAS and
updating the main frame builder FB2.

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• Commissioning (Miyakawa, Kawamura):
• Osamu and Seiji measured the 33 MHz sidebands being transmitted through the mode cleaner. The new measurement yields 33.194871 MHz (L_MC = 13.547 m). This is a change of 50 Hz from last year, and 162 Hz from 3 months ago (before the vent).
• Does a change that large require one to re-tune the transmission frequency, in order to avoid excess noise? To evaluate this, they measured the noise spectrum of the demodulated signal from the transmitted beam, and compared it with a noise spectrum taken with the frequency deliberately mis-tuned by some amount. They found that the frequency had to be off by more than 500 Hz before any excess noise was noticed.
• The MC is now being operated in low-noise mode. If lock is lost, it does not re-aquire easily in low-noise mode; the gains need to be turned down and the dewhitening filter on MCL needs to be turned off for robust lock acquisition. We need to automate this procedure with ezca.
• Osamu and Seiji have been searching for the source of a ~ 5% intensity fluctuation in both the MCR and MCT beams, which made it impossible to commission the PSL intensity servo. The MCR beam was drifting at the RFPD, causing clipping. They introduced a lens to make the beam size smaller. They traced the beam wander to an oscillation in the MC suspension controller damping, associated with a Cheb filter. Turning off these filters on all 3 MC optics reduced the transmitted beam intensity fluctuations from ~5% to 1.2%. This should be enough to commission the ISS.
• Meanwhile, they will begin to re-commision the MC WFS system.
• LSC Electronics (B. Abbott, Heefner, Taylor)
• Ben and Jay have completed the checkout of the LSC auxiliary controls database, operator screens and wiring. They are now ready for operation.
• They are now checking out the front end controls, and found a variety of problems with the signal mapping, mainly because the 40m has different RFPD wiring than the sites. They will go over this with Rolf on Monday to settle on the required changes to the software and/or wiring, and screens.
• Ben fixed the three LSC Whitening boards so that they incorporate the fixes in Flavio's DCN #E030506.
• Todd fixed the two blown LSC PD interface boards and they are now back in the rack and are no longer blowing up.
• Ben and Art have almost completely finished the wiring and cabling for the LSC part of the new racks. They have run long cables to the four LSC RFPDs and five ASC QPDs. Ben and Osamu will begin plugging them in (including the three ASC QPDs at the ends) and verify signals, using light from the PSL flashing in the main IFO.
• Digital suspension controllers (Sakata, Goggin, B. Abbott, Heefner)
• Ben has balanced the electronic offsets on the MC2 coil dewhite board, but it didn't cure problems associated with switching from mode cleaner lock acquisition mode (dewhitening turned off to increase dynamic range at the expense of noise, to make lock acquisition robust) to low noise mode. Osamu will try to fix this by balancing the gains in the digital dewhite compensation filter.
• ETMX is not damping at nominal gain (ever since tuesday 8pm); don't know why. But it's damping ok at 5 times nominal gain. Ben and Jay will investigate.
• Shihori looked at the couplings between POS, PIT, and YAW in ITMX, *after* input matrix diagonalizing. There's still plenty of cross-coupling in the sensing input matrix; the diagonalizing procedure needs refinement. She will look at the other 7 optics, next.
• PSL:
• Osamu noticed that the PSL beam steering into the frequency reference cavity was not optimal; he will tune it.
• The intensity fluctuations in the MC transmitted beam have been reduced by a factor 4. Flavio can resume commissioning of the ISS servo.
• Rolf has a list of all the ISS DAQ channels, and will need to modify the code running in the c1iovme processor to read them in and make them available to DAQ, etc.
• Mike has the info he needs to update the PSL table layout with the locations of the ISS photodiodes.
• Optical levers (Kawazoe, Heefner, Abbott):
• Ben re-fixed the Oplev photodiodes. What he thought was a regularly unlabeled 2.2nF capacitor (as it was found in a drawer labelling it as such), turned out to be an unusually un-labled 1K resistor. This made the Oplevs act crazy, and Jay discovered the part was to blame. It has now been finally fixed.
• Fumiko continues work on centering the oplev beams on the QPDs and zeroing the offsets. She's also continuing work on characterizing the calibrated angular motion spectra, and system noise.
• Optical sensing (Smith):
• PZT1 STEERING MIRROR: PZT1 pitch amplifier was received from Piezojena.
• QPD MOUNTS: Mounts were received.
• POX and POY: An ACAD optical layout for the POX and POY beams was completed. The design of the focusing lenses for the QPD, video camera, LSC, WFS, and power meter paths were completed and an updated parts list was generated. Additional required parts were ordered.
• INITIAL POINTING: The mount for the 10 X telescope initial pointing ANG beam is being fabricated.
• Computing:
• We have acquired two "cast-off" Sun Ultra E450's from Stuart Anderson. These will replace our very underpowered Blade 100 online computers, and hopefully reduce the problems we are having with DTT, dataviewer, and medm. Lisa and Larry will get the machines up and running at the 40m, soon.
• Modeling (Miyakawa, Kawamura):
• South Annex Bake Ovens (Taylor):
• Bob continues to spend most of his time cabling the LSC/ASC racks.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

Since our last report we have made considerable progress in enhancing the modulation depth, and hence the discriminant, in the TNI arm cavities. By phase locking two separate function generators, we are able to deliver all of the power from one unit straight to the Pockels cell, with the other output going to the local oscillator. Not only does this boost the modulation depth, it also allows us to do away with the NIM phase shifter and limiter we had been using.
 

While we are able to boost the modulation depth, and while we see an analogous increase in the discriminant, we still do not observe any dramatic reduction in the noise floor. With the much-higher discriminant, the electronic noise at the output of the mixer appears to no longer be large enough to account for our noise floor. This noise is, as before, flat from a few hundred Hz up to 100 kHz, and its level is about 1e-18 m/rHz. Neither a theoretical prediction for the shot noise nor an experimental measurement of it appears to be high enough to account for this noise floor.
 

On the photothermal experiment, we have measured the loss in the cavity and compared it with the mirror absorption as measured by the photothermal response. Assuming the bulk value for Sapphire's thermal expansion coefficient, the two values for the absorption agree within experimental errors. Put another way, if we use the cavity-loss measurement to obtain the absorption, we can then measure the substrate thermal expansion coefficient and obtain a number consistent with the tabulated value.
 

LASTI (Ottaway)

no report

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

---------------------------------------------------------
LIGO Data Analysis and Computing (Anderson for Lazzarini)
---------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
LDAS Software Team (Blackburn)
------------------------------
 

The 0.8.0 release of LDAS is in great shape and expected to go out tomorrow
without a hitch. Over 100 problem reports have been closed out in the past
few weeks and of those identified as critical and/or important for the S3
run, only one will remain in a non-closed state for this release. This will
allow for running the new release of LDAS during the E10 run this weekend.
 

Changes to the frameCPP dictionary class to removed the Standard Template
Library's String class and replace it with a more stable thread safe version
of our own design has resulted in no core dumps in the frameAPI even when
optimized with inlining options since last Friday. An exception specification
bug caused an unrelated core dump but has been fixed.
 

The sites have new database tables configured specifically for E10. These
were setup under the old Solaris database server and that is the dataabase
environment that LDAS will use during E10. The plan is to create a new S3
set of database tables under the new Linux servers for S3 once the Solaris
databases can be migrated between the two platforms post-E10.
 

We have repeated our suite of regression tests on the LDAS pre-release three
times this week and will repeat one final time on the final tagged release
this Friday.
 

One of the newest regression tests confirming data integraty out of the
frameAPI was run since last Friday night without any instances of data
corruption out of the nearly 100,000 repeats of the test.
 

We updated the known pulsar search scripts and short Fourier Transform
search scripts per recommendations from the LSC developers. We are waiting
for updated instructions for the inspiral and power to allow us to begin
testing against the latest LAL and LALwrapper releases.
 

The documentation changes this week will continue until close of business
today. After that, the official LDAS version will be tagged in CVS and
the release built over night.
 

-----------------
E2E team (Bhawal)
-----------------
 

QND lecture
----------------
Kentaro Somiya of Univ. of Tokyo was visiting the 40m group. He gave an
informal lecture of QND to a few people around. This was a nice introduction
to understand what is necessary to implement this physics in e2e simulation.
 

SimLIGO study
-----------------
 Xiao Xu, sophomore, has started working with us, who has worked as a
 SURF student this summer.
 He runs SimLIGO under different conditions and studies the effects. His
 first tasks are
 (1) sensitivity degradation by the existence of radiation pressure -
     when locked, no degradation
 (2) stability and performance degradation when the input beam tilts
 (3) stability and performance degradation when the cavity axes have
     offset with respect to beam axes
 

WFS
------
(Biplab) Effects of differential heating in arms on WFS signals were studied
  and some of the effects like sign-flip and changes in magnitude that had
  been recorded in experiments were observed in simulation. To explain the
  effects that could not be seen in e2e simulation, we decided to use FFT
model.
  The experiments at LHO are related to heating from an initial cold state to
  a medium-hot state whereas, due to the limited number of modes in e2e,
  the e2e results become quantitatively more accurate as the interferometer
  approaches the final hot state.
 

Code development and maintenance
----------------------------------
AdLib code:
(Melody and Hiro) worked to make the new FUNC module using C++ compiler
 work properly. The new FUNC module code is compiled, if necessary, after
boxes
 are loaded, and dynamically linked and used when needed. For a FUNC with a
 complex code, the speed gain is over 10. This method of using dynamic linking
 of C++ codes could change the concept of modules dramatically and could make
 the e2e system very flexible.
 

 Several issues were found in a hard way. One is the setting of stack
 pointers. When a function in a shared library is called, the stack pointer is
 not properly set in a certain situation and the argument passing failed. A
 work around was found : at the top of the function body, insert an
unnecessary
 instruction to force the compiler to set the stack pointer and place actual
 body of the code.
 

 A few code structure changes were necessary to use shared libraries on
 the fly. A new generic support was added so that modules can request the
 modeler to call certain functions just before the time loop starts. Together
 with initialize_before_run() function calls, the use of macros, settings in
 par files, data_in modules can change in the near future for more clean
 environments.
 

(Melody) Finished code reorganization for the framework to do the on-the-fly
 compiling & dynamic linking.  Tested the code base using multiple and boxes
 primitives.  Continuing with code modifications to extend FUNC_X to VxV
 primitives and enabling backward compatibility to previously created box
files.
 
 

Propagator module:
(Hiro) Yoshida and Tiffany found that a propagator primitive could change the
 amplitude of fields which should not happen. This was caused by an
 interpolation algorithm used in the module when the time step was not exactly
 the one way travel time of the field through cavity. The interpolation has
 been changed to apply to the amplitude and the phase, instead of the real and
 imaginary part. This reduced the unwanted effect by 1000. The effect is
 O(10^-14) and is very small, but the existence of this needs to be kept in
 mind when we are dealing with a wide dynamic range problems. Fortunately, for
 LIGO I, this fix did not affect the sensitivity curve.
 

Alfi
--------
(Bruce) Completed edit window initialization fix (PR 431).
 
 
 
 

-----------------------------------
Data Analysis Activities (Anderson)
-----------------------------------
 

(Shawhan)
* Went through the latest draft of the S1 burst paper.
 

* Worked with Kaice Reilly and Gaby Gonzalez to catalog time intervals
during the S2 run when calibration information is not available, which turns
out to be the first and last partial minute of most locked segments.
These intervals will be flagged and incorporated into the
<a href="http://tenaya.physics.lsa.umich.edu/~keithr/S2DQ/S2seglists.html">
Segment Data Quality Repository</a>.  Also, the current algorithm in LAL
actually looks for calibration info one minute later than it "should", and
the consensus is to revise this algorithm.
 

* Fixed conlog to construct its index correctly even when Epics controllers
have badly wrong system clocks.
 

* Verified that the frame files now being written at the sites contain the
correct detector geometry information, the appropriate excitation channels,
and the slow channels which keep track of Epics timing discrepancies.
 

* Working on a new control-room tool called 'beacon' which continuously
compares the current control settings against an established configuration,
e.g. "science mode".  This is to help avoid variances in the control
settings from one locked segment to the next, which happened some during S2.
Hopefully, this tool should be ready for use beginning tomorrow afternoon.
 
 
 

(Creighton)
* Tracking down bugs in LAL 3.0.
 
 

(Weinstein)
* Prepared final (?) draft of S1 burst paper
 

* Working on hardware burst injection waveforms for S3.
 
 
 
 
 

-------------------------------------
LDAS System Administration (Anderson)
-------------------------------------
 

Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)
 

* Migration from 9940A to 9940B format tapes finished (several hundred tapes).
 

* Continued to copy E7 data from HPSS (until HPSS went down on Wednesday).
 

* Worked with Sun to try to fix problem with part of /archive disappearing.
  Following Sun's directions, reset 3510's FC ports to "point to point only"
  and upgraded FC swith firmware.  So far, we've had no reoccurences.
 

* Received tapes from LHO and LLO with MDC data on them and incorporated
  these into /archive.  Some LHO data appears not to have made it to tape.
  Am pursuing the cause of/fix for this problem.
 

* Submitted problem reports to Sun about archiving continuing after a disk
  disappears from a SAM-QFS filesystem and some data not making it to tape
  (when moving data from LHO to CIT).
 

* Finished copying RDS from IDE-RAID into SAM-QFS at LLO.
 
 

(Al Wilson)
 

* Continue installing RH9 on desktop machines
 

* Fine tuning of BB on ldas-archive/dataserver
 

* Added sendmail fixes to cfdef
 

* Replaced motherboard in node210/cit  Unit is running burntest now.
 

* Used Ben's fix to reset the port 11 on blade 12 on the switch in cit.
 
 

(Stuart Anderson)
 

* Coordinate system upgrade tasks associated with LDAS S3 release
  scheduled for Fri (Oct 17).
 

* Worked with Larry Wallace to order replacement motherboards for
  all of the IDE-RAID systems we have to increase system stability.
 

* Tracked down the last LDAS server order (3 8-way Sun V880's) for S3,
  and found that they are scheduled to ship Thurs Oct 16.
 
 
 

MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)
 

* Installed FC-AL card in 280R.
 

* Installed metaserver 1U unit into rack and am configuring it now.
 

* Moving data off of pcraid#3 in prep to swap motherboard.
 
 
 

Hanford
-------
(Ben Johnson)
 

* The disk2disk full frame copy script appears to be working robustly at
  both Observatories. I am presently working on the error handler/monitor
  script, to further ease administration.
 

* Cut short the MDC run to 11:00 PDT Oct 16, in order to patch the FC
  switch, reconfigure the 3510 RAID array, and turn on striping for
  /samraw and /samrds.
 

* diskcacheAPI stopped seeing new data on Friday Oct. 10, I had to
  rebuild the frame cache in order to get LDAS to see new raw frames.
 

* I updated the sendmail configuration on the ldas-jobs box, Oct. 15.
 

* The new linux metaserver has been re-partitioned so that hda and hdb
  now have identical partition tables.
 
 
 
 
 

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

MIT:
(Keith)
-Fixed desktop PC that wouldn't post with 3rd set of ram
  (bad initial ram and bad replacement ram)
-Installed / replaced hdd in Dell laptop
-Investigating old penguin computing node that won't turn on
-Removing / shifting old users on gc filesystem to free up disk space
-Ordered software
-Obtained MIT site-license for Adobe 6.0
-Walking around to windows computers to force users to patch their nodes
 

Livingston:
(Shannon)
-Spent some time making sure that we are fully recovered from last weeks
disk crash.
-Received the server that was ordered for Jonathan as the PDM Works
server.Spent a couple hours setting it up.  The next morning the power
supply blew.  ASA is working on getting me a replacement.
-Spent much of the night last night working on LDAP.  I finally got it
working with SSL so that the entire session is encrypted.  This is for
Solaris only so far, but I feel confident in deploying it at this
point.  I will repeat the process again and document all of the needed
steps.
-Expecting the new RAID disk server from ASA today or tomorrow.  As soon
as it gets here I will start working on it and burn it in.  Afterwards I
will begin moving GC files to it.
 

Hanford:
(Christine)
- A lot of user account activity this week.  I added some users to
additional groups, had to create several new user accounts, reset the
password on a few accounts and added several users to the lho-all e-mail
alias.
- Started investigating wireless access points and nat routers for the
LSC meeting network setup.
- Helped get a new long-term visitor setup with a computer and place to
sit.
- We are still being probed by hackers.  I have blocked ping to all
computers on the site, so the hackers started sending messages
requesting the address mask, another ICMP protocol message type.  I have
blocked that at the firewall and now the hackers are sending HTTP
messages.  I am still working on a way to block the hacker HTTP traffic
without blocking legitimate HTTP traffic.
- Spent some time in training for my upcoming S3 operator shifts.
- Spent time working on upgrades to my laser power and refl transmission
software for both here and at LLO.
 

CIT:
(Veronica)
- LIGO website: Set up and monitored VRVS for the last seminar; posted the
presentation at the seminars webpage. Reworked a webpage for the 'Next
Seminar' announcement at the LIGO homepage.
Worked with Kip in providing him with a high-resolution image of a Hanford
aerial shot. Kip decided to use a negative to generate a printer-quality
image.
Repointed the links fro the old PAC url to the new one. Posting updates to
the Undergraduate Projects'03 page, internal bulletin board and fellowships
pages. Updated the roster database.
Met with other GC members to discuss a proposed makeover of the DCC
architecture. We agreed that the new system needs some further fine-tuning
but is an overall improvement. Continue working with George Stokes on the
DCC issue.
Per a request from Larry, looking into web cameras with higher resolution
for VRVS. The last seminar was a successful test of a combined VRVS/VNC
setup and can be used for future seminars/meetings.
- LSC webiste: Posting daily updates to the website for the November
meeting, as well as updates to other parts of the LSC website.
- CaJAGWR website: Updated the seminars schedule webpage. Compressed the
video of the last talk and transferred it to the streaming media server.
It is now posted along with the visuals. Provided user support.
 

(Mike)
-Reloaded a laptop that came back from travel that seemed to be having
problems with the operating system. It seems to be okay for now.
-loaded Linda Turner's old laptop that has been assigned to the loaner
pool. Mohanna is going to be using this laptop which she has requested that
I load additional engineering software.
-Loaded and configured a NT 2000 Server for PDM/WORKS (this is for Calum
Torrie) testing purposes.
-Loaded some additional software on Calum Torrie's workstation.
-Worked on a Hardware issue on our ghost server. This was a hard drive
failure that has lost multiple ghost images; I have tried to restore them
with multiple tools that I have, but had no success. I have a lot of
ghosting to catch up on to get these images back on the server through out
the weeks ahead.
-Problems with my office workstation. This seems like a hardware failure.
The cpu fan went out and now I my computer continues to crash. I will have
called Dell and they are claiming that it is a software problem. They have
asked me to reload this computer from scratch and if it happens again then
call them back.
- Reload Millikan's conference room PC that is a dual boot computer. The
windows OS ended up getting corrupted. I am reloading the windows side once
again.
-I worked on VRVS setting up and testing multiple configurations that
included testing the share option in VRVS and also running VNC
concurrently. Then I tried to run VRVS on one computer then on an
additional computer I ran VNC transmitting the guest speakers talk. The
problem we are having with the video conferencing is you can not read the
guest speakers talk from the VRVS camera. This is why we are trying many
different configurations to transmit a quality presentation. Larry and I
will be trying a few more configurations using some additional peripherals.
-This week I had a lot of onsite user support that included software &
printing issues.
 

(Lisa)
- Worked with Stuart to try and get a mail configuration for their servers that
would properly masquerade e-mail from their cronjobs (using submit.cf).
- Updated apache and openssl on castor.  That server had php compiled with
openssl, but the new version of php was not compiling properly.  I am waiting
for a more stable release of php to come out.
- Demo'd a bayesian spam filter called dspam.  I could not get it properly
working on becrux.  It would need to be compiled on acrux.  I'm going to look at
other packages before returning to this one.
- Began testing a package called CanIt for spam/virus filtering.  Right now I'm
not too happy with their support.  They don't provide binaries for solaris 8, so
I have to compile all their code myself.
- Dealt with a mailserver outage.
- Addressed a problem with a user who dumped 10Gb of data into a home account
thereby filling up the disk and preventing others from working.  Folks, if you
need a big chunk of disk space, please talk to someone in GC.  We can
accommodate your needs if you let us know what they are.
 

(Larry)
-This has been a busy week with procurement issues. Mainly, trying to get
invoices so I can get my P-card account reconciled.
-Assisted Mike on a number of PC related issues. The problems covered h/w, s/w
and user implementation.
-Worked with the DCC on a number if issues including trouble shooting the
upgrade of the s/w they are using.
-Working with Christine, Shannon and Ed C. with some of the logistical issues
for the different meetings that are coming up.
-Worked with Mike and Veronica on the VRVS and VNC setup. We still have a number
of items to investigate but so far things are looking better.
-We have moved over to the campus GigE backbone. I have been able to spend a
little time monitoring the new installation. So far no major problems. Still
have a number of performance checks to run.
-Touched on a number of projects which include: Updating the remote control
room, Calcium Calendar tool and options, new servers for the 40M, new sandbox
units for Hiro's group.
-Resolved a couple of hiccups with the servers.
-General assistance for the user community.
 

(Bruce Sears)
* Systems Work:                                    (0.5 days)
     - Evaluated eNote for general LIGO use.
     - More admin work on the JAWG Ilog.

Advanced LIGO Development (Shoemaker)

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