Weekly Report for Week Ending May 29, 2003

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  June 2, 2003 will be:

  (Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

Open meeting 10:30 - 11:30

• Field Change Orders/Contingency Liens/Change Requests

• Administration (Lindquist)
• Sites (Raab, Coles, Shoemaker, Sanders)
• Detector (Whitcomb, Coyne)
• Campus Research Facilities (Weinstein (40 Meter), Libbrecht (TNI), Zucker(LASTI))
• Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

• CR030011--EPI

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Saulson)

Minutes of LSC Executive Committee telecon 23 May 2003, 0800 PDT
(Attending: Bruce Allen, Barry Barish, Sam Finn, Albert Lazzarini, Irena Petrac, Dave Reitze, Keith Riles, Gary Sanders, Peter Saulson, David Shoemaker, Daniel Sigg, Ken Strain, Rai Weiss, Benno Willke, Stan Whitcomb)

1. Status of LSC author list
Irena Petrac announced that the full LIGO I author list will be compiled in LaTeX format Tuesday of next week. Tom Frey and Albert Lazzarini are in charge of that conversion.

Peter Saulson will give it a first look. Once that is done, it will be posted on the Web. A message will be sent to LSC PI's, who will be instructed both to check the list themselves, but also to inform their group to look at it to check for errors or omissions. A message will be sent also to the whole LSC
email list, asking them to make sure the PI sends them the pointer to the list. In addition, all "old-timers" need to receive an email pointer to the list.  Irena Petrac will coordinate construction of the old-timers email list.

Stan Whitcomb pointed out that the latest version of the lsc alias has both errors and gaps. He will send "bounce" information to Irena, and his info about gaps. Peter will look into ways of checking for missing names.

Sam Finn proposed that this might be a big enough job to involve a membership secretary or committee. This is an idea that deserves serious consideration.

2. Plans for Hannover LSC meeting
Benno Willke presented the plans for the mechanics of the August Lsc meeting, to be held in Hannover. Details have been worked out for meeting space, hotel rooms, meals, GEO 600 tour, and the conference fee. All thought that the plan sounded very good.

Benno said that the web site announcing the meeting would probably be ready to post next week.

Barry Barish asked whether any plans for outreach or public meetings had been included in the plans. David Shoemaker asked specifically about possibly inviting funders. Benno promised to discuss these issues with his fellow hosts, and to report back later.

3. Status of S1 paper

The Stochastic Background paper has now been released to the LSC for a final reading. The one week comment period ends Monday 26 May. The Pulsar group's paper is essentially ready -- it is being held until Tuesday 27 May to allow the group to consider the latest timing issue, but however that is resolved the paper should be ready to release. The Inspiral paper is also essentially ready, but timing issues are getting consideration right now. The Burst Group has intensively critiqued its latest draft,and is waiting to see how the corrections look before deciding whether it is ready to release.

For Executive Committee approval, it will be necessary to carry out the following steps. Firstly, the Exec Comm needs to receive a single statement from a paper's Review Committee, stating that in its opinion the paper is sound and ready to publish. The Spokesperson is to contact the Reviewers, asking them to cast their review as they would if they were journal reviewers: is the paper correct, interesting, novel, etc. The Spokesperson will also collect from each Executive Committee member a written statement (which need not be extensive), stating his/her opinion about the paper. A concatenated collection of all of these materials will be sent to Exec Comm members in advance of our next meeting.  Whatever papers are ready to discuss for approval will form the main agenda items of our next meeting. Given the difficulty of scheduling ad hoc meetings, we will only plan on reviewing papers at regular monthly meetings.

There was a general consensus that the S1 instrument paper draft was excellent, and deserving of publication in a refereed archival journal.  Stan and David, the principal authors, noted that it would take some extra work to get it into publishable shape, but agreed to take on the work. It isn't clear whether to publish in RSI or NIM. The principal authors will have the primary say in the choice of journal.

4. Two highlights of UL Chairs face-to-face meeting 1 May 2003

LSC Newsletter:

One important idea was the creation of an LSC newsletter. Its function would be to ensure that LSC members are better informed about various LSC
activities.  There needs to be better communication about both "technical" work and about data analysis. A weekly or biweekly email would contain brief statements about recent activities, and include pointers to more extensive discussions.

To keep the workload manageable, the basic idea would be for individual Working Group chairs or Search Group co-chairs to send the editor(s) the summary and pointer, whenever they have something to report (e.g. meeting minutes or other progress.) The editor(s) will collate submissions on a weekly (or biweekly) basis, and send the summary email to the LSC membership.

Patrick Brady has volunteered to edit the portion of the newsletter concerning analysis work. David Shoemaker expressed interest in helping with the technical side, as did Sam Finn.

A few important issues were raised, that we will need to address. We need to think about how to communicate important matters about data analysis freely to all members of the LIGO-I collaboration, while keeping confidential that which should be confidential. Use of password-protected links was discussed, but even there careful editorial work is needed. We also probably need to ensure that the newsletter and its links are archived; thus, pointers shouldn't go to the wide assortment of websites now used for informal communication within the LSC.

Gary Sanders offered to make adjustments to the LIGO Lab weekly to make it dovetail with the LSC newsletter. Once the shape of the LSC newsletter is a little clearer, we will take up that offer.  

Additional LSC meeting(s):

The UL Chairs proposed the addition of two LSC meetings to the current annual schedule of two, making four in all per year. The idea was that these additional two would be "mini" LSC meetings, devoted primarily to discussion of data analysis issues, and in particular to serve as forums for discussing new results.

Barry expressed a reservation that restricting the agenda would discourage instrumentalists from attending, who would then be disenfranchised from the process of discussing analysis results. Sam agreed that the restricted agenda was not a good idea.

The Executive Committee settled on the idea of adding a third full LSC meeting to the annual calendar. In principle, they should be roughly equally spaced throughout the year, but the detailed calendar needs to be worked out.  The first additional meeting will be held in late October or early November at LHO (assuming they agree to host it.)

5. Upcoming meetings

There was nothing controversial about the idea of sending representatives to the Phystat 2003 meeting. The Executive Committee also endorsed participation in the proposed Special Session on Gravity Wave Phenomenology at the Jan 2004 AAS meeting. David urged that the abstracts be written carefully, so that there is no question of promising  to present results that might not be available in time.

6. MOU with the USC/ISI group

Albert Lazzarini said he had gotten comments on the revised draft of the MOU with the USC Information Sciences Institute, and asked that any more comments be sent to him promptly.

7. A brief report was given on the recent face-to-face meeting of the LSC Computing Committee. Both Albert and Sam described it as extremely productive.  A particular highlight was the agreement to include the Tier 2 centers in weekly telecons with the Lab, to allow for better coordination. For further information on the outcome of the meeting, the minutes can be found at http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~lazz/LSC_Computing/minutes20030514v2.pdf

The meeting adjourned at 0929 PDT.

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Lindquist)

There was a site teleconference held on Thursday, May 29, 2003.  There will be no site teleconferences on June 5 or June 12 due to PAC meeting and Advanced LIGO Review respectively.  The following items were discussed on May 29:

Action 58 (Convenience Checks for Hanford, Livingston to follow)--the system seems to be working at Hanford.

Action 103 (Posters for Weber Bar Display)--Ed Jasnow and I will meet with Fred Raab while he is here for the Advanced LIGO Review.

Action 117 (Software to remove potentially sensitive data from excised computers)--software has been acquired and is being used. Action is closed.

Action 119 (Flow Charts for Petty Cash Tracking)--no longer relevant since the convenience checks are being implemented (Action 58), but it was deemed a good idea to review how we are doing relative to the auditor's recommendations.  It was noted that we should check to see if a flag is required on the P-Card reconciliation form to identify services that are not on contract that would require Caltech to issue 1099 forms.

Status of construction funds--currently over-encumbered by $255K.  We will meet next week (after May costs are in) to review strategy.

Status of Operating Funds--We will spend over $2.5 million this month.  Since all construction spending will cease next month, there will be a slight increment in monthly expenditures.  Also, there is a $3 million change request for EPI.  Current projections, therefore, are between $31 million and $34 million this year.

The list of current actions revised to reflect the status of open actions assigned through May 29, 2003 may be found at ACTION LIST.

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

• Nothing significant to report.

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

Web pages for the DCC give simple how-to's for document numbering, easy access to the latest on-line documents, and search capabilities for the DCC database. Take a look. . .

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Worked with George to compile a complete listing of documents that are available electronically but are without the proper electronic link on the website.  This has been validated as accurate.  The next step will be to walk George through the complete submittal, processing and posting cycle as he begins to diagnose the origin of the linking problem and to assess the processes that may be causing instability.
• Experienced a few glitches on my computer that caused Eudora to shut down anytime Netscape was accessed through an email.  It appears there's a problem with the keypad and mouse drivers.  Larry will be fixing it as he gets time.

• Reminder to LIGO staff:  Please make sure that as a minimum, each document submitted has a LIGO number, author's name, and date.  It's surprising how many documents are missing one of more of these essential pieces of information!.

ACTIVITY

• Worked on adding documents to the DCC database from a large compiled list of documents containing electronic files that apparently were not in the database as expected.  Unfortunately, a number of problems including many revision discrepancies, were discovered in the process.
• A request was made for the original cooperative agreement (and all the amendments) between the NSF and CIT.  Copies were made and distributed.

DCC Activity

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

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA .

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

• Completed change order #5 to Excel Engineering #1055977, change order #5 to Excel Group ref # 1051885, change order #2 to CSRS ref. 1056645, and change order #5 for the JPL Raytheon work order. Set up the blanket order to Aztek. Working on change order #6 to Excel Engineering ref #1055977, and change order #2 to Star Services ref. 1056319.
• Made internal modifications on tax code changes on various LIGO orders. Coordinated transactions with Esther and Dorothy.
• Placed and reconciled pcard orders.

• No report this week.
  

• Continued close monitoring of Construction account.  Currently the Award is over committed by $225K.  We need to determine what the appropriate strategy should be in terms of which costs may need to be transferred.
• Prepared an analysis of R&D accounts to try to analyze if budget realignments that may need to be required.
• Requested correction of payments on 3 contracts where payments had been applied to Over 25K before the first 25K had been fully expended.  These corrections have now been made.
• Phil Lindquist and I met with Suzanne Dodd of SIRTF Science center to discuss the ways in which LIGO monitors financial performance against budgets.
   
• Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport

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

• RFP for AdLIGO SEI Mechanical Structures: Proposals for Phase I have been received and are in LIGO/LSC review.
• RFP for AdLIGO Coating: The RFP package is in LIGO review.

CONSTRUCTION:

• Work still continues on the modifications to the LHO Laboratory Building. The glass for the double doors is on site, but the steel for the sun shades is not.
• Concrete is being poured for the foundation for the LLO pre-fabricated storage building.
• The concrete foundation for the LLO access gate is nearly complete, and delivery of the parts for the gate itself to the site has been almost accomplished.

OPERATIONS:

• LHO is successfully operating its petty cash system with the use of P-card convenience checks. The petty cash account with the Bank of America will now be closed.
• Direct deposit of travel and other reimbursements is now in effect.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Lloyd, Tischler)

>Irene Baldon

• Processed the paper work for twelve (12) new/revised trips.  There are approximately twenty-two (22) trips in various stages of completion before ticketing can be done and/or paper work completed.  And an additional one-half dozen (6) general inquiries.  Until further notice I will be doing travel for LHO travelers.
• The 2003 SURF Program will be held from June 16th thru August 22nd.  LIGO/Caltech will have twenty (22) students, LIGO/Hanford will have seven (7), and LIGO/Livingston will have three (3), with four (4) going to Pisa, Italy.  I continue ticketing the thirty-two (32) coming to one of the three (3) LIGO sites and Pisa will be handling the four (4) going there as Passports and VISAs are confirmed.
• Completed six (6) Expense Reports and there are thirteen (13) reports yet to be done.  I continue to contact travelers who have outstanding Expense Reports (more than one (1) month old) to ask for their cooperation in sending me their receipts so that they can be closed in a timely manner.  There  is only four (4) reports more than 30 days old at this time.
• Reconciled thirty-six (36) 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.
• I'm happy to report that the new EFT Program for Travel Reimbursement Direct Deposit continues to be functioning well and although there have been a couple of minor bugs Michelle and I are working on them.  Prospects are good for a successful implementation.  If you have any questions or problems with EFT please let me know so that we can address it promptly.  For those of you who have not as yet sent me your form for participation please send it to me as soon as possible and I'll get you signed up immediately.  Thanks for your cooperation and help on this one.
• Worked on the preparation and distribution of the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for May 27, 2003.  Arranged two (2) new teleconferences and revised one (1); and entered two (2) new reservations on the LIGO Calendar. 
• I continue to do MIT's travel to the sites for installation activities and also to assist them wherever possible.

• Processed the usual invoices for payment. Tracked and followed up on invoice problems. Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther the week of May 19.
• Processed the usual requisitions, change orders and payment requests.
• Continue to monitor contract and blanket order encumbrance and notify task managers when supplements are needed.
• Jim continues with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

• NSF Review -following up on details
• Mayfield High School tour -arrangements with C.Torrie, A.Weinstein, V.Sannible
• Worked on a few LIGO/SURF orientation agenda items.

Advanced LIGO (Frey)

Weekly Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting was not held this week.

For list of documents that are being used to develop Adv. LIGO Cost and Schedule, see http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/Cost_MTG_082002/

Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal (Highest Priority)

• Started updating the top level schedule prepared by Dennis in MS Project.
• Finished another round of schedule changes as directed by David Shoemaker and Dennis Coyne. (ISC, AOS, and IO)
• Finished update of cost profiles base upon revised schedule data.
• Reviewed web sites prepared by Veronica for the AdL Proposal.
• Posted updated materials as required for the NSF review package.
• Continued preparing revised budget sheet data.
• The following is a summary of status by sub system:
  • COC - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.  Input task sequence for Coating Development as provided by Garilynn.
  • PSL -  No action items pending.  Corresponded with Benno Willke regarding LZH PSL scope and cost.
  • AOS - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.
  • IO -  Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.
  • SUS - No action items pending.
    • Revised the SUS baseline to be inline with progress to date.
    • Updated the plan with progress as of 05.16.03 and  posted to site.
    • Sent out update data requests for progress as of 06.13.03.
  • SEI - Received revised (Version 3) data from Dennis and data input of WBS and BOE is in progress.
  • ISC - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.  Received a partial WBS dictionary from Peter F.
  • LDAS - No action required at this point in time.
  • INSTALL - Dennis provided a revision and data input is in progress.
  • 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.

Project Plan for the 40-Meter Lab Upgrade continues.

• Revised the 40-Meter baseline to be inline with progress to date.
• Updated the plan with progress as of 05.16.03 and  posted to site.
• Sent out update data requests for progress as of 06.13.03.

Project Plan for the TNI Lab Project continues.

• Updated the plan with progress as of 05.16.03 and  posted to site.
• Sent out update data requests for progress as of 06.13.03.

Continue to update the LASTI Schedule and incorporate any changes.

• Started  and continue input of changes and comments from Mike Zucker.

Cost Book Tool.

• ROSTER DATABASE:
  • BK is continuing work on action items.
  • Input of supervisor, dept., and specialty codes on hold until after review.
  • Prepared an updated LSC Council mailing address report for Irena.
  • Working with Irena to get authorship list done.  We encountered and issue that resulted in changes to the database structure to accommodate the uniqueness of the authorship list.

• COST BOOK DATABASE:
  • BK is continuing work on action items.
  • Continued to work on preparing format for hard copy version to be submitted for NSF reviews.

Development of the Advanced LIGO Project Controls Guidebook continues.

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

• See http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/index.html

The Construction project quarterly report for the end of February was scheduled to be submitted at the end of March.  Irena has been working on this, but has been distrtacted by a number of other priority issues: LSC, contract activities for seismic isolation, optics coatings, etc.  We have discussed priorities, and the quarterly report is still slipping.

DCAA Audit Report Response: Comments have been provided to Caltech Administration, and Caltech Administration has prepared a response.

The following change requests are pending or new.  Dennis Coyne submitted CR-030011 for the addition of an External Pre-Isolation (EPI) stage to the seismic isolation systems on the LIGO Livingston Observatories. This change is to improve the low frequency isolation of the currently installed seismic isolation systems as a retrofit with little or no disturbance to the alignment of the optics and without entry to the vacuum system.  I will put these change requests on the agenda for the next meeting of the Executuve Committee.

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

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

• Various personnel/payroll /HR related work.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

•  Pending completion of the LHO safety audit report, a draft of the action items was distributed to the audit team and the LHO audit "hosts" for comment/changes. (So far, no LHO comments).
• There are eight action items listed.  The most significant AI relates to the need to establish a "Work Permit" process for view port covers/equipment which considers the safety "risk" (port location), and includes a "close out" process to verify that the port is left in the required "safe" condition, i.e., covers or equipment installed and this condition recorded.
• The "Safety Audit Team", recommends that a view port cover "Work Permit" process should be implemented throughout LIGO if not already in place.
• George Bowman (Caltech Engineering. and Constr. Mgmt.) has completed a cost estimate for the LIGO server room fire suppression system. He has submitted it to his management for review and approval. (Pending approval, the "unapproved" cost number is available by request).
• Reminder, the updated revision (final sign off and release still pending) of LIGO Vacuum Compatibility, Cleaning Methods and Qualification Procedures LIGO-E960022 is available on-line.
• The Parts Cleaning Request form, LIGO-F030014 and the LIGO Vacuum Bake Oven Procedure and Checklist form, LIGO-F030015 are also available on-line as templates for easy access and use.

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

• Scan and send requisition forms to both Bonnie and UF for equipping high power laser lab.
• Start investigation with Sany regarding UF opto-mechanics that now reside at SLU
• Search e-logs for gain settings of PDs monitoring MC
• Searching through e-logs for WFS and Gouy telescope info.
• Investigating a simple way of checking mode matching into the MC
• Helped(?) install the half-wave plate power control on PSL
• Sketching out the physics regarding fields inside the PRC
• Building model of ISCTs and IOTs in OSLO for scatter study
• Checked the ISS board with Valera
• Checked the ISS PDs after the MC (see e-log)
• Aided in "repair" of main laser.
• Volunteered for WFS.

• Helped Ray characterize the LOS coil driver board.
• Documenting & preparing a user friendly procedure for Lock Acquition.
• Documenting the changes needed for the Watchdog system.

• Setting up test replication configuration between LHO and LLO.

• Fixing bugs in noise_rms computation for the new LAL/LALWrapper release.
  

Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

May 30, 2003

• Dennis and company diagnosed and fixed a set of problems associated with the new MCL electronics path, and the mode cleaner is now locking robustly.
• He measured the transfer functions from the MC servo board to the coil driver. He discovered a filter on the Pentek Interface Board that apparently was implemented at LLO; we don't know why it's there, but it didn't exist in our old path; Dennis bypassed it. He found a gain 10 stage in the digital PZ filter, which is not a good place for it (it amplifies any offsets); he took it out. He found that the software filter that compensates for the hardware dewhitening was not set correctly, and fixed it Finally, he found that the RF local oscillator cable was 180degrees out of phase with what was needed (don't know why!). He shortened it. After all that, the MC locked immediately and robustly!
• We still have to optimize the gains, cross-over frequency, and other parameters, to minimize the frequency noise. This can wait till Osamu returns.

• All 6 installed optics are damping well. There is an issue with the Universal Dewhite board which is the wrong Rev for the MC2 optic, however. Dennis and Ben are fixing this.
• Ben and Art are populating the two end racks (ETM DSC's, oplevs, QPD's, etc). They are progressing rapidly and hope to complete the wiring by Monday.
• Rolf is working on the software required for the end DSC's. He reported last week that the work required to prepare the end DSC software should only take a few days. Rolf hopefully has the Pentiums, Penteks, RM cards and fiber cables that are required.
• We will bring the GPS time signals from the vertex area to both ends via long (40m) cables. We hope this will work; if the signals degrade too much, Jay and Ben are thinking about building an optical driver for the signals.
• Jay reports that work on the rack and wiring diagrams for the ASC and LSC has resumed and should be complete by the end of the week.
• From Jay: A new board for interfacing the beam line QPDs to an ICS110B has been designed. After the wiring diagrams and cross connects ahve been designed this board will be layed out and sent out for fab.
• Lisa continues to develop the EPICS controls (screens, state code, and wiring and cabling) for the video switch, and Steve is ordering monitors for the control room.

• Alexei has checked out all the IQ demod boards for the WFS system. He is tuning the boards so that there's exactly 90degrees RF phase difference between I&Q. He's preparing to determine the overall phase to maximize the misalignment signal.
• Alexei and Ben will continue to debug and commission the photodetectors, electronics, and actuators (PZT mirrors on the PSL table) for the WFS system.
• We will pursue feedback to these PZT steering mirrors and to the MC suspended optics; so we are following the work done by Joe Kovalik and Valery Frolov at LLO.
• Alexei continues to prepare the EPICS screens and databases that control the WFS system.
• It would be really nice to be able to use dtt to produce a transfer function for the MC ASC. However, dtt can't operate in real-time (for transfer functions) unless the computer it runs on is synch'ed with the data (GPS time) to within 1 second (accd to Daniel Sigg). This requires NTP to be running on the machine, to get the network time from our gateway computer, which hopefully can get the time from some accurate clock on the campus net. It's not clear whether this will be possible; we have asked Larry & Lisa to help. We may have to purchase a GPS-based NTP server for the lab.
• SURF Matt Eichenfield is learning Matlab/simulink to model the MC WFS system properly.

• Bob will be baking the SRM optic this weekend. Early next week, Steve will rehang it, and prepare it for installation. That's the last of the core optics to be prepared.

• Conor wants to measure the cavity pole of the pre-mode cleaner, but it is too high to measure by conventional means. Nergis suggested that we obtain a broadband AOM, and Conor will see if we can scare one up.
• Conor continues to develop a detailed layout of the PSL which reduces the number of turning mirrors and picks of the FSS beam after the PMC. He and SURF Matt Eichenfield are calculating all the mode matching lenses that are required for the new layout.

• OPTICS PARTS LIST, Received parts: 1 Brewster's angle polarizer for SPS anamorphic prism steering mirror from KLC; New mirror holders for PZT steering mirror.
• Orders pending: 1 q-switch E/O shutter from Fast Pulse.
• FARADAY ISOLATOR: Parts are baked and ready for assembly.
• OPTICAL LEVER ASSY: Assembly on hold
• IFO STEERING MIRRORS: All parts are on hand, ready to be cleaned and baked.
• MODE MATCHING TELESCOPE: Parts are baked and ready for assembly.
• SPS BREWSTER PRISM MIRROR: All parts, except for the Brewster prism are baked and ready for assembly. The Brewster prism is on hand ready to be cleaned and baked.
• Mike will work with visitor Koji Arai to assemble, align, and prepare for installation, the Faraday isolator and mode matching telescope. They hope to begin the work by the end of this week.
• Mike is working on designing an AdvLIGO R&D experiment with a SURF student this summer to study photon-force induced movement of a locked cavity mirror. The 40m mode cleaner cavity curved mirror will be pushed with an external photon beam and the loop response will be measured (photon calibrator). It may be possible to actively control the mirror position with the photon beam within a narrow frequency band (photon actuator).
• Alexei installed one EOS on MCR. It is not yet powered, so a half-wave plate is in place to permit the beam to get to the MCR LSC photodiode and WFS's. Unfortunately, the EOS controller box is dying on him; he will work with Sander to debug it.
• Alexei continues to prepare the EPICS screens and databases that control the electro-optic shutters. Dennis has booted up the the EPICS cpu (c1aux) in 1X1 which will control these devices. He and Bob will get the remaining cables in place.
• AC power is being run to the small racks that hold EOS electronics, from rack 1X1.
• Steve ordered picomotors and one controller for our shutter flags (one goes in front of every test mass, to block or attenuate the beam if desired). Bob has vac-prepped the shutter flag parts.

• Steve got the cranes inspected. The vertex crane did not work (again!). The crane repair guy fixed it today.
• Steve has arranged for power to be installed for a portable A/C unit for the control room.

• Cleaned and baked the parts for the Mode Matching Telescope.
• Cleaned, baked and shipped the Baffle parts for LHO.
• Cleaned and baked the Faraday Isolator parts.
• Cleaned and baked the Brewster Mirror ASSY.
• cleaned and baked the special fix in vacuum 1.5 Mirror Mount.
• Helped Art with wiring the So. End 1Y9.
• Cleaned calcite Prisms for Faraday Isolator.
• Finished Hybrid OSEMs for Janeen.
• Will finish cleaning and start bake job on silver mirrors tomorrow.
• will start bake job on ETM optic tomorrow.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

Previously we reported that we were looking for sources of phase loss above 100 kHz in the mode-cleaner servo, in preparation for improving our frequency stabilization at high frequencies. This week we identified the remaining sources of phase loss as a pole in the RF photodiode's response at 700 kHz, and an apparent 60 ns delay in the mixer.  We are now able to model the response of the Pockels cell path accurately in both magnitude and phase up to 30 MHz, well above our expected unity-gain-frequency.  We have now begun design on an amplifier, based on our current model of the system, that will implement the fast-frequency-correcting Pockels cell path up to a few hundred kiloHertz.

LASTI (Zucker)

LASTI (Adhikari, Allen, Coyne, Mason, MacInnis, Mittleman, Nayfeh, Ottaway, Rankin, Rollins, Shoemaker, Zucker, Zuo)

HEPI
We have been working on the hydraulic pumping system.  With the optical isolator from Rich Abbott installed in the pressure sensor signal path we have looked at the pressure spectra. Except for some high frequency signals, which are independent of the pump, the pressure noise meets the required noise specifications.

We are currently replacing both the pump and the motor with the new models supplied by Ken Mailand. Myron is developing a precision alignment procedure to reduce wear and vibration in the coupling (see the LASTI ilog for results).

MEPI
We are still working on the sensor correction coefficients.

We have developed a matlab model of the sensor correction using measured and modeled transfer functions to set the sensor correction coefficients and filter functions.

We are also using a measured time series from all of the sensors as a second approach.

PSL
Jamie continued characterization of his advanced intensity stabilizer and is writing up his results to date.

Rana further updated and characterized the frequency stabilizer electronics. 

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)

E2E weekly Physics meeting

Luca described the lock acquisition problem recently faced in H1 and issues related to increased input power. Luca and Matt also discussed about Wavefront Sensor issues and how SimLIGO could be effectively used to look into the problems. Generation of noise curves from SimLIGO was also discussed. Attendees: Luca, Matt, Virginio, Hiro, Biplab.

New Optical Model

(Matt) This week I returned to the new optical model code.  My intent is to  do some final documentation and testing, then hand it over to Hiro for work  with the summation cavities and eventual incorporation into E2E.

Code development and maintenance 

(Hiro)
 Modeler support:
 Several example programs using e2e are posted in the e2e home page.
 (1) pendulum with locking servo
 (2) Simple FP (ETM moving longitudinally)
 (3) FP simulation using multi mode (ETM moving and rotating)

 Modeler code:
 Hiro and Melody worked together to investigate various compiler issues,  including

• optimization (-O4 and above do not exist, -O3 is not necessarily faster than -O2, these are documented and are consistent with our experiment using e2e, CPU specific options using SSE on Xeon was tested to speed up 10-20%),
• compiler dependence (gcc 3.2.2 and gcc3.3 generates binaries which generate different results) and
• machine dependence (SUN gcc2.95.3 and linux 3.2.2/3.3 do not match).  Investigation is still going on to resolve mysterious issues to make sure correct simulation results are generated.

CVS and tarball distribution:
A meeting was held (Hiro, Ed, Bruce and Melody) to follow up the last week's meeting about the reorganization of CVS so that a leaner and cleaner tarball would be distributed. All obsolete components, including C++ based alfi (alfi4 and older), are "deleted" from CVS (still one can get codes if needed), and the tarball contains only the minimum needed.

(Melody)

• Preparing build instructions with discussed changes for the upcoming build.
• Installed gcc 3.3 in the Linux box with Virginio's assistance.
• Trying to figure out the differences in the results generated by the different versions of gcc in different platforms (Linux and Sun).

(Ed Maros) Removed Alfi from CVS.

Alfi

(Bruce)

• Completing work on port repositioning in external view (PR 380, 391)
• Working on E2E_PATH issues (PR 395)

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)
We are now in a code freeze in preparation for the 0.7.0 release of LDAS. I would estimate this release to be between one and two weeks away. As of today, we have begun rerunning all system level tests. Only bug fixes that have been approved will be allowed into CVS for this release.

It was discovered this week that the DB2 version 8.1 that we have been evaluating for the next LDAS release (0.8.0) only supports a 90 day evaluation license, even though it was licensed under the Academic Scholastic Program at IBM. This was just reported to LDAS team leaders yesterday so working the problem to find the constraints has just begun.  In the worst case we could buy the licenses for roughly a thousand dollars per DB2 server.

The issue with using certain NDAS frames in LDAS continued this week. The confusion levels have only gone up since last week. We still do not know what in the NDAS frames the LDAS Frame I/O library is unhappy about. It appears that some NDAS frames point to illegal locations on the file system for locating particular data sets. But this issue is not seen in the framelib I/O libary from VIRGO. We have modified our FrVerify to report more details of the issue and are now modifying the FrDump code to report additional details to locate the problem. Note that some NDAS frames do not cause any issues in LDAS while others do.

The memory leaks in the metaDataAPI have now been fixed. However, the dataConditionAPI still has a one to two kilobyte leak per job. There has been some isolation of the memory leak to certain types of jobs, but no progress in identifying the place in the code that causes the leaks. Use of memory leak detection tools such as valgrind and insure++ on standalone codes based on the same code base have not pinpointed the problems either.

New code from Penn State for Kalman filtering was checked into CVS this week. Eric Rotthof (the author) has made many fixes and brought the code up to date for the new GCC compiler.

We have begun testing LDAS against the newest GCC compiler (3.3). This compiler will be the foundation for the 0.8.0 release of LDAS but not for the 0.7.0 release which uses 3.2.3. LDAS has been shown to work with only one issue under Redhat 9 with this compiler. The issue is with the new DB2 8.1 developers library and our interface in the metaDataAPI to that version of the library. Looks like we will need to modify out dbEasy library (ODBC interface library) to work properly with DB2 8.1. We are now beginning to evaluation this compiler under solaris.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech
(Dan Kozak)

• Assisted with T3 failures/reconstruction at both LHO and LLO.
• Continued SAM-QFS hand holding (recovering from stuck tape situation, running archiving by hand, etc.).
• Assisted in unpacking and installation of new Sun gear (Jupiter switch, 2 3510s).
• Working on setting up to re-archive all SAM-QFS data on 9940B drives.

(Al Wilson)

• Install DB2 on test system for Solaris.
• Have System images for CIT beowulf and datacon ready for install.
• Over the weekend took care of some BB daemon starting problems.

(Stuart Anderson)

• Received the last LDAS construction account order from Sun Microsystems and started unpacking and installing: 10 FC disk units, 1 2Gb/s FC switch, and 4 dual-1.2GHz rack mount servers.
• Received notification from ASA that 98% of the chassis needed for the large LDAS Beowulf cluster order have been received by them and that 108 out of the remaining 310 units have been assembled. This confirms that ASA is still on schedule for a June 6th ship date.
• Placed order with Larry Wallace to get additional fiber patch cords for the new LC GigE standard and new FC disk storage.
• Continuing to help support the electrical work for the Synchrotron computer room upgrade. The floor mount for the additional cooling unit has been installed and bolted to the floor.

Livingston
(Igor Yakushin)

• Setting up test replication configuration between LHO and LLO.

Hanford
(Greg Mendell)

• The multiple disk failure that I reported last week on t3-14 was fixed by Ben Johnson without loss or corruption of data.  Only one disk had failed, but the replacement of this faulty disk failed to reconstruct, causing other disks to go into fault state. Reseting the volume and T3 and running the disk recon command by hand fixed the problem.  Ben Johnson had written a detailed report on the fix in LDAS Gnats Problem Report 2002.
• Assisted Ben Johnson with the installation of a new UPS, transformer, GigE switch and FC switch in the LDAS room.  In general, we are working towards recabling the room and installing the new beowulf clusster which should ship to LHO on June 6.

(Ben Johnson)

• Rearranged racks in the LDAS room so that we can start building our new cluster without taking down the old beowulf. APC 5000VA UPS, and 30A step-down transformer have been placed in a new rack.
• Physically installed new GigE and FC switches. No software configuration of either has been done.
• Room now has a cable ready to become part of the CDS network. This will initially be used for a temperature monitor that will place data into the EPICS system.
• Replaced u1ctr controller card in t3-4. This did not fix the odd notices it has been reporting. Continuing to work on a solution.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

K. Reilly:
Most of my time now is being spent learning how the stochastic DSO works.  This is my first introduction to LAL an LALWrapper so it is taking some  time.  I have also re-started going through the GW phyics notes and looking up the references explaining the theory behind the stochastic data analysis. I have begun preparing for next week's talk.

Mendell:

• Continuing to work on a proposal with Mike Landry for the PULG group to start writing a stackslide DSO to run under LDAS, in preparation for the PULG face-to-face meeting June 16-17.
• Continuing to prepare my SURF student project, which is to study various methods of parameter estimation for continuous wave sources.
• Opened LDAS Gnats PR 1997 and worked with LDAS to resolve a bug that causes the start_freq to be set incorrectly when requesting frequency series data (in my case SFTs) with an initial gap in the data for the times requested.

Yakushin:

• Fixing bugs in noise_rms computation for the new LAL/LALWrapper release.

Weinstein:

• Continuing to edit the Burst S1 paper.
• Working a bit on hardware injection analysis, with Laura.

Creighton:
Finished writing and testing LAL routines for double-precision time-domain filtering of single-precision data.  These routines reduce truncation errors, and also (surprisingly) execute 20% to 30% faster than the existing single-precision time-domain filtering routines.

Lazzarini:
Completed a new analysis for the stochastic group. This is motivated by the inspiral group's "chi²" analysis on the consistency of a signal's spectral content with the expect model signal. It is the f-domain analog of the time-shift chi² analysis I conducted for large amplitude injections. The analysis uses the run-averaged cross-correlation statistic spectrum and related optimal filter spectrum. Results are in nice concordance with the optimal filtering results -- the so-called "point estimates". However, for the H-1H2 pair this provides a way of quantizing the degree to which the observed negative correlation is inconsistent with astrophysical process (let alone the sign of the effect!).

General Computing (Wallace)

Livingston:
(Shannon)

• Finished up a security audit with Larry last week.  There are some loose ends that I need to tie up on several machines, but for the most part the audit went OK.
• Looking into a backup system for GC.  The system I am looking at would allow me to give backup capability to pretty much any machine on site.  The software is also extremely multiplatform.  It will backup anything from Solaris, Windows, Linux, and even others like Novell, AIX, Mac, etc.  The cost seems very reasonable as compared to tape backups.
• Preparing for a trip to the Usenix technical conference from June 8th to the 14th.  I will be attending tutorials on LDAP directories, Samba 2.2 and 3.0, and advance DNS administration.
• Bonnie's machine crashed on Tuesday.  She has unfortunately lost all of her e-mail since it was only stored on her machine.  All of her other files and data should be OK though.  I initially thought that she had a virus, but it turns out that her machine is clean from viruses and that it was Windows just being Windows.  After about two years of usage, things build up and this can be expected to happen.  I am rebuilding her machine and reinstalling her software.  This process usually takes at least 1-2 days since she has lots of it.
• I had Marcell return his computer to ASA.  This machine has been back once already.  When it came back I worked with it and did a fresh install of the OS.  The machine behaves fine for a while, but once it warms up it locks up after about 3 minutes of use.  I suspect it is either a heat problem or a power supply issue.  I tried running it on a combination of different hardware and none seemed to fix the problem.  The only thing I was unable to swap was the power supply due to lack of a spare ATX supply with a high enough wattage.
• Worked with LSU a little this week.  Seems that one of the T1s is having some problems.  Rick Simmons came out here to inspect our end and it seems that it may be a Bell South issue.
• Reviewing what requirements will be for a computer to put in the auditorium.  I plan to order it in the next week or so.
• Getting ready to reinstall the machine which serves as our dhcp server.  This machine is also my workstation.
• Had Bonnie follow up on a quote from Sun on a 280R to replace my web server.  She will have to order it since it is above my Pcard limit.  Once the web server is upgraded I will begin offering a web mail server like the one at Caltech.

Hanford:
(Christine)

• Attended a phone conference with all people involved with the network upgrade.  Sounds like our upgrade to OC3 should happen about mid June.
• Setup another SURF student accounts on the network.
• Started writing up the PR for the GigE network equipment.
• User support.

CIT:
(Mike)

• Setup a surf student's workstation and loaded additional software for this user.
• Worked on loading some software for Calum that failed I have to do some research on this product.
• Finished up loading two PC's for in-coming surf students. I still have to ghost these machines then setup move them on up to a cubicle.
• Went through security logs checking for intrusions and OS/hardware errors. Intrusions were unsuccessful. OS errors were minimal. There are some hardware errors on Pictor that need to be taking care of.
• Had to replace a hard disk, due to bad blocks being reported in event viewer. I restored this server from a ghost image and it is now back up and running.
• Found some issues on trying to build a system using a Ghost image when trying to build a image of Larry's portable on to another unit. Will work on that issue later.

(Lisa)

• Miscellaneous user support
• Vacation

(Veronica)

• Advanced LIGO CD and website for the NSF Review Panel were again the top priority in the last days of last week. CD preparation required rewriting several scripts and importing support files to make it 'self-contained.'  After the AdvLIGO cost/schdedule documentation was finalized late Friday afternoon, a batch of 26 CDs was burned and shipped to the NSF in a narrow time slot before the holiday weekend. A copy was sent to David Shoemaker, and a tar archive of the CD was posted per his request. I updated the website to mirror the CD and made other changes required before its publishing, and keep maintaining it.
• LIGO website: catching up on what was pushed aside in the past days as I was working on Advanced LIGO.  Working with George Stokes on troubleshooting the DCC databases; support for George in accessing/testing the database per his requests.  User support for the Advanced Suspensions group (a webpage, vnc).
• Project Science: Support for the upcoming October workshop. Sent out announcements and filed responses of prospective attendees.
• LSC website: catching up on postings accumulated during Advanced LIGO crunch.
• CaJAGWR website: upkeep and user support.

(Larry)

• Performed a few more tests for the GC audit at Livingston. Overall things went well. Shannon and I did not get everything tested out, a number of distractions took up some of the time we needed but we did get a pretty good view of things.  I am working on a report of what we found and hope to have it out next week.  Just as a note from the audit at Livingston and going over some of the PC's here at Caltech, the PC Windows users should be running the defragmentation and virusscan on a regular basis. There are a number of people that do and they seem to have fewer problems than those that do not.
• Spent time working on a number of PC's. Everything from printdriver problems to rogue processes. We are trying to get a list of the unneeded processes that can be killed in Windows. Also, discovered that some of the patches can cause windows to perform slower but Microsoft is working on a fix.
• Attended the Hanford LIGOWAN meeting with Christine. Things are looking good.  There will be a short network outage at the Hanford site this evening (May 29th) as PNL will be setting up their new router. If all goes well we should have our OC3 connection in by mid June. Christine is presently working on the setup of the new router the Observatory is to install for the switchover.
• Worked a number of user accounts and issues. Added a couple of new people to the system.
• A group of us worked a couple of VRVS issues with Callum. VRVS now no longer supports the audio part of the USB cameras. So now you need a separate microphone on the computer. The built-in mic on the laptops appears to still work. I used the VRVS system while on travel and did not have a problem.
• The e-mail monitoring and adding locations to the filter table is and will be a daily task.

Advanced LIGO Development (Shoemaker)

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