LIGO Weekly Report

LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Lindquist)
We held a site teleconference on Thursday, January 29, 2004. The following issues were discussed:

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

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

As a result of my participation in these meetings, I will issue meeting minutes and action items by subsystem or topic.

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

Open Change Requests:


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

I believe that CR-040001 replaces CR-030015 and CR-030015 should be closed. CR-030016 has been placed on the "watch" list.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

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

Alignment issues dominated commissioning concerns throughout the week. At times,
tumbleweed clearing and high winds impacted lockability of both IFOs.

A new DMT monitor has been written, to predict motion and velocities of arm cavities
from seismometer data. See the summary on DeltaMuSigma here.

4K IFO
Core optic initial alignment can be now performed with the running of a single script.

Noise in POB_I, previously shot noise limited, got a lot worse last week, a by-product of
some intensive commissioning work on the table. Here, worse means a factor of five,
broadband, plus are large peak at 2.8kHz. Coherence with REFL later showed this was
due to frequency noise.

In WFS land, careful positioning of the WFS3 Gouy phase telescope cleanly separated
sensitivity to RM and (ITM, ETM) common motions. This more closely resembles ASC
design, in which WFS3 is sensitive to the RM whereas WFS4 is sensitive to the common
motions of pairs of cavity mirrors. This separation was first performed in a cold state,
then later with the full IFO in hot state. The diagonalization is not as clean in this hot
state, e.g. maximizing sensitivity to the RM corresponds to a minimum in common ETM
sensitivity, but not so in the ITMs. A 1" lens was replaced with a 2" one on the REFL
port periscope.

2K IFO
M. Evans visited the lab this week, concentrating on 2k ASC issues. On the weekend,
the IFO remained locked as optical lever feedback to MMT3 was severed and WFS3
closed on the optic. ASC loop gain measurements showed WFS unity gain points boosted
to a few Hz. Finally, a change of topology saw QPD feedback go to the ITMs, allowing
unity gain frequencies of 4-5Hz to be achieved. The result was that the 2k was made
to work without optical levers on all four arm cavity mirrors. This is a key step in reliably
eliminating optical levers that tether the cavities to the ground. A work in progress, one can
see a side-effect of the ASC system on the noise in the calibrated AS_Q spectrum: a large
bump, much of it coherent with the WFS between 20-100Hz. This entry includes a wish list
of what the requirements are to limit ASC noise from coupling into AS_Q. Plans of attack
include increasing light on the photodiodes and increasing the modulation depth.

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------
L1
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Continued work to observe and/or place limits on thermal lensing in
the L1 interferometer at high power. Most of the work went into
various methods to stabilize or optimize the alignment against the substantial
mirror torques associated with radiation pressure. At this writing we have
not definitively observed lensing; this is starting to suggest that we may have
substantially lower optic absorption than observed in the H1 interferometer.
It is too soon to say if this will affect the
adaptive thermal compensation configuration chosen for L1.

Other ongoing work concentrated on calibration accuracy, RF oscillator
phase noise, off-diagonal sensing matrix couplings, and laser
intensity noise measurements.

Safety/security (Rich Riesen)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Found no safety concerns on weekly site tour. Up-dating site safety
procedures. Addressing safety issues for the HEPI buildup. Working with
Rich Abbott. Continuing work with Ed Chargois and GSA on property
issues. Completed the necessary paperwork and walk thru with Merschroth
Volker from the ELS corp. He is here setting up the High Power Laser
(75W) system with Rupal Amin (U of F) in the High Power Laser Facility.

LLO, a Community Resource (Bonnie Wooley)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This week Bonnie visited Louis Vincent
Element School and conducted a hands-on science class for the Young
Astronauts Club while Mike Z and Gary judged a 5th grade science fair at
the Holy Ghost Catholic School in Hammond, LA.

#MZ Note: We saw some awesome projects, tried to hire some of the
contestants on the spot; unfortunately they had soccer practice...

L1 Commissioning and Calibration (O'Reilly)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
In an effort to understand the calibration data, and to reconcile
different ways of calibrating the test mass responses, I've been
making measurements of the ITM coil driver transfer functions.
There's still a 20% discrepancy between two of the techniques which
has yet to be understood.

LDAS (Yakushin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
LDAS administration:
u1d4@t3-4 failed. Waiting for a replacement drive from SUN.

Data analysis: Preparing for the burst face-to-face meeting in Florida,
Feb 5-7: running improved version of waveburst on S2 playground data.

General Computing (Roddy)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Still taking care of some items in preparation for next weeks NSB
meeting. Most things are in place at this point and there are only a
couple of loose ends to tie up. Remotes, projectors, new mics, etc. are
mostly ready. Couple of small wiring issues remain but these will be
completed today and/or tomorrow.

Replaced the machine that was serving as my workstation since it has
been having problems since I returned from vacation. This machine also
serves as the dhcp server, tftp server for switch configuration backups,
etc.

I will be relocating the mail server across the street today to try and
help clean up for the NSB meeting. The mail server has been sitting on
a table outside my office for a couple of months due to a lack of space
for it in the communications room and the area that we are going to put
GC servers is not quite ready yet. I will be placing a half rack in the
area to use for several weeks for machines that have to be moved now.

Had to wipe the MyDoom.A virus off of one workstation and update the
mail server scanners to take care of this new outbreak.

Mike Pedraza has been a great help in taking care of some windows
problems around here this week. He has also passed on a couple of
tips/clues as to some windows specific problems.

LLO Seismic retrofit (MZ for R. Abbott, O. Spjeld and a cast of thousands)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
After an exhaustive selection process we've forwarded our choice for
the hydraulic piping contract to Gary for final approval. We are
hopeful that the vendor can start next week.

Ken Mailand is at LLO this week and next to bring the pump station
assembly to completion and get it into test. The
first unit is almost fully assembled and looking good; some minor
issues that came up with fit etc. will be easy to handle with no
schedule impact.

The valve test stand is back on track and almost complete. Katrina
has all the instruments talking to each other and the prior leakage
problem at the test unit interface appears to be resolved.

- Arranged for overnight remanufacturing of sensor mounts for the valve
test stand to resolve leaks around the differential pressure sensor
pins.

- Assembly of four actuators (with tripod posts correctly torqued)
delivered to Southern Enterprises for crating and shipping directly to
Southbridge, MA in time for the fit check next week.

- Travel arrangements for the fit check trip for Joe Lacour and me from
Monday February 2 to Thursday February 5.

HEPI fit check is scheduled to take place Wednesday - Thursday Feb. 4
and 5. Moment of truth...

Valve Calibration Test Stand finally completed, passed air leak check,
all electronics hooked up, software installed and ready to run. Waiting
for the valve driver unit from Stanford, which should be in the mail.

HPLF (MZ for R. Amin and K. Franzen)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Today the representative from ELS came to install the 75W HPLF Nd:YAG
in the new lab. With Rich R. in attendance for safety monitoring,
the laser powered up beautifully and passed all beam
quality tests at up to 60W.

Unfortunately, about an hour into the
test regimen the laser died catastrophically, apparently due to a
fault (contamination or optical defect) in the pump fiber
input coupler. The ELS rep did forensics on the spot
to localize the fault. We will get replacement units sent and
reschedule for a later date. He and Rupal have gone off to drown
their sorrows.

CDS support (Ash Khan)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Worked on the timing problem of the dtt Excitation Engine. It was
diagnosed to be a bug in the TP monitor code. Daniel fixed the bug and it is
up and running now.

2) The CDS gateway River was nocked out due to the recent changes in the GC
network. The IP address is being reassigned, now outside login is accepted.

3) The web page 'Work Permit' was modified as per request from Rich Riesen.
We have added new fields in the Work permit form and Email is being sent to
llo-all.

4) Helping Peter King in setting up the communication with the laser power
Chiller.

Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)

DETECTOR SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

Seismic Upgrade Project

see also:

LASTI report for HEPI experimental progress
LLO report for readiness
CDS report for electronics & software

Dennis Coyne

The first pump station sub assembly has been installed in a base frame (see figure),
also the electrical box has been mounted. Two frames have been received
at LLO, the other 5 will be delivered by 2-4 or sooner.
Valve calibration stand assembly has been completed. Testing to start.
Fit check is still on schedule at Southbridge Sheet Metal next week for housing, 'boot', actuators, brackets
Piping contractor selected and contract to be let ASAP
Electronics design and production still on schedule for late Feb installation of an end station
New DAQ system and HEPI software to be installed by Rolf & Alex at LLO the 2 weeks starting 2/17

DMT

John Zweizig

This week I have been improving the DMT data simulation program (DMTGen)

and using it to test the DMT transient finders. I have modified DMTGen

to write out the parameters of generated events (i.e. transients such

as sine-gaussians) to the frame files. These are read by a program that

matches the event descriptions to triggers generated by any of the DMT

glitch monitors. It then produces plots of efficiency and resolution in

time and amplitude versus the generated parameter values. This should help

identify any short-comings of the Glitch finding codes.

CDS

see also weekly CDS meeting minutes in the commissioning archives:

CDS Software

no report

CDS Hardware

Ben Abbott

a. The XYCOMM 212 Interface board and the XYCOMM 220 interface should be back shortly.

b. All of the orders for HEPI that I know of at present, are in and will be coming back whenever each becomes ready.

c. I have finished the 8-Channel Valve Driver Board, and it was sent to PCB Express earlier today.

Jay Heefner reporting

Thermal Compensation:

-One of the PCs supplied by LHO for the controls is operational and ready for installation. The other PC appears to have a motherboard or PCIbus problem and will need to be replaced. Richard is looking for another PC at LHO and we are looking through some of the older PCs we obtained from general computing here at CIT.

Frequency Devices DAC:

- FDI has solved the glitching that occurs on a single board, but they now are having problems with glitches introduced by VMEbus activity. They have shipped us one board that is fully operational and we will use it for code development and noise testing.

RFI Retrofit:

- All emi feedthroughs, cables and panels needed for the end station retrofit are now on order and should be received by mid-February.

- All wiring and rack drawings are complete and ready for installation.

Sander Liu

The Electro-optical link transmitter board printed circuit board design is now complete. (This is a board for HEPI) Currently working on the receiver circuit board design. Expect to finish it by the end of the day. Plan to give them to Paul or Dave to double check before sending them out for fabrication.

PSL

PeterKing

Alignment of the 10-W laser has been completed. The output mode as

indicated by a BeamScan appears to be better and the output power has

increased.

Both the laser power supply commands to the Neslab RTE-140M chiller and

the replies from the chiller have been logged for the various scenarios

involving the rocker switches on the laser power supply front panel.

Writing a software routine to fool the laser power supply into thinking

that the RTE-140M is still connected should not be a problem. At one point

I thought that there was a software bug in the commands sent from the laser

power supply involving switching from the remote temperature sensor after a

standby was requested but I have not thought of a work-around yet. The bug

involves switching the laser temperature to the standby default of 15

degrees Celsius as opposed to the current bath temperature.

Thermal Compensation

Optical Contamination Cavities

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

OTF Lab. (W. Bridge)

We have introduced a new sample

(21) pieces ofthe new twisted, shielded, teflon cables.

each is 106" inches long cables. Cavity locked and we are taking

ring down and beat frequency measurements as well as the RGA of the chamber,

every day.This test will last 1500 hrs.

Please see Dr. Zhang's report.

Absorption Test Measurement prototype in progress

A new sapphire mirror25 mm Dia. X 50 mm thick. is under test for

absorption measurement.Absorption signal is too small to detect as the power noise

from the He-Ne is higher, therefore we are going to suppress the noise with a filter.

Also, we need another He-Ne laser of about 5mw of power or higher.

All these efforts is undergoing on the prototype optical table that we have assembled

separate from the RTS enclosure.

Please see Dr. Zhang's report.which is underway.

Scatterometer system in standby

OTF Lab at Lauritsen ROOM 38

Cavity #3

The cavity was recovered and it is locked again.

We are taking ring down and beat frequency measurements every day as well as

the RGA for the chamber.

Cavity #2 Test cavity optical set up in standby

PSL LAB.

The baking of (4) PMC bodies are completed and RGA is in progress.

A complete and new alignment of the 10 watt laser completed.

we accomplished a 11.00 watt of laser power with a new and better gaussian beam mode.

Misc... tasksordering of mirror mounts and optical mounts for the absorption test still on as we finding our

needs.A new enclosure designfor the 60 watt laser is underway.

I got a He-Ne laser of 4mw of power from Helena Armandula that was giving to me for repair.

This He-Ne will be used for the absorption prototype.

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

This week we installed impedance-matching resistors in the last (RF)
stage of our photodetectors, which brought the electronic noise down to
4 nV/rHz, referenced at the input of the MAX4107's, in both detectors.
(NAC had been high.) Daniel Sigg estimates that 3.5 nV/rHz is about as
good as can be expected, so we believe our photodetectors are working
to spec now. Moreover, electronic noise now corresponds to 1.7e-19
m/rHz in equivalent length noise, which is below our thermal noise
floor up to about 100 kHz.

New noise spectra, however, look little different from the previous
ones. Preliminary measurements indicate that we are now shot-noise
limited at about 4e-19 m/rHz, not far below our previous
electronic-noise limit. We are now doing measurements to confirm this
limit, and we are measuring the circulating power and finesse of the
cavities to see if the theoretical shot noise agrees with our
measurement.

LASTI (Ottaway)

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
India Trip
------------
(Biplab) Attended International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology
at Kochi, India. Gave a talk on "Physics of Interferometric Gravitational
Wave Detectors" in its plenary session and a short talk on E2E with
demonstration in one of the parallel sessions. Also visited Raman Research
Institute, Bangalore and Indian Association for Cultivation of Science,
Kolkata and gave talks on detection of gravitational waves.

Mechanical Simulation
-----------------------
(Virginio)
Resumed the biweekly MSE (Mechanical Simulation Engine) meeting yesterday
(Jan 28) and discussed the recent progress and next plans and simulation
issues. Attendees: Hiro Giancarlo Mark and me.
Recent progress
(Hiro, Virginio)
    Implementation of the State Space Class in e2e to import mse models
    Implementation of 3 different non predictive methods for ODES (ordinary
    differential equation system ) integration optimized for the linear case.
    Implementing the a new predictive corrective method integration
(Giancarlo)
    Retrofit of the old methods to produce the state space matrices in the
    mse library
Simulation issues
    Discussed the result of such integrator. RKF45 RKF5 and RK4 are limited
    by numerical accuracy which is not surprising.
    To reach the required accuracy for sensitivity study the quad. precision
    is necessary. Lock acquisition et similia don't require such high
    precision.
Plans
   (Giancarlo)
    Terminate the simulation of the Virgo IP and then debug the rectangular
    blade model, then cross check results with the experimental data taken
    with a real rectangular blade.
   (Virginio)
    Once the rectangular is blade working simulate the triangular blade and
    then introduce it in the quad pendulum simulation.
Other things:
    Working on a new LIGO suspension model including violin modes
    Done some preliminary analysis for the design of the OMC (output mode
    cleaner) and reported during a meeting on Mon 26 of the caltech/mit OMC
    task force.

Sensitivity curve
-----------------------
(Hiro) Xiao run SimLIGO by placing the cavity axes off from the beam line
to see the effect on the sensitivity.
Neither horizontal nor vertical displacement up to 1 cm does not
introduce any observable degradation of the performance.

The only caveat is that the noise at around 100 Hz still remains unexplained.
This could be cause by the numerical accuracy posed by the calculation
using double precision variables.

Code development and maintenance
----------------------------------
(Hiro) Adlib code:
The matrix class in adlib has been replaced by a different version of
Matrix class, originally developed by Matt.
The new one is a template class which enables to write a double and
quad precision code easily. Also attempted is the inclusion of the
expression template functionality in this class. Some work is needed
to make the code work right. The StateSpace model and the Runge Kutta
integrator have been modified to use this new class.

(Melody) C++ FUNC:
Finalized code development. Currently writing a technical document
to describe dynamic linking and how it is being used in E2E.

Alfi
-----------
(Bruce)
- Work on stabilizing and improving bundlers.
- Implementing bundler copy/paste (PR 434.)

The new diskCacheAPI, based heavily on C++ functionality and use of
threads has now made its way onto the LDAS Development system and CVS.
Approximately 2 days of testing were performed on standalone systems
before pushing it onto the DEV system. Problems immediately showed up
on the larger DEV system which have now been resolved. There is plenty
to test still, but as of today (Thursday) no followup problems have
been discovered. We hope to estimate the performance boost by early
next week.

New support for FrSimEvent was added to the frameCPP I/O library to
support a last minute request from John Zweizig. Of course this also
required extending LDAS to support these new structures since the
path has been openned up to utilize them. This also gave us the
opportunity to trace a few of the outstanding issues with other
structures in the frame that LDAS accessors were failing to support
properly. Roughly 30 more frame accessors are now properly supported.

A common ssh-agent-manager was incorporated into LDAS this week. This
provides a unified code unit for the bourne scripts (runLDAS, ldas-ps,
and ldas-kill) as well as the control and monitorAPI and test scripts.

Globus was installed on the tclglobus server this week. This should
allow for our first prototypes of tclglobus wrappers in the next
week. Ed Maros and Kent Blackburn have made arrangements to meet with
the Python-Globus developers at LBL at the end of February. The TCL-
Globus project here at CIT and the Python-Globus project at LBL have
many common elements and we hope to leverage of the successes that
groups has had over the past few years.

Instrumented the eventMonitorAPI with state buffering logic to help
trace a rare (once every couple of weeks) bug that has been seen on
occasion. This will prevent us from having to turn on full debugging
and flood the system logs with Gigabytes of verbose messaging while
waiting for the bug to next expose itself.

The mpirun failures on the LDAS-Test system continue at one or two
a day. This failure has not been seen on other system. Stuart has
speculated that because this is the only system with fast-ethernet
(all others are gigE), the cause may be related to the network
infrastructure on LDAS-TEST. Statistical analysis of the nodes
involved in the failures shows no specific computers or user
accounts are involved.

* Continued testing new FrVerify by checking lots of frame files.
* Got alterf set up as shared QFS client.
* Called Sun about dead disks on T3s and 3510s.
* Called Sun to ask how to mount QFS filesystems read-only.
* Cleaned up duplicate files in frame archive.

* Update the certificates for MIT installation, included modifying the
conf files here at CIT and at MIT.
* Installed the new version of VDT on grid2 and working on it so that
it can replace the current ldas-grid.
* Setup user accounts for Peter, Patrick on ldas-grid.
* Found some configuration options for ganglia which might reduce the
load, will try that out.

* Installed kernel 20-28 on desktop machines.
* Setup new machine for ldas-grid.
* Troubleshooting one of the new machines. It reboot on its own (Hmm, this one
is not on Mars).
* Rebuilding the old pcdev1 to become the new pcdev2.

* Solved a ~year long problem of poor metadata performance in running
directory listings on a Solaris client of a Linux NFS server--now
1000x faster and comparable to the Solaris-Solaris and Linux-Linux
performance.
* Working with cluster users at Caltech to better optimize the configuration
for Condor users.

* Completed upgrade on ldas machines:
* T3's swapped (2nd T3 made spare).
* T3 changed to 8+1 Raid 5.
* All Intel boxes upgraded to latest kernel (except pcraids).
* Installed pcraid6 into rack.
* Running burntest on pcraid6.
* Received APC rackmount UPS box.
* Working on LDR to get S3 Level 1 and S2 MDC data.

* Worked with Dan Kozak to fix two "damaged" files at LHO. The files
were incorrectly marked damaged by samfs. Both were eventually recovered.
* Fixed problem with Foundry switch blade. All 140 beowulf nodes have
proper network connectivity and are part of the LDAS nodelist.
* Added hot spare to t3-25, it is ready to be attached to the
oldgateway box.
* Continuing work on data glitching. I have run analysis code on most
science and engineering runs now.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)
Mendell:
We have posted test results for the StackSlide search on the PULG web
page, http://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/pulgroup/, under the S2
investigations stackslide link. We still have to develop a standard set
of unit test and end-to-end tests to validate the code. We are also
working on xml I/O of results and the pipeline.

Shawhan:
* Hosted a face-to-face meeting of the Inspiral Analysis Working Group
here at Caltech over the weekend. Besides going over the binary neutron
star and MACHO binary searches using the S2 data, which are getting
closer to being finished, we also covered implementation of the BCV
template search for non-spinning binary black holes, and plans to extend
this to spinning black holes when analyzing S3 data. We set out an
ambitious plan for doing all of these things over the next several months;
fortunately, there are more people actively involved now than there
used to be.

* Learned from Duncan how to run the inspiral search code on the Condor
cluster here at Caltech, and ran a few test jobs successfully.

* Helped to investigate the cause of very slow response (saturation of the
NFS server) when using the /dso-test filesystem.

* Wrote a utility called 'watch_dag' which gives a concise summary of the
status of the many jobs in a search which uses a DAG [Directed Acyclic
Graph] to carry out a multi-step processing pipeline in Condor.

Yakushin:
Data analysis:
Preparing for the burst face-to-face meeting in Florida, Feb 5-7: running improved version of waveburst on S2 playground data.

General Computing (Wallace)
MIT:
(Keith)
-Following up on 2004 matlab licenses
-Ordering various spare computer parts
-Troubleshooting printer problems in NW22

Livingston:
(Shannon)
-Still taking care of some items in the auditorium changes.
Most things are in place at this point and there are only a
couple of loose ends to tie up. Remotes, projectors, new mics, etc.
are mostly ready. Couple of small wiring issues remain but these will
be completed today and/or tomorrow.
-Replaced the machine that was serving as my workstation since it has
been having problems since I returned from vacation. This machine also
serves as the dhcp server, tftp server for switch configuration
backups, etc.
-Plan on relocating the mail server across the street today to try and
help clean up for the NSB meeting. The mail server has been sitting on
a table outside my office for a couple of months due to a lack of space
for it in the communications room and the area that we are going to put
GC servers is not quite ready yet. I will be placing a half rack in
the area to use for several weeks for machines that have to be moved
now.
-Had to wipe the MyDoom.A virus off of one workstation and update the
mail server scanners to take care of this new outbreak.
-Mike Pedraza has been a great help in taking care of some windows
problems around here this week. He has also passed on a couple of
tips/clues as to some windows specific problems.
-We are getting about 150-175 copies of the MyDoom.A virus on the mail
server per 24 hour period. RAV is worth its weight (bytes?) in gold
for keeping these out of individual inboxes and filtering them before
the user ever sees it.

(Mike Pedraza)
- This week I have been working at LLO. This has included removing a few
viruses, fixing corrupted registries and putting on labeling all PC's with
cpu & memory information. I came across a few computers that required a lot
of attention. (very time consuming)

Hanford:
(Christine)
- Setup a new laptop with the standard GC software configuration.
- Finished stripping Otto's old computer. Updated all the standard
software and made the computer ready to pass on to another user.
- Researched some sendmail errors.
- Ordered some more software updates for GC and CDS.
- Tried to help troubleshoot a problem with a laptop being used for
laser beam scanning and analysis. Turned out some one had plugged an AC
adapter into a DC receptacle.
- Investigating a mathematica license manager problem. For some reason
the license manager software gets periodic interrupts and exits.
- The raid disk system on our LSC sandbox computer has had several
failed disks lately. I've looked into buying spare disks, but they are
too old and no longer available. Will continue with what we have until
the next failure and determine then if the raid disk system is even
necessary for this computer.

CIT:
(Mike Pedraza)
-Worked on the PDMWorks server, adding user accounts and setting permissions.
-Updated the Ansys license server. We are now running 8.0.
-I helped Ed Chargois surplus some equipment.

(Lisa)
- Spent many hours working on 2 Dell laptops. The latitude D600 and D800 have
known problems with network connections not returning after the machine is
hibernated. They also get some kind of BIOS corruption when the machine is not
properly undocked.
- Trying to make progress on building the replacement server for acrux.
- Spent a lot of time working with the wireless access points and related tcl
script.
- Worked with Julien to resolve a matlab problem.

(Veronica)
- LIGO website: Updates to various pages. Installed the new SURF'04
webpages. Updates to the Aspen'04 webpages, S1, conferences, and seminars
pages.
- LSC website: Finalized and installed the website for the upcoming March
meeting; posting updates as they arrive. Updated other pages through-out the
website. Working on the map of the LSC collaborating institutions. Looking
into the makeover of the web application for the submittal of the progress
reports. At the moment an application exists but needs to be
repaired as it scrambles the entries. Another application to be developed
is an automated system for the submittal of the MOUs. The details are
being worked out.
- CaJAGWR website: Ran trial runs to see if the resolution of the
compressed video for streaming can be improved. It seems that it can
be made by improving the quality of the raw source, as the
encoding and compressing is already being done to ensure the highest data
rate. Usual website updates and user support.

(Larry)
-Worked a number of procurement issues. Made a few new procurements for the LDAS
group. They should be receiving their equipment this week. There were a couple
of problems with late orders but those have been taken care of.
-Installed another webcam. Once the latest order of the equipment arrives we
will test out the audio portion of the webcam system.
-Assisted in another VRVS setup with a group in Japan. Things worked well on our
end but on the other end the people need to test a few more things out to get
their end to work correctly.
When working correctly the VRVS is a good tool, but when it's not working it can
be frustrating to debug.
-Worked on a couple of PC's with viruses. Both still need to be checked out for
backdoor items but they are up and running and the users know what to look for.
There have been a lot of people wanting their machines checked for viruses but
so far nothing major has been found.
-Did a little more work on the E2E systems. There are a few more things to do on
them but they are just about where they should be in their configurations.
-Cleaned up a couple of user accounts as well as a number of modifications to
e-mail aliases.
-Spent some time working on the logistics for the NSB meeting.
-Working with a group on getting a few more web application projects started.
-Involved with group dealing with the computer room expansion and installation
of the fire suppression system.
-Started the setup of a new SUNbox but it was DOA. Will be resolving that
problem if Lisa doesn't get to it before I return.

Advanced LIGO Development (Shoemaker)

Seismic Isolation

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

Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure

SEI Structure Design/Fab contract:

ASI is applying fewer hours than expected, but progress made to date is still on plan. They have identified a risk of slipping the schedule for the next project milestone, the Configuration IDR, due to vacation and holiday leave. ASI is also concerned about their ability to apply the appropriate hours in the design phase, and has requested permission for two of their lead designers to be placed on extended work weeks of up to 56 hours per week. All charges would be straight time; permission was granted.

Another risk threatening to delay the Configuration IDR is due to the continuing delay of LIGO in responding to Action Items 1 & 2: reviewing the range of HAM and BSC payload CGs, and providing alternative criteria for stage-to-stage stiffness requirements.

The Configuration Intermediate Design Review for the BSC and HAM structure is scheduled by plan to be held on 17 Feb.

Actuator Testing and Redesign:

BEI/Kimco responded to our e-mail request requesting 2 quotations, promising to "send the quote right away" a week ago. Nothing has been received to date.

Position Sensor Probe Development:

The 60M of in-vacuum coax cable for the position sensors was installed in an optical cavity test with the belief that success is likely, and the test was started.

Plans for replacing/upgrading a vacuum bake oven in the 40M lab continue, to better provide us the capability of qualifying materials for AdvLIGO outgassing levels.

Seismometer Procurement:

This task is on hold pending management approval for SEI structure prototype fabrication.

Galling/Dusting Test:

Tapped aluminum plates and all fasteners were cleaned and baked, and the galling/dusting test was started. So far, results are not unexpected: 0.005" oversized tapped holes are less likely to gall or produce particles, and, for standard size holes, electropolished stainless screws are preferred over standard stainless screws, for the same reason. Some distinctions are seen between types of tap design and plating.

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

Suspension Weekly Report

PDMWorks

A test vault has been set up at Caltech and has now been tested not only in the US but also from the UK. Glasgoware buying a licence in the next week or so. Mik ePedraza hopes to have a fully functional vault set up in early February.

Structure Analysis

Janeen and I are continuing work on the MC and ETM structure. I have written a document that summarises the preliminary frequency analysis, i.e. the work done so far. A draft of this is with JHR, CAC, LJ and RJ. A sub group has been set up to work on structure analysis. This includes Calum, Janeen, Russell and Caroline.

Workbench 8.0

I have installed and tested ANSYS 8.0 Workbench. It is a new tool which ansys offer with version 8.0. It includes a project window, design modeler and project simulation. I have managed to confirm several results that were previously analysed using other platforms.

ETM CP

Mike Perreur-Lloyd and I are working on an assembly of the CP test mass assembly. Drawings have been created, checked by Larry Jones, and are currently with Ric Paniagua in Physics machine shop. The parameters used have been checked with Norna Robertson.

Telecons

Eddy Current damping meeting.
Blade damper review
SUS telecon
Blade Committee meeting

Suspension

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

AdLIGO Suspensions
Mike Perreur-Lloyd has joined us from the University of Glasgow. He'll be working here for a month on various mechanical design issues. We're glad to have him here, face-to-face, for a full month.

Finished up some more stiffening concepts in Solidworks for the MC that we'll run this week in IDEAS and ANSYS. Tried to run the quad model again last week but it boggled - it was a very tight mesh. I'm determined, however, to get that model meshed and get some results.

Working with Thomas, Carol and others about suspension's milestones and costs. Will be updating some cost data soon. I have a meeting with Caroline and Helena tomorrow morning about the Ribbon Process Design and Optic/Ribbon Attachment Design W.B.S. elements. We will be providing status to Thomas. I will meet with Calum and Mike P-L soon to update in Primavera the mechanical items, along with Norna and Jay. This Primavera update will include a closed out items due to the re-plan.

Bill Tyler will inspect the Melles Griot lasers in my office that are labeled Class IIIa and IIIb on Friday. We will continue to use the class IIIa until these can be addressed by Bill.

Soon, Dave Robertson from Glasgow is sending more analog electronics for the quad prototype.

Planning for the Suspension Summit in March.

Calum, Helena, Mark, Jay and I had a meeting last week to determine the work needed to get a MC to LASTI in May. Tasks were divied up. Helena is working now on collecting hardware and making travelers while Calum and Mark worked on a few quick items. All cleaning and baking will be done at LHO by Kyle Ryan so Helena is coordinating with him on this. We need the parts back by the end of April.

Reviewing and redlining the RODA on the working agreement between groups.

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

The last two weeks I produced a new version of my Mathematica pendulum
modelling toolkit (as well as matching new versions of the triple and
quad models), with new features to make it easier to answer some queries
posed by Norna Robertson and Justin Greenhalgh. Justin had asked about
the effect of asymmetries in the spring constant of the blade springs. I
looked at three scenarios that he suggested: (i) a mismatch in the blade
spring compensated by a shortening of the wire, (ii) a mismatch
compensated for by changing the angle of the blade base clamp, and (iii)
a mismatch not compensated for at all. As might be expected, these
perturbations introduce cross-couplings between pairs of DOFs such as x
and yaw that were independent in the symmetrical pendulum. The first
interesting finding is that for cases (i) and (iii), all the new cross-
couplings are linear in the perturbation and of the same order in size,
i.e., a 10^-2 asymmetry gives a 10^-2 cross-coupling over significant
frequency ranges. The second interesting fining is that for case (ii),
the same pairs of DOFs are coupled as for (i) and (iii) but for half the
pairs, the coupling was more like 10^-4 than 10^-2. This validates the
approach we were considering for coping with blade variations.

Pre-stabilized Laser

From: Peter King <pking@ligo.caltech.edu>

2.2 AdvLIGO PSL
===============
I have re-worked the cost of the 200-W laser controls based on the
laser costing from LZH. There are, however, a few items that I think are
missing and I need to clarify this with them. The cost for other items:
frequency control, intensity control ... etc. should only change by the
amount needed to bring the hardware into the Project’s RFI/EMI compliance
requirement. I suspect that this will increase the cost a little but don’t
know the exact amount at present.
.

Auxiliary Optics

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

Dennis, David,

THERMAL COMPENSATION

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Riccardo DeSalvo <desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu>

Maddalena
Driven the MGAS to 80 mHz (expected attenuation 100 at 1Hz), measured frequency versus K-effective and Q-factor versus frequency.
Aiming to 30 mHz.
Preparing for transfer function measurements.

Barbara
this week I calculated the weight of the mechanical structure and I worked on Erika 's simulation.

Meeting Erika Phil Riccardo Barbara

Comparing the graphics showed by Erika of the difference between the power for two different finesses (30 and 100) we find that at finesse 30 the gaussian input beam is still several percents in power at the beam center. It is decided to aim for the Finesse of the Fabry Perot will be around 100.
For the mechanical part,the design made by Gianni are approved. the only things that he has to change is the lenght of the vacuum pipe and replace the flanges with pots to permit the access at the mirror.

Meeting with JMM

SMA they suggest the use of mirrors 50.8 (2 inches) mm diameter and 30 thick to guarantee flatness after deposition, they are afraid that otherwise they may be warped by coating surface tension.
Also the edges will have to be bevelled 3x3 mm for grabbing.
This will require some changes to the nechanics.
They also suggest that we use suprasil 312 for the input mirror because of the homogeneity.
Also they will need some lower quality test mirrors for tuning the process.
We will need to provide, or provide for, mounting jigs and masks.

Interferometer design reviewed by Seiji Kawamura, with no major comments.

Weekly Report for Week Ending January 29, 2004

Special Announcements:

LSC Issues (Saulson)

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)