Weekly Report for Week Ending March 11, 2004


 Exec. Comm. Agenda
Highlights
LSC
Administration
Hanford Observatory
Livingston Observatory
MIT
Caltech
Detector
40 Meter
TNI
LASTI
Data Analysis
Adv. LIGO Development
Past Weekly Reports

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  March 15, 2004 will be:
 

  •  CANCELLED DUE TO LSC MEETING

  •  

     


    Special Announcements:


    Weekly Report Highlights
     


    LSC Issues (Saulson)


    no report


    LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)


    Status of LSC/MOU Research Updates and Program Reports (Petrac)
    (LSC/Status of Research updates through August 2004 and Prog. Reports through Feb. 2004)
     Dom. Hills:Attach. A / in LIGO review / BarishLoyola:Attach. A  / in LIGO review / Lazzarini and RilesDrafts of Attach. A and Z, and Prog. Report / in process for web postingMoscow:Attach. A, B, D and Z / in LIGO review / BarishSyracuse:Attach. A / in LIGO review / Lazzarini, Riles and ZuckerAttach. B and Z / in LIGO review / BarishDrafts of Attach. A, B, and Z, and Prog. Report / in process for web posting

    Univerity of Washington:
    MOU, and Attach. D and Z / in LIGO review / Barish



    LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Lindquist)
    No site teleconference was scheduled for Thursday, March 11, 2004.
    The list of current actions revised to reflect the status of open actions assigned through the last update (March 4, 2004) may be found at ACTION LIST.


    PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)

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


    DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

    >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
    No report this week (conference).  Will be at LSC meeting next week.
    > From: Cleveland Mak <mak_c@ligo.caltech.edu>

    ACTIVITY
    Making preparations for the LSC Meeting next week, which included clearing out all electronic documents submitted to date.  Organized, sorted and filed.
    03/11/04 Packages Faxes
    In 37 34
    Out 6 23

    Press here to access the DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER WEB PAGE.


    COST SCHEDULE CONTROL SYSTEMS (Cunningham, Brambila, Kaufman, Salone)

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

    Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA .

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

    From: Gina Salone <gsalone@ligo.caltech.edu>

    No report this week (class).From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman@ligo.caltech.edu>.


    SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

    From: irena@ligo.caltech.edu (Irena Petrac)
    No report.
    From: Ed Jasnow <jasnow@ligo.caltech.edu>


    SUPPORT (Baldon, Lloyd, Tischler)

    >Irene Baldon

    >Dorothy Lloyd >From: Ryan Tischler <rtischle@ligo.caltech.edu>

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

    Out of the office on Friday the 27th.
     

     

    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/
     

    The following is a summary of status by sub system:

    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.
    Reports (Lindquist)

    Tom Lucas, the LIGO video producer, will be visiting Livingston during the LSC meeting.  We will try to show him some gee-whiz stuff and set up some meetings with key LSC personnel.


    Change Control/Contingency (Lindquist)

    No open Change Requests.


    Human Resources (Akutagawa)

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


    Quality/Safety (Tyler)

    >From: Bill Tyler <tyler@ligo.caltech.edu>

    No report this week.
     


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


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

    Pulsed heating was shown to be responsible for 60Hz sidebands in AS_Q.
    Pulsed heating, used for fine temperature control in the LVEA, will be
    replaced by staged heating to see of temperature fluctuations are tolerated
    and sidebands are eliminated.

    4K IFO
    As described in a recent commissioning meeting, the 4K REFL port was modified.
    Light on ISCT1 is now bifurcated into lock acquistion and run mode paths with
    a ~90/10 split, the majority of the light going to the latter path, but unused, awaiting
    a high power photodetector.  WFS gouy phases were corrected appropriately.

    A status report on measurements and modelling of the thermal compensation system
    is given here.

    MMT whiteningwork,phase camera studies, and a measure of the H1 MC line width
    (HWHM of 8.4kHz, corresponding to an MC pole frequency of 4.59kHz) rounded
    out 4k commissioning.

    2K IFO
    The current state of the WFS on table ISCT10 is shown in this elog (followed on
    by a new sensing matrix measurement).

    Testing of the MMT2 servo continued.  Similar to anomolous results with QPD
    pointing, the inspiral range was remarkably sensitivite to the position of the beamspot
    on the BS.  Later, a PID version of the servo was released, and is now in beta testing.

    DAQ
    A major DAQ upgrade, similar to that recently undertaken at LLO, is scheduled to
    begin at LHO this weekend.  A punchlist of tasks can be found on the blue webpage,
    http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu, under "DAQ Upgrade and MSR Cleanup".
     
     


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


    no report


    Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)



     

    DETECTOR SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

    for the 2 weeks ending 3/10

    Seismic Upgrade Project

    see also:

    Pump Stations

    Ken Mailand

    Five of the seven pump stations have are air tight holding 110 psi, one

    each of these has been located at the X and Y-end stations. Two of the pump stations

    have a varying slow leak rate. The seals we have seemed a little hard,

    and the supplier could not determine how long they have been on the

    shelf. New fresh seals for the large filters have been received and

    will be installed and tested; This is the suspected leak area.

    The 3 reservoir assemblies are in and will be assembled and located asap,

    the 'X' end will be assembled to allow it to be filled with fluid. 

    The electrical break was approved as a hose sleeve and clamp over a barb

    fitting, this assembly, will separate the metal ends approx .25"

    One pump station is setup to 'run' when time permits, it will cycle fluid from the 55 gal. supply drum.

    Two additional 55 gallon drums of fluid have arrived.

    CDS

    see also the CDS weekly meeting minutes in the commissioning archives:

    CDS Software

    Rolf Bork reporting

    Alex and I finished up installing the hardware/software for the DAQ 

    upgrade at LLO. Overall, things went fairly smoothly. We are now preparing for 

    the LHO installation, which requires some further work to support two IFOs. That 

    install is scheduled to begin March 15.

    Started going through Daniel's list of software to support commissioning:

    - LSC: Change in ETM controller to allow for new photodetector to be used as

      high gain NPTR.

    - LSC: Support for the new DAC modules from Frequency Devices.

    - LSC: Support for output mode cleaner controls.

    - SEI: Support for STS-2 seismometers.

    - General: Change filter module gains to input(?); Add gain ramp capability(?).

    - DAQ/GDS: Support for ICS115 DACs (awg) in VEAs/LVEA ADCUs.

    - ASC: Implement input matrix.

    - ASC: Implement adaptive input/output matrix.

    - DAQ/GDS: Timing diagnostics(?).

    - DAQ/GDS: Support for ICS130 (100kHz BW channel).

    - DAQ/GDS: Support for complex time series data in DAQ.

    - DAQ/GDS: Support for heterodyning in ADCUs.

    - ASC: Implement optical spring compensation and OL compensation(?).

    - ASC: Implement digital controls for MC.

    - SEI: micro-seismic feed-forward system at LHO(?).

    Work has begun on the first couple of items which is to add support for new Freq. 

    Devices DAC in LSC controls, beginning with ETM controllers.

    - Alex, Jay and I are at LHO next week to install new DAQ network.

    - Alex has been working on Framebuilder mods to handle two IFO. One resulting 

    change is that we will not need two DAQ controllers at LHO. A single controller 

    is sufficient.

    - Wrote code which allows front ends and ADCU to change DAQ channel 

    configurations on the fly. This will be tested at LHO next week and then 

    retrofitted to LLO system.

    - Working on ASC modifications as per Daniel's redesign doc. The ASC input 

    matrix is working. The new opLev compensation filters and spring compensation 

    filters should be ready by Friday. This will complete the basic infrastructure, 

    with the adaptive algorithm to come later.

    - Wrote software to allow use of new DAC modules in ETM controllers. This will 

    not be enabled until further DAC tests are done at LHO.

    - ETM controller software modified to use new high gain photodiodes.

    CDS Hardware

    Jay Heefner reporting

    Freq Devices Low Noise DAC:

    Noise testing of the module continues. A draft report has been written and will be circulated for comments.

    Fiber optic Timing signal link (translator for HEPI to meet RFI requirements)

    - Sander has a prototype for the transmitter and receiver in hand.

    - He is running into problems interfacing between the NECL circuits we currently use and the PECL circuits needed by the FO Xmtr and Rcvr. He feels that it will cause excessive jitter.

    Timing System Resign

    - Flavio has sentr out an email to Daniel and has asked Rolf and Jay for necessary changes and features to the existing system. He will make up a block diagram of the a possible new system to be used as a starting point for collection of requirements.

    HEPI

    - Ben will be at LLO next week to assist in installation and commissioning.

    - Ben is testing the 8 channel valve driver boards. The L4C board should be back from the board house today and will be mailed to Screaming Circuits.

    - Flavio has shipped 9 pump servo boxes. One remains here for testing. This should be enough for LLO, MIT and spares.

    ISS

    - Ben is fixing the PD from LLO. He will issue a DCN to replace all 16V caps on all PD boards.

    EMI Upgrade

    - Ordering and delivery of cables, connectors continues.

    Output Mode Cleaner

    - Jay is working with Peter K and Bill K to cobble together the controls

    Active Thermal Compensation

    Mike Smith

    The mystery of the recalcitrant camera box has been solved: apparently the mounting plate that connects the box to the viewport flange was inadvertently installed upside down, causing the camera and upper periscope mirror to be shifted both horizontally and vertically so as to be misaligned with the axes of the camera and TC beam viewports. My apologies to Ken Mason. Some modifications to future production units to allow easier alignment of the camera and to avoid a possible interference with the optical lever pier are contemplated.

    The modifications that were made to the enclosure box and to the optical table mounting inside the enclosure will be incorporated into the subsequent production units.

    The optical parts list on the projector optical table will be simplified to eliminate unnecessary degrees of freedom of the optical elements. The power level of the aiming beam will be increased to improve the visibility at the ITM suspension. A limiting aperture will be installed at the image plane to restrict the CO2 laser pattern to within the diameter of the ITM, in case both masks are disabled simultaneously.

    Two new vendors were found for a 5 mW version of the crosshair aiming beam; I am awaiting a price and delivery quotation before placing an order to replace the existing aiming beam lasers in the LHO installed TC benches.

    A permanent mask to restrict the CO2 laser energy within the ITM in case of a mask flipper failure, was designed and is being fabricated.

    A revised Bessel mask with micrometer motion vertical and horizontal adjustments was designed and will be incorporated into the future TC bench assemblies

    Output Mode Cleaner

    Peter King

    The vacuum envelope for the OMC has been sketched out.  The initial

    footprint is a 6 in. x 6 in. box, however after a discussion with Bill

    Kells I will try and make it a tad smaller.  Most of the other components

    have been worked out but the time consuming details like O-ring sizes and

    grooves remain.

    Drawings for the OMC vacuum chamber and accessories have been

    completed.

    Jay and I checked out the output noise of a high voltage PZT driver.

    At around 100 Hz, the output noise was approximately 25 uV.

    PSL

    PeterKing

    The current shunt in the 10-W laser was partially disassembled in order

    to measure the values of a few capacitors, as the documentation noting the

    changes has been mis-placed.  There was an anomaly in the transfer function

    of the current shunt that I have not yet tracked down, as it could be that

    the RF probe used is mis-behaving.

    Optics Analysis

    Erika D’Ambrosio

    I have been doing an extensive investigation for one of the LIGO interferometer 

    to address some of the effects we saw that might have been explained by thermal 

    lensing and in fact some of them are.

    One is that the maximum side band optical gain is never achieved: the variation 

    of the refractive index due to the temperature gradient is "almost", but not 

    perfectly,  equivalent to a lens and therefore the cavity modes are close to 

    be Gaussian but not exactly. Moreover the relationship between the round-trip 

    phase and the beam shape is no longer the same as for Gaussian fields. 

    Since the beam  samples wider areas of the mirror when its spot increases, 

    the higher order modes will be more affected by the distribution of the 

    temperature gradient far from the center, where the border conditions make 

    the thermal lens less and less equivalent to a "perfect" lens. 

    We don't really "know" the substrate we are using, since more power supplied by

    the thermal compensation system seems to be needed than what we expect from the

    predictions based on the typical parameters used in the model for thermal lens.

    We did understand why heating ITMX only or ITMY only gives different results.

    We also found out the side bands are not at resonance when the carrier is: this

    has nothing to do with the macroscopic value of l+ and cannot be fixed. Because

    of the non quadratic terms in the dependance of the index of refraction on the

    distance from the center of the mirror, the transverse distribution of the side 

    band beams and their round-trip phase are not simultaneously fixed. In fact the

    maximum power built up results to be a compromise between those two conditions.

    I asked everybody a lot of questions and I would like to thank Daniel, Luca and

    Rick for their help.

    The transmission maps were provided by Phil Willems, who has been developing a

    numerical model using FEMlab.

    Optical Contamination Cavities

    Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

    OTF Lab. (W. Bridge)

    The (21) pieces of the new twisted, shielded, teflon cables are under test.

    We are taking ring down and beat frequency measurements 

    as well as the RGA of the chamber every day. 

    Absorption Test Measurement prototype in progress 

    We have in progress to test three of 1.00" inch fused silica mirror for absorption.

    We have finished the birefringence scattering test on the new sapphire mirror that came from Lyon, France ~12" dia.X 6" thick.

    Noise sensitivity test for the absorption prototype is in progress.

    We replaced four new 2" mirrors for the ND:YAG laser and improved the laser power output to ~29 watt.

    We modified two 1.00 " mirror mounts in order to catch the output laser beams (He-Ne & ND:YAG)

    and made new alignment. New mode match is in progress.

    New laser enclosure fabrication is underway (required by: G. Sanders/B. Tyler)

    Scatterometer system in standby

    OTF Lab at Lauritsen ROOM 38 NO CHANGE.

    Cavity #3 

    The cavity is locked and 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 10 watt ND:YAG laser isin standby

    (4) PMC Bodies and Prism are out of baking chamber.

    (2) sets of complete PMC assembly was sent to LHO (R. Savage/D. Cook)

    (1) PMC base was sent today to LHO

    Misc... tasks 

    More orders has been placed for the absorption test set up.(Mirrors, Polarizer cubes, mounts etc.)


    40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)




    Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)


    After receiving our Sapphire test masses from REO, with corrected coatings, we installed them in the TNI, closed the chamber, and pumped out.  We then locked the instrument and took noise data, which we are in the process of analyzing.

     Details will be provided by Eric Black during his TNI talk at the upcoming LSC meeting.


    LASTI (Ottaway)


    HEPI Controls (Mittleman and Ruet)
     

    We have taken some preliminary HEPI HAM isolation preformance data. A
    number of graphs are posted on the lasti ilog on March 9,10 and 11.
     

      Laurent has been working on the BSC/pier ground amplification problem.
    He has also posted some data on this weeks ilog.
     

    Phase camera and general electronic (Allen)
     

    1] Progress on Chassis 3 of the Phase Camera is slow, but developing.
    2] Igor has been trained in soldering & desoldering and will be building
    the Piezo drive chassis.
    3] Inventory has been conducted on our equipment, with 4 items to be
    checked on at sites.
    4] Shorted parts and tools have been ordered from Mouser and Digikey.
     


    Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)


    Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
    Visit to ICRR (Institute of Cosmic Ray Research)
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---
    Hiro visited ICRR during his personal trip in Japan.
    There were discussions about the simulation of CLIO, a 100 m IFO using
    cryogenic system. (http://www.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gr/gre.html)
    We asked Dr.Hayakawa of ICRR to test the new modeler with dynamic
    linking on his 64 bit machine (AL Note: for an AMD PC chip under linux
    this is useful to help start the port of the code to 64 bit intel
    architecture CPUs).
    Fortunately, he found an issue to be addressed, and Melody has worked
    on it. (See the report by Melody below)
     

    Mode-cleaner response
    --------------------------------------
    (Biplab) On request from Malik and Rick (who are currently working on
     Mode-cleaner at Hanford), generated the resonse functions (for both s-
     and p- polarization) of the cavity for an input light containing
    various
     spatial modes upto 2nd order.
     

    Numerical precision
    -----------------------------
    (Hiro) The dynamic range of the LIGO suspended mass is large, ranging
     from 10^-5m to 10^-20m. The simulation code uses double precision in
    most
     of the places, but the pendulum module can run using quad precision
     internally. The difference shows up at the double precision
     limit. Fortunately, for LIGO I, other noise sources hide this problem.
     But, for adv.LIGO, this needs to be taken into account to do proper
     simulation. A plot demonstrating this effect is posted in the e2e
    section of
     the LIGO discussion board (http://ldas-sw.ligo.caltech.edu/enote/).
     

    LLO seismic noise and lock loss
    -----------------------------------------------------
    (Biplab & Virginio) With the aim of studying the effects of day and
    night
     time seismic noise at LLO on its lock loss phenomena, we have set up
     necessary files and E2E-boxes to inject measured seismic noise to
     appropriate BSCs and HAMs in the SimLIGO model.
     

    Article
    -------------
    (Biplab) Finished writing an article "Physics of interferometeric
     gravitational wave detectors" for the proceedings of the International
     Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology" held in Jan, 2004 in
    Kochi,India.
     

    Dual recycling code
    ------------------------
    (Hiro) Static case debugging is done and now the dynamical case
     is being tested.
     

    Code development and maintenance
    ----------------------------------
    (Melody)  Modeler:
     Working on some enhancements to the FUNC_X code.
     

     Packaged an E2E tarball containing the FUNC_X code along with other
     e2e updates for evaluation at University of Tokyo.  While testing with
     an AMD 64-bit Linux system, they encountered an error when linking with
     the shared library.  I have been investigating the source of the error
     and have a fix for it.
     

     Worked on the FUNC_X technical document.
     

    Alfi
    -----------
    (Bruce)
            - Reimplementation of connection building
              object in preparation for completing bundler rework as well
              as redefinition of bundle/bundler syntax in the parser.
     

    (Melody)
     Working on executing the user's editor (specifically vi or emacs) as
     the default editor for the primitive settings.
     

    LIGO Data Analysis System
     

    Software Systems (Blackburn)
     

    Using the new instructions for installing DB2 8.1 on Linux we have now
    demonstrated that LDAS can be built using the developer's toolkit for
    this
    version of DB2. All LDAS jobs that use the database have been shown to
    work well with the new DB2. Performance tests are planned as soon as the
    necessary hardware is available to conduct the comparison analysis.
     

    A long term test for memory leaks in the dataConditionAPI has shown that
    the size of the memory leak in that API is independent any concurrency
    in
    running threads. This had been proposed as a possiblity but is not the
    case. More long term tests are underway to try and isolate any
    particular
    signal processing actions with the observed memory leak.
     

    A new test script has been developed to randomly remove and add in frame
    subdirectories under the diskCacheAPI to further challenge the
    reliability
    of that API.
     

    There were six problem reports under the diskCacheAPI that were closed
    out this week. These problem reports address issues seen at the sites
    after the last release of LDAS. In addition, one problem report was
    closed
    out for each of these APIs: managerAPI, dataConditionAPI, and mpiAPI.
     

    Succeeded in implementing a set of SWIG exposed Globus functions to TCL
    similar to the examples sent down from LBL for Python. Some of these
    have
    been tested in a TCL interpreter. Exchanged the current state of the TCL
    Globus code base with LBL for comments. Still need to get callbacks
    functioning to catch up with the pyGlobus functionality.
     

    One can now find links to the Ganglia Cluster usage on all LDAS websites
    under the hardware section.
     

    The performance of the controlMonitorAPI's GUI has been improved by only
    creating needed pages when needed, instead of at startup.
     

    Finished the summary report for the LDAS subcommittee of the DASWG. This
    should be posted on the group's website in any time now.
     

    Hardware Systems (Anderson)
    Caltech
    -------
    (Dan Kozak)
     

    * Verified (outside of SAM-QFS) that we're getting 1:1.7 compression to
      9940B tapes for full frames.
    * Wrote up procedure for deleting data and recovering it's tape space at
      LHO which Ben then executed.
    * Continued pulling data (old 40m in this case) from HPSS and putting it
      into SAM-QFS.
     

    (Hari Pulapaka)
     

    * Installed ganglia in /ldcg. Wrote directions for installing
      Ganglia and working on writing instructions for Condor.
    * Working on tclglobus.
    * Installed and tested LSCdatafind server and client.
     

    (Al Wilson)
     

    * Setting up systems for condor on the test system.
    * Ldas-pctest1  -  set up ready to go. Just need to be move into the
      rack in 215 Synchrotron.
    * Ldas-test-grid -  awaiting  replacement mother board for this system
    * Ldas-test-gridmon - configuring system with fedora for gangla
      monitoring software.
    * Hari has sent me the instructions for setting up a condor cluster.
      I will start on this procedure and he will look over my shoulder
      if I get into trouble.
    * Dmt3 - upgrading to Fedora.
    * Replaced disk drives in datacache 3, 5.
    * Installed security patches on desktop Sun boxes.
     

    (Stuart Anderson)
     

    * Patched LDAS Solaris servers for local root exploit.
    * Last weeks Foundry Ethernet switch backplane firmware fix is
    continuing
      to work for the LDAS-CIT cluster.
    * Worked on keeping LDAS-CIT cluster running efficiently with additional
      Condor user.
    * Discovered Sun is no longer planning on releasing Solaris Maintenance
    Update
      patch bundles--very unfortunate.
    * Working with John Z. to solve DMT crashing Linux box problem.
    * Reocnfigured the last 4 T3 units at Caltech to have a hot-spare disk.
     

    MIT
    ---
    (Keith Bayer)
    * Ordering (via Caltech) 20GB hdd's for cluster machines.
    * pcraid1 failed rebuild after swapping out bad drive
      attempting to copy data off and rebuild array from scratch.
     

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

    * Applied security patch to all Solaris servers.
     

    Hanford
    -------
    (Ben Johnson)
     

    * The backup system has been installed at both sites. This should allow
      sysadmins to recover critical files in case of some disaster to a
    host.
    * Installed passwd patch on the LDAS Solaris systems: gateway,
      dataserver, admin, and ldas-jobs.
    * Put 40 more tapes into the L700 as only 23 blank tapes were left (new
      vsns HL0560 to HL0599).
    * Working with Hari to set up Condor and Ganglia on LHO's system.
    * Cleaned up postS3/ archiver set at both sites (did not recover tapes
      at LLO though, my mistake). One Percent script started again at both
      sites, for ????11??? GPS times.
    * Continuing work on data glitching. Vern Sandberg and I are collecting
      data with the mind to include it in a formal report.
     

    Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)
     

    Creighton;
    Started preparing an Einstein@home talk for the World Year of Physics
    Preparatory Meeting.
     

    Mendell:
    Reports on validation, benchmarking, and S2 test results for the
    StackSlide search have been posted on the PULG web page,
    http://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/pulgroup/, under the S2 investigations
    stackslide link.  The code has been shown to find the expected SNR, to
    within 20%, for test data and for the injected pulsar signals into the
    S2 data.  The loss is within that expected due to leakage. Doppler
    shifts cause the power to not be centered on a resolved frequency bin,
    even for simple test cases.  However, we plan to set up even simpler
    test cases where leakage should not be an issue. We also have completed
    code, based on LAL and Matlab, that computes an upper limit on h_0 given
    the loudest event using the expected noncentral chi-squared distribution
    of StackSlide power when a signal is present. Preliminary estimates for
    S2 H1 upper limits on h_0 have been found for a sample 1 Hz band using
    this code.  We currently estimate it would take 25 hrs to find the
    loudest event for each 1 Hz band in 300 Hz at UWM for an all-sky search
    with one spindown. However, the efficiency of the code can probably be
    improved by at least a factor of 2, and we plan to run on faster
    clusters, e.g., at CIT one SFTs are available there.  The next major
    task towards finding final results is to adapt existing PULG group code
    for doing Monte Carlo simulations, to measure the actual distributions.
     

    Shawhan:
    * Checked various aspects of the S2 binary neutron star inspiral
    analysis,
    and worked on the draft of the paper.
    * Traveled to Sonoma State University to give a general talk about LIGO
    as part of their "What Physicists Do" lecture series.
    * Helped Anand Sengupta get his hierarchical inspiral analysis code to
    run under LDAS.
     

    Sutton;
    I've spent most of last two weeks readying coordinated software
    injections
    for the LIGO-TAMA analysis.  There are no general software
    tools and no conventions for simulated signals that are in common use
    through the bursts group, so it's taken longer than I had expected.
    I have specified the types of simulations to perform, along with precise
    definitions of their properites, and a Matlab script for generating the
    injection lists.  We still need the software infrastructure for
    perfoming the
    injections in most or all of our ETGs, and actual simulations are yet
    to start.
     

    In other LIGO-TAMA news, I drafted and circulated 2 proposals for the
    LIGO-TAMA ETG tuning, based on the TAMA and LIGO-TFClusters
    measured efficiency vs false rate behaviour.  I'm currently organizing
    talks
    on LIGO-TAMA for the LSC meeting.
     

    This week I drafted a set of figures to be used by all subgroups of the
    bursts
    group for presenting results of their analysis for different ETGs.
    With Sylvestre
    I've proposed a simple method for testing the bursts pipeline for a
    zero-lag/nonzero-lag bias.  I've also done some work on restructuring
    the
    "Calibrate" C++ class for use in DMT figure-of-merit monitors.
     

    Sylvestre:
    o Worked on the S2 burst analysis. Sanity checks on the background
    estimation, simulations with various signal injections, retuning with a
    higher coincidence false rate.
     

    Yakushin:
    1) On Erik's request generated MDC frames with time shifted injections
    and tested them with waveburst .
    2) Preparing presentations for LSC meeting.
    3) Participated in the preparation of the report by LAL/LALApps
    sub-committee for LSC Data Analysis Software Working Group
     

    General Computing (Wallace)
    MIT:
    (Keith)
    -Troubleshooting main raid SCSI-IDE failure on caliburn
    -After several more failures, moved gc home directories to backup system
    -Specing out possible replacements for gc raid unit
    -Ordered cad pc
     

    Livingston:
    (Shannon)
    -Current bandwidth usage can be seen at
    http://teche.ligo-la.caltech.edu/mrtg/LLO-Router/130.39.245.1_1.html
    -Archived bandwidth usage can be seen at
    http://teche.ligo-la.caltech.edu/mrtg/archive/ under the dated folder
    for the week of interest.
    -Restored John Zweizig's home directory.  His was lost during the
    December crash and could not be restored because of an inode shortage
    on the disk that the home directories were being restored to.  The home
    directory server is on a linux box now and is running under ReiserFS
    which is less picky about the number of used inodes.  This is one of
    the last things that I had to get off of baronne before I can rebuild
    the OS.  NIS+, home directories, and soon the applications directory
    will all have been moved to other servers.  After it is complete, I
    will rebuild the OS and make the disk array into scratch space for
    people to use for analysis space.
    -Reconfigured the Cisco 3550 and the PIX so that I can do NAT routing
    on the PIX for the meeting.  This has been the long term plan anyway,
    however it needed to be done for the meeting since the solution in the
    past has been more of a band-aid fix for the shortage of IP addresses.
    This allows us to have ample NAT addresses and also works well for
    networking at the local observatory.  The addresses are not NATed until
    they leave our border and hit LSU's network.  This took a couple of
    nights of emails back and forth to Solsoft to figure out why certain
    things were not working like they should.  Turns out that I was missing
    a piece of the configuration and it was not a bug in the software.
    Solsoft has been an ongoing learning process, but as the network is
    getting more complex it has been a real lifesaver.  I can crank out
    firewall changes now in a matter of seconds instead of tedious hours of
    pouring through access lists on multiple devices.
    -Ordered a PC for Mike Fyffe.  His died recently and needed to be
    replaced or fixed.
    -Recompiled CERN's root package to fix a problem with a shared
    library.  I am very near deploying the new applications directory for
    general use.
    -The new applications directory now includes updated matlab, CERN
    root, GCC and related GNU tools, updated ligo-tools, screen, python,
    Tkinter, tcl/tk, and others.  I will be going through the old
    applications directory to make sure there is nothing important that I
    am forgetting.
    -Changed the span settings on the 3550 so that the network monitoring
    software would stop getting erroneous information.
    -LSU evidently was having problems with their border router throughout
    the night last night.  It would go from tens of Mb/sec to zilch and
    then come back after a period.  Not sure what is going on there and LSU
    has made no announcements.  I am sure they are aware of the problem
    since it affected the entire campus, but they have said nothing about
    it.
    -Found some GPL/LGPL backup software that I need to evaluate for our
    replacement backup solution.  This software seems to have most of the
    features of our last solution but is free.  It looks pretty good though
    I have not had time to look into it further since I just found out
    about it this past Tuesday.  http://www.bacula.org/
    -Looking into the required DNS additions that I will have to make for
    the new internal network.  It is not absolutely necessary that I set up
    DNS for this, but it would be nice.
    -Looking into the "ownership" of the old LSU router since it has an
    LSU property sticker on it.  I believe that we bought this from LSU,
    however we do not have a sticker on it and it is questionable whether
    or not we should return it to them.  I am not sure if we have a use for
    it, but we'll see.
     

    Hanford:
    (Christine)
    - Getting ready to remove the last of the ATM network equipment from the
    GC racks.  I will be doing the removal this weekend, then rearranging
    the racks.  There may be some network down time on Saturday morning,
    probably less than an hour.  I'll announce it before I do it.
    - Helped with the purchase of a dell server for the phasecamera project.
    - Arranged for the repair of two printers.
    - Created new user accounts.
    - Restored some lost files from tape to disk.
    - Filling out the paper work to renew the maintenance contract for my
    backup software.
    - Purchased a new Matlab toolbox for a user.
    - Working with ITS support for help with a Pcard software problem.
    - Misc. user support.
     

    CIT:
    (Mike)
    -Swapped out Bob Taylor's workstation with an updated PC. I installed
    additional hardware and transferred over users data.
    -Worked on Shihori Sakata's laptop searching for viruses. This laptop
    came
    up clean but was inundated with spyware & adware. This computer was
    scanning
    the network for open shares on various computers on the network. I
    installed zone alarm and adware 6.0. I have explained to Shihori on how
    this software works. It looks like this laptop is taken care of.
    -The printers on the second floor had a few hardware issues. For the
    hp5000
    it was a one of the EIO that was having a problem. I moved the
    jet-direct
    card to the other EIO port and everything started working again. The
    plotter was also having a problem. I ended up having to reprogram this
    unit, which seems to have worked.
    -Worked up in Millikan servicing printers. The B/W printer had a paper
    jam
    and the queue had to be cleaned out. I also worked on the color printer
    that included me having to swap out a toner cartridge, drum kit and
    transfer kit plus rollers and replace filters. Both these printers are
    up
    and running.
    -Troubleshot Stan Whitcomb's laptop for it was giving a few problems. I
    went through and cleaned up the registry and updated GC software. I also
    installed zone alarm pro. I ran a hardware diagnostics to make sure that
    the hardware is performing correctly. (All Passed) This laptop seems to
    have been fixed.
    -I worked on Janeen Romie's laptop regarding a keyboard issue and
    PDMWorks
    client installation that went south. I replaced the keyboard and
    reinstall
    the PDMWorks client.
    -Work on a hardware issue that Thomas Frey reported to me. Swapped out a
    cdrom and added a cdrw to his workstation.
    -Fixed two laptops from that belong to the loaner pool. Both these
    laptops
    had hardware issues, which I fixed from another laptop that came in DOA
    and
    is out of warrantee also. These laptops are functional once again.
    -Had quite a bit of phone and other onsite support that I took care of
    this
    past week that included software, networking and email issues.
     

    (Veronica)
    -LSC website: Working on a webpage of contact information of the
    collaboration. Adding MOUs. Provided assistance to Marie Woods in
    setting
    up an e-commerce account for the next meeting to handle online payments.
    Posting updates to the upcoming meeting website.
    - CaJAGWR website: Videotaped and compressed the last talk. Its files
    need
    to be combined into a single movie and it will be ready to install.
    Updated the website and provided some user support.
    - LIGO: Usual upkeep. Updated the roster.
    I was out this week due to a cold.
     

    (Lisa)
    -On sunday night I put a new primary mailserver in place.  Initially,
    the
    upgrade went well.  However, a couple of hours of testing showed there
    was a
    problem with piping mail through programs.  This could not be resolved
    at the
    time and looked like it might be a solaris9 problem.  I reverted the
    old mail
    server and spent the rest of the week building a solaris8 server to
    replace it.
    - Misc. user support.
     

    (Larry)
    -Assisting Lisa on the mailserver swap.
    -Placed a couple of orders for equipment and received most of them.
    -Worked a couple of logistical issues for the computer room expansion.
    Still
    waiting on the PMA group to get changes going. We did get a new rack
    setup and
    ready for the expansion.
    -Worked a couple of printer issues. There have been a number of
    problems but
    they all appear to clear out once the printer has been cleaned out.
    -Did some more testing on the WEBcam for both video and audio. Both
    appear to
    work well. This will be a pretty good tool for presentations but I
    still need to
    get some better lenses for the camera.
     
     


    Advanced LIGO Development (Shoemaker)



     

    Advanced LIGO and supporting R&D

    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, and the BSC structural configuration is progressing more slowly than expected. Because of the type of work being done currently, it's not easy to add more people to speed things up. Once we're past the configuration design, more labor can be applied. A re-plan is currently in process, to evaluate the impact of the recent slippage.

    LIGO provided ASI the current plan for 9 possible payload layouts (BSCs 1, 2, & 3, 2 layouts each; BSCs 8, 9 & 10, 1 layout each). ASI has analyzed these, in addition to two general cases (for structure optimization): having the payload mass spread over the optical table, and having the payload mass concentrated in the center of the table.

    Stiffness-wise, the current BSC configuration with the two general cases meet minimum resonant frequency requirements (< 165 Hz) with no problem, ranging from 188 Hz to 223 Hz for the first 4 modes. However, the 9 specific payload layouts are a much different matter. Only 16 of the 36 cases (first 4 modes) meet the minimim requirement, with 19 of the remaining 20 ranging from 84 Hz to 140 Hz! The culprit is the optical table, which has now grown to 6" thick, with a 1.2" skin, in attempts to accommodate. The relatively small footprints of the payload components contribute to the problem. The only layouts for which the current BSC configuration clearly meet the frequency requirement are BSC3-1 and BSC8. The BSC minimum resonant frequency requirement is at risk, and total mass is already near the maximum limit. We are meeting to discuss this.

    ASI has calculated mass properties for the 11 payload layouts, for three different keel masses: 633 kg, 431 kg, and 295 kg, depending upon desired Stage 2 CG location with respect to the actuators at the Stage 1-2 interface plane. Brian Lantz is looking at these with his control model to see which of the balancing schemes make sense, and whether we can relax the CG requirements.

    The Design Review meeting (for BSC & HAM structures combined) was originally planned for March 16. This has now been divided into two design reviews, with the BSC Design Review scheduled for April 6 and the HAM Design Review scheduled for April 27.
     

    Actuator Testing and Redesign:

    The vacuum thermal performance requirements were completed and issued to the potential proposers on 3/5, with proposals requested on 3/15.

    RGA scans of "flag" hydrocarbon outgassingAMUs were made at LHO of the bobbin and coil for the small actuator that was wound with polyimide insulated (-HML) wire, using polyimide adhesive (Cycom 3001). This had been previously measured at the 40 m Lab as 3.8E-10 tl/s, but readings on those systems are now suspect. The reading at LHO at ambient temperature was 3.6E-11 tl/s. However, with the oven and sample isolated, the RGA head chamber reading was 4.5E-11 tl/s. The coil is outgassing below the sensitivity of the measurement system. Measurements at elevated temperatures were taken, which show some inconsistencies. These are being repeated, with additional calibrations and improvements in precision.
     

    Position Sensor Probe Development:

    The epoxy coupon hydrocarbon outgassing tests taken last week at LHO are being repeated, at elevated temperatures to better characterize their outgassing.
     

    Seismometer Procurement:

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

    Galling/Dusting Test:

    Testing continues on the stainless steel plates.


    Suspension

    From: JaneenRomie <romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu>


    Preparing for LSC & Suspension Summit.
    Contributed input to Caroline and Dennis on their LSC talks. Working with Norna and Calum on our LSC talk.Working on Suspension Summit schedule and topics.

    Working with Calum on stiffening up the quad structure.Have made good progress. Larry Jones has provided invaluable interpretation of strain data. We will continue with this through Monday and provide brief report at LSC.

    Working with Helena to make sure there is enough nuts and bolts etc. for the MC for cleaning/baking/shipping. Tentatively scheduling delivery of MC to LASTI the week of June 14-18.

    Reviewed the quad task list with suspension design team on Monday and Tuesday. Names of coordinators look good. Folks generally agreed on quad sections. This is a work in progress and will be used to asign and track tasks and progress. Primavera tasks will be coordinated into the task list table such that progress may be tracked in that manner, also.

    Norna and David have provided feedback for the Suspension Controls Prototype Test Plan. I've sent a number of questions to Mark for clarification.

    Coordinated with Thomas on suspension schedule.

    Pre-stabilized Laser

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

    OMC
    ===
        Drawings for the OMC vacuum chamber and accessories have been
    completed.

        Jay and I checked out the output noise of a high voltage PZT driver.
    At around 100 Hz, the output noise was approximately 25 uV.

    AdvLIGO PSL
    ===========
        Met with Thomas Frey to go through the cost sheets.  After splitting up
    the task responsibilities in the latest cut of the schedule, the various
    activity costs will have to be broken out and re-distributed again.

    Core Optics

    From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>

    AdvLIGO Coatings

    The HfO2 coating run on a 3"dia. x 1" thick fused silica substrate, 30 alternate layers of SiO2/HfO2, failed during annealing. The film separated from the substrate. A possible reason could be high film stress.
    A thin substrate, coated on a different run, will be annealed at a lower temperature to prevent failure.
    The plan is to measure the coating's "Q" on this part to evaluate HfO2 as coating material.
    If not improvement is seen, we'll conclude the testing of HfO2.
    A number of 1"dia. substrates also have been coated to test different properties of HfO2.

    A teleconference took place with J.M.Mackowski and Roger Route (and Stanford's sapphire absorption team) to compare notes on absorption measurements and calibration protocols.
    Roger raised a concern about the low absorption results obtained from the 2 large sapphire substrates recently measured at Lyon. It was decided to exchange sapphire substrates characterized for absorption at Stanford with LMA, and, sapphire substrates measured at LMA with Stanford. This will be a very useful test to compare both measuring systems.

    DHS: Latest news is that it appears the Lyon measurements were performed at the wrong frequency, and the recently measured sapphire in fact has absorption comparable to the earlier measurements (which are considered valid).


    From: Bill Kells <kells@ligo.caltech.edu>

    I have spent some time channeling information
    to those presenting at the LSC meeting concerning
    optics issues, and the downselect in particular.

    Auxiliary Optics

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


    ADV LIGO

    A breakdown of AOS tasks and manpower requirements is being prepared for the AOS meeting during the LSC next week.
     



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