Weekly Report for Week Ending May 13, 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  May 17, 2004 will be:

 No meeting Excomm meeting this week.  The staffing committee will meet instead.


Special Announcements:


 


Weekly Report Highlights
 


LSC Issues (Saulson)


no report


LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)



Status of LSC/MOU Research Updates and Program Reports (Petrac)

No report (leave of absence).

 


LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Lindquist)

A site teleconference was scheduled Thursday, May 13, 2004.  The following issues were among those discussed:

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

> From: Cleveland Mak <mak_c@ligo.caltech.edu>

ACTIVITY

05/13/04

Packages

Faxes

In

19

32

Out

14

20


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>

From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman@ligo.caltech.edu>

Expenditures through April are $17.1 million. If spending in the remaining months is the same as last year, $17.9 million, then total           expenditures for FY04 would be $35 million. Compared to the budget of $37 million that would mean $2 million carryover into next year. Of  the $2 million, $1 million would be from recurring activities and $1 million is estimated to be from deferred activities. (Last week's report indicated a $3 million carryover).

The $3 million that was mentioned, is an estimate of the amount remaining on a cash basis as of September 30, 2004, which would allow for approximately one month of operations.

Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport.


SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

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

From: Ed Jasnow <jasnow@ligo.caltech.edu>


SUPPORT (Baldon, Lloyd, Tischler)

>Irene Baldon

>Dorothy Lloyd


ADVANCED LIGO (Cost Schedule Control Systems) T. Frey

From: Thomas Frey <tfrey@ligo.caltech.edu>

Out of the office on Friday May 7

 

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/

 

Prepared an Advanced LIGO schedule report for FYs 2007 - 09, that shows planned work between those dates.  This was requested by Phil L. for discussion with Stan W., regarding on-going discussions with the NSF.

 

Accomplishments:

·         The following is a summary of status by sub system:

§         COC - http://ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/COC_AdvLIGO/COC_index.html

§         Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE. 

§         PSL -  http://ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/PSL_AdvLIGO/PSL_index.html

§         Executed telecom for review of PSL cost / schedule data.  Comments / formal acceptance pending.

§         http://ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/PSL_AdvLIGO/CB_rev_041304/

§         AOS - http://ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/AOS_AdvLIGO/

§         Working on revisions to the baseline schedule and WBS dictionary per last weeks telecom.

§         IO -  http://ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/IO_AdvLIGO/IO_index.html

§         Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE. 

§         Working on revisions to the baseline schedule and WBS dictionary per last weeks telecom.

§         SUS - http://ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/SUS_AdvLIGO/SUS_index.html

§         Meeting pending to discuss the link to the BSC task list and schedule tasks.

§         Review of BSC task list on going.

§         SEI - http://ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/SEI_AdvLIGO/SEI_index.html

§         ISC - Comments / Data pending from Dennis C. and Peter F.

§         LDAS - No action required at this point in time.

§         INSTALL - No action items pending. 

§         DAQ - No action required at this point in time.

§         PM - No action required at this point in time.

§         FAC - No action required at this point in time.

§         SUP - No action required at this point in time. 

§         LASTI - http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/LASTI/lasti_index.html

§         40-Meter - http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/40m/40m_index.html

§         TNI - http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/TNI/TNI_index.html

·         ROSTER DATABASE:

§         Continued input of changes / corrections regarding supervisors and departments.

§         Input corrected email addressed as received.

§         Created database reports for managing bad / missing email addresses.

§         Input added authors and changes to authors as requested by Peter Saulson.

§         Prepared the first draft data files for the S2 authorship list.

·         COST BOOK DATABASE:

§         Reconciling cost account listing from cost book and schedule loading. 

§         Continue to work with Carol and Florence starting work setting up "crosswalk" between accounting and progress reporting.

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


Reports (Lindquist)

LIGO Video--A chamber vent is being planned in Hanford early in June.  Tom Lucas (Lucas Productions) is planning to be there to record the activities.  A possible helicopter flyover (for filming) is also tentatively planned.


Change Control/Contingency (Lindquist)

There are no open change requests.


Human Resources (Akutagawa)

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


Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

We have set a tentative date for the LHO safety audit as the 26th of May. The date will be changed if Stan is not through with jury duty before then. Meanwhile, the folks at LLO have agreed to have their safety audit on 16 June.

 


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



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

Plenty of commissioning work occurred throughout the week, as evidenced below:

4K IFO

Work continued on the output mode cleaner, including the following investigations.
The mode cleaner was removed from its vacuum can and taken off suspension.

Other investigations on the 4k included

2K IFO

Unlike the 4k, the 2k continued to struggle to recover from last week's temperature  excursions (and here).  While the LVEA environment is now stabilizing, it remains unclear if the 2k is really so much more sensitive to temperature fluctuations than the 4k, or if some other mechanism is at work. 

Trouble with the ITMY was observed to be caused by a problematic anti-aliasing chip.

New QPD configuration: lock acquistion PDs were installed; LSC code changes await.
 


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


This week's report is a bit sparse due to delays and backlogs from a 22-hour GigE network outage Wednesday and Thursday. LLO, CIT and LSU are in active discussions with Bell South about how to prevent future outages and improve the response time for those that do occur. A failure mode analysis has been requested and is in preparation.

Commissioning highlights (Zucker)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
HEPI actuator installation in the corner station continues to accelerate, with the team now reaching an effective pace of two actuators per day. This is catching up some schedule but we will shortly be limited by the parts supply. We are communicating with our vendors to expedite some critical path items (e.g., spring attachment "boots") to stay ahead.

The HEPI piping contractors are over 50% complete and were thus able to map out the end game in more detail for us, predicting final punchout around 6/10. This is consistent (within a week or so) with the expected cabling and electronics.

Electrical HEPI installation in conjunction with the RFI retrofit is underway in the Y endstation.

The vacuum equipment rework in the corner station (and the site) is complete. While the X long cryopump was regenerated, the corner-X outdoor LN2 storage dewar was drained, heated and its insulation space repumped. It is pretty clear that the dewar was soft, perhaps since its original installation, likely explaining the excessive LN2 consumption with respect to our other three. It is now recooled and CP4 is back in operation; it'll take a bit to plot the liquid consumption, but between the dewar fix and the regens of all 4 CP's we expect to see significant savings in LN2.

Rai and Rupal began signal integrity assays on the interferometer WFS systems using a new portable fiber-coupled modulated laser (prepared by Jonathan and Ken Watt).  The same test rig was used by Valera, Rus and Ash to finish testing of the reworked MC WFS system; this setup achieved successful operation on the locked MC last night. Tom Nash has started characterization of the new low-phase-noise RF oscillators planned for testing in June. Rupal continued looking at availability issues with the PSL, including an intermittent oscillation of the slow loop.


L1 Commissioning (Frolov)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I worked with Rus and Ash on testing the new MC WFS electronics and software. We were able to close all four MC WFS servo loops using old matrix elements and digital filters.

LLO Seismic retrofit (Rich Abbott)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
(see above; both Rich and Oddvar are away so no details this week)

HPLF and L1 Commissioning (Amin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
HPLF: As indicated last week, we began qualifying the new 100 W laser. In the current stabilization and power stabilization modes, the laser delivers a output of 96 W. We have not yet obtained a M^2, a beam profile, or a color estimation measurement due to a technicality with electrical wiring.  This detail will be smoothed hopefully by next week permitting the HPLF to return to qualification testing.

PSL: During this past week, I helped Rai make noise measurements and noise correlations between the NPRO and the amplifier.  The data indicated that the NPRO was the primary source of noise in the laser output.  A more detailed explanation can be found on the LLO i-log.

In addition to the noise measurements, we measured the transfer function of the current shunt inside the MOPA.  Results indicated that the current shunt was not behaving similar to the LASTI laser.  An inspection of the current shunt determined that a set of modifications needed to be installed to accelerate the response of this circuit.

General:  Tom Nash and I will be making phase noise measurements of the two new crystalline oscillators today.  We assembled the equipment yesterday and left the oscillators on last night to stabilize. Measurements will hopefully be posted later today.


Data analysis (Yakushin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
LDAS administration:
1) u1d3@t3-8 failed. Replaced it with u1d3@t3-13.
2) Backed up databases at LLO in preparation for LDAS upgrade.
3) Rolled over sam logs that grew too big.
4) Studied Condor documentation.


Data analysis:
1) Attended burst face to face meeting at UWM last week. Made two presentations: a) S2 burst MDC frames status
(http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~igor/MDC ); b) waveburst performance on
S2 MDC frames (SG10, GA2, BH6, ZM1, BO2)
(http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~igor/MDC/MDCv1/ waveburst_v3_on_MDC.html).
2)Worked with Patrick Sutton to regenerate S2 high-frequency sine-gaussian MDC frames, SG13, for LIGO-TAMA analysis (the previous one, SG12, had TAMA channel generated incorrectly).
3) Run waveburst on S2 hardware injections.
4) Preparing to host waveburst code review meeting at LLO next week.
5) Wrote a first version of the simulation section for the S2 burst  paper.


Burst analysis and HPLF (Franzen)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Testing of the new laser in the HPLF together with Rupal Amin.

2) Running WaveMon over S2 hardware injections as requested by Sergey Klimenko and the glitch working group.


CDS support (Ash Khan)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Helped Valera in the debugging, calibratiing and commisioning of the Mode Cleaner WFS.
 


Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)



 

DETECTOR SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

CDS

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

CDS Software

Rolf Bork reporting

- Met with Alan on Monday to go over new LSC requirements for 40m lab. New  software is in progress and should be ready for initial testing early next week.  While my initial intention was to change over the 40m lab DAQ system to be  consistent with the sites at the same time (makes LSC code easier), opted to  defer that until later.

 

- Added another Linux kernel module to do linked list DMA on the new VME P4 processor boards. This allowed me to port the present LSC software over. The LSC code under Linux on the new CPU board runs in 28usec (Pentium 3 code at sites runs in 49usec). This LSC code is now being modified for the 40m lab (12 input photodiodes, 8 DOF, and dither locking).

 

- Alex got the new CPUs to boot Linux over the network (diskless node).  Therefore, we no longer require direct connection of a disk drive.

 

- Modified ITM controller software for new Freq. Devices DAC module. Code is being moved to LHO today.

 

- In the process of upgrading our test Framebuilder to Solaris 9 to be consistent with the sites.

CDS Hardware

Jay Heefner reporting

 

Fiber Optic Timing Link (for HEPI compliance with EMI requirements) (Sander)

=======================

- Board testing started today.

 

AI Filter for Low Noise DACs (Mohana)

============================

- Building a single op amp package prototype. The board will be sent to PC Express today.

- Possible candidate amps are LT1363 and AD8021.

 

Low Noise DACs (Jay)

============================

- Testing at CIT seems to show that the non-linear noise seen when large signals are output is coming either from the DAC chip itself or the data being sent to chip. Slew rate limits in the output op amp stage, measurement error in the SR785 and SR560, non-linear summing of DAC chip output currents have been eliminated as noise sources.

 

LLO EO Shutter (Sander)

============================

- The DEI pulser received from LLO is broken and has been sent to the manufacturer for repair.

- The controller HV power supplies failed and are being replaced.

 

40 Meter (Ben, Jay)

============================

- Ben has been tracing out and connecting the PSL and ISS DAQ signals.

- LSC cross connect and change list has been generated. The wiring and rack assembly drawings are also complete. The cross connects needed for the LSC upgrade should be complete by the end of the week.

- 2 WFS boxes have been sent to the machine shop and should be complete by Friday.

- Don is working on a 66MHz PD and a Double Demod PD needed for signal recycling. The DD PD needs a notch at 33MHz.

 

HEPI (Ben)

============================

- 40 pier interface module have been sent to Screaming Circuits and will be fab'd on a 48 hour turn around.

- LVEA wiring diagrams and racks layouts are being completed.

 

LSC PD (Ben)

=============================

- Waiting for comments from Vern.

 

ISS (Ben, Flavio)

==============================

- PDs and interface boards sent to MIT with Flavio.

- Don has tested the remainder of the PDs and boxes.

- We have 4 PD heads assemblies that need to be anodized.

 

EMI Upgrade (Jay)

===============================

- Mohana is completing the LVEA SUS wiring diagrams. They should be ready for review by next week.

- Orders for cables and feedthroughs for LVEA will start next week.

 

PSL

PeterKing

    The prototype high-power photodetector has a gain peak in its magnitude response at around 3 MHz.  Varying the feedback capacitor did not reduce the gain peaking leading me to think that there is a problem with the board layout since this feature was not present in the low-power (250 mA) version.

 

OMC

PeterKing

    I have sketched out the dimensions of an output modecleaner that incorporates a few minor changes from the one on loan from GEO600.  The bores have been made larger and the angle of incidence on the rear plano/concave mirror was set to 10 degrees.  The plano/plano mirrors are located off center so that the back surface does not interfere with the beam.

 

Optical Contamination Cavities

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

OTF Lab. (W. Bridge)
The TEST for contamination of (21) pieces of the twisted, shielded, teflon cables  are completed.
But We are still taking ring down and beat frequency measurements
as well as the RGA of the chamber every other day. NO CHANGE

Absorption Test Measurement prototype in progress
The 8T sapphire slab from CSI of pentagon shape test at different depths; Z=9, 19 & 27 mm has been completed.
the test shows that the average absorption for the slab is in the range of 80 - 140 ppm
But at the middle (Z=19mm) of the slab, the absorption averages in the range of 60-100 ppm
at the edge of the slab the absorption is well above 200 ppm.
This slab is waiting to be annealed(It suppose to reduce absorption) then it can be checked
 and measure absorption again and compare with our standard (50ppm absorption from Stanford)

The (3) sapphire substrates 3" Dia x 1.0" Thick to be tested is under test right now.

We still have one more sample to be measured:
1.) the 15 cm dia. substrate, which is on cleaning process.

The fabrication of the rods and cover plates for the laser enclosure is still  in PROGRESS!

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 for further samples.

 


 

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)



Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)


no report


LASTI (Ottaway)


LASTI Weekly Report (Adhikari,Mittleman, Mason, McInnes,Ottaway,Allen,
Ruet, Norcera, Fritschel)

Thermal Compensation System
Modifications were made to the laser enclosure and camera box and 4 additional assemblies have been ordered for the Hanford 2k and Livingston 4k interferometers. Delivery on all componants is 6/15/04.

Hydraulic pre-isolators
All componants have been recieved for building pre-isolators on the x-end HAM at LASTI. Myron has built up 1 HEPI on a bench. We will be installing the pre-isolators in the next two weeks.

Y-end HAM
The spool pieces have been recieved to install the optics table into the y-end HAM. These parts will be sent out for vacuum bake this week.

BSC

We have replaced all of the bleed valves with the new design, so we should have 8 working actuators now. Over many operations the table had moved from its initial position, so it was recentered by adjusting the tension in the off-load springs. We appear to have one bad hydraulic valve and are waiting on a replacement.

HAM

Laurent has been working on reducing the tilt coupling (drive to Seismometer). He has found that the collocated position sensors are relatively ineffective, other locations could prove to be much more effective.

Using the work of Lei we have started working on an adaptive feed forward system

Laurent will be visiting Caltech next week to learn how to assemble the MC Triple. He will then be able to lead the installation effort for this at MIT. It is planned that we will install the triple at LASTI in the second week of June using mainly local staff.

Flavio Norcera visited LASTI this week to work with Peter F and Rana on the new ISS board for the sites using the LASTI PSL

Myron has been preparing the HEPI system for the Xend HAM that wil enable the characterization of the Mode cleaner triple pendulum when it is ready for installation


Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)


 Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
Weekly Physics Meeting
---------------------------
Sany Yoshida from Southern Louisianna University described his plans to do measurements of displacement to angular noise coupling and to get spectra of various noise-states at LLO which will be used by Biplab and Virginio for their study of lock losses

LAL-Caltech collaboration
---------------------------------
Monica Varvella arrived in May 3rd. Monica, Alan Weinstein, Albert Lazzarini and Hiro met on 11th to discuss how to collaborate. One topic suggested was to build a model for 40m which should be able to be modified easily for adv.LIGO and possible future Virgo. The collaboration style and content will be specified when Patrice Hello and Matteo Barsuglia visit Caltech next week (19-25).

For now, Monica is studying Han2k with Modal Model and SimLIGO, so that she can build 40m / adv.LIGO model.

Adaptive FFT
-------------------
(Hiro, Biplab) The method mentioned in the Virgo note does not allow to pass over the waist position. Different analytic formulation was being pursued to avoid this issue.
 Another problem (detected this week) seems to appear when the size of the final focussed beam becomes very small.

H1 mirror phasemaps
-------------------------
(Xiao Xu, Biplab) went through all the mirror phasemaps of H1. The sorting out of proper ways of reading the data and representing it in vector form correctly readable by MIT FFT code (Fortran) is in progress.

Code development and maintenance
----------------------------------------
(Hiro)
 e2e 2.0.1
 Soon after e2e 2.0.0 was released, a bug was reported by Hayakawa of ICRR which was traced down to an unititialized variables. The installer script has a glitch by which no cutsomization of installation was allowed. The statement about the random number in FUNC_X code was not correct. With all these corrections and one more tool for debugging macros included, a new version 2.0.1 will be released very soon.

/home/e2e/SunHOME and /home/e2e/LinuxHOME/ have the latest e2e software installed, one for linux and one for SUN. The .cshrc file in /home/e2e is made so that one can find how to setup environment variables, E2E_PATH and E2E_HOME. This has all known bugs fixed.


(Melody)
 Modeler: Fixed the build-e2e script to allow additional compile and link options. Verifying that other options work.

Alfi
----------
(Bruce)
        - Support for user trying to adapt old box files to be read.
        - Fixed "%" acceptance in quoted strings (no longer taken to be
          Alfi comment.)  (PR 419)

(Melody)
        - Working on several problem reports
        - Regression testing using JGO version 5.0.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)
Today we are in the process of releasing LDAS 1.1.0. The sites will first need to have thier databases migrated from the old IBM DB2 file structure to the newer DB2 8.1 database file structure. In addition, we will be creating a new set of databases at the sites to support the table changes requested by the DMT team. This was discussed and approved in this weeks DASWG meeting. Once the databases are back in place we will replace the LDAS 1.0.0 release with the newer 1.1.0 release. Due to the network issues with LLO, we may not finish the upgrade until early next week. All other sites should be up and running by late today or early tomorrow. This will be the first release of LDAS to distribute a separate library for data  conditioning algorithms found in LDAS to be used by other applications. Julien Sylvestre has worked closely with the LDAS team in developing and testing this first distribution. It is beta code, but has been shown to be useful. We will be repeating the sytem/integration tests on the 1.1.0 release once it is out. Look for the testing results in the usual place on the web.

We have also upgraded the dbcentral linux database server to run IBM's DB2 version 8.1 with fixpac 5. This was the remaining infra- structure necessary for our moving forward on the database federation/ replication activity. This upgrade was waiting on the database server to have its version of Linux upgraded in preparation for the DB2 upgrade.

A new problem with the distribution of wrapper masters on the Beowulf cluster was discovered this week. The bug causes wrapper masters to share wrapper slaves on the same node. This is due to a coding flaw which couldn't be fixed in time for the release. A problem report has been filed and it will be fixed in the next release.

The dbaccess library has been extended to support the new SQL syntax being used in the gds_triggers table.

Work continues on the open problem reports for the diskCacheAPI. A short informal meeting was held to discuss the design issues with the PR requesting support for alternative filename extensions. This is a by-product of the acceptance of the SFT data files by the DASWG. In order to handle these new filename extensions, the basic infrastructure of the diskCacheAPI will need to be extended to provide unique hash tables for unique filename extensions. This will require some re-work within the diskcacheAPI.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)
Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)
* Worked with Sun on SAM-QFS 2Gb log file limit.  It's looking like we're not going to get a fix until we upgrade to 4.1 but I'm following through to the bitter end.
* Did some migration of non run HPSS files to SAM-QFS, but this was interrupted by CACR security problem (and subsequent lock down).
* Finished getting 2 T3s checked out for shipping to LHO/LLO.  Called in   failed drive to Sun.
*Replaced failed drive in Booth 3510.  This was in the mirrored logical drive that hosts the SAM-QFS metadata and it automatically rebuilt on a hot spare, which confirmed that this process works for RAID-1 sets. I replaced the hot spare with a drive from our backup unit and have called it in to Sun.

(Al Wilson)
* Still working on condor. Have made a lot of notes to the installation  Doc's
* Repopulated the test datacache on the sixth floor. It is currently  running   2.6.6 kernel and has 2 1.1Tb of disk space
* Looking at the other ldas-pcXXX systems at the sites. Noticed that we are starting to diverge on the builds of these systems. Will be compiling a list to get them back into line.

(Stuart Anderson)
* Working to support the LDAS-1.1.0 release.
* Shipped RAID units to Observatories to run new DMT trend filesystem.
* Updated webcvs.


MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)
* Installed Fiber GigE card in metaserver box.
* Moved Dell dual and quad boxes back into LDAS lab.
* Hooked up UPS box for both Dells.
* Reinstalling RH9 on Dells.


Hanford
-------
(Greg Mendell)
* I have been successfully running test jobs on the LDAS condor cluster  at   LHO. Ben Johnson has staged level 3 RDS data from S2 and S3 on the cluster's disks. I am now working with Ben Johnson to get LDR and LSCdataFind set up to automate finding the data.

(Ben Johnson)
* Replated controller on t3-4 (actually Sun field support performed the actual replacement).
* Sprayed all L3 RDS data for S2, and LHO L3 RDS data for S3 around the cluster. Data has not been published into LDR yet.
* Condor itself is basically working. Checkpointing etc. has been set   up and is working.
* Health status software has been installed on the cluster here. This  should allow for checking of temperature, fan speed, hard disks etc.
* Foundry switch firmware installed. Now running at 07.6.04nT51.
* Working on setting up LDR.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

Creighton:
This week I fixed some bugs in LAL, and returned to working on the pulsar condor code, changing its command-line arguments to match the new version of ComputeFStatistic.

Mendell:
The StackSlide code now can use the LAL inject package to software inject fake pulsar signals into SFTs; the next step is to add the LAL random number generators and loops so that it can do Monte Carlo simulations.  It will take about another week to finish writing and testing this code and to debug it.

Shawhan:

* Participated by phone in parts of the burst group face-to-face meeting in Milwaukee.
* Studied the new S2 data quality information and took a look at how it might be used in the inspiral analysis.
* Finished working through Bruce Allen's paper about the chi^2 test, and sent him comments.

Sutton:
I've been working mainly on the WaveBurst code review for the Bursts  Group.
I've been studying wavelets, reviewing the WaveBurst technical document (T040040-00), and running sample WaveBurst jobs.  Michele Zanolin and I are also organizing a meeting of the reviewers and coders at Livingston next week (May 19-20).  For LIGO-TAMA I've drafted and distributed to the joint working group a set of "milestones" and a proposed schedule for the LIGO-TAMA analysis.  I'm also arranging a LIGO-TAMA VRVS videoconference on these topics for later today.

Sylvestre:
o Completed the port of the burstdso/tfclusters to a stand-alone code that can run under condor. I am currently testing the condor driver, no problem so far.

o Repeating the first 25 hours of the S2 analysis with sine-gaussian injections (SG10 frames), I was able to show from byte-by-byte comparison of the output files that the new code produces exactly the same results as the LDAS code, while being considerably faster.

Yakushin:
1) Attended burst face to face meeting at UWM last week. Made two  presentations: a) S2 burst MDC frames status 
(http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~igor/MDC ); b) waveburst performance 
on S2 MDC frames (SG10, GA2, BH6, ZM1, BO2) 
(http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~igor/MDC/MDCv1/ waveburst_v3_on_MDC.html).
2)Worked with Patrick Sutton to regenerate S2 high-frequency  sine-gaussian MDC frames, SG13, for LIGO-TAMA analysis (the previous  one, SG12, had TAMA channel generated incorrectly).
3) Run waveburst on S2 hardware injections.
4) Preparing to host waveburst code review meeting at LLO next week.
5) Wrote a first version of the simulation section for the S2 burst 
paper.

Lazzarini:
Completed a series of investigations into bias produced by (noisy) power spectrum estimation in optimal filters ( see the e-log for the Stochastic Working Group for details:
http://www.ldas-sw.ligo.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi? group=stochastic&date_to_view=05/07/2004&anchor_to_scroll_to=2004:05: 07:12:49:48-lazz )
Completed a series of investigation to quantify and assess the magnitude of effects of DAQS lowest-order byte corruption for the stochastic analysis (see e-log entry:
http://www.ldas-sw.ligo.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi? group=stochastic&date_to_view=05/12/2004&anchor_to_scroll_to=2004:05: 12:13:19:58-lazz )

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT:
(Keith)
-Moved gall and several PC's over to UPS power
-Setup several more sun boxes on Solaris 9 in prep for urops
-Created urop accounts
-Troubleshot graphics problem on SB1000 (straw)
-Helped user install RH enterprise ws edition on desktop
-Helping with the registration process for June LSC meeting Testing AIT3 tape speed with different hardware
-Spec'd and ordered backup laptop drive for grad student

Livingston:
(Shannon)
NO REPORT DUE TO WAN OUTAGE AT LLO

Hanford:
(Christine)
- Network usage can be seen at
http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~christin/mrtg/ 198.129.208.1_198.129.78.122.html
- Worked with Sun on a problem with their check out web page.  The problem has been fixed after several emails back and forth and a phone call.
- Took a look at some LDAS e-mail problems.  Sent the error messages  from the mailserver logs to Ben.
- Ordered some more software updates and servers from Sun.
- Built a new laptop with the standard GC software configuration, Windows updates, Norton updates, turned off services and configured it with the recommended security configuration.
- The usual user support.
- Worked on CDS software.

CIT:
(Mike)
-Loaded a dual-boot laptop for John Zweizig.
-Setup the VRVS workstation up in SCR. I had to make many adjustments  with the VRVS software to have ready for the next video conference.
-Worked on Barry Barish's laptop by updating security, software and  loading office security patches. There was also a networking issue up in his office, which turned out to be a bad hub. This has been replaced.
-Burned all NTSRV monthly ghost backups to DVD.
-Ran security updates on the following user's workstations:
Janeen Romie, visitors workstation across from Janeen, community  scanner PC
3rd floor W/B, Larry Jones, Barbara Simoni, Fumiko, Osamu Miyakawa, two
visitor workstations across from Marka Szabolcs, and Thomas Frey, Ed
Jasnow, DCC nightly backup workstation, Cindy A. and Ryan's old 
computer.
-Ghosted computers this week:
Cindy A. - workstation/laptop
Ryan Tischler - old workstation
DCC nightly backup workstation
-Ran diagnostics on 8 hard disks for Al Wilson. Two of these disks are  bad.
I setup RMA's for these drives and have shipped them out for  replacements.
-Loaded a visitor's workstation with all General Computing software and  a few engineering packages.
-Barbara Simoni had a problem with her workstation. This computer is  just about out of disk space. I have moved her to another workstation, transferred her data over, and loaded additional software for her.
-Other misc. user onsite/phone support.

(Veronica)
- LSC website: Most time has been devoted to working on the June meeting website. It required settling some organizational issues with the MIT ecommerce department. Worked with MIT LIGO staff to reach out to the MIT ecommerce and to clarify what is left to be done so that we can finish  the setup of an online credit card processing application. The process is underway. The meeting website has been published and is being updated.  Meanwhile, posted updates to the LIGO Results webpage.
- LIGO website: Went through what has accumulated during my time off. Updates and corrections to the PAC meeting webpages. Updates to other webpages throughout the LIGO website (Aspen, conferences, calendars). There are still updates to reflect the recent changes in management; working with Stan on this. Working with George Stokes on the modifications of the DCC. Going through the documentation that George has prepared.
- CaJAGWR website: User support and updates to the seminars page.
- Project Science: User support. Began working on the website for the upcoming October workshop, which will get my undivided attention once the more urgent LSC and PAC meetings issues are secured.

(Lisa)
- Working on building a new application server.
- Continued work on maintaining the spam filters.
- User support for a new visitor.
- Made a tape backup of ldas-sw for the permanent archive.

(Larry)
-Still no progress on the upgrade to the server room. PMA has been trying to get the cost estimate in but no information so far. This is hurting in some of the expansion we are doing but so far no problems in setting up a few test systems.
-Worked a number of WEB issues. Just simple items so Veronica would not  be distracted from the backlog she was taking care of.
-Still assisting Lisa with the spam filtering. Though I have spent less  time on it this week than I have in the past.
-Assisting in working out some of the logistics for the PAC mtg. in June. Updates have been made and information on different items has been clarified.
-Still working on a new set of printer drivers for the new printer in Millikan. So far all of the changes and testing have not provided the desired results from the unix side of the house. Still a few more changes to test out. If there is no resolution by next week we will move the b/w printer to bridge where it is needed and monitor the demand for b/w services on the 6th floor to see if another printer is warranted.
-Made a number of purchases and tracking some past purchases. The application server for the E2E group should be in by the end of next week. All of the other items will be trickling in over the next few weeks.
-A lot of regular user support.

(Bruce Sears)
-Ilog (Electronic Log) Development:                     (3.0 days)
        - Rewrote search engine to work more efficiently and have a  better display interface.


Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)


Seismic Isolation

From: Larry Jones <ljones@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure

SEI Structure:

Further comments from ASI on the Design Requirements were received on 5/11. The effect of this on the schedule of the Design Review is to be determined. Our goal is to release Revision A of the E030179 Design Requirements document for the BSC structure on 5/21.

ASI has given us the contract cost change for deleting the prototype HAM structure fabrication, and will give us the schedule change. A change order will be processed for this modification plus the new ASI rate structure.

The Design Review meeting for the BSC structure is now scheduled for June 4, 2004. Delivery at LASTI of the BSC prototype is expected to be in November, 2004.


Actuators:

PSI's updated actuator interface drawings were received by LIGO on May 10, and forwarded to ASI. We've been working the mag wire cleaning issue and selecting a candidate potting compound for qualification testing.


Displacement Sensors:

All details appear to be in place for placing the order for the displacement sensors, and Jay was given the approval for placing the order.

Seismometers:

Nothing new.


Galling/Dusting Test:

Further progress was made on preparing Figures for the report.

Suspension

From: Janeen Romie <romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
AdLIGO Suspensions
MC to LASTI in June
Continuing to coordinate with many key folks on preparing for the mode cleaner triple suspension to go to LASTI in June 7-18. This may be postponed due to Initial LIGO work.

Suspension Gazebo
The structure is assembled and upright. It is currently ~11.5feet high; the height of the advanced LIGO BSC optical table to the LVEA floor. We have an alternative configuration, which we are now working on, that is about 8 feet high. The faux optical table will be delivered this afternoon.

Catcher Development
Russell Jones from the University of Glasgow is visiting this week to work with us on the quad catcher development. We will be performing a series of experiments that relate to this. Some will be done on the GEO MC catcher that Russell sent here. Others will be done with 40kg metal masses on an optical table and in the gazebo. Norna Robertson will be joining us on Thursday, May 13th for the day.

Hybrid Osems
Corona Magnetics re-wound the first eleven hybrid osem heads to our specifications. Helena picked them up and cleaned them. Bob Taylor will assemble them.

From: Jay Heefner <jay@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
AdLIGO Suspensions

- Wiring and rack drawings have been sent to Dave O. for comment.
- Paul is building up a eurocard crate. All other components are ready.

AdLIGO Seismic

- We will be starting the procurement of the capacitive position sensors.
- A low noise coil driver has been sent to Stanford for test. No word on the results as yet.

Pre-stabilized Laser

From: Peter King <pking@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
AdvLIGO PSL
===========
    I helped answer a few questions posed by Shally Saraf (Stanford) about the photodetectors that he was using in the saturated amplifier noise experiment.  The questions were in relation to the photodetector bandwidths and maximum photocurrent.

 

Core Optics

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

Have been working on two AdL study items (as reported elsewhere):

1. The Stokes instability : reviewing it with eye on any sapphire/FS difference.

2. Thermal questions, again for the downselect: The question on getting a better handle on likely coating absorption non-uniformity. This was an COC-DRD action item.

From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
Advanced LIGO - Coating Development

Jean-Marie has shipped substrates with the new doped Ta2O5 coating. On this run, he increased the percentage of Ti and developed a process by which he was able to maintain a reasonable optical absorption, ~1 ppm.

Scatter may be higher than usual, but the problem can be solved when using the larger chamber. The scatter is caused by lack of space on the small coater.

He annealed the substrates before coating to 600 degrees C on a very controlled fashion . His experience indicates that pre-coating deposition annealing improves surface roughness. To evaluate the coating mechanical loss, the "Q" of the uncoated annealed substrates will be measured also.

 

From: "Erika D'Ambrosio" <ambrosio@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
I worked on a generalization of the equivalence relation between parallel-plane resonators and concentric cavities.  The equivalence relation allows us to map eigenvectors and eigenvalues from one  resonator to its partner.

It also unambiguously defines the mirror profile of a cavity, given that for its partner. I was triggered to study this by an indipendent study that was aimed to show the following relation:

P^MH_flat / P^MH_conc = P^spher_flat/P^spher_conc

where P is the critical power that would push the mirrors out of stability.

When I saw the above equation, I could not understand it and in fact it is completely wrong. Juri Agresti has trusted my hunch and I am training him on discretization and numerical grid computations.

Other Laboratory R&D

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

Hareem
has finished the maraging paper corrections suggested by the internal referee, the paper is now proceeding to NIM.
ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/maraging_hysteresisLRP_rev4.doc
Virginio
has finished the theory of MGAS paper corrections suggested by the internal referee, the paper is now proceeding for publication.
ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/P040004-00.pdf

Juri

Two Mathematica programs are running under my new PC and SARGAS Unix computer to calculate the tilted mirror solutions, but they require a lot of calculations and I am waiting for the first results about misalignment simulation in Mexican-Hat cavity.
I am writing an additional chapter for the paper with Erika DAmbrosio about the analytical perturbation series for studying the misalignment in the non-spherical cavities.
I helped Barbara Simoni building the thermal shield for the Flat-Top Beam Interferometer Prototype.

Maddalena

Last weekend I tried the debugged circuit reaching a resonant frequency about 70 mHz, then ,in order to reduce the unbalancing noise, we started to rebuild the mechanics introducing three coaxial LVDTs and a new, more linear, actuator system. We also changed the Home Depot garage spring suspending the filter, the original three weren't of the same stiffness, with a set of three equal spring. We chose the closest three from a set of ten and used those .
After that we will thermally isolate the whole system inside a thermal box.
Moreover I'm working on the Lab View software to be able to acquire the data with a high frequency of reading.

Barbara

This week luckily we have some good news.
Today we received the third invar rod and the remaining parts of the mechanics. We are now ready to test the expansion coefficient of the invar and then start the construction of the cavity.
Also yesterday I tested with success the electronic circuit to drive the piezoelectric actuators and with Jury's help I built the thermal box for our structure.
Finally Phil has received a new bid for the mexican hat mirror substrates, this bid was acceptable to Alban, and we placed the order.
Expected delivery date (to LMA Lyon) for these optics is ~8 weeks.

 


 

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