The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday June 28, 2004 will be:
(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)
Special Items:
no report
Status of LSC/MOU Research
Updates and Program Reports (Petrac)
(LSC Research Updates through August 2004, and Progress Reports
through February 2004)
Balearic:
Attach. A / in LIGO review / Lazzarini
GEO 600:
Attach. B / to GEO for sign-off
Attach. Z / to GEO for sign-off
Hobart&William Smith:
Attach. A / to PI for sign-off
Attach. B / to PI for sign-off
Attach. Z / to PI for sign-off
Moscow State:
Progress Report through June 22, 2004 / In process for web posting
National Astronomical Observatory-China (NAO-C):
Attach. No. 1 / first draft / in NAO-C review
Stanford:
Draft-Attach. A / in LIGO review / Shoemaker
Draft-Attach. B / in LIGO review / Shoemaker
Draft-Attach. C / in LIGO review / Shoemaker
Draft-Attach. D / in LIGO review / Shoemaker
Attach. Z / signed-off
Rochester:
Attach. A / in LIGO review / Albert and Keith
Draft-Attach. A / in process for web posting
Groupe Virgo / Laboratoire de l'Accellarateur Lineaire, Orsey (AV-LAL) /
collaboration on detector modeling and 40 M program:
Draft-MOU / in review at AV-LAL
Draft-Attach. No. 1 / first year research plan / in LIGO review / Yamamoto and
Weinstein
Virgo:
MOU Addendum No. 1 / in LIGO-LSC review / Saulson
Attach. No. 4 / in LIGO-LSC review / Saulson
Attach. No. 5 / in LIGO-LSC review / Saulson
Washington State:
Attach. A / in LIGO review / Barish
Draft-Attach. A / in process for web posting
Prog. Report / in process for web posting
LIGO Outreach / Collaboration between Hobart & William Smith Colleges:
Attach. B / to PI for sign-off
Gladstone High School
LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Lindquist)
A site teleconference was scheduled Thursday, June 24, 2004.
Frank Perry--Caltech Construction Management, Construction Contract
Administration, participated during the discussion on the Outreach
Building. The following issues were among those discussed:
Outreach--Planning meeting is scheduled 2-4 of August. Tentatively
planning presentations by interested architect/engineering firms on August 5 or
6. We want to start the Exploratorium with an initial subcontract.
Statement of work is to participate in the scoping and planning for the exhibit
space and exhibits. Main thing is to get them under contract and to get
them to participate in the meetings.
Operations Procedures Manual--Procedures have been sent for
review. This closes action #120. New action #124 is for F. Raab and
M. Zucker to review and comment.
Budgets/Actuals--Do not have final data for June yet, but it appears
that there are no big changes from the end of May (at about 81 percent).
Forecast for carry-forward into FY 2005 remains the same ($1 to $2.5
million). Rationale previously given.
Hanford Inventory--early reports indicate that it went well last week.
Operations Issues During Outreach Building Construction--S4 scheduled
near the end of the year, significant gap after that. It would be to our
advantage to get the grading, pad pouring, steel erection, etc. done during the
hiatus. Would like to get a drawing set to send out for bids by the end
of the calendar year.
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)
>From: Ed Chargois <chargois_e@ligo.caltech.edu>
No report (vacation)
DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)
>From: Linda Turner - turner@ligo.caltech.edu>
No report.
> From: Cleveland Mak <mak_c@ligo.caltech.edu>
Electronic document activity continued to be busy. Process of completing
two DCN's with the long list of attachments is almost complete.
Distribution should come shortly.
packages:
in - 18
out - 6
faxes:
in - 31
out - 24
FINANCIAL (Cunningham, Brambila, Kaufman,
Salone)
>From: Esther Cunningham <esther@ligo.caltech.edu>
For ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA: http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/%7Ephil/Weekly/AccountsPay.htm.
>From: "Brambila, Ruth" <Ruth.Brambila@caltech.edu>
Working on the new purchase order to DKB for the thermal insulation for the LN2
tank for LHO.
Completed processing change order #2 to add funds to the monthly rental of
Monterra Del Rey. Coordinated this with Payables to have them cut out a
separate check for $10 to supplement the July rent as the payment was mailed
about 1 week ago. Sent out the revised purchase order to the vendor.
Received the signed MIT package and federal expressed it to Tony Favaloro at
MIT. Received the signed Triad package and sent it to Richard Fischer.
Awaiting for one invoice to complete my pcard reconciliation package for June
2004 to submit to Pcard administration. I caught an error on the printed
reconciliation report where the report duplicated the first two items again on
the second page of the report. Reported this to Criselda for correction of the
printed report.
Working with Florence, Dorothy, and Esther on the movement of the CSIRO
encumbrance to have only $25k allocated to Sub First $25k.
Placed pcard orders for delivery to Caltech and the sites. Followed up on past
due shipments. Reconciled 12 pcard transactions billed for recent orders.
In my last weekly team meeting it was mentioned by Procurement management
that any sole source procurements over $10k need to have the end user's written
market research attached to their memo. This will now be enforced as it is
required with spending federal funds and for meeting the requirements of the
auditors.
Working with coordinating the extension of the period of performance on the
LIGO subcontracts for new change orders to extend them through FY2005. I would
like to have all subcontracts extended for FY2005 before the new fiscal year
begins on October 1, 2004.
Working on the change orders received for the subcontracts.
>From: Gina Salone <gsalone@ligo.caltech.edu>
Sent out RFQ's to five vendors for the Ligo Advance Quad Control Prototype
Blades. Taking phone calls and working closely with C. Torrie to answer
questions concerning the fabrication.
Communicating with Shannon R. regarding the LSU Contract to ensure him of the
correct charges.
Contacted Albert L. for his approval regarding the Raytheon Invoice.
Placed order to Varian for rebuild/service per Steve Vass.
Working with Dot and Florence to fix a few admin problems.
>From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman@ligo.caltech.edu>
Completed comparison of labor charges on FY05 budget vs. current rates to test
for reasonableness of FY05 budget numbers. List of possible modifications
required sent to Phil.
Submitted a PTA Set Up Form for New Award for Low Noise Suspensions &
Readout System for Future LIGO Interferometers.
Submitted PTA Set Up Form for accounts for the LIGO Outreach Award.
Submitted a Fabrication Request Set Up form for the LIGO Outreach
Building.
Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport.
(For passwords contact Florence)
SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)
>From: irena@ligo.caltech.edu (Irena Petrac)
CRDF: CO No. 12 for a no-cost extension through June 2005 was released
to Purchasing.
>From: Ed Jasnow <jasnow@ligo.caltech.edu>
The critical design review for the Advanced LIGO seismic isolation system was
held on June 18 at the ASI facility in Pasadena. The review was very
successful, and ASI will proceed with fabrication of the prototype for the BSC.
With the receipt of the award of the outreach cooperative agreement, work has
begun on the process of selecting an architect/engineer for the new outreach
building at LLO. A list of potential architects is being formulated to
receive an RFP.
Also, related to the outreach cooperative agreement, discussions are being
initiated with the Exploratorium for the award of a subcontract under which
they will provide the exhibits for the new building.
SUPPORT (Baldon, Lloyd)
>Irene Baldon
No report.
>Dorothy Lloyd
Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther the week of June 7.
Processed the usual invoices for payment. Tracked and followed up on invoice
problems.
Continue to monitor contract and blanket order encumbrance and notify task managers
when supplements are needed.
ADVANCED LIGO (Cost Schedule Control Systems)
T. Frey
>From: Thomas Frey <tfrey@ligo.caltech.edu>
See Advanced R&D Section.
Reports (Lindquist)
Operations Annual Report--the Annual Report for Operations is due at
the end of June. I have prepared and distributed an outline and
assignments, and have requested contributions by Friday, June 18, 2004. A
number have not yet been received.
We will be scheduling the preparation of a proposal for FY 2007-2011 Operations
later this year.
Change Control/Contingency (Lindquist)
I have saved a copy of a change request submitted by John Worden at:
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~phil/ChangeBoard/CR040012.pdf
The request is for budget to insulate the exterior of the CP2 LN tank. This
will reduce the frequency of "seismic bumps" from the LN tank. Four
inches of rigid Styrofoam with an aluminum jacket will be installed. The
change request was discussed during the meeting of the LIGO Executive Committee
(June 21, 2004). It was deemed useful and Hanford was told to
proceed. However, formal approval is not required since the amount is
less than the threshold for information only requests.
Human Resources (Akutagawa)
>From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu>
Various personnel/payroll /HR related work.
Quality/Safety (Tyler)
>From: Bill Tyler <tyler@ligo.caltech.edu>
A LIGO safety audit of the Livingston Observatory was conducted on the 16th and
17 of June, 2004, a summary of this audit follows.
The LLO safety audit team consisted of Stan Whitcomb, Caz Scislowicz, Bill
Tyler, Mike Zucker and Rich Riesen. The LLO Control Room operations
discussions included Gary Traylor and the review of the LLO vacuum system was
lead by Rusyl Wooley joined with John Worden (LHO) by phone.
Since it had been almost two years since the last safety audit, this audit was
scheduled for two days. Most of the first day involved review and discussion of
eleven of the thirteen agenda items with an end of day visit to the hazardous
material storage area, followed by a tour of the Staging Building with special
attention to the clean room (lab), the machine shop, and the High-Power Laser
lab. On the second day of the audit, there was a "walk-through"
of both End Stations and the LVEA concluding with a "wrap-up" meeting
for an overview of action items, observations and recommendations.
Overall, the LLO site is continuing to maintain and to improve their safety
"awareness." The LLO site staff is to be commended for making
significant improvement in the site housekeeping since the last audit.
A significant audit recommendation is that LLO should "reinstall" a
Work Permit program/system with the Control Room operators to have a key role
in monitoring this activity.
There were several action items for Control Room operations and the need for
additional training and updating of reference information. There was a
suggestion for running a special Operator's training session and to include
some "Commissioners" in this training. There is also a need for
a method to encourage the on-going sharing of Control Room (Operator)
experiences and knowledge.
There has been good response by the staff to participate in safety training. In
this context, there is an action item to compile and monitor incidents, to
identify "trends", and to provide this information to the staff as
part of safety discussions. The one-location easy-access files of site
operating and safety information seems to be especially useful for visitors and
staff.
.
Summary of Commissioning Activities at
LIGO Hanford Observatory (Landry)
4K IFO
The optical layout on the AS output table ISCT4 was modified
to account for new higher power in the interferometer. Four detection
photodiodes are employed, and a fifth specializes in lock acquisition.
The layout is available in technical doc T040129-01. Initially the layout
landed power non-uniformly on the respective photodiodes (beamsplitter
tolerances), necessitating power be redistributed.
AS_I work included the resetting of phases
and gains, plus a noise measurement
of the new servo's RF output.
Slow oscillations
in the WFS were observed, ones that were highly resistant to mitigation
efforts. In the process chasing the oscillations down it was noted that WFS3
sensing losses were due to poorly mated cables. Gain and phase modifications
did not solve the oscillation problem.
A nice brief summary of the state of the photon calibrator (then and now) is
given here.
Installation is drawing to a close on the 4k ETMX unit (after correcting the laser
elliptical polarization). Next tasks include getting channels into the
DAQ, and moving on to the business of dithering cavity lengths and assessing
length sensitivity.
A crystal oscillator
installed on the 4k improved the high frequency bump in AS_Q above 1kHz, but
did not eliminate it. Futhermore, nonstationarity in the noise above a
kilohertz obscured any gains achieved from doubling the power into the MC.
2K IFO
Last week, alignment instabilities led to the realization that transients in
the MC transmitted photodiode were to blame. A study
to investigate the source of the glitching is underway and should report soon.
DAQ
Memory errors
caused multiple crashes of fb0 and fb1.
Education and outreach (Wooley)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
LLO was visited by 2 groups as well as several individuals passing through on
vacation. A SLU sponsored Science Camp group enjoyed a hands on science
class and painting, while a group of undergrads pursuing a degree in science
education enjoyed a tour and presentation. Tour visitors were from
Chicago, Texas and Louisiana (New Orleans & Lake Charles)
Safety (Rich Riesen)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
LASER SAFETY
1). Working with LLO's laser eye exam ophthalmologist concerning the new exam
requirements referenced from ANSI Z136.5-2000, Section 6, Appendix G.
This change will put us in line with the LIGO/Caltech policy for laser eye
exams.
2). Editing the LLO laser safety sop, correcting typos, incorrect
information, etc. that were found during our annual safety audit.
3). Responding to a concern requarding high noise levels produced by the
new CDS rack fans. Referencing OSHA regulations (Standards-29 CFR),
Occupational noise exposure. 1910.95.
SITE SAFETY
1). I found no safety concerns during the weekly site tour.
2). Ordered proper warning signs for the flammable storage area. (per request
during the safety audit).
SAFETY TRAINING
Continuing to address safety issues at the conclusion of our weekly staff
meetings. In the future these safety meeting will have minutes taken and
distributed to those who were not in attendance.
PROPERTY CONTROL
1). Working with Ed Chargois and Tom Evans in the disposal process of
computers and monitors that are no longer in service.
2). Continuing work with GSA on paperwork requirements.
SHIPPING/RECEIVING
Shipped a crate of alignment fixtures to Myron MacInnis at MIT.
Shipment should arrive Monday, June 28 via Roadway Express.
CALIBRATIONS
Gathering all Torque wrenches that are in need of an annual calibration.
INSPECTIONS
I have set up a soft inspection schedule for all site cranes (7
ea.). The dates are the week of July 19 or the week of July 26.
This soft schedule is for work around HEPI installation requirements or other
unknown concerns.
P.M. FOR SITE EQUIPMENT
Our golf carts are being sent back to our vendor for an annual inspection and
repair. The carts are still under warranty. Both carts will be back in
full service by the next reporting period.
LLO Facilities and Infrastructure (MZ for Allen Sibley)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
We had another cutout of the HVAC, this time at the Y end. Again it seems
likely it was associated with a lightning event. Star and Excel were able to
debug the trouble and restore operation quickly; we are analyzing the failure
mode to see if we can improve immunity.
L1 Commissioning highlights (Zucker)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
On the HEPI installation side, all the HEPI actuator housings are now installed
(!!!) The crew is now concentrating on mounting the horizontal actuators to the
last few. We have also begun the process of adjusting the positions on the two
chambers that relaxed slightly when the original supports were removed.
On HEPI commissioning, last week's mystery of the shrieking valve at EX was
resolved. Turned out the pressure controller had gone nuts due to a faulty
sensor cable, thereby applying a pressure head outside the valve's linear
design range. A signal flag has now been added to the pump control
readback to alert us if the root condition recurs.
Because previous data were suspect (the onset of the pressure control failure
is unknown) we had to retake the sysid data. Fortunately this process is now
much faster due to recent improvements in the algorithms. At this point revised
servo filters are loaded and awaiting test.
System ID has also now been completed for the Y end and the corresponding
filter design is in progress.
Chethan completed new safety watchdogs which allow use of a custom filter to
focus on a specific frequency weighting of the witness signals. This will ease
commissioning by reducing "false alarms" associated with harmless
low-frequency motion.
A faulty L4C geophone was also found and replaced at the Y end.
On the interferometer, the reflected port was realigned and the mode cleaner brought
back to life. Valera ran the power up to 3.5 W and tested a method for
offloading the radiation-pressure induced mirror torques; the test was a
success and the procedure will be automated for future use. Ken Watt and
Rupal continued retrofitting WFS heads per Rai's rescipe to reduce their
propensity for oscillation.
Chethan has verified that our reflective memory boards are of an older
revision. The manufacturer revealed to Rolf that these were prone to data
errors like those we have seen. These led to a lot of poisoned data and much
grief for the HEPI crew. We are checking to see if the company will let us swap
them out for "corrected" boards.
LLO Seismic retrofit (Rich Abbott)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Progress has continued on HEPI installation. The electronics in
the corner station are now largely complete as far as installation is
concerned. Starting next week, the various sensor read-backs can be
checked.
2. A flush of the hydraulic system is in progress in the corner
station. All four corner station pumps are running at higher than needed
flow. The outlet pressure is lower than normal right now due to the low
hydraulic impedance of the system while in the flushing configuration.
3. We began the process of translating the optical payloads that were
displaced slightly during the installation of the HEPI actuators. BSC1 is
being done first.
LLO Seismic retrofit (Oddvar Spjeld)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Completed
- completed assembly of the last eight horizontal actuators
#MZ A MAJOR MILESTONE!
- completed as-built drawing package for HEPI actuator
- manufacturing drawing for revised hydraulic reservoir sent to shop
Ongoing
- inventory of HEPI spare parts and shipping of required parts to LASTI
- complete revision of the HEPI Assembly and Installation Procedure
- update manufacturing drawings for HEPI housing to reflect as-built
- complete the valve and sensor placement and identification chart
- request quote for revised drawing for Pin Valve Pressure Gauge
HPLF and L1 Commissioning (Rupal Amin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
HPLF: Qualification testing of the 100 W laser began last week. The laser
showed good power behavior over extended running times of 8 hrs. In current
stabilization mode, the laser remained within 5% of the power setpoint. In
power stabilization mode, the laser remained within 3% of its setpoint.
However, in the latter mode we noticed the pump current gradually increasing
until the pump current was maximized (5.84 A). Longitudinal mode measurements
indicated a reasonably clean beam (2.3 mm waist at the output).
Unfortunately wavelength measurements which were being continued yesterday came
to a halt when the 100 W laser failed (we smelled electronics burning).
IPG tech support informed us that we should return the device for a repair
immediately.
##MZ Note: this is a major setback, especially coming mere hours after we
authorized payment for the IPG laser. DOH!
PSL: nothing done this week. Only the standard maintenance of the chiller
water.
WFS: I have been helping Rai and Ken perform RF modifications to the WFS sensor
heads. Thus far, I have checked WFS 4 for oscillations and have observed none.
It is has been returned to ISCT1. WFS 3 and 1 were found to have broken
power capacitors (4.7 mfd/20 V electrolytic). These capacitors have been
photographed and e-logged for future notes. I have checked WFS 1 for
oscillation at 150 MHz and have found a minor bump in the FFT spectrum. WFS 1
should be complete and checked out by Friday.
Phase Noise Measurement: I have been trying to improve the measurement Tom Nash
and I took in May. Since oscillators are much quieter than the IFR devices,
they are saturating the analyzer at low frequencies. I hope to be able to
measure the level of phase noise within a few days using the new passive filter
and finally qualify the crystals.
General computing (Roddy)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
6/18 - 6/24
* 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.
* Ordered the Arkeia backup software license.
* Setting up the old NIS+ server as the backup server. Had some hardware
issues on it during the OS reinstall. I have a call n to sun. It
seems to be an intermittent hardware problem.
* Upgraded the Matlab installation here. Both R13 and R14 are available
on the network now.
* installed several applications in the GC apps directory. Includes top,
Mozilla Firebird, some developement libraries, OpenSSL, etc.
* Set up a new KVM switch.
* Ordered some CAT6 cable to replace the CAT5e on the gigabit connections.
* Still waiting on the local contractor to repair a fiber in the
Communications Room.
* Received the RMA switch replacement from Foundry. Waiting on the fiber
to be repaired before I install this.
* Added more GC accounts for students.
* Have noticed that people that are applying for new accounts are obviously not
reading the Computer Usage Policy since the passwords that they are choosing do
not conform to the policy statement (section 10.2.1).
#MZ NOTE: READ AND FOLLOW THE POLICY PLEASE
CDS (Parameswariah)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
(see commissioning summary)
CDS software support (Khan)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Troubleshoot the fiber network connection problem with Chethan
2) Fixed the IOO WFS MEDM screens
2) Prepared an EPICS Data Acquistion System proposal
S2/S3 Burst Analysis, AdL IO Modeling, and HPLF (Franzen)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Continued tests of the new 100 W laser in the LLO HPLF together with Rupal
Amin (see his report).
2) Writing a LIGO note on the recent WaveMon study of hardware and software
injections during S2.
3) Discussing the new (and worrying) results of the latest Melody AdLIGO mode
cleaner model with Amber Lynn Bullington and Ray Beausoleil.
Data analysis (Yakushin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
LDAS admin:
1) With Scott Koranda's help transferring LHO S3 L3 RDS from CIT using LDR.
2) Reinstalled DB2 at TEST and LLO metaservers to be able to use Administration
Server that is necessary for DB2 replication and federation. There were some
authorization problems found and resolved by Mary.
3) u1d1@t3-10 failed. Exchanged it with u1d9@t3-13
Data analysis:
Addressing some accounting issues discovered by Keith Riles in the time
intervals used by waveburst. Found a small bug in the LDAS job submission TCL
script that caused approximately 1.7% of S2 data to be unnecessarily excluded
from the analysis.
no report
This week we have had a lot of people on travel Ken (Caltech), Jon (LLO) and
Rich (LLO)
We have released the triple of its stops and have confirmed that it is
functioning correctly. Mark Barton has sent us the parts required to finish the
installation. We are now setting up to practice aligning the triple to a
reference defined by a theotolite.
The thermal compensation laser enclosures have been completed. They are being
shipped from the fabricator today and is expected to arrive at LLO on 7/1 and
at LHO on 7/2. There are still some parts of the camera box at anodize. When
the parts arrive the camera box will be assembled and shipped. These are small
and do not have to be shipped by truck so they will arrive before the
enclosures.
Ken attended the AdLIGO SEI design review at ASI in Pasadena.
Jon have been reviewing the cabling, electronics, and interconnects for HEPI at
LLO so that he will be in able to take ownership of the electronics of the
LASTI HEPI system.
Simulation and Modeling
(Bhawal)
Commissioning support (Biplab Bhawal, Hiro Yamamoto, Xiao Xu)
Biplab is spending this week at the Hanford site.
--Worked with Joe, Keita and Luca on understanding of Output Mode Cleaner (OMC)
problems. From a set of phasecamera data (measured by Joe) of the 25MHz and 50
MHz demodulated beams at the output of the OMC trying to obtain information
about the modal content of OMC's input beam resorting to various approximation.
If a consistency among various measurements can be established, that could be
utilized to understand the behaviour of OMC.
--With Joe analyzing POY port phasecamera data.
--With the modified FFT code studied how much Sideband(SB) imbalance is introduced
by beam-splitter curvature of about 200Km (H1 value).
The number turns out to be
(Power_SBplus - Power_SBminus)/(Power_SBplus + Power_SBminus)
= 0.10 inside recycling cavity
This number is consistent with what is observed from Joe's phase
camera data. Observed data for asymmetric port is also of same order. Under
FFT's locked state this number comes out to be low-only about 0.02. However,
this number at the asymmetric port in simulation can be increased by changing
the beam-splitter location without affecting the number for the internal light.
Hiro has been working with Luca and Keita to quantify the OMC issue.
Based on the measurement of the beam sizes in x-y plane, it was calculated that
the elliptic beam is tilted by 25 degree and the separation of the waist
positions are longer than the measurement in x-y plane by 50%. e2e is modified
so that this astigmatic beam and the interaction with OMC is simulated at least
semi-quantitatively.
Hiro modified FFT code so that the BS curvature can be consistently and easily
calculated.
Xiao Xu is preparing all phase maps with curvature and tilt removed properly.
All mirror data files for FFT run will be available soon in e2e home page.
****
Seismic noise (Virginio Sannivale, Sany Yoshida and his students)
Virginio is trying to improve the seismic noise simulation by utilizing the
actual measurement to quantify the LLO lock stability. Long this line, Sany
Yoshida has provided several measurements of mirror motions without control
signals to trace the source of yaw motion of mirrors which could be one major
source of the stability. Virginio is comparing data, SimLIGO simulation and
Hytech model to improve the stack simulation.
****
Linear Noise model (Matt Evans)
Cleaned up LinLIGO data loading. Now raw data from a wide variety of
sources are loaded into a single object type (NoiseData) and saved for later
use with the LinLIGO transfer function model. I hope that this marks the
end of LinLIGO development, at least for the current version.
****
Signal generation in e2e (Hideaki Hayakawa of ICRR)
Dr.Hayakawa is visiting Caltech / LIGO until July 4th. He is going to develop
the signal generation modules using FUNC_X. Also planned is the integration of
Jeff (SURF 2003)'s work in e2e which implements the phase change in the
propagation of laser due to GW signal.
****
Modeler code (Hiro Yamamoto, Melody Araya)
Hiro worked to implement a better modal model. The matrix of mode base change
has been calculated and implemented. This is needed to calculate the effect of
an astigmatic beam to OMC. Now all modal calculations can be done for arbitrary
number of modes. (This does not mean that any phenomena can be calculated.
Physics which needs many many modes may not be well described using modal
model.)
Melody resumed work to process a .sim file in the modeler. This file
consolidates all box files into one file, and can improve the startup time of
modeler.
****
Alfi (Bruce Sears, Melody Araya)
Bruce Sears
- Completed working directory change
capability (PR 417).
- Implemented instance node window size
with respect
to root node window size
preference (PR 335).
- Continuing work on reimplementation of
bundlers.
Melody
Finished fixing problem reports assigned to me.
The last one PR fixed was to verify that the command key commands specified in
the ALFI documentation were consistent with the software.
Also performed regression testing using JGo 5.0 and Java
1.4.2.
LIGO Data Analysis System
Software Systems (Blackburn)
Worked on a new installation procedure for IBM's DB2 version 8.1 on the
LDAS-TEST system. This new installation will support features that are needed
to implement the database replication/federation. An issue with the
authorization was discovered and several backup and restore issues are being
sorted out. Once the procedure is validated on LDAS-TEST, the
LDAS-[CIT/MIT/LLO/LHO] systems will have the DB2 re-installed as well.
The controlMonitorAPI and diskCacheAPI are being enhanced to allow faster
lookups of the time intervals and graphical display of these time intervals by
users. A new C++ interface has been added to the diskCacheAPI to generate the
time ranges of existing frames and to present this information to the user or
controlMonitorAPI.
A review of the TCL code for the dataConditionAPI has identified a possible
cause for lost exception handles as a result of nested if statements (a know
issue with the version of TCL being used). This code has been cleaned up and is
now being tested to determine if the lost exception condition has been removed.
The system and integration testing were repeated on LDAS version 1.1.41 and
results has been posted on the webpage, as well as checked into CVS. A new
verifymdc.tcl script has been developed that validates that all mdc test results
have been properly emailed.
Fixed the incorrect cursor coordinates in the histogram plot that is associated
with the problem report #2574.
The latest version of LAM (version 7.0.6) has been tested on the tandem four
system for two days. It is now ready for testing on the LDAS-DEV system. This
is attached to PR #2570.
The mpiAPI failure to capture fatal errors associated with the wrapperAPI not
loading a shared object has been fixed and the problem report (2032) closed.
Work has begun on the performance issue in the diskCacheAPI when subdirectories
contain large numbers of frame groups with gaps. This is problem report 2390.
Several Solaris patches were placed on the Sun server used to perform the
nightly build of LDAS on the development system. These patches resulted in a
failure to build LDAS. It is currently being looked into and appears to be
either directly or indirectly related to the m4 processing tool.
Hardware Systems (Anderson)
Caltech
-------
(Hari Pulapaka)
* Installing Condor on the test cluster.
* Tried out some new things with Gridcvs.
* Looking at the new version of Ganglia, will install that on the test
cluster, once Condor is setup on it.
(Al Wilson)
* Getting license for Trip-wire for Solaris. When it is ready to go, I will
consult with the programmers to see which sun-test box I could use for
testing. Trip-wire should have no effect on the operation on the host
machine.
* Downloaded BSD 3.5. Waiting for Shannon to pull the trigger.
* Replaced one disk in datacache6. No data loss.
* Found a bad CD-Rom in a desktop system (dell) have ordered a replacement.
* Talked with Larry about getting RedHat- Enterprise Support. We have issues
with the file systems in the raid disk and this version of RedHat.
(Stuart Anderson)
* Testing a recent set of Solaris 9 patches on a number of different servers.
* Testing a new version of SAN(4.4) and SAM-QFS(4.1) on top of the
latest Solaris 9 patches.
MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)
* Setting up ldas-grid w/ gsi-ssh.
* Testing gsi-ssh from ldas-jobs and ldas-pcdev1.
* Still working on globus-rls-server on gateway.
* Had sun replace faulty RAM in SF880.
* Replaced two failing drives on lancelot dmt raid server
(took approx 5 days to copy data off raid before attempting
replacement / rebuild).
Livingston
----------
(Igor Yakushin)
* With Scott Koranda's help transferring LHO S3 L3 RDS from CIT using LDR.
* Reinstalled DB2 at TEST and LLO metaservers to be able to use
Administration Server that is necessary for DB2 replication and
federation. There were some authorization problems found and resolved
by Mary Lei.
* u1d1@t3-10 failed. Exchanged it with u1d9@t3-13.
Hanford
-------
(Greg Mendell)
* Ben Johnson and I are working to complete the install of condor at LHO.
Most of the software is running, but we have found that we do not have
sufficient air conditioning to run the 280 CPU cluster, and thus only
200 CPUs are currently available. Working with John Worden and
Albert
Lazzarini we think we have a fix for the problem that can be implemented
fairly quickly and inexpensively.
(Ben Johnson)
* Increased Cluster usage and summer temperatures (approx. 100F this week) have led to high temperatures in
the LDAS room. Condor has been disabled on one rack of CPUs (38 hosts),
and roof tiles removed. Temperature is now hovers around 77F.
* Received replacement T3 disks from Sun.
* olddataserver J3200 DIMM has been replaced, in addition to bank A0.
The memory errors appear to have ceased. Backups of the servers' local
filesystems have resumed at LHO.
* Installed LSC DataGrid Server on ldas-grid (only had client installed
before). This should allow users to use ldas-grid as a gsiftp server
(i.e. use globus-url-copy from any host).
Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)
Creighton:
I spent the week at UWM working on the pulsar Condor script. I also fixed
some doc bugs in LAL inject, and improved the precision of signal simulation
(to remove some cumulative errors that were creeping in for month-long pulsar
signals when they are generated all in one go rather than in segments).
Mendell:
I have started working with two SURF students at LHO this week on burst related
projects comentored by Rick Savage and Dick Gustafson.
Shawhan:
* Working toward finishing the Burst Group S2 untriggered analysis; collected
live time information from the four ETGs and combined them to make one master
time interval list to define the S2 search.
* Led a discussion during the burst group telecon to plan for S3 analysis,
possibly by making some significant changes to the approach we have taken so
far. We did not attempt to make any decisions yet, but will keep these
issues in mind over the coming weeks.
* Worked with SURF student Matt Wroten, helping him explore the basic
techniques of matched filtering. Also spent a lot of time getting the
LALApps inspiral search code set up so that he can analyze S3 playground data
on his computer.
Sutton:
I've spent most of the past week processing event triggers from TFClusters and
TAMA for the LIGO-TAMA analysis. These have included both raw data and
simulation triggers from the SG13 frame set. I have estimated the
TFClusters-TAMA 4X efficiency for various false alarm rates (before the
r-statistic). I also sent Cadonati simulation and background coincidence
times for r-statistic testing. Most of these results have been posted to
the JWG elog. Otherwise, I've been working on the TFClusters review:
reviewing codes, studying test results, and performing some livetime
tests. I also posted to the Bursts S2 elog some SNR-based predictions for
supernova detectability that fit pretty well to the measured sensitivities.
Yakushin:
Addressing some accounting issues discovered by Keith Riles in the time
intervals used by waveburst. Found a small bug in the LDAS job submission TCL
script that caused approximately 1.7% of S2 data to be unnecessarily excluded
from the analysis.
Lazzarini:
- Finalized edits of paper on H1+H2 optimal strain combination and resubmitted
to PRD, gr-qc. Interested readers may find it at:
http://xxx.lanl.gov/pdf/gr-qc/0403093
- Attended Virgo PAC meeting in Cascina last week. Working on LSC-Virgo proposal
for joint data analysis. Target is to have a first draft by the time of the
August LSC meeting.
- Finalizing the proposal with Rai Weiss on use of the LIGO interferometers
as a gravitational radiometer. Proposal will be submitted to LSC once it
is edited.
General Computing (Wallace)
MIT:
(Keith)
-Investigating Ultra 10 that hangs frequently moved user data off node
-Set up windows box w/ various cards for David Ottaway in 037
-Setup new urop Si Hui Tan on gc
-Purchased various spare computer equipment
-Attended presentation on SGI's latest technology (expensive but has impressive
scalability)
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.
-Ordered the Arkeia backup software license.
-Setting up the old NIS+ server as the backup server. Had some hardware issues
on it during the OS reinstall. I have a call n to sun. It seems to
be an intermittent hardware problem.
-Upgraded the Matlab installation here. Both R13 and R14 are available on
the network now.
-Installed several applications in the GC apps directory. Includes top, Mozilla
Firebird, some development libraries, OpenSSL, etc.
-Set up a new KVM switch.
-Ordered some CAT6 cable to replace the CAT5e on the gigabit connections.
-Still waiting on the local contractor to repair a fiber in the Communications
Room.
-Received the RMA switch replacement from Foundry. Waiting on the fiber to
be repaired before I install this.
-Added more GC accounts for students.
-Have noticed that people that are applying for new accounts are obviously not
reading the Computer Usage Policy since the passwords that they are choosing do
not conform to the policy statement (section 10.2.1).
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
- Lots of support for the SURF students. Setup two PCs and a Sun
workstation for the SURFs to use. Added ntp services to two Sun
workstations so the dtt and dataviewer software will work on them. Rebooted the
sandbox computer to clear a run away process. Killed another process that
was using a defunct nfs file handle, remounted the nfs file system.
Maintaining a watch on the Matlab log to make sure licenses are released when
not used; I've set a timeout but it doesn't seem to be working. Helped
students with printing problems, getting their e-mail setup, and questions on
how to use different applications.
- Purchased some software for a user, followed up on a computer order that is
months overdue, and ordered some converters for the TCS systems.
- Awaiting the arrival of the media converters for the WAN connection conversion
to GigE. No word on when the conversion will happen.
- Other misc. user support
CIT:
(Mike)
-Spent most of the week loading the PDMWorks server from Livingston. This is
now up and running with users logging into from the various sites. I still have
some additional work to perform on this server, that should not require any
down time. I also updated the PDMWorks software to service pack 3, which forces
all users who access the vault to upgrade as well.
-Ran security/office updates on the following workstations: Mohanna, Flavio,
and Sander Liu.
-Sander Liu: Protel 98 and CDRW software corrupted. I reloaded Protel DXP &
Roxio cd-rewritable software. There were some other issues that required me to
uninstall some programs that were not general computing software.
-Mohana: Having problems with her workstation running to slow. This is an
adware/spyware issue plus other unnecessary programs running on this computer.
After uninstalling and cleaning up these issues, this workstation seems to be
running ok for now.
-Work on Pherkab one of the NTSRV's, the system partition was maxed out. I cleared
up some disk space to correct this issue. This server will have to be reloaded
in the near future; to allow disk space for future OS service packs.
-Ran additional cabling up on the third floor W/B conference room. I also
activated all network ports in that room, including the control room.
-Alan Weinstein: I took over a complete workstation setup to Lauritsen rm: 237.
This included computer, 2 monitors. I also installed additional software on
this computer.
-Worked on loading and updating software and security on a laptop for the
loaner pool.
-Other misc. onsite/phone user support.
(Lisa)
- Spent some time experimenting with different wireless antennas and
determining how to improve signal strength in areas where it is poor.
Reprogrammed the access points. Resolved a problem that Mark Barton has
been having with using his macintosh to connect to the wireless network.
- Still refining the spam filters after the last upgrade. The false
positive rate is much improved from before and I've lowered the threshold for
when spam gets trapped. I'm still experimenting with how low I can drop
it before the false positive rate begins to go up.
- Working on the application server. I've had problems getting the X11 libraries
to compile properly.
- Did quite a bit of small, clean-up work on user things, mailing lists,
etc.
- Worked on issues with the sun cds boxes in the 40meter.
- Updated the virus software on the mailserver. This was to patch a
security hole.
Mail Stats 6/17 - 6/23/04
Messages Accepted:
Spam Rejected:
Viruses Rejected:
False Positives:
Total Mail Thru:
% spam rejected = 46%
(Veronica)
- LIGO website: Videotaped and compressed the first talk on LIGO for SURF
students by Alan Weinstein. Working on GC Information webpages for the LIGO
home page. Updates to documents templates. Worked with JoAnn Boyd on showing
her the how-to of video compressing for DVD archiving. Helped Sydny with
software installation on his Mac laptop. He also needed a set of webpages to be
posted at his home directory. He's on travel so I've installed them into my own
home dir for now.
- LSC website: Updates to the Observational Results page and usual upkeep.
- CaJAGWR website: Updates and user support.
(Larry)
-Continue spending time dealing with purchases, maintenance contracts and
related items. It looks like we are still having problems with CISCO and
getting their billing work sorted out.
-Tested out another webcam and this one actually has passed all of the tests
so far. Just a few more to go. If they are successful we will mount the camera
in the SCR and work on getting one for Millikan.
-Moving a lot of equipment around in preparation for the expansion to the
computer room. It was suppose to start today but so far no sign of anyone.
Along the same line Florance has donated some of her office space for equipment
storage and we have been working on taking advantage of that opportunity.
-Still working with the SURF students and getting their issues taken care
of.
-The Commercial version of RedHat is required for technical support. Redhat
informed me that they do not give the technical support for the educational
purchase of their software. This has just given us another reason to look at
some of the alternatives that may be available.
-We will be purchasing some adware detection programs. We've spent a number of
hours cleaning up after some spyware issues. Webjacking is now becoming a
common item as part of the spyware infection.
-Having problems with the LINUX install on one of the E2E servers. Just the
LDAS version. I will be spending more time on getting that issue resolved.
-Also, have the IDEAS s/w and working on getting the licenses installed.
-Worked a couple of printer issues. One printer will be getting replaced.
-Assisted a number of users with different programs.
-Assisted the DCC with some data issues and helped a number of users on getting
documents from the DCC system.
-A lot of the regular work on managing accounts and mail aliases.
From: "Thomas Frey" frey_t@ligo.caltech.edu
Progress Period from 06.04 to 06.24
·
·
See http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/index.html for a
complete listing of all project related cost and schedule data.
§
§
Working with Carol to add content related to the total program.
§
§
Modified links on left side as directed by Carol.
Accomplishments:
·
·
Sub-system PLANNING activities
§
§
ISC - Received comments and revised data last week. My review,
comment, and processing started this week.
§
§
Continue working on AOS and IO concurrent with ISC regarding scope movement
to ISC.
§
§
Prepared and posted progress data for progress through
§
§
Posted a spending forecast for FY2005 with access to detailed support
data. See this URL: http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/rd2005/
§
§
Preparing updated AdL milestone forecasts, based upon potential funding
scenarios, as directed by Carol.
·
·
ROSTER DATABASE:
§
§
Continued input of changes / corrections regarding supervisors and
departments.
§
§
Assisted Irena as needed with email address related tasks.
·
·
COST BOOK DATABASE:
§
§
Reconciling cost account listing from cost book and schedule
loading. Per discussion with Carol, account numbering system will change
to accommodate split funding type.
§
§
Continue to work with Carol and
From: Larry Jones <ljones@ligo.caltech.edu>
Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure
SEI Structure:
The Design Review meeting for the BSC structure was held
..potential misalignment caused by thermal gradients between stages
..finalizing design of locater/locker devices
..effects of lateral loads on blade tips causing tilt
..finalizing the application of the stiffness matrix into requirements (the
design captures this, in principle)
..thoroughly addressing the venting of screw holes and other trapped volumes
..completion of load distortion analysis
..revision of Stage 1 design, and repeating FEA studies with final CG tolerance
range to meet 165 Hz requirement
Due to positional requirements for good dynamics, replacement access of some
components (particularly the larger seismometer pods) is not convenient,
requiring the disassembly of significant amounts of hardware. However, we
agreed that this appears to be the best compromise.
Most of the structure is aluminum, as required. Assembly configuration is
bolted, rather than welded, using bar nuts of Nitronic 60 (a stainless alloy
developed to prevent galling) in cross holes rather than tapping the aluminum.
Each requirement was addressed in ASI's presentation materials, with the
design's compliance judged.
Mass properties of all parts are being tracked using special software. All
parts will be weighed during fabrication, and the database will be updated.
A walkthrough outline of their assembly plan was presented.
Margin for radial mass moment balancing of the design for the specific 9
payload configurations identified by LIGO was shown, with a minimum of 32%
margin for nominal scenarios, and a minimum of 2% margin for rotated scenarios
(structure installed at 180 degrees from optimum, not a likely configuration).
The Stage 2 (optical table) vertical CG location stays within 62% of the range
allowed, for the 9 payload configurations.
ASI was surprised by the sensitivity of the design to variations in spring
stiffness, and is taking steps to control this stiffness to 0.1% or better
through bench testing and thickness control (0.0001" in thickness = 0.05%
stiffness change) of the blades. Otherwise, trim weight requirements become
excessive.
Stage 1 does not yet meet the requirement for design minimum resonant frequency
of 165 Hz (which includes a margin of 10% on the as-built hardware). The
current design has a minimum of 132 Hz, and design modifications have been
identified which will raise this to 153 Hz. Brian Lantz is evaluating ASI's
proposal to relax the CG location tolerances for Stage 1, which will allow
reduction of ballast weight and further improved stiffness.
Stage 2 transfer functions are yet to be run. LIGO agreed to limit the need to
validate transfer functions to only the worst case of the 9 payload
configurations, which will still require the generation of 108 plots.
ASI's finite element models include the bolted joints modeled as discrete rigid
elements at actual bolt locations, which is more thorough than common practice
would dictate. This improves the likelihood that design margin will carry over
to actual hardware.
ASI has a good understanding of our requirements and is doing an exceptional
job of design. They will be doing an update on estimating fabrication costs of
the BSC structure soon. At that time, LIGO will consider approval for
proceeding with fabrication.
The HAM structure Design Review is now scheduled for
Actuators:
All precleaning and shipping of prototype actuator parts has been completed by
Bob Taylor.
Magnet magnetization and magnet/frame assembly is in process at vendor MCE in
..PSI had planned on staggered positioning of the wire coils, and the winding
plan required that each coil crosses over coils in the previous layer,
precluding staggering in every position
..LIGO's precleaning of the wire, which included unspooling, cleaning and
re-spooling, caused bends in the wire which affected the smoothness of winding
..the rectangular form of the bobbins includes large, flat areas, in which it's
difficult to get the wire to lay flat
..the 17 ga used in the large actuator is larger and stiffer than magnet wire
used previously by PSI
The next small bobbin was wound with finer wire, and build-up was within the
bobbin channels. PSI has requested that the prototype large bobbin be wound
with finer wire that is not precleaned, and we have agreed. These prototype
actuators are expected at Caltech within a week or two.
A test of three Tra-Con epoxies was started recently in the LIGO optical cavity
contamination facility. These epoxies were Tra-Bond 2151 and 2902 used in the
displacement sensor probe assembly, and Tra-Bond 2254, planned as a potting
material for the PSI actuators. All three had shown low hydrocarbon outgassing
(the 5 charactistic AMUs used) and were tested together as a lot, with
expectations of good results. We were surprised to see obvious failures in both
the ringdown and delta frequency tests, on the first day! These results
continued at nearly constant levels for the next 4 days, when the test was
terminated. PSI has been told to use Ceramabond 853M to pot the prototype
actuators, and 835M coupons are being placed into the optical cavity test. The
makers of Cycom 3001 polyimide adhesive (used for the coil winding) are being
consulted for other candidate potting material ideas.
Displacement Sensors:
Informed ADE (through Jay) that one or both of the epoxies used in the
displacement sensor probe assemblies (Tra-Bond 2151 & 2902) may have failed
the optical cavity contamination test (see actuator, above). ADE responded that
identification and replacement are not immediately needed, but this process takes
some time and we're giving it special attention. Tra-Bond 2151 is being
retested now, by itself, in the second test setup.
Seismometers:
Ordered 5 spare cables for Streckeisen STS-2 seismometers.
Galling/Dusting Test:
Nothing new.
Other:
Planning is proceeding on the design and sourcing of a larger vacuum bake
oven for the quad structure.
From: ctorrie
<ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>
Cantilever Blades
4 companies were asked to quote for the cantilever blades. A 5th was contacted
for possible future use and technical information. HBD have asked several
questions that will be put to the blade committee on Monday.
PDMWorks Vault
LIGO at Caltech now has a data management system set up for CAD and related
files, more details to follow
Test Mass + Penultimate Mass (main and reaction chain)
Drawings are ready and now need to be checked and then released before they are
sent to workshop for manufacture
Upper and Upper Intermediate Mass
MPL and I have had several discussions about aspects of these assemblies.
Discussion is required with the design team wrt blades, changing the 1/2
separation of the wires and considering a larger clamping angle for the blades.
These are all included in Mikes PDR and will be discussed further on Monday.
Structure
MPL, Janeen and I created a draft requirements document for the structure. I
believe Janeen is going to organise this before we distribute it to a wider
audience.
Visit
MPL is visiting from
MC to LASTI
The mode cleaner I believe has been located in the tank at LASTI.
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~ctorrie/SolidWorksphotos/triple_installation.htm
From: Bill Kells <kells@ligo.caltech.edu>
Per the recent absorption measurements on two 3" dia sapphire samples, and
one (Sapphire "B") of 15 cm dia I have studied the "same
view" bulk inhomogeneity of these same (actually did the interferograms
for the 3" pieces). These all
show some correlation between the spatial variation of the absorption and the
inhomogeneity. Not a large or striking correlation but enough, I would say,
that there is no doubt of some association.
Also I have begun a fresh study of a possibility that the basic modal
configuration in LIGO (though relevant only for advanced ligo sensitivities) is
"microscopically" unstable or chaotic, conceivably leading to an
excess noise mechanism.
From: Riccardo DeSalvo <desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu>
Weekly 23 June 04
Maddalena
This week I finished to write my master thesis on super low
frequency vertical attenuation.
The almost final draft is available in
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/Maddalena-TesiP040025.mac.doc
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/Maddalena-TesiP040025-PC.doc
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/Maddalena-TesiP040025.pdf
My last week LIGO seminar presentation can be found in
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/Maddalena-Pres.G040297-00-R.ppt
The final results are attenuation of 100 above 1 Hz (failing
so far to reach our target of 60 dB).
The attenuation though should reach 55 dB at 3Hz (unmeasureable with the
present apparatus) and 60 dB with the thicker TAMA-SAS blade.
In the lab we found an anomalous slope in the attenuation
transfer function at the lowest frequencies and I started to search the source
of it. We did not understand the
cause yet but we will work on it after I come back from
I am out of town for a month for the thesis defense
Barbara
At the end of last week I finished to assemble the
electronic circuit to drive the piezos, but when I tested I found that 3 of the
9 channel didn't work. I will check again the circuit and fix
it.
Also in this week we are assemblying the mechanics in the
OTF laboratory starting with the vacuum pipe.
Alban Remillieux
Will probably make the first mexican hat deposition trials
next week.
Juri
Works going on in simulations, more details next week.
Yanyi Chen
Working on the circuit
connecting the LVDT to the voice coil actuator to make an electro-magnetic
spring/anti-spring.
My job mainly involves
designing, improving and building the second generation card merging the LVDT
driver (new model from Alessandro Bertolini) and the gain/ thermal correction
stage developed by Maddalena.
This time it will be a
PCB card developed in DXP, I am working on transferring Maddalena’s sketches
into a DXP PCB design, waiting for the LVDT part from Alessandro:
The improvements suggested so far are:
if anyone has any other
suggestion and improvements, please let me know.
Anamaria Effler:
My job is to measure the Q-factors of MGAS blades built of
different materials (maraging, copper-berilium and hopefully glassy metal).
Till now I have finished the setup (LVDT connection and computer aquisition)
and calibrated the maraging spring to be at its working point (by measuring its
resonant frequency as a function of compression).
Now I will start to aquire data for the actual measurement
of the Q-factor, using LabView.
I will also be doing some measurements for Maddalena at very low frequency (where each measurement takes about a day and a half of data acquisition) and updating the data she had already acquired.
For additional information about this report, contact whitcomb_s@ligo.caltech.edu