Weekly Report for Week Ending July 8, 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  July 12, 2004 will be:

 (Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)  

  1. Announcements
  2. LSC Issues (Saulson)
  3. Comments on Weekly Report
  4. Field Change Orders/Contingency Liens/Change Requests
  5.  LIGO Lab Operations
      • Administration (Lindquist)
      • Sites (Raab, Zucker, Shoemaker)
      • Commissioning (Fritschel), Detector (Coyne)
      • Campus Research Facilities
        1. Weinstein (40 Meter)
        2. Libbrecht (TNI,
        3. Zucker(LASTI))
      • Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)
  6. Advanced R&D and LIGO II (Shoemaker)
  7. CHANGE CONTROL BOARD/TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD SESSION AS NEEDED


Special Items:


Special Announcements:

Congratulations to Mike and Marilyn Landry, who had a baby boy last weekend.

Breaking news from LLO: HEPI mechanical installation is now complete in the corner station
and the gate valves are open!


Weekly Report Highlights
 


LSC Issues (Saulson)


no report


LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)


 

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

LSC Research Updates through August 2004, and Progress Reports through February 2004)

Balearic:

GEO 600:

National Astronomical Observatory-China (NAO-C):

Stanford:

IUCAA:

Rochester:

Groupe Virgo:

Virgo:

HETE II:

Site Teleconference (Lindquist)

There was no site teleconference scheduled Thursday, July 8, 2004.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)

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

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

No report

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

WE July 8, 2004

Packages

Faxes

In

12

23

Out

9

16


COST SCHEDULE CONTROL SYSTEMS (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>

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

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

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)

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

SUPPORT (Baldon, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

>Dorothy Lloyd

ADVANCED LIGO (Cost Schedule Control Systems) T. Frey

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

See Advanced R&D Section.

Reports (Lindquist)

Change Control/Contingency (Lindquist)

I have saved a copy of a change request submitted by Albert Lazzarini at:

http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~phil/ChangeBoard/CR040013.pdf

The request is for additional budget for Hanford LDAS hardware and maintenance.  You will recall that some LDAS maintenance budget was retained in planning packages at the beginning of the year to provide an aggressive target as well as some budget flexibility.  I propose to discuss the change request during the next meeting of the LIGO Executive Committee (July 12, 2004).

Human Resources (Akutagawa)

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


Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

No report this week.

.


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



 Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory  (compiled by L.Matone)

First of all, Mike and Marilyn Landry had a baby boy last weekend. Congratulations!

This week we continued to work on reducing the high frequency bump in H1's AS_Q. In the process of  implementing a new crystal filter (elog), it was observed that H1's noise floor (and power lines) had increased by ~10x above nominal. This was finally tracked down to the REFL lambda/2 plate controller not responding anymore (elog). After the fix, more measurements of the crystal filter were made (elog).

It was also noticed how H1's acoustic coupling has significantly increased over the past few months. See elog.

For H2, with the new Faraday Isolator installed, we measured the power of the beams it produces (elog).

And the new H2 PSL layout (in order to match it to H1's) began this week (elog).

 


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


---------------------------------------------------------------------
L1 Commissioning highlights (Zucker)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Another extremely productive week for HEPI commissioning. After last week's demonstration of about a factor of ten suppression in the target band, using a relatively simple control law, the team continued to improve bandwidth and performance by integrating the onboard L4C geophone signals (now demonstrated on at least two degrees of freedom).  Substantial progress is also reported in integration of the high-accuracy FIR filter supplied by Stanford for tailoring STS-2 seismometer sensor correction, to remove the excess noise at 30 mHz reported last week. Also a more robust, unconditionally stable control law was introduced to replace the more fragile quick-and-dirty law used for last week's tests.

WIth the expected completion of the HAM3 chamber alignment tweak tomorrow (Friday) all HEPI heavy lifting will be complete. We will then open the LLO beam tubes to resume full-interferometer commissioning.

LLO Seismic retrofit (Rich Abbott)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.  Completed the re-alignment process for BSC-1 and BSC-2. Re-alignment of the last chamber (HAM-3) is currently underway.

2.  Most of our effort is being focused on preparing ITMX for control under the HEPI system.  By early next week, we should be in a position to take system ID data on ITMX.  As the electrical and hydraulic installation is so close to completion, the other chambers will also be available for checkout within a few days of completing ITMX.

LLO Facilities and Infrastructure (MZ for Allen Sibley)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
We have determined that the problem of back up HVAC chillers not coming on line when needed are several poorly adjusted pressure switches. They will be replaced as soon as replacements are acquired. HVAC software updates are still being worked but there is good progress.


General computing (Roddy)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
* 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.
* Usual rounds of account additions, etc.
* Started making backups with the new software.  I have some bugs to work
out, but we are getting backups now on the file server and the web server.
This software seems to work pretty well.  It has it's own way of doing things, but so far it is manageable.
* Had a SCSI drive fail.  I have sent in the RMA paperwork on it. Luckily,
there was no data on it.  It was in the process of being installed on a machine.
* Installed a new SunPCI 3 card in a workstation.  Seems to work fairly well.
* Testing an AMD 64 motherboard & CPU.  So far it has great performance. Currently
I am using it as a central syslog server and workstation, though this may change in the future.
* Working on some billing issues with LSU for the gigabit line. Took several phone calls and emails to get eveything straightened out.

CDS software support (Khan)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Developing scripts to perform one button local damping of Optics

2) Prototyping an EPICS data collection system


S2/S3 Burst Analysis, AdL IO Modeling, and HPLF (Franzen)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Finished the conversion and selection of the S3 Playground WaveMon triggers produced on-line . Posted the results as text format files at
http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~franzen/restricted/S3download/list.html
However, it was discovered that there is an excess in the number of triggers with start time zero nanoseconds appearing with a periodicity around 60 seconds. This is probably due to a wrong setting in the WaveMon version running during S3. We probably have to discard this set and rerun everything off-line again. Trying to understand what went wrong.


Data analysis (Yakushin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
LDAS admin:

1) Tested Condor at LLO at full load for several hours. No AC or power problems found. Everything seems to be working fine.

Data analysis:

1) Rerunning waveburst on S2 after some corrections to the coincidence algorithm and ldas job submission script.

2) Running waveburst on S3 playground.
   


Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)



 for more information, contact Dennis Coyne coyne@ligo.caltech.edu

CDS

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

CDS Software

Dennis Coyne reporting

CDS Hardware

Jay Heefner reporting

Anti-Image Board for Low Noise DACs

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

- 10 boards have been received and are being stuffed. The first board is in test and should be ready for shipment to LHO by Friday. The other 9 boards should be ready for test by late next week.

 

LLO EMI Retrofit

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

Continue to receive cables, connectors, feedthroughs and other parts for LVEA suspension systems.

 

AdL MC Triple Suspension Controls

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

Received BNC to Dspace ADC boards for LASTI installation. They will be stuffed and shipped to LASTI by the end of next week.

 

Ben Abbott

RFPD Redesign:

I am wrestling with ground loop problems in the interconnections of the RFPD.  I think I have worked out a solution, and the layout should begin concurrent with the enclosure selection shortly.

 

Sander Liu

HEPI Opto-isolation

Couple of 40 meter long multi-mode fiber cables with ST connectors on both ends ordered from CablePlus still have not arrived. Waiting for a quote on price and delivery from a backup manufacturer (Fiber Optic Cable Shop in Richmond, CA).

HEPI

[see also the LLO report for progress at the observatory]

Ken Mailand finished a general maintenance and service manual for the site HEPI Pump Stations, and will post it on the sei log and DCC.

Ken Mailand and Oddvar Spjeld have completed updates to the HEPI mechanical drawings and have submitted them to Dennis Coyne for review & approval.

TCS

[see also the LLO and LHO reports for progress at the observatories]

Mike Smith

TCS at LLO

 

Optical Bench:   The second CO2 laser optical bench was assembled and aligned in the optics lab.

 

LVEA installation:  Both TCS optical benches were installed in the housings and are positioned in the LVEA under the X and Y arm Zn Se viewports awaiting installation of the periscope mirrors.

 

Installation Procedure:  The alignment and installation procedure was simplified, with explicit instructions on aligning the laser beam, the central heating beam, and the annular mask. A procedure was written for setting the size of the illumination beam at the annular mask. The revised document was distributed to the TCS team: T040014-02.

 

Cost Growth Analysis: A preliminary cost growth analysis was completed. Dave O. will complete it and revise it if necessary before submitting it to Dennis C. who will then make a request of the Configuration Control Board (CCB) for additional funding.

PSL

PeterKing

The machined pieces for my high power photodetector came in and a mechanical fit test was performed.  No glaring problems were encountered although a mistake was made in one of the spacers that took the gloss off things at bit.  I had drawn the part correctly but dimensioned it wrong.

 

A problem was encountered in one of my other photodetector circuits in which a ~2 MHz oscillation was present in the buffered output.  This was tracked down to the feedback resistor forming an un-intended pole with the input capacitance of the OP-27 and was easily remedied.  However the dark noise of the photodetector is about 1.5 - 2 nV/Sqrt[Hz] noisier than the high power photodetector for the same front-end electronics, so I suspect that there's a problem with the layout of the PCB.

Optical Contamination Cavities

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

OTF Lab. (W. Bridge)

We have succeeded cleaning the third pair of ATF mirrors. We have installed these mirrors and,
we got our previous transmission and ring down as well as beat frequency base measurements.
These new pair gave us an improve of transmission power of ~15%.
By tomorrow, We'll be able to introduce the disks of TRA-BOND #2254 color light brown epoxy
 to be tested for contamination.
 
Absorption Test Measurement prototype in progress
 
Scatterometer system in standby
 
OTF Lab at Lauritsen ROOM 38
 
Cavity #3
The cavity is locked and we have optimized and improved its output power and transmission. We have introduced (6) disks of TRA-BOND #2151 color blue epoxy and recently (4) disks of TRA-BOND #2902 color silver epoxy.
After pumping and taking measurements we found out that there no evidence of contamination as yet – more test time is required to establish whether these materials meet LIGO requirements.
Our ring down (loss) and Beat frequency (absorption) have not changed yet.  So far these samples are still
in the chamber and we are taking daily measurements.

Cavity #2 Test cavity optical set up is still in standby

 


 

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)



Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)


We are finishing up a paper on our the results of our Sapphire measurement, and we are working on the next stage of the TNI, a measurement of the rate of non-Gaussian noise events that originate in the mirrors and suspensions. Akira Villar, with help from Jay Heefner, has been designing an automated locking system that will monitor the state of the TNI and reacquire lock if it is lost. Our SURF student, Jason Sussman, has been working on an algorithm for monitoring the data stream in real time and identifying events.
 


LASTI (Ottaway)


LASTI Weekly Report (Allen, Mason, McInnes, Mittleman, Ottaway,Pfau, Ruet)
Thermal Compensation System
All fabricated parts for the camera boxes and beam tubes came in. They were assembled and shipped to Livingston and Hanford. We are also finishing the design work on the TCS Interface board, started by Stefan.

Triple Suspension Alignment
The autocollimator and theodolite used for the initial alignment was set up and used to align the triple suspension at LASTI. The pitch was easily adjusted with the pitch adjuster and increaded osem range. The yaw was a little more difficult as we had to push the structure for course alignment and then move the optic with osems. This should work fine for triple suspensions but could not for quad alignment. Myron and Laurent has been finishing up the installation of the triple pendulumn and designing a system identification program to use once the chamber has been closed.

Overall the triple installation went very smoothly, alignment went very smoothly and was accomplished using a small amount of the range of the top mass OSEMs. From my experience (Dave O) it was certainly no harder than installing a LOS in Initial LIGO. Ken Mason is currently preparing a report on the installation procedure.

ISC Periscope Investigation
David Pfau is working on the new cylinderical periscope. He is investigating the reports from Hanford that the new design has a resonance around 280Hz.


Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)


 Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)

  WFS set-up at LLO
  --------------------
Biplab calculated Gouy phase accumulation and the variation in beam-width along the optical paths of WFS set-ups. The Gouy phases accumulated are in general away from the optimal values for signals from target degrees of freedom and need adjustment. Plots are posted in LLO elog July 2nd.    

  Effect of BS curvature and ITM heating
  -------------------------------------------------------
  (Hiro, Xiao)
The effects of the BS curvature and the heating of  ITMs have been studied using LHO4k configuration. The curvature of BS, -200km,  induces an extra phase of +0.02 on reflection. The transmission induces around 1/3 of this effect. For the cold ITMy, the curvature of the field is 21km which does not match with the mirror curvature of 14km. This curvature mismatch adds an extra phase of +0.14. These two values, signs being the same, suggest that the effect of the finite BS curvature induces a similar effect as differential heating, ITMy is colder than ITMx. FFT program has been used to study this effect more quantitatively, and the result is consistent with this argument. More systematic study, including a validation using e2e is going on. Related plots are available in
   http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~e2e/ME2ET/Minutes04/040707/

  Simulation of Mach-Zehnder configuration
  -------------------------------------------
(Monica) The Mach-Zehnder package has been completed for its first configuration (ref. LIGO T040119-00-R-00-D 06/01/04): open and closed loop has been evaluated but improvements have to be done. The new Mach-Zehnder configuration (ref. 40m weekly report 01/07/04) is in progress.
40m/AdvLIGO optical configuration is almost ready.

  Code development and maintenance
  ---------------------------------
(Melody) Modifying the modeler to process a .sim file, the modeler file which contains consolidated box files information. Added the code to parse and evaluate the .sim file. Tested using the SimLIGO files and validated that the output are identical (from the ones generated by multiple box files).Currently looking at making the code more efficient.

  Alfi
  -----------
(Bruce) Working on re-institution of bundle and bundler code.


LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

LDAS system performance continues to increase as minor improvements are made in various APIs. Sustained throughput of close to 2800 jobs per hour is now possible on the LDAS-DEV system.

System and integration testing on LDAS-DEV last friday found no new issues or problems with the current code base. There was only one job to fail over the long weekend test run out of the quarter of a million jobs run over the weekend due to a none responsive thread in the dataConditionAPI under the RedHat9 SMP kernel.

The support for compression type "diff_zero_suppress_short" from the frame spec has been suspended since the method's reliability is in question. User will be notified that this compression method is not supported in the 1.2.0 release of LDAS.

A bug was discovered and fixed in the new cache viewer window of the controlMonitorAPI's client. The TCL layer expected the list to come back from the C++ layer in a time ordered sequence which it didn't. The Tcl layer has temporarily been changed to do the sorting while the necessary changes to the C++ layer are implemented to do the sorting (see next paragraph).

The diskCacheAPI has been extended to carry out the concatenation and sorting of frame data segments reported in a list to the Tcl layer for graphical display in the new cache viewer window of the controlMonitorAPI's client GUI. This has increased the performance an reliability of the interface significantly.

Several minor edits were made to the TclGlobus website documentation in response to questions raised during the annual review process for this project.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

  LHO (Greg)

1) the createrds.tcl and createrdsgui.tcl scripts that drive the rds generation under ldas have been updated.  The scripts now gracefully handle errors when sourcing the resource (.rsc) and record files (.rec) and vet the input parameters for reasonable values.  The createrdsgui.tcl script now uses the same .rsc, rec, lock and log files as createrds.tcl, i.e., Createrds.rsc, createrds.rec, createrds.pid.lock, and createrds.log.  The scripts are now compatible with the new ldas feature that allows the user to set the usertype field in the name of the output rds frame files (the second field in the name) provided that usertype ends in a number (otherwise ldas appends a number to the end of this type, based on the level of rds being generated).
The latest version of the scripts can be checked out from the :pserver:anonymous@gravity.phys.uwm.edu:/usr/local/cvs/lalwrapper cvs repository under the dsorun/contrib/createrds/scripts directory.
2) Contractors are currently installing pipes for the new 5 ton chilled water AC unit for the LDAS room; another contractor will install the electrical.  This will not disturb access to LDAS or the Condor cluster which currently has 200 CPUs available.  With the new AC we should be able to add back into the cluster the remaining 78 CPUs.
3) LSCdataFind crashed do to a configuration problem on July 1 at LHO but is working again thanks to help from Scott Koranda.

  LLO (Igor)

1) Tested Condor at LLO at full load for several hours. No AC or power problems found. Everything seems to be working fine.

  MIT (Keith)
1) worked on restarting LDR for S2 L1 RDS triple-coin frames

  CIT (Al)

  Was on vacation for most of the week.
1) getting a list of spare parts for CIT,LLO,LHO. Expecting a quote soon.
2) set up printers for M90 and Garrak, to use the new print que's

  (Hari)
1) Tested gridcvs on Linux, works.
2) Had problems building gridcvs on Solaris. Got it to build dynamically, currently testing that.

  (Dan)
1) Continued the transfer of files from HPSS to SAM-QFS.  Also continued deleting files in HPSS after confirmation that they were successfully transferred.

2) Received tape from LLO with missing S3 L0 data.  Since I already FrCheck'd it at the LLO end, I just put it in the /archive file system where it will be used to make L1/L2 files.

3) Dealt with stuck staging (particularly from saiph) on the ldas-archive system several times.

4) Dealt with total HPSS meltdown over the weekend.  Finally got HPSS running but not DCE hsi.  Put in a request to Mike Gleicher about this, never heard back but it started working again.  Still don't know whether this was because someone did something or not.

5) Did some research to show that the gaps in data showed by Mary's new cMonclient tool were due to an error in that software and that the data was really in the archive.

6) Had used old contract number in T3 service call to Sun so I had to resubmit it with new contract number.  Still waiting on delivery of disk drive.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

Creighton:

This week I've continued writing FrComputeFStatistic, a frame-reading version of ComputeFStatistic.

Mendell:

Nothing significant to report this week. However, starting today I plan to start putting as much time as possible into StackSlide again to get results for the August LSC meeting.

Shawhan:

Provided comments to several of the speakers for several of the GR17 talks run-through.

Going over the S2 known pulsar search, discovered that an incorrect distance was used for one pulsar, and that updated distances (5-10% different) are now available for several others.  The upper limits on epsilons in the paper draft have been updated accordingly.

Sutton:

I've spent this week examining the sensitivity of the S2 bursts analysis as a function of the duration, central frequency, and bandwidth of the signals sought.  So far we've only examined a fraction of the signal space that we should be sensitive to.  I'll be giving a presentation at the next bursts telecon on the subject. Also, I'm processing the WaveBurst S2 event triggers for the joint LIGO-TAMA analysis.  I hope to have a combined TFClusters-WaveBurst- TAMA upper limit from the S2 playground next week.

Yakushin:

Rerunning waveburst on S2 after some corrections to the coincidence algorithm and ldas job submission script.

Running waveburst on S3 playground.


General Computing (Wallace)

  MIT (Keith):
-Attended Usenix Tech conference last week
-Worked on matlab licenses for urops
-Working on installing matlab R14 on desktop (license troubles using the FlexLM server)
-Had 1+ second power outage this morning - trying to clean up desktop machines
 
  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.
-Usual rounds of account additions, etc.
-Started making backups with the new software. I have some bugs to work out, but we are getting backups now on the file server and the web server. This software seems to work pretty well.  It has it's own way of doing  things, but so far it is manageable.
-Had a SCSI drive fail.  I have sent in the RMA paperwork on it. Luckily,  there was no data on it.  It was in the process of being installed on a  machine.
-Installed a new SunPCI 3 card in a workstation.  Seems to work fairly well.
-Testing an AMD 64 motherboard & CPU.  So far it has great performance. Currently I am using it as a central syslog server and workstation, though this may change in the future.
-Working on some billing issues with LSU for the gigabit line. Took several phone calls and e-mail's to get everything straightened out.

  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
- The tape drive used to do the backups of the home accounts and mail server has a dead power supply.  The unit is still under warranty, but will have to be shipped to the manufacturer for repair.  Repair could take up to 10 days.  Meanwhile I am creating tar files of the home directories and backing them up to disk.
- The 5 SunBlade 1500s that I ordered back in March have finally arrived. I will start setting those up ASAP.  They are for the SURF  students to use, they are also replacing some Sun Ultra 10s that are obsolete.
- No word from PNNL as to when they want to swap over to the new GigE  network connection.  The media converters that I ordered haven't showed up yet, so we can't do anything until those get here.
- The usual user support for e-mail virus problems and printing problems.

  CIT (Mike):
-Ran end of month ghost back ups on all NTSRV's.
-Erica D'Ambrosio: Loaded additional software on her laptop and updated GC  software, security settings and office updates.
-Searched for a Solid Works compatible video card for Ken Mailand. I went  through his computer seeing what software I have to load for a rebuild that I am scheduled to start on tomorrow morning 7/9. I also updated his e-mail client software.
-Setup an additional visitors workstation up on the second floor of W/B rm: 251.This required a lot of equipment moving around in order to complete  this workstation setup.
-Finished up reloading three loaner laptops by updating General Computing software, OS/office updates and updated security settings.
-The controller card on my workstation died this week. After running  multiple diagnostics with Dell tech support, they finally decided to send  me out another motherboard. My workstation is back up and running.
-Helped Larry Wallace surplus some old computer equipment.
-Lee Cardenas: I troubleshot a problem with a network connection to his workstation. This turned out to be a dead network interface card. After replacing this card his workstation is now back on the network. I also notice many unsuccessful login attempts from unknown users. As a precaution   I have loaded zone alarm and updated his security settings to be safe.
-This week I ghosted Donna Tomlinson, visitors workstation, and all 8 NTSRV's.
-Other Misc. onsite/phone user support.

  (Lisa)
- I was on vacation for most of the week.
- Reprogrammed the wireless access points.
- Working on the application server.  I finally resolved the problems I was having with the X11 tree, a dependency for some core applications.  I  should be able to make better progress now.

    Mail Stats 07/01 - 07/07/04
    Messages Accepted:  12532
    Spam Rejected:      8261
    Viruses Rejected:   631
    False Positives:    19
    Total Mail Thru:    21424

  (Veronica)
- LSC website: Updates to the Observational Results page. Set up a website for the upcoming August meeting and posting updates as they arrive. The website is ready to be installed. Working on ways to automate the process of generating LSC author list.
- LIGO website: Updates to internal b/board, employment, meetings  webpages.

  (Larry)
-Setup and reworked a number of PC units. Two were new installs.
-Benchmarked another webcam. So far the one from Toshiba is looking the  best for our need in the conference room.
-Continued checking out different spyware detection programs. We've decided on a pkg. and will be ordering it today.
-Checking out the different ultra-slim hard-drives for those that need more disk space while on travel.
-Still working with the electricians that are updating the server room.
-Working on a number of documentation projects. The new GC web location is now up and we are making additions to it. It should be quite informative in the near future.
-Worked with Mike and Ed C. on getting some old and nonfunctional equipment  moved out.
-Working on a new storage space for some of the existing equipment.
-Assisted a number of users with different applications and h/w changes.
-Finished up a few items for the E2E servers.
-Regular account maintenance. Along the same line we will be making some changes to the local alias lists that should make things a little cleaner.
-Worked a couple of orders that are late in shipping.


Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)


for more information, contact Dennis Coyne coyne@ligo.caltech.edu

Systems and Management

From "Thomas Frey" tfrey@ligo.caltech.edu

·        ·             See http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/index.html for a complete listing of all project related cost and schedule data.

Accomplishments:

·        ·             Sub-system PLANNING activities

n      n         ISC - Continued data input / changes. Preparing assumptions and questions..

n      n         Continue working on AOS and IO concurrent with ISC regarding scope movement to ISC.

n      n         Executed a telecom with Janeen and Justin G. regarding meetings with Pparc.

n      n         Followed up with David Ottaway regarding testing dates in LASTI, as requested by Carol.

n      n         Received progress data for the following sub-systems: TNI, SEI, COC, and LASTI. Spent some time with Larry, providing guidance on the best way to execute the update.

n      n         Continue to evaluate the effect of hammocks on percent complete calculations, and limitations of resource / cost loading exports.

·        ·             COST BOOK DATABASE:

n      n         Re-evaluating the cost code structure, in anticipation of funding that crosses WBS phases.

 

From Dennis Coyne coyne@ligo.caltech.edu

Seismic Isolation

From Dennis Coyne coyne@ligo.caltech.edu

 

·        ·             PSI provided performance test data for the Phase 1 actuators. This data is being reviewed.

·        ·             The prototype actuators were received on campus today. Mechanical inspection is expected to be complete tomorrow morning, and cleaning/baking scanning will follow: the large actuator should complete the scans on 15 July, and the small actuator on 20 July. I plan to send the large actuator to Kyle for a thermal vacuum test.

·        ·             Larry & Jay had a telecon with ADE, the manufacturer of the capacitive position sensors, to discuss alternatives to the Tra-Bond epoxy (conductive & non-conductive) which had initially failed the optical contamination cavity test (when included with a 3rd epoxy). Recent tests, though preliminary, indicate that a switch may not be needed afterall. Aremco (manuacturer of the Ceramabond adhesive that we use in initial LIGO OSEMs) has recommended one of their products for use in ADE's application. testing on this alternative will being soon.

·        ·             Joe, Brian, Larry and Dennis continue to work action items/issues from the successful Critical Design Review (CDR) for the BSC system.

Suspension

From: Janeen Romie romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu

 

Working with Ian, Calum and Mike P-L on the ETM blade drawings. Gina has extended the quote due date to July 16th. RFQs have gone out to 4 companies. New updated drawings will (if Mike P. can fix the plotter) go out by FedEx today.

Coordinating with suspension team on MC installation and testing at LASTI.

Working on the ETM Upper Structure Product Design Specification. Working on  Failure Modes and Repair Approaches paper.

Working with Caroline and Justin on costs and quantities of penultimate and reaction mass blanks for the final design and for fabrications.

Working with Justin and Birmingham folks on osem costing details.
Working with Justin & Thomas on Advanced LIGO suspensions scheduling.

 

From: ctorrie ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu

 

1. MC Drawings
All of the MC drawings are now ready for transfer and release to both the DCC and the vault. A couple of minor issues have to be ironed out and then I will transfer them for release.

2. Quad
Work is continuing on the drawings for all of the suspended items in the Quad. it is hope to get all of these reviewed, released and out to on campus workshops before MPL leaves Caltech at the end of the month.

3. Bench testing
Several parts have been ordered to allow us to complete bench testing of a new magnet assembly , a suspended mass under load and to investigate the pitch of a double pendulum. Other tests that are planned include testing a new concept for the 4x4 eddy current damper on a suspended double pendulum to look at the various adjustment mechanisms.

4. PDMWorks vault
The vault is up and running. I had hoped to have the documentation to the DCC by today but it will now be by the end of the week.
The main reference document will be LIGO-D030382-05.

5. Blade Drawings
For several reasons there has been a delay in the process of obtaining quotes for the blades. This is linked to inconsistencies with drawings, questions from vendors and a delay in turning round changes. It is hoped that we will have the quotes by the end of next week and that we can start procurement then. However, we are also waiting for some other results form RAL.

Pre-stabilized Laser

From: Peter King pking@ligo.caltech.edu

 

I measured the capacitance of the GAP976 photodiodes.  Compared to the GAP2000 photodiodes, the variation in capacitance is greater --- about 10 - 15 pF at a bias voltage of +5 V.

 

I lent Stanford an old pre-modecleaner for use in their saturated amplifier noise experiment as the one they were using showed signs of having a zapped PZT.

 

(Stanford)

The saturated amplifier noise experiment has been completed and the data obtained thus far fits the theory well.  At present the results are being checked.  The quantum noise picked up by the probe beam decreased as the amplifier pump power increased.

 

New pump diodes from LIMO have been ordered and these are expected in about 6 weeks.  These should be better than those obtained from LaserLine, as the emission tolerances are tighter.

 

(LZH)

Optimization of the high power laser continues.  Typically the laser has a warm-up period of between 20 to 25 minutes.  It was found that the alignment of the mirrors was very sensitive to single mode operation.  An attempt was made at injection locking the high power stage.  The results of which I didn't quite make out during the lasers telecon but I thought that Maik had said that they got a unidirectional output of 65 W.

Core Optics

From: Helena Armandula ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu

Advanced LIGO Coating Development

CSIRO sent a report on the work performed to test the effect of ion bombardment assisted deposition on Young's Modulus of Ta2O5 films.

The films were bombarded by an oxygen/argon ion beam from an assist ion gun during deposition.

The Young's Modulus of the films was measured using a CSIRO manufactured ultra-micro indentation system (UMIS).

Changes on Young's Modulus were very small, within the sensitivity of the instrument.

Also, according to the report, " X-ray diffraction measurements of the above films have shown no evidence of possible ion-bombardment induced microcrystallinity, the as-deposited films being amorphous according to this test. The annealing of the films at  600°C for 2 hours did not change this result, however, at 700°C, a strong evidence of crystallization of the film was obtained. This is in agreement with other sources which have shown the threshold of microcrystallization of an initially amorphous tantala film to be somewhere between 600°C and 700°C."

 

From: Gregg Harry gharry@ligo.mit.edu

MIT Q Lab

We have measured the Q of 6 modes of a thin silica disk coated with Jean-Marie Mackowski's Formula 2, a silica/tantala coating with a higher concentration of titania dopant that in Formula 1.  Without the dopant, phi_coat was about 2.7 10^-4, Formula 1 had phi_coat 1.9 10^-4.

 

Mode     Frequency         Q        phi_coat

  7        2706.3 Hz    8.9 10^5     1.6 10^-4

  8        2711.1 Hz    8.8 10^5     1.6 10^-4

  9        4100.9 Hz    6.8 10^5     1.9 10^-4

 10        6164.6 Hz    8.4 10^5     1.7 10^-4

 12        9463.5 Hz    6.8 10^5     1.9 10^-4

 13        9464.7 Hz    6.1 10^5     2.1 10^-4

 

This shows two things; Formula 2 does seem to have slightly lower loss that Formula 1, so loss may correlate with titania concentration.  Also, the loss does seem to be slightly going up with frequency, which has been hinted at in earlier data.  We may try to get even higher

frequency modes if time allows.

 

A 30 cm long sapphire rod is now hung by two silk threads.  We have been unable to get it hung with a single thread because the silk breaks.  I suspect this can be corrected by teflon clamps rather than stainless steel we have now. We have used both greased and ungreased silk in the suspension.   The lowest mode at 4 kHz has a higher Q than with the steel wires, about 4 million, but still well below what is expected.

 

From: Eric Black black_e@ligo.caltech.edu

TNI:

We are finishing up a paper on our the results of our Sapphire measurement, and we are working on the next stage of the TNI, a measurement of the rate of non-Gaussian noise events that originate in the mirrors and suspensions. Akira Villar, with help from Jay Heefner, has been designing an automated locking system that will monitor the state of the TNI and reacquire lock if it is lost. Our SURF student, Jason Sussman, has been working on an algorithm for monitoring the data stream in real time and identifying events.

 

Jay Heefner

Tested a possible variable gain amplifier for the Arm Cavity Servo. As time permits the design of the board and the lock acquisition software will be completed.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Riccardo DeSalvo desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu

SAS

We sent three Pomona College exchange students to Italy to work on Virgo and LIGO related R&D issues. One more student from Berkeley is working on Virgo itself.

Three Italian students will arrive in a week, Ester Guidi working with Flavio Nocera on LIGO electronics, the other two, Francesco Costagliola and Simone Napolitano will work in SAS on suspension developments.

The first of the Pomona students, Justin Kamp, is working with Alessandro Bertolini to, hopefully, finalize the Ultra Sound Milling Machine that we built more than one year ago.

The other two, Randal Burns and Jessica Strand we sent to work in tha salt mines. They are working with Fabrizio Barone measuring and interpreting seismic noise amplitude correlations in a salt bed inn the Realmonte mine, and studying the possibilities of Newtonian Noise cancellations in spherical caves centered around the test masses.

All of them left last week, Justin already sent a, somewhat informal weekly:

Ciao Riccardo,

You come from a beautiful country! So far I have been to Roma and Firenze, which are both outstanding, but perhaps the most amazing thing I have done has been bike rides in the rural areas surrounding Pisa in Tuscany. It reminds me of the countryside where I am from. Regardless, we have already gotten a fair amount of work done on the milling machine. Yesterday we ran a test to get an overall idea of what had to be accomplished. There are quite a few bugs, but

I'm sure we will find success. Ciao.

Justin

 

The Geophones have been installed at Realmonte in the last three days (unfortunately before Jessica and Randal could help) and data is starting to flow.

 

Anamaria

This week I managed to install the new setup, with smaller spacer between blades and a much better wire (thinner and shorter) so that beatings between vertical and horizontal modes will no longer interfere with low frequency data acquisition. I began to take data and learning how to analyze it, found an expected dependence of the frequency from the oscillation amplitude ­ otherwise nothing too interesting yet.

Also I tested the data acquisition program to make sure it acquires data correctly and has no delays due to data saving ­ it turned out ok.

I also changed the mass for Maddalena's measurement, so that the range of the working point can be taken at higher range before the integrator voltage saturates; and am currently taking data at the high end of the interest range on that experiment.

Liquid Metals is finally providing 4 samples for the measurements: two of LM1, fully glassy, and two with LM2, stabilized with cristalline dendrites. Giulia DeSalvo, high school student volunteering for the summer in Bill Johnson’s group will assist in getting the blades to us and get them processed to build two sets of GAS blades for the comparison with Maraging and CuBe.

 

Nicky

This week the components for my oven arrived and they are almost completely assembled (with the filter inside already). The payload needs to be mounted. The PID controller that will measure and control the temperature turned out to be not adequate, we ordered a different model. We have to mount the position monitor. I also continued to help Barbara's interferometer, we started mounting the definitive ballast masses and the tuneable springs. I also cleaned up the lab.

(This I find extremely commendable, she is the only person so far that does it without me pointing the gun!, THANK YOU, RDS)

 

Juri

Mainly preparing the GR17 presentation and poster.

 

Yanyi

More work on the circuit components and layout.

 

Maddalena and Barbara

Both done the last exam in Pisa. Barbara is coming back next week to resume the assembly of her interferometer. Maddalena is preparing the defence of her Master thesis.

 

Riccardo

Next week going to Pisa for Maddalena’s defense, meetings with Virgo EGO and CEGO, and for the GWIC meeting.

 


 

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