Weekly Report for Week Ending July 22, 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 26, 2004 will be:

(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

Announcements
LSC Issues (Saulson)
Comments on Weekly Report
Field Change Orders/Contingency Liens/Change Requests
LIGO Lab Operations

Administration (Lindquist)
Sites (Raab, Zucker, Shoemaker)
Commissioning (Fritschel), Detector (Coyne)
Campus Research Facilities

40 Meter (Weinstein)
TNI, ( Libbrecht),
LASTI (Shoemaker)

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Advanced R&D and LIGO II (Shoemaker)
CHANGE CONTROL BOARD/TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD SESSION AS NEEDED

Special Items:

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights

LSC Issues (Saulson)

no report

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Petrac)

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

AURIGA:

MOU / signed -off
Attach. No. 1 / signed-off

Balearic:

Attach. A / to PI for sign-off
Attach. Z / to PI for sign-off

IAP:

Attach. C / to PI for sign-off
Attach. Z / to PI for sign-off

National Astronomical Observatory-China (NAO-C):

Attach. No. 1 / first draft / in NAO-C review / De Salvo

Orsay Group (aka Groupe Virgo):

Draft MOU / in LIGO-Orsay Group review / Barish, Whitcomb, Lazzarini, Weinstein and Davier
Draft Attach. No. 1 / in LIGO-Orsay Group review / Barish, Whitcomb, Lazzarini, Weinstein and Davier

Penn State:

Attach. A / in LIGO review / Lazzarini and Riles
Attach. D / to PI for sign-off
Attach. Z / to PI for sign-off

VIRGO:

MOU Amendment No. 1 / in LIGO-LSC-VIRGO review / Barish, Saulson, and Giazotto
Attach. No. 4 / in LIGO-LSC-VIRGO review / Barish and Lazzarini, Saulson, and Giazotto and Cavalier
Attach. No. 5 / in LIGO-LSC-VIRGO review / Barish and Lazzarini, Saulson, and Giazotto and Cavalier

Wisconsin:

Attach. A / in LIGO review / Lazzarini and Riles
Attach. Z / to PI for sign-off
Prog. Report / in process for the web posting

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

A site teleconference was scheduled for Thursday, July 22, 2004. The following items were among those discussed:

FY 2005 Budgets--Some first cut budgets for FY 2005 have been distributed to the account managers. I am requesting responses quickly so as to prepare for the proposal budget submittal to the NSF by August 1.
A/E Procurement for Outreach Center--A fairly large number of firms have expressed interest, and we are expecting a number of proposals. Action #125 to provide a "straw person" list for members of a proposal review committee is closed. M. Zucker provided a list and it was discussed during the meeting. We will proceed to contact potential candidates. The proposals are due tomorrow. Hope to winnow to a short list by the second week in August.
Property--the Annual Property Report will be completed soon and submitted to the NSF. This is earlier than previous years.
P-Card Reconciliations--There was much discussion concerning the short time allotted between the posting of the final P-Card transactions and the schedule for completing the reconciliation. E. Jasnow has an action (#126) to discuss this with Administration to see if they are amenable to a schedule more in keeping with the needs of LIGO (recognizing travel, shift work, etc.)

The list of assigned actions updated through July 22, 2004 may be found Here.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)

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

Provided assistance to the Project Office (C. Akutagawa) with preparations for the return of Seiji Kawamura to Japan.
Provided assistance to the Project Office (C. Akutagawa) with preparations for the relocation of R. Abbott.
A coordinated effort between LIGO and Caltech's Property Management Branch (T. Berjakalyakorn) to complete the National Science Foundation's Annual Report in a timely manner. The target date for completion is the first week in August.
Disposed of the following unserviceable equipment via Caltech's Transportation Network for recycling two (2) Personal Computers, four (4) Monitors, two ( 2) Printers, and two (2) Lap Top Computers.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

No report (vacation).

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

Electronic document activity has been a little overwhelming. In the early stages of processing a DCN containing over 170 attached documents

July 22, 2004	Packages	Faxes
In	13	34
Out	9	23

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

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

For ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA Press Here.

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

Completed reconciliation of P-card orders for 37 transactions totalling $14,751.09. Submitted the P-card report to management for approval and forwarded it to P-card administration for filing.
I currently have 16 P-card orders in my order log totaling $44,253.50.
Completed change order #24 to Excel for the Security system maintenance.
Working on several one time purchase orders such as the repair order of the Stacis isolators and controller for the 40M lab, the purchase of the Stacis isolation system for the 40M lab, and the order for the Neslab bath circulator for LLO.
Attended the informative presentation held by Audit Compliance Services' on July 20th.

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

For the past several weeks I have been working closely with Janeen and Calum to gather Vendors to fabricate Blades for the advance LIGO. We have had several discussions with many of the vendors and Ed Jasnow, to try to secure a proper method for procuring these blades. As of 5pm yesterday I had e-mailed RFI'S (requests for information) to at least ten vendors hoping for a response as to weather or not they would like to be included in the bidding process.
Purchased a new fax machine for Irene B.

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

Prepared spreadsheets projecting expenditures for rest of fiscal year 2004 based on expenditures for July 2003 through December 2003.
Updated monthly reports for July 2004.
Notified Project Accounting of funding realignments required.

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)

No report (see above).

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

Proposals for the architect/engineering effort for the Outreach and Education Center at LLO are due on Friday, July 23. Indications are that we will be receiving a significant number of proposals from architects in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas. The schedule calls for completion of evaluations and development of a "short list" by August 6, with presentations from those firms approximately two weeks later.
After a couple of "no bids" and one extremely high bid, the procurement for c-type cantilever blades has been cancelled. The specifications and drawings are being re-worked, and are being sent out to industry for comments. The final version will be re-issued as another RFP.

SUPPORT (Kammerling, Baldon, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

PLEASE NOTE: My computer was hit with a virus this week and I lost the better part of two (2) days while my computer was being cleaned and brought back up.
I continue to track Raindance Teleconference calls and assist users with any problems that they might incur. Raindance seems to be working beautifully. All previously scheduled AT&T teleconference calls have now been cancelled and are being handled through Raindance.
Processed the paper work for seven (7) new/revised trips. There are eight (8) trips to be completed and ticketed before all paper work can be completed.
Completed sixteen (16) Expense Reports and there are nine (9) reports yet to be done. I continue to contact travelers who have outstanding Expense Reports (more than one (1) month old) to ask for their cooperation in sending me their receipts so that these can be closed in a timely manner. Presently are two (2) reports more than 30 days old.
Reconciled sixteen (16) P-Card charges which required telephoning hotels and car rental agencies to verify which traveler used my card for what amount. There was a total of ninety-one (91) transactions for month-end.

>Dorothy Lloyd

Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther the week of July 12. 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.
Jim continued with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

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, and we are still working on the written material, required FastLane material, and the budgets. Still require input for a couple of major sections.
Operations FY 2007 Proposal--we must prepare for the submittal of a proposal for Operations FY 2007 through FY 2011. These preparations include a preliminary discussion of our proposed approach and budget request during the NSF Review scheduled (probably) in November. I have an action to prepare a schedule of tasks

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

There are no open change requests currently in the system.

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>

No report this week.

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

Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (Landry)

The full 2K IFO remains down, with arms valved off after the June 30th vent. The 4K is locking in common mode with inspiral ranges of ~5Mpc.

Backscatter studies: black holes are no better than foolscap.

N.B. Owing to mechanical failure, LHO's vacuum bake ovens are out of service until further notice. (Kyle Ryan)

4K IFO

A model for the modal decomposition of the bright Michelson in the basis of the output mode cleaner compares favourably to measurement.

Following up from observations during S3 PEM injections, the 4K was made to be more robust against impulses and acoustic noise in the end-Y station: an optical lever interface board was swapped out.

A (followup) 4k shot noise study employed a different RF source a modulation frequencies than the original measurement.

2K IFO
Mice temporarily mistook ISCT10 for a water closet. The visitor has fouled the table, necessitating cleanup of not only the table surface, but many optic faces as well.

2K PSL (Justin Garofoli for Team PSL):
We've been struggling with the lasers deceptive beam quality: to the eye it looks pretty bad, but to the PMC it is pretty good, 91% visibility. We may be able to eak a bit more out of the mode matching and improve the visibility a bit more. Some trouble also may have been coming from the EOM, a swap of EOM's changed the visibility from 76% to 91%. The PMC's transmission efficiency is 87%: 6.09 watts out, 7.03 W in.

LHO Outreach Activities (Dale Ingram)

We are pleased to welcome Greg Baker to LHO for a summer research internship. Greg is a high school physics teacher from Geneva, New York who is developing a research course for Geneva High School physics students that will focus on LIGO-related projects. Greg majored in physics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, also in Geneva. Steve Penn of the LSC is now a professor at HWS and will be the LIGO mentor for the Geneva High endeavor. The high school students will be hunting for bicoherences in LIGO interferometer data using Steve's DMT bicoherence monitor. Greg is already busy learning the ins and outs of LIGO data collection and analysis, and he has developed a very talented group of young physicists who are eager to get started on the project once the school year begins. We wish him the best.

Friday, July 23 will be the final day of the Washington State University course for school teachers that has unfolded at LHO over the last two weeks. Titled "The Nature of Scientific Inquiry", the course brings teachers face-to-face with the challenge of creating science activities that require students to personally navigate through the scientific method. Dr. Judy Morrison, Assistant Professor of Education at WSU Tri-Cities, has taught the course with assistance from Fred Raab and Dale Ingram of LHO. Nine local teachers, ranging from elementary through high school, are now completing the major course assignment of designing several inquiry-based science activities for use in their own classrooms. These activities will help the teachers meet state and national education standards for science inquiry. The participants have also engaged in several LIGO-related activities to learn how the methods of science play out in a major international science project. In addition to touring the site and listening to presentations about gravitational-wave astronomy, the teachers have shadowed and interviewed LHO personnel to get an up-close look at how the work here gets accomplished. LHO has enjoyed hosting the course and we look forward to future collaborations with WSU and Professor Morrison.

LHO staff member Corey Gray recently presented a summary of LIGO at the Salish Kootenai College Summer Astronomy Camp for students in grades 8-12 on the Flathead Reservation in western Montana. LSC member and SKC professor Tim Olsen obtained grant funds to sponsor the camp (and fund other activities as well), which is a collaboration between SKC, Montana State University and NASA. Corey also set up several very nice demos of optical and signal equipment; the students enjoyed investigating these devices after his talk. You can see a more complete description of Corey's trip (along with some great photos) at http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~cgray/SKC_summer_camp_04.html.

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

HEPI (Abbott, Giaime, ...)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Work continues on the corner station HEPI task. This week, the chambers retrofitted with HEPI were freed
their caging stops and the hydraulic flow was turned on and off. This process searches for unusual
hydraulic offsets that may indicate a problem with an actuator or hydraulic control valve.

System ID data is being collected in the corner station on ITMX as a first step towards turning on HEPI
control for this chamber. Earlier on this week, the HEPI system was used to adjust the beam alignment on
HAM-4. This adjustment worked remarkably well.

Refinements were made in the HEPI control code to permit verification of the correct loading of filter coefficients.

L1 PSL and EMC Retrofit (Peter King)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I mapped out the cables going into (and out of) 1X4 and 1X5 in preparation for moving the racks into the new CDs rack area.

The PSL wiring harness and excitation engine connection was checked out in preparation for the new intensity stabilisation. In particular the connections for the VMIVME-4116 DAC and laser system interface was mapped out and compared with the EPICS records database.

L1 Commissioning and HPLF (Amin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
HPLF: We still have no report from IPG Photonics. We await information regarding the failure mode of the 100 W laser.

Commissioning: I finally measured the phase noise of the Wenzel crystal oscillators. Their noise level is better than the Wenzel specification at > 100 Hz. With Rai's help, we obtained similar numbers in a second data run using power supplies instead of automobile batteries. WFS detection heads are being returned to their sensing tables, and I have started basic checkouts of the WFS chains.

LLO Seismic retrofit (Rich Abbott)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

LLO Facilities and Infrastructure (Allen Sibley)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The building monitoring, security and fire alarm computers have been removed from the control room. The monitors for these machines remain in the control room.

Current transducers have been installed at the chill water circulation pumps to replace the differential pressure switches that have been giving more and more trouble lately. The new sensors are working well but we need to have Siemens modify the software alarms.

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.
* Made a couple of firewall changes for some UDP ports.
* looking into an issue on a Linux box where it runs out of memory every two weeks or so. This is the machine that handles DHCP, mrtg, BigBrother, etc. When the box runs out of memory, it locks up solidly and the only way to reboot it is to hit the reset switch. The main problem is that when this happens, no one can get DHCP addresses.
* Still working on rebuilding the applications share. I have added things like Matlab, gcc-3.4.1, gnu ld (binutils), Mozilla, etc. We are still not back to the point we were before the disk crash, but it is getting there. I have spent many hours in the last week compiling software. So far, I am pleased with the disk array that I purchased to replace the Linux box that was sharing out the applications.
* working with a Sun rep to find out if a couple of SAN ideas I have will work. This is an idea that I have on how to handle the user web pages and server if we move all of the Sun boxes to an internal network with only the web and mail boxes on the DMZ.
* ordered a license for F-Secure anti virus for us to use when Norton decides to die because of a virus or other problem. There have been several instances when a machine becomes infected with a virus and Norton will not work, so we cannot clean it. We just had an instance like that this week when Tom was trying to clean Bagle.AG@mm off of a machine.

CDS (Parameswariah)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Installed a new PC on the CDS Network for Beam Centering system for Andri. Installed the latest Windows XP, Matlab and Spiricon software. This computer is being setup to the be accessed via the Spiricon computer's monitor with a switch.

Moved the hepi watchdogs to baja processors after compiling it at hanford.

Worked with Peter King, Rich Abbott and Danny Sellers to get the hepi vmecrates up and running. Had to figure out the right jumper settings and the location of the cards in the crate.

Troubleshooted the problems with HEPI input/output channels at the corner station. The following problems fixed:

Problem: -1.000 seen on odd position sensor input channels (V1, V3, H1, H3) on hepi2 for RM and OUT channels. Traced it to 110B ADC Card. Swapped it with a card from the cabinet and set the right jumpers.

Problem: RM and OUT inputs signals look swapped on the medm screens Traced it to the cables plugged in to the 110B. Swapped the input ADC cables and this fixed it.

Problem: STS sensor signals read hard zero The problem goes away if I unplug the MC1 input cable to the 110B. STS signals are on channels 11 through 13 on this cable. Rich A. and I traced it to railed outputs from the STS electronics

Worked with Rolf and Alex to install the fix for filter module coefficient loading problems.

As of today this is now propagated to all the systems - suspensions, lsc, asc.

Also the overflow bug in suspension controllers found and fixed at hanford was also propagated to llo with this change. Hepi output (Actuator drive fast channels) to DAQ were fixed to have the right order. Earlier we found the channel names on Dataviewer did not match the actual outputs. Added fast outputs to DAQ for the corner station hepi. Also added the flag to trend all corner hepi channels.

Burst Analysis, AdL IO Modeling, and HPLF (Franzen)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Have been trying to help Alessandra Di Credico to run glitchMon on alvar at LLO. There were many problems, but now it seems like Masahiro Ito has sorted things out.

2) Have run a few tests on ldas-grid in order to familiarize myself with this new Condor system at LLO.

3) Helped Marc Cenac, the LLO SURF student, to solve a few programming problems related to his project.

Data analysis (Yakushin)
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LDAS admin:
1) There was a double disk failure in t3-4: u1d8 and u1d9. The disks are replaced, no data lost.
2) Installed matlab and matlab compiler on ldas-grid.
3) Helping Ken Franzen to get started with Condor.
4) Helping Shyang Wen to learn how to get data he needs into matlab.

LDAS data analysis:
Condorizing DMT version of waveburst: tested that ROOT can be used under Condor, writing a function for getting frames into waveburst.

Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)

DMT

John Zweizig

This week I upgraded the glitch finder in PSLmon to fill in some of the new trigger table fields and to allow it to generate multiple triggers in a single time stride. It also now histograms glitch parameters to allow the user to tuned the glitch finder more easily. I also moved the program that matches triggers to simulated events to the gds cvs repository.

CDS

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

CDS Software

Rolf Bork reporting

- Modified the CDS filter modules to perform CRC check sum tests when new coefficients are downloaded. This has been incorporated in the HEPI software and installed at LLO. Modifications are in progress to incorporate this change in other CDS systems.

- In process of adding down sampling filters for DAQ. Testing is underway now, with first release to sites end of next week.

- Sigg has noted that some suspension controllers are running near and, at times, beyond max of 61usec. I'm not sure we can play any more software tricks to improve this. I compiled the latest software to run on our new 2.2GHz VME Pentium processors under Linux for testing and got times around 30usec. We presently only have a few of these available, so this is not an option unless we purchase more.

- A couple of Hepi changes are going out today. First is the addition of the corner station actuator output DAQ channels. Second is a fix for Hepi2 test points.

- I'm still trying to work a day or so a week on code documentation. Presently I'm working on a doc which describes the code common to all realtime front ends, such as DAQ/GDS routines, VME hardware drivers, etc. This should then make it easier to document the individual front end code by heavily referencing this document.

CDS Hardware

Jay Heefner reporting

Fiber Optic Timing Link (Sander)

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

- The fibers for the 40 meter test have been received. Sander will work with Bob to install them this week.

- Testing will be coordinated with 40 meter operations.

Timing System Redesign (Flavio)

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

- On hold for ISS work. Will be restarted after ISS pcb is complete.

- Review scheduled for mid-Aug.

Anti-Image for Low Noise DACs (Jay)

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

- The first board was shipped to LHO last week. The other 9 are 90% stuffed and awaiting some back ordered caps. They should be here this week.

- Don is writing a test procedure.

40 Meter (Ben, Jay)

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

- Mach-Zehnder changes and upgrades.

- MC2 Univ Dewhite board has been changed to a rev B7, but there seems to be some confusion as to whether the schematic actually reflects what is installed at LLO. Jay has contacted Rana and Rus.

- DAQ channels for PSL and MC are being fixed.

LSC PD Redesign (Ben)

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

- Schematic has been finalized. PCB layout will be started tomorrow.

EMI Upgrade (Mohana, Jay)

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

- LLO LSC drawings have been started and should be ready for review by next week.

- Lots of parts are on order. There is a potential problem with the 64 conductor cable. It is a long lead from AMP. Rus is checking to see if he can find any.

TNI Arm Cavity Servo (Jay)

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

- Preliminary schematic is complete and being reviewed.

- EPICS control software is being tested.

AdL SEI (Jay)

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

- Nothing new

AdL SUS (Jay)

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

- BNC to DSpace ADC modules shipped to LASTI

- The satellite amps received back from LASTI have been upgraded to Rev B1 and the termminator boards installed. They will be installed in the CIT test stand.

PSL

PeterKing

I went over the state code to control the power amplifier pump diode current in order to fix bugs with the event handling. The problem (I think) was with the ordering of the when() statements and the order of execution and evaluation. Hopefully that has been sorted out now. The code will be tested later this week when I get back on campus.

OMC test

Ken Mailand

I contacted Keita Kawabe @LHO 7-21 re. the 4 element mode cleaner cavity, and I am waiting for further information to begin a detail shop drawing.

Optical Contamination Cavities

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

OTF Lab. (W. Bridge)
The white Ceramabond, and disks of TRA-BOND #2254 color light brown epoxy are IN.
Cavity is locked and we are taking measurements everyday. these epoxy samples appear clean and there is no evidence of contamination as yet. We'll continue taking measurements.

Absorption Test Measurement prototype in progress
New sapphire mirror already annealed are the one that it is going to be tested for absorption. We are preparing the set-up of the optics. and new alignment for the 30 watt laser, as well as mode match.

Scatterometer system in progress!
We have installed the scatterometer head after a severe modification. We took new measurements as to find exactly how much more space is needed between the scatterometer base and the top of the mirror. The space needed is exactly as calculated to be 1.125" inches. Therefore, we need new shorter post for the mirror holder.

The Quantronix 60 watt laser is in progress.

OTF Lab at Lauritsen ROOM 38

Cavity #3
The cavity is locked with (6) disks of TRA-BOND #2151 color blue epoxy and (4) disks of TRA-BOND #2902 color silver epoxy. Both are in.
No evidence of contamination as yet
we are continuing taking daily measurements.

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

PSL Laser lab Laser in standby

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

Mach Zehnder and mode cleaner:

Osamu has been refining the servo filter for the Mach-Zehnder length control. Ben implemented the various components (low frequency boost, notch at 26 kHz, and 300 Hz 3rd order LPF) on the servo board. A few changes need to be made more permanent (LO RF amplifier put on the board, demod phase adjusted more precisely).
Ben installed a front panel LEMO connector so Osamu could check the MZ servo's OLTF, and made an interface cable for testing. OLTF unity gain frequency is 11.4kHz, phase margin is 29.1 degrees. DC gain is 58.8dB. The servo now seems well optimized, and the MZ lock is very stable.
Osamu calibrated the error signal to displacement, and measured the in-loop displacement noise of the MZ. The rms is around 1.5e-11 m, dominated by a bunch of peaks around 1 kHz.
Osamu measured the intensity noise in three places: before the PMC, after the PMC but before the Mach-Zehnder, and after the MZ. He found no evidence of intensity noise introduced by the MZ. The transmitted intensity noise of the MZ is a little bit better than the old intensity noise of transmission of 3 EOMs before the MZ; this is presumably because the beam diameters at the EOM apertures are smaller than before, therefore we have less clipping now.
He repeated these 3 measurements, with ISS on. Again, no evidence of intensity noise introduced by the MZ. When the ISS is on, the PMC (outside the ISS loop) introduced a great deal of intensity noise. We will want to place the ISS pickoff after the PMC to suppress this. The noise suppression before the PMC due to the ISS looks funny; however, we are expecting a new ISS system soon, so we won't work hard to understand this.
Ben set up the electronics and display of a MZ transmitted PD which Osamu placed just upstream of the power attenuator at the periscope.
Rana has been reviewing the mode cleaner servo filtering. He changed some filtering on the MC servo board, the MCL whitening board, and the MC2 universal dewhite board, with help from Jay and Ben. There is more analog gain in the MCL path before the ADC now. There's a low frequency integrator/boost, resonant gains at the stack modes around 3 Hz, and resonant gain at the SOS bounce mode. Rana and Rob are also implementing a MC autolock script.
The modecleaner was then locked to the MZ transmitted light. The lock was very easy and robust, thanks to the work by Rana, Rob, Jay and Ben.
Osamu and Bryan then moved on to align the IFO and lock the X arm. However, they noticed a large DC offset on the error signal for that arm. This seems to be due to slight mismatches in alignment of polarisation into EOMs in the MZ, ausing residual RF AM and therefore DC offsets in the error signal for the arm cavity. They observed the AM returning and disappearing depending on the temperature of the first EOM in the dual modulator MZ arm. This appears to have been eliminated by improved alignment of the first modulator - we are still not completely sure of the mechanism behind this. A bit more investigation needed. In addition tweaking the alignment of the modulators and the polarisation seems to have produced better contrast of the MZ. The modecleaner locks and is aligned again after adjusting the MZ alignment.
Sascha continues to gain expertise in Simulink in order to develop his model of the Mach Zehnder. He has discovered many subtleties in simulink modeling, fixed many problems, and is now ready to get the model to work.
Monica continues to develop her e2e model of the MZ, as well as her model of the entire AdvLIGO optical configuration.
Seiji has been using Finesse to study the coupling of MZ length noise to the GW channel, due to a mechanism suggested by Matt Evans: phase fluctuations introduced on the carrier by the MZ, relative to the RF sidebands applied on only one arm of the MZ, will propagate to the asymmetric port, faking a GW signal. Initial findings are that it will be a very serious problem, especially in the presence of imperfectly matched arms, contrast defect, etc. Still under study.

Suspensions and Oplevs:

Rana suggested implementing a new set of osem damping filters on all suspensions. Rob has implemented them on all optics. The gains for each degree of freedom are set to give a Q of 3~5, all XXSEN have a 60HzComb, and each optic DOF has a set of two filters active: a 3:0.0 and an anti-imaging Cheby. They also have 3HzLP and a 5HzLP modules, but these are not active. Rob will implement notches at the bounce mode. Rob also lowered all watchdog triggers from 200 to 100.
Fumiko has been refining the oplev servo filters, with advice from Stefan at LHO and Rana. She is focusing on ITMX pitch, and has significantly reduced the noise around the pitch frequency. She is working on a resonant gain filter to reduce the noise even more.
Shihori has been diagonalizing the suspension output matrix, with advice from Matt Evans. She minimized the POS -> PIT and POS -> YAW couplings at 10 Hz, and implemented a POStoPIT filter to reduce the coupling at all frequencies. Seems to work well. She will now repeat this with all suspended optics.

PSL:

The PSL ISS has been working well, although it occassionally drifts into saturation, requiring an adjustment of the DC offset.

LSC and electronics:

Jay checked out the PSL fast DAQ channels, many of which were not working right. He got all but one ISS channel working.
Jay, Rana and Ben moved on to the mode cleaner fast DAQ channels. Jay changed the master.config file (yesterday) to match the channel connections for the mode cleaner DAQ signals. Four of the 5 signals now seem to work; the 5th does not, maybe due to a bad AA chassis channel. Jay and Rana also cleaned up the MC EPICS screens and database.
Stave sent 6 STACIS isolators to TMC for repair. They confirmed busted PZT stacks in all the channels that Steve and Ben Olsen found problems. These will be repaired at significant cost. Even tiny shear forces can break these PZT stacks; and although much care was taken to avoid shear forces applied by the load, the stacks break after a while anyway. The new STACIS 3000 series fixes this problem; too bad for us, we have STACIS 2000. Upgrading is excessively expensive.
Rana notes that much of our software (dtt, dataviewer, FOTON, awg, etc) is ancient, our computers are grossly underpowered and poorly configured, yadda yadda yadda. We need to get all this stuff upgraded.

South Annex bake ovens (Bob Taylor):

Bob is vacuum testing / qualifying various epoxies for AdvLIGO.
Bob is developing, testing, and writing up specs on wire cleaning procedures for AdvLIGO actuator assemblies. He's also doing a series of bake jobs to test the assemblies.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

no report

LASTI (Ottaway)

no report

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
Weekly Physics Meeting
------------------------
Luca Matone presented the analysis the 25MHz phase camera image taken on transmission of the Output Mode-Cleaner with H1 locked on a Michelson bright fringe. Good agreement between the fit and the model was found indicating that with the current setup the beam is astigmatic and made up of a significant amount of higher order modes. Monica Varvella described her e2e-simulation work on 29 MHz control of Mach-Zehnder interferometer.

LLO WFS meeting
----------------
Attendees: Andri, Gaby, Valera (LLO), Matt, Hiro, Biplab(Caltech) In the meeting a number of problems that need proper understanding of the system were described by people at Site. One of the strange problems is that the demodulation angle of the WFS1 signal changes, in some cases by almost 90 degree, after the "Q-phase" is fixed using Michelson configuration. We discussed how modeling could help in understanding and operation of the WFS system at LLO especially after the interferometer comes back into operation.

Mirror phase map
--------------------------------------
(Xiao, Hiro) Xiao is trying to extrapolate the mirror phase map to cover all the mirror surface (measured within 15cm diameter, actual coating covering up to 24 cm diameter).
The covered region is fit using Zernike Polynomial using up to 36 Wyko terms and calculate the noise RMS. Add a control band between 25 cm to 30 cm of diameter with a value of the average. Then do the Zernike polynomial fit using the measured data (weight of 1) and the control band with varying weight (changing 0 to 1), which is used to regulate the outside behavior. Different weight in the control band is used to generate a few sets of extrapolation for systematic study. These fit curves with noise is used to smoothly extrapolate the data to outer side are. The algorithm development is almost done, and a fine tuning (although cosmetic) is being done to make the connection region (real data and smooth fit) smooth.

FFT-e2e and Thermal lensing and BS curvature
--------------------------------------------------------
(Hiro) The work was continued using FFT and e2e to analyze the effect of the thermal lensing and BS curvature.
As to the thermal lensing, based on the suggestion of Phil Willems, a new map was made which has the distribution of the thermal model except for the central region within 4.5 cm where the shape is a simple lens ( a + b*(x^2+y^2) ). The sideband gain with this thermal lens shows the almost same result as the thermal lens which represent a pure lens. This means, by correcting the thermal deformation in the central region, the thermal compensation can be improved. As a possible explanation of the necessity of the excess heating, Phil suggested a residual lens due to the AR side curvature and the substrate inhomogeneity. Based on the FFT run, it was found that, in order to account for the amount of excess power, a very strong lens is needed. Phil learned from Gari that the residual lens is pretty small, and this possibility is not likely the explanation.

Validation of the FFT code and modification of e2e code are going on to validate the BS effect predicted by the modified FFT code and to lock LIGO like LSC.

Alignment Control of LIGO and mirror phase maps
----------------------------------------------------
(Biplab) Mirror phasemaps introduce asymmetry in beam profiles which affect WFS signals. Work on neutralizing this effect by calculating equivalent angles of mirrors and correcting that by proper tilt-offsets is going on. Once this correction is made, a proper estimation of the actual effect of mirror maps on LIGO performance will be possible.

Mach-Zehnder Interferometer
-----------------------------------
(Monica) The e2e Mach-Zehnder design changed in order to move the control on the mirror where there is the PZT; the feedback filter has been designed as in the real Mach-Zehnder (1 pole at 22O Hz at the moment). Tests about error and control signal have been done. 40m/AdvLIGO e2e optical configuration is ready and has been tested with a single EOM at 33MHz. The others EOMs will be insert soon: tests using the previous EOMs configuration (in series) and then the new one (with Mach-Zehnder) are foreseen.

Code development and maintenance
-----------------------------------
(Melody) Worked on revamping the modeler's parser to make it more efficient and maintainable.

Alfi
---------
(Melody) Finished fixing PR 468.
Modifying the Primitive Settings dialog to display the FUNC_X data variables in a friendlier user interface. The dialog will show the member variables in the table instead of having to look at C++ code.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)
Creighton:
Modified the pulsar Condor python script to use the new FrComputeFStatistic, and to store input data and results in an indexable, easily-retrievable manner.

Mendell:
Ihave finished the first version of a new LAL function, LALFastGeneratePulsarSFTs, that will speed up the Monte Carlo simulations performed by the CW group. I am in the process of debugging and documenting the function, and will submit it to LAL by the end of this week.

Shawhan:
* Set up to run the inspiral search code on S3 data on the Caltech LDAS cluster using Condor. Had to get help from various people to resolve problems with certificate authentication and data cataloging.

* Continuing to work with SURF student Matt Wroten on inspiral filtering and waveform consistency test studies. LIGO Data Analysis Software/Hardware Activities

Yakushin:
Condorizing DMT version of waveburst: tested that ROOT can be used under Condor, writing a function for getting frames into waveburst.

Software Systems (Blackburn)
Anew sanity check on frames has been added to the createRDS user command to check that the dataValid flag in the FrADCData structure of frame files is set to zero indicating a "good" dataset. This flag has been tested this week and uncovered a non trivial amount of data which doesn't satisfy the "good" condition from the S2 and S3 science runs. There are channels that do not have the value of zero or the CDS standard value of 0xbad indicating an issue with the data acquisition. This has been reported to John Zweizig. Some of the channels that have been found to have an issue with the dataValid flag from the science runs thus far are

For S2 Run:

H2:IFO-ACTIVITY_STATE
H2:IFO-ACTIVITY_INDEX
H1:IFO-ACTIVITY_STATE
H1:IFO-ACTIVITY_INDEX
L1:LSC-ETMY_EXC_DAQ
L1:IFO-ACTIVITY_STATE
L1:IFO-ACTIVITY_INDEX

For S3 Run:

L1:LSC-REFL_Q
L1:LSC-DARM_CTRL_EXC_DAQ
L1:LSC-ETMX_EXC_DAQ

This is not an exhaustive search, nor is it known if these issues are present during the entirety of the run or only found in the small snippets of data we looked at. It does indicate that a more careful look into what the framebuilder is writing into the dataValid field of the FrADCData is needed.

New code is nearing completion to allow different I/O characteristics of different devices (file systems) to be optimally tuned on a per device basis to improve overall I/O performance in LDAS. This will not result in a major improvement (order few percent to roughly 10 percent will be typical), but it does give us greater flexibility to explore new file systems without impacting currently optimized technologies.

The issues with generating the time intervals of frame data available under the diskCacheAPI have now been resolved. A single threaded call is now made by the TCL layer per job to generate the list of time intervals for display in the controlMonitorAPI's client window. All problem reports associated with this process are now ready to be closed out.

Began making enhancements and working on open problem reports associated with the CGI script used to apply and process requests for LDAS accounts. This includes inproved formating and colorization on the existing pages.

Worked on makefile changes necessary to support the newer Operating Systems that have subsecond mtime resolution.

Completed all system and integration tests without issue. New results are posted on the web and checked into CVS.

The managerAPI no longer reports duplicate frame file names in the resultant from diskCacheAPI queries in the email returned to the user. This fix addressed problem report 2527.

The gps time conversion algorithm is not detecting entry of negative GPS times. A new problem report has been opened on this and code to fix the issue is currently being tested on the Tandem-V LDAS system.

The issue of the mpiAPI starting multiple wrapperAPI masters on the same node is still open and work continues to identify the solution.

A meeting was held with technical representation from all software applications that perform I/O on frames to determine the impact of changes to make RDS frames longer and reduce the number of files that are stored on our file systems. The meeting was very productive and everyone was in favor of lengthening the RDS frames via changes to LDAS, though a determination of the structure of this data within the frame file itself is still under evaluation. In addition, the possibility of lengthening the raw frames was discuss, but the current hardware technology used by the framebuilder limits making frame much longer that a factor of two over the current size and time length. A second meeting is scheduled for next week with the summary and recommendations to be presented to the LSC Computer Committee (originators of the request to lengthen RDS frames).

Hardware Systems (Anderson)
Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)
* Continued the transfer of files from HPSS to SAM-QFS. Also continuted deleting files in HPSS after confirmation that they were successfully transferred. Did a full listing of the remaining files in HPSS and determined that we should be completely done in less than 1 month.
*Restarted various parts of HPSS that crashed so that the above could continue.
* Set up ldas-suntest5 to have read-only access to /archive via the SAM-QFS shared filesystem.
* Moved two 9940B drives from the production system (ldas-archive) to samtest for continued testing of SAM-QFS 4.1 and relabeled more tapes for samtest to use.
* Tried to figure out why m26 doesn't masquerade as ligo.caltech.edu in email. Now this has been narrowed down to why doesn't the MH comp command get it right when /bin/mail does...

(Hari Pulapaka)
* Added some documentation on ldas-gridmon on using the cluster effectively.
* Working on setting up grid cvs on ldas-sw.
* Wrote the storage module for 1% data transfer testing from the sites using LDR.
* Setup the Matlab frame channel software on the cluster.

(Al Wilson)
*Finished test, and put back on-line node7 in the test system Replacing MB in node8. Should be ready for testing by Friday.
* New software and firmware for the 3ware card is out. Installing on our test unit for evaluation.

(Stuart Anderson)
* Ran fibers and connected ldas-suntest5 to the LDAS SAN so it can run SAM-QFS.
* Continued testing SAM-QFS 4.1.2. Sun has opened an internal bug id for the one observed kernel crash when doing a large recursive release (bug id5074546).
* Enhancing the SAM prestage tool to keep data flowing from tape to disk ahead of user requests.
* Worked with Larry to resolve an NIS+ hostname resolution problem with the new Grid software.
* Updated LDAS web servers to the latest Apache release.

MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)
* Working on dataserver crashes.
* Continue to work on LDR transfer of S2 L1 RDS data.
* Purchasing another pcraid.
* Replacing failed drives in pcraid#3.
* Patched GSI-SSH on ldas-jobs, ldas-pcdev1, ldas-grid.
* Restarted mit ldas with new credentials.

Livingston
----------
(Igor Yakushin)
* There was a double disk failure in t3-4: u1d8 and u1d9. The disks are
replaced, no data lost.
* Installed matlab and matlab compiler on ldas-grid.
* Helping Ken Franzen to get started with Condor.
* Helping Shyang Wen to learn how to get data he needs into matlab.

Hanford
-------
(Greg Mendell)
* The full raw frame files from fb1 at LHO are unreadable from July 20 and 21 2004 for this GPS interval: [774379744-16 774482192). They fail make check with this error:

Sequentiel file reading. Please wait....
Read Error. Last errors are:
*** FrError: in FrError FrRead error:Error 0
*** FrError: in FrReadVL error reading bank
*** FrError: in FrVectRead : Record length error: nBytes=123157225
nBytesR=122496976 length=65644

The reason for this is that channels with complex heterodyned data were added to the raw frames for the first time. Dave Barker was informed of the problem and the channels have been removed until the framebuilder code can be updated to fix the problem.

(Ben Johnson)
* Performed a 12 hour fully-loaded cluster, humidifiers on etc., test of the the new air chiller on Wednesday. The modifications to the water bypass valve on the air handler appear to have worked, as there absolutely no problems with the new chiller turning off due to water flow problems.
* Researching 3510 disk->FC port mapping. Port 5 of fb0's 3510 has been connected to LDAS's FC switch. A test to see if the units disks can be seen on the LDAS fabric will occur on Thursday afternoon, 7/22/2004. fb0 will be brought down to perform these tests.
* Fixed bad disk on defiance IDE RAID.
* Published L1 and L3 RDS one-percent/postS3 RDS data to gateway's LDR instance. No word if CIT can see the metadata yet.
* Received 2 new DIMMs for node109. It has been repaired and is now a fully functioning node; for now.
* spare parts T3 (t3-25) on oldgateway setup with new UFS filesystem. approx. 400 GB of raw frames files are now on it for testing.
* fb1 was producing bad frame files for Tuesday and Wednesday. CDS put the new heterodyned complex channels into the stream, causing framebuilder bugs to be revealed. The channels have been removed and the framebuilder code is being debugged presently.
* Working on small presentation for the ligo-dc telecon on Friday, July 23. This will regard an examination of S2 data corruption; in short, S2 data was also affected.

General Computing (Wallace)
MIT:
(Keith)
-Windows desktop troubleshooting
-Windows laptop troubleshooting
-Continuing to test licenses for MIT matlab installs (I think they've got ones that work now)

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.
* Made a couple of firewall changes for some UDP ports.
* looking into an issue on a Linux box where it runs out of memory every two weeks or so. This is the machine that handles DHCP, mrtg, BigBrother, etc. When the box runs out of memory, it locks up solidly and the only way to reboot it is to hit the reset switch. The main problem is that when this happens, no one can get DHCP addresses.
* Still working on rebuilding the applications share. I have added things like Matlab, gcc-3.4.1, gnu ld (binutils), Mozilla, etc. We are still not back to the point we were before the disk crash, but it is getting there. I have spent many hours in the last week compiling software. So far, I am pleased with the disk array that I purchased to replace the Linux box that was sharing out the applications.
* working with a Sun rep to find out if a couple of SAN ideas I have will work. This is an idea that I have on how to handle the user web pages and server if we move all of the Sun boxes to an internal network with only the web and mail boxes on the DMZ.
* ordered a license for F-Secure anti virus for us to use when Norton decides to die because of a virus or other problem. There have been several instances when a machine becomes infected with a virus and Norton will not work, so we cannot clean it. We just had an instance like that this week when Tom was trying to clean Bagle.AG@mm off of a machine.

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
- Started planning and purchasing of equipment for the F2F, LSC and Summer Camp meetings coming up in Aug. I will be installing wireless radio boosters and NAT routers.
- Working on setting up one of the new SunBlade 1500 computers to be the DHCP server.
- Continue to setup the rest of the new SunBlade 1500 computers.
- The usual user support for email problems, setting up new user accounts, SURF computing problems, and etc.

CIT:
(Mike)
-NTSRV: Updated OS security/critical patches and Anti virus software.
-Synchrotron: Worked on a surf student's workstation, behind a dead monitor. I replaced this monitor and updated security patches and anti virus software on this computer.
-Wilson House Front & Back: Updated OS security/critical patches and office settings on multiple workstations.
-Don Webber: I swapped outhis CTR monitor with a flat-screen. I have surplus this CTR monitor, due to popping sounds coming from inside the monitor.
-Sander Liu: Worked on a software installation (MathCAD) very time consuming. This is an older version of MathCAD that I could not get to installed on win 2000 pro. He is going to have to purchase an updated version of this software.
-Larry Wallace and I worked on Irene Baldon's workstation due to a virus. Her computer was definitely infected with the
<mailto:W32.Beagle.AG@MM>W32.Beagle.AG@MM virus. I was able to clean this workstation up; user is back up and running.
-I setup two workstations for a surf student/visitor for Wilson House Front. I also installed additional software for the surf student and setup e-mail settings plus showed user how to run updates on windows and anti virus software.
-I am working on upgrading all our Solid Works users to 2004. This upgrade is taking me quite awhile per workstation.
-Other Misc. onsite/phone user support.

(Veronica)
- LSC website: Posting updates to the August meeting website as they arrive. Updates to other parts of the LSC website. Working on the automation of the S1 author list. Working on posting a [big] new batch of MOUs/progress reports.
- LIGO website: Updates to various pages and usual upkeep. Tutored Sharon on basics of html and web updates and provided user support. Worked with JoAnn Boyd helping her on DVD authoring using iDVD. Prepared a high-resolution image for Scientific American.

(Lisa)
- Spent quite a lot of time responding to the latest virus that was going around.
- Working with Larry to determine which applications need to be installed on the new application server.
- Began demo'ing mozillato see if it should be rolled out with the new application server. I'm not at a point with this where I have anything concrete to report.
- Have done a number of file restores this last week.
- Looked briefly at what it would take to setup an acrobat 6 interactive pdf form.

Mail Stats 07/15 - 07/21/04
Messages Accepted:      15602
Spam Rejected:          7727
Viruses Rejected:       1393
False Positives:        9
Total Mail Thru:        24722

(Larry)
-Assisted in taking care of machines that had been infected with a virus. One of the machines started sending out e-mail which was easy to track down the other two machines had viruses that were probing other networks they were a little more difficult to track down since they were using DHCP, we used the MAC addresses and were able to track down the units and get them repaired.
-Assisted in some of the logistics for the upcoming LSC meeting at LHO.
-Spent a deal of time working with purchases and reconciling. The new printer is at the CIT loading doc. No time estimate on when shipping and receiving will be delivering the unit. The Spyware detection software and licenses should arrive this Friday and then we will start distributing it. The quad CPU is on order and should arrive next week.
-It appears the electricians are finished with the computer room and we are now waiting for the fire suppression unit to be installed.
-Assisted a number of new SURF students with various items. Another day or two and they should be settled in.
-Assisted/assisting Dave Barker on some network issues on the network swapout being planned. Just as an interesting side-note the ATM system that was installed has been working for about 6 years. Not too bad.
-Working on a number of configuration changes for user accounts. This project will take some time and should cover a number of months.
-Regular user support and assistance in moving equipment and office items for different people on the project.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Systems and Management

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

Progress Period from 07.09 to 07.22

Out of the office sick on July 12, 13, and 14.

· · 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

§ § ISC - Finished data input / changes. Posted data for review.

§ § Finished working on AOS and IO. All relevant scope has been moved to ISC.

§ § Split all "Sub-System Management" tasks into two phases. One task for development and one for production.

§ § Input all task changes and cost changes into the cost book database, as a result of the "Sub-System Management" task split.

§ § Started the input of all progress data, and reflecting changes above into the current progress schedule.

§ § Prepared for, and executed, meeting with Phil and Stan, as schedule by Albert, to discuss how to improve the author ship list development process.

§ § Prepared report showing milestones for COC, SUS, LASTI, Install, and PM, as requested by Carol.

§ § Started work on preparing web space for posting Adv. LIGO reports. ("The Whole Enchilada")

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

· · ROSTER DATABASE:

§ § Input additional author ship list corrections and changes provided by Peter Saulson.

§ § Posted updated source files for Albert's use in generating the authorship list.

§ § Started work with Irena to provide Barry with information regarding FTEs and Institutions.

· · COST BOOK DATABASE:

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

Seismic Isolation

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

Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure

SEI Structure:

ASI has completed the drawings for the seismometer pods. ASI plans to release drawings for fabrication in packages, serially, by structure stage. LIGO's approval for the start of fabrication is awaiting review of expected costs. Drawing production is slower than expected.

ASI's "bottom-up" cost estimate for fabricating the BSC structure prototype is expected at LIGO yet this week, and the cost estimate to complete the contract is expected next week. An updated schedule is also expected.

Progress is continuing on closing out action items generated at the Design Review.

The pod feedthrough flanges have been ordered within LIGO.

The HAM structure Design Review is scheduled for 5 October, 2004. Delivery at LASTI of the BSC structure prototype is scheduled for 22 December, 2004.

Actuators:

Vacuum bake and RGA scanning were completed on the small prototype actuator on July 21, with good results. Mechanical inspection was performed on the large prototype actuator, with no significant problems found. The large actuator was recleaned to correct problems with the initial cleaning, and the vacuum bake was restarted.

Formal acceptance of the prototype actuators was given to the contractor, PSI, initiating Phase 2 of the contract. This involves the production of 6 each of the actuators, small and large. Delivery is expected by Oct 13, 2004. The LIGO Project is committed to precleaning actuator parts prior to PSI's assembly.

A sample of the cleaning solution (APCA 265, sodium tri-basic phosphate) used by Branford Wire, a possible contractor for precleaning the mag wire, was received and will be tested for effectiveness in removing paraffin and checked for potential damage to the HML polyimide wire insulation.

Optical contamination cavity testing of the potting compound (epoxy) Tra-Bond 2254 and the adhesive Ceramabond 835M continues to look good.

Displacement Sensors:

Optical contamination cavity testing of Tra-Bond 2902 (silver) coupons and Tra-Bond 2151 (blue) coupons continues to look good. Additional coupons have been made of Aremco epoxies as possible replacements for the Tra-Bond materials; these will be vacuum baked and RGA scanned prior to placing into the optical contamination test.

Seismometers:

Nothing new

Galling/Dusting Test:

Nothing new.

Other:

Planning is proceeding on the design and sourcing of a larger vacuum bake oven for the quad structure.

Suspension

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

AdLIGO Suspensions
Updating the ETM Upper Structure Product Design Specification, T040141, with comments received. Also, the failure and repair paper is generating good communication.

Held an installation fixture design meeting this morning and got a lot accomplished. We will be coordinating this work at the monday morning design meetings. We are thankful that Ken Mason, Ken Mailand and Doug Cook will be able to support this effort.

Working with procurement on the quad blade RFQ. We must start the process again. We have streamlined the notes on the blade drawings to avoid confusion and forced vendors to consider bending only, as opposed to EDMing. Procurement will be sending out RFIs today and will hopefully be sending out a second round of RFQs next week. It is still out hope to have a PO out by August 13th.

Worked with Calum and Mike P-L on releasing all of the mode cleaner drawings. Met with Dennis last week on the DCN process and on mechanical drawing guidelines.

Attended the output mode cleaner meeting last thursday to get a heads up on the design development.

Received training on the pendant crane in the Synchrotron.

Coordinating with Justin on a noise prototype design kick-off in August.

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

Advanced LIGO Coatings Development

LMA
Gregg was able to trace the thin missing substrate coated with Formula #3. It is once again on its way to MIT.

The next coating run with Formula #4 will take place on the large VIRGO coater. This run will test the ability to deposit doped materials on this chamber.
Several parts will be coated: One 3"dia. x 1" thick sapphire; a similar size fused silica substrate, a 3'' dia. x 0.100" thick fused silica part and several 1"dia. test plates (sapphire and fused silica).

CSIRO
Coating Kenji's substrates.

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

This week I worked on the forthcoming 02 rev of the ALIGO SUS DRD, T010007. I also computed several more asymmetrical quad pendulum models for Carolyn Cantley, to explore different ways of hanging an optic to have its HR face at a prescribed angle.

Pre-stabilized Laser

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

Core Optics

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

Pertaining to AdL R&D I've been contributing to:

1. Issues on the FS/ Sapph. choice. In particular discussions with P. Willems
   on the distortion effects on signal SBs. Also following the "in progress" study
   of smoothing of sapph. absorption inhomogeneities via high T annealing.

2. Setting up for detailed (lab) examination of large area HR coating point defect [scattering].
    We are planning , in near term, to convert the OTF scanner over to this task.

3. Ongoing study of interferometer noise at the AdL level. The leakage of radiation noise back into
    the interferometer via TM mirror scattering. This is the one I hope to present at the August LSC.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: <felfre@caltech.edu>

Barbara:

This week i retuned the blade reach resonant frequency to approximately 0.5 Hz. About the circuit for the piezo: there are some weird problems with channel 1 and 4. So now I'm reassembling these two channels. Also I'm starting to assemble the driver for the stepping motor as soon as the machine shop gives me the vacuum connector.

Anamaria:

I've taken more data and analyzed it. I was out on Monday for the SURF Goldstone tour. I will leave at the end of this week for 5 weeks and will be back August 30th to continue my SURF.

Nicky:

I was ill, but now I'm back. I've been working on the setup for my experiment and doing some drawings.

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