Weekly Report for Week Ending September 16, 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  September 20, 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. 40 Meter (Weinstein)
        2. TNI, ( Libbrecht)
        3. LASTI  (Shoemaker)
      • 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:   Change requests CR040014 Rv A and CR-040015


Special Announcements:

 


Weekly Report Highlights

LLO was shut down because of the threat from hurricane Ivan.  However, Hurricane Ivan jogged East before reaching land, missing LLO.  By noon Thursday, it was clear that it no longer presented a threat, and staff and visitors were given the OK to report to the site and resume operations.

There were no apparent outages or reports of damage, but it will take some time to wake systems up. Please continue to be patient if you are depending on site-based computing or personnel.

Commendations to the LLO staff for an orderly execution of their emergency plans!


LSC Issues (Saulson)


no report


LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)


LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Petrac)

(LSC Research Plans through February 2005 and Progress Reports through August 2004)

ACIGA

Carleton

CaRT

Caltech-CEGG

Florida

GEO

IUCAA

LSU

Moscow State

Northwestern

SLU

Syracuse

Columbia

Orsay Group

VIRGO



SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

A site teleconference was held Thursday, September 16, 2004.  The following issues were discussed:


The list of assigned actions updated through September 9, 2004 may be found Here.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)

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


DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

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


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

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


>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, Kammerling, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon


>Sharon Kammerling


>Dorothy Lloyd


PROPOSAL and REPORTS (Lindquist)

Schedule of proposals and reports planned for the remainder of the calendar year.


CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

L. Jones and D. Coyne have submitted change request CR-040014 to follow up on a request proposed to the LIGO Excomm on 23 August for increased budget for the ASI contract, adding on the order of $750K in funds to cover a growth in expected expenses with a slight decrease in contract scope.  This was discussed during the executive committee meeting on September 13, 2004.  L. Jones has the action to update the change request to reflect direction provided.  P. Lindquist will prepare the minutes and distribute the modified change request for approval.  The request will be for between $1.0 and $1.3 million additional in FY 2005.

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 (Landry)

4K IFO
-----------
In general the IFO is locking reliably in common (but low power) mode.  This results in reasonably long stretches of unattended locking at ranges of roughly 5Mpc (which is good news for future SN/GRB watches, along with timely data-archiving scripts).

What became very clear however, during this week's evening running, is that the H1 inspiral range is anticorrelated with newly enhanced seismic noise in the 1-3Hz band.  The source of this excess seismic noise is thought to be the nascent Integrated Disposal  Facility (IDF), having recently begun excavation.  Significant (1.2 million cu yards) of material is expected to be removed, an operation to last until mid-December.  See here for notes on this issue, or here for a directory of information.

Such low frequency noise is theorized to upconvert by some nonlinearity associated with the DARM loop, and thus pollute the AS_Q spectrum and reduce the inspiral range.

The IFO was briefly locked (5m) at full 7.5W power.  As no work was done on thermal compensation, it is expected a thermal drift was responsible for the lock loss.  More evidence of upconversion was observed: a 6Hz resonant gain stage added to the darm loop suppressed the noise floor at 100Hz.

Another large anticorrelation seen this week was that of inspiral range and the microseism.  Microseism increases observed at LHO correlated in time with wave height increases offshore.

Phase noise  coupling in common mode was impacted by the 4k mode cleaner common gain.

New hardware has been installed - last week saw the introduction of the new ETMX dewhites and coil drivers.  This week the latest anti-image board went into EX, giving additional degrees of phase over previous designs.

Phase camera images taken at 4W and with a variety of demodulation frequencies were posted.  Later, images were compiled into document.

Thermal compensation (TCS) returned to action.

We tried unsuccessfully to monitor the AS port spot with a video camera and Spiricon system (much as the beamsplitter centering servo), and employ the spot size to servo TCS.  The signal was too dominated by noise.  Later, a (sic) bull's eye detector was mounted for this purpose.

A suggested todo list was posted, including pushing the darm unity gain to 400-500Hz, above the violin frequencies of the test masses.  This would make for extra gain at low frequencies and provide additional phase margin for the construction of resonant gains.

2K IFO
------------
Late last week, the 2K PSL was upgraded with a new frequency stabilization servo  (FSS).The unity gain of the new servo is 811kHz.

Work on restoring ISCT10 continued; trigger PD adjustments were made, and the table status for the week outset was posted.  ISCT7 is the next table in line for work.  Once the table work was suspended, initial locking was good only in acquire, as WFS2 was problematic

A laser power drop was observed, due to battling chillers (both 2K laser and TCS) in the nearby closet.  The TCS chiller is now out of the closet, the other, in.

Later in the week, some common mode locking was achieved.

Next, we need to increase the laser power into the IFO, and increase the bandwidth of the auxilliary loops as was done on the 4k.  Note the 2K currently has only 2 photodiodes on the dark port.

DAQ
------------
Some DAQ configuration mods here, and here.


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


LLO (Zucker et al)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hurricane Ivan caused a brief interruption in commissioning; as a precaution, we  evacuated LLO Wednesday and part of Thursday and shut the gate valves in case the storm track veered toward the site. In the end the storm steered East and LLO was spared. At this point we are back up and open for business. One very positive outcome is that our evacuation and shutdown procedures were exercised and passed muster. Special 'attaboys' to the hurricane shutdown crew: Rus, Igor, Chethan, Tom, Shannon, Joe, Gary and Rich. (You guys even get the bonus points, since it all came back up afterward! ;)

Debugging is continuing rapidly after the completion of the EMC retrofit at the corner station; at last writing each arm of the interferometer has been locked individually, as has the short Michelson, verifying basic signal integrity. There remains a long punchlist but we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

HEPI commissioning continues. HEPI was used to correct the alignment of HAM3 and the actuators are now being repositioned to center up on the optically-determined best alignment.


L1 PEM (Lormand)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The accelerometers and microphones in the LVEA are operational again. Four accelerometers, the three on ISCT1 and the one on the PSL periscope, will be down till we get longer cables for them, about 8 weeks. The only LVEA PEM left are the Guralp seismometers and the magnetometers, both need their power connections. Also, the BLRMS is now functioning again.

Much of the X-end PEM seems to be down, I will check into this Friday.

Once the entire PEM is fully operational I will make a post on the elog.


CDS Computing (Chethan Parameswariah)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Fixed a reported problem with the HEPI Watchdog - found offset turned ON in one of the filter banks.

Installed new dataviewer - bug fixed for playback to not force user to use first channel.

Looked into the MC WFS PZT drive, MC TRANS QPD and the EO Shutter controller problems. Worked with Valera and Andri to trace faults and get the MC working. Also worked with Mohana to get the as builts for the Mode Cleaner IO Wiring. Added the QPD Wiring to the schematics.

Traced the HEPI BSC1 (ITMY) Peir2 Vertical Position sensor rail problem to be real. R. Abbott fixed it.

Installed Rolf's code fix for channel hopping on HEPI ICS 110Bs.

Investigated a problem with OL_SUMgoing to zero for no apparent reason. Found that when HEPI is turned off, the optic is skewed such that the beam on the optical lever is off the quad which zeros the sum.

Found more filter loading quirks that have been reported to Rolf and Alex.

Cronjob on LLO1 fails after few days with a max queue message. Looking into it. A bad cron job is the cause.

Made backups of important directories before the Hurricane shutdown.

Frame builder fb1's LDAS disk was full this morning. Reduced the second trend look back to 3 days to gain 116 GB of disk space. The minute trends that are saved for everadd 0.78 GB /day to the pot. At this rate we can go on for 150 days or 6 months before we have to make a decision again. Only option at that time is to reduce the full-frames to less than 3 days or reduce the sampling rate or reduce the channel list.

Chethan Parameswariah


Safety & security (Riesen)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Post-hurricane report:
The site security system has been returned to its normal condition.
The PSL laser interlock system has been returned to its normal condition.

A site tour showed no obvious damage.


General computing (Roddy)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Bell South has apparently fixed the problem with our internet connection. The problem was in one of the splice trays 7100' from the observatory. Evidently there was not enough slack in the tray and during the expansion and contraction in the afternoon heat/sunlight the fiber would get pulled tight enough to break the connection.  The signal would go from -17 db to about -22 db.  The correction did not require anything more than pulling some slack into the tray and laying the fiber back in it.


Data analysis (Yakushin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
LDAS admin:
1) Firmware for controller, ses and disks are upgraded on 3510.
2) Condor/LDAS/Storage hardware was down on 09/16/04 due to hurricane Ivan. Bringing the system back online.

Data analysis:
1) Produced and verified SG4_S3_P (short duration sine-gaussian), SG5_S3_P (long duration sine-gaussian), GA1 (gaussian) MDC for S3 playground. Presented the results at last week burst telecon.
2) Working on validation of SN1_S3_P (supernova), WNB1_S3_P, WNB2_S3_P, WNB3_S3_P (band-limited white noise) MDC frames.
3) Generated some more pictures for S2 paper on Erik's request.
4) Had a telecon with Siong, Sergey and Patrick about joint LIGO-GEO analysis using waveburst.


Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)


For the two week period ending 9/15/2004

CDS

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

DMT

John Zweizig

This week I have been using the DMT Band-limited RMS trends to identify airplanes at LHO during the S2 and S3 runs. The RMS of the PSL2 microphone in the band from 62-100 Hz gives a good indication when airplanes pass overhead.

 

CDS Software

Rolf Bork reporting

- Upgrade of 40m lab to latest DAQ in progress. We ran into some strange problems, but the root cause seems to be trying to run the latest framebuilder on an Ultra60. We swapped it out, replacing it with the SunBlade1000 from our development system. Now, everything appears to be working. Last piece is to bring up AWG. We still need to do more tests and some cleanup, but almost there.

 

- Installation of latest DAQ revision, and all the new code that went with it, is pretty much complete. There is still a punch list of a few items to be checked/fixed. We ended up having to install our development system SunBlade1000 at the 40m lab as the Framebuilder, as their U60 did not work. We will probably bring that machine over here and see if we can get it working with latest Solaris and patches. A summary of changes:

   1) New Framebuilder with latest DAQ software.

   2) Latest GDS software downloaded.

   3) Suspension controls: Two Linux PC controllers removed. Single VME crate which was sending/receiving data to/from Linux PCs split up into two VME crates. One handles all the sensor signals (similar to SOS controller at sites). Other VME crate split to run 4 optics each with a 2.2GHz VME processor (similar to LOS controllers at sites, except at sites LOS controllers only handle 2 optics each). The suspension EPICS was redone to be generated from a perl script, similar to other CDS systems.

   4) IO WFS software modified. It uses the same IO WFS code which runs at the sites as part of ASC, but has separate driver code here.

   5) ETM code is redone and runs on the ETM VME processors now instead of Linux PC.

 

- Note that some of the changes, besides that necessary for the latest DAQ, were done such that the 40m lab more closely resembles the sites. This will allow us to do more testing here prior to code updates at the sites. While the Linux PCs doing controls worked fine here, they would probably introduce too much reflected memory network traffic to be practical at the sites.

  

 

- New LSC software delivered to LHO. Software has rampable gains in filter modules and photodiode matrices. Appears to be working fine. Request now is to also provide this ramping gain feature for MC2.

 

 

- Sent in the PR for the new 2.2GHz VME Pentiums for the sites.

 

- Modified the HEPI code for LLO LVEA. This is an attempt to at least catch ICS110b channel hopping that has been noted there. Code was installed Tuesday.

 

- Modified HEPI code for installation at MIT. Alex is at MIT this week doing the install.

 

CDS Hardware

Jay Heefner reporting

AI Filters for Low Noise DACs: Replacement capacitors have arrived and the remaining boards will be stuffed and tested.

 

LLO EMI Upgrade: Continue to order cables, feedthroughs and panels for the upgrade.

 

- Installation of HEPI at LASTI, by Ivan & Jay, has been slower than expected. Parts that were to be shipped from LLO to MIT were delayed. All equipment is in the racks, but many of the special cables and connectors are missing. They will be installed when they arrive.

 

RF photodiode redesign

Ben Abbott

1) I received further comments from Daniel regarding some component choices for the RFPD.  I will finalize the schematic and PCB, and  the PCB will be sent to PCB express, and these boards will be stuffed as soon as possible.

2) I continue to test and characterize the prototype board that I have.

3) It has been decided that the new RFPD should be physically identical with the old PD in terms of PD height, and connector placement.  This will take time to redo my PCB, in order to move connectors and PD footprint.  Hopefully in can be re-layed out by Friday.

4) I have investigated the possibility of getting all of the long lead parts together in time to produce 30 PD units by S4.  It seems that I can get all of the parts in time, and hopefully get most of the PDs assembled by S4, with any remainders shipped as spares during the run.

5) I continue to test and characterize the prototype board that I have.

 

PSL

PeterKing

I have been helping Flavio out with testing of the table-top intensity stabilisation servo.  The state code I wrote to control the 10-W laser's AC current adjust actuator was modified a number of times and was tested out at the 40m Lab.  After resolving a user-problem associated with invoking more than one macro, the state code was run on a processor.  The behaviour of the code has not been fully checked out.

OMC

Ken Mailand

The main cavity spacer and the PZT holder bracket drawing are in process at the CES shop, along with the 'invar 36' material.
The mirror set-up location tools are also being made, Mike Gerfen estimated early next week to complete.


TCS chiller

Ken Mailand, Lee Cardenas

I have received several components for the laser chiller task, and now completing the layout for the test assembly.

I have tested the acoustic levels and pumping properties on 4 pump set-ups; the gpm output is border line, with this style of pump, and the set-up is sensitive laser cooling tube shape and id.

The flow restrictions in the actual laser coolant lines are of some value not known to me, or anyone else at ligo. I have asked the laser company to send me a standard set of coolant line assemblies for our laser, [representing one laser], so I can work with the actual system, they should be here tomorrow.

I haven’t received any answers yet from LHO re. the existing plumbing terminations for their tubing connections, or if the chiller fluid is a contamination problem issue if there is a leak. It seems there are more unknowns and more development required in this task than as first described.

The test setup is in the west bridge OTF lab.

 

 

Simulation of the flow resistance for the Co2 laser cooling is ongoing. We have all the components needed such as: main reservoir(13gal),  Two different types of copper lines (0.187 ID and 0.25 ID ), pumps: RIO 1100, RIO 600, VIA AQUA 1300 Models. and Aqua clear model.

Test performed for noise & flow rate for each pump(goal is 1890ml / min.) Results for the 0.187" ID copper line(this ID is closer to the laser line) are as follows:
RIO 1100 = 1000 ml / min.
RIO 600   =  900  ml / min.
VIA AQUA  =  950  ml / min.

 

I have completed several flow rate, and chiller temp tests, and given the data to Phil Willems, who is working on a control circuit to regulate the heat exchanger by reservoir temp.

 

A full control test should be complete by the end of next week.

Astigmatic AS Port

Mike Smith

AS PORT ASTIGMATIC BEAM

I received a list of documents from Keita regarding the astigmatic AS port beam and am in the process of studying them. I discussed the problem with Hiro. The first approach is to ascertain whether the beam is already astigmatic when it exits the AS port. If so, the problem may be caused by vignetting on the HAM table optics (Faraday isolator is a limiting aperture) or  thermal lensing in the beam splitter may produce astigmatism on the AS beam. Is the astigmatism power dependent? I will create a model of the recycling cavity using Zemax and attempt to determine the effect of thermal lensing of the BS on the astigmatism of the AS beam.

 

I developed an analytical model that predicts astigmatism of the antisymmetric output beam caused by non-uniform heating of the ITM, and/or symmetric heating of the BS. With the interferometer locked under "hot" conditions, the astigmatic beam waist ratio at the output port of the IFO is estimated to be 10% for a cylindrically lensed ITM due to non-uniform heating, and approximately 5% for the heated BS. If the heated ITM and BS are indeed the source of the astigmatism, this could be corrected by using the TCS to heat the ITM and create an appropriately assymmetric lens.

However, anecdotal information from Bill Kells indicates that, for the LHO 4K IFO, the output beam is elliptical even under cold conditions, as evidenced by a simple one-pass reflection of the input beam from either ITM. This indicates that distortion may be ocurring in the output optical train inside the vacuum. I have not yet gathered all the pertinent observations necessary to define the problem. I request data from anyone who may have made first-hand observations of the output beam ellipticity problem.

Optical Contamination Cavities

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

OTF Lab. (W. Bridge)
The chamber has two samples, white Ceramabond, and disks of TRA-BOND #2254
color light brown epoxy.  Cavity is locked.
We continue taking measurements everyday.  No Change

Absorption Test Measurement prototype   in standby

Scatterometer system  in progress!!
We have finished aligning and mode of the beam needed for scattering.
We have installed the Inner test mass 2ITM04 fused silica mirror in the scatterometer
enclosure and aligned and found the scatter beam from the ITM using a Photodiode.
We encounter with one situation, the background scatter beam is too high!!
meaning the mirror surface is dirty!  We are going to have it cleaned this mirror.
or We have to install the scatterometer head and proceed to see if there is any change.

The Quantronix 60 watt laser  No change

OTF Lab at Lauritsen ROOM 38        no change!
Cavity #3
Chamber is pumping with (6) disks of TRA-BOND #2151 color blue epoxy and
 (4) disks of TRA-BOND #2902 color silver epoxy.  The cavity is locked.
We continue taking daily measurements.  

Cavity #2
Taken to the shop to weld the leg support in place, still waiting in this one.
new components have arrived and still gathering all the others.

PSL Laser lab   Laser  in standby


 

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)



Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)


Since our last report, we have taken noise spectra with the new, computer-controlled servo electronics. The interferometer shows a slightly higher noise floor with the new electronics, and it sometimes goes into oscillation around the unity-gain frequency. We are now in the process of debugging these effects. Also we are preparing sensing electronics so that the computer can recognize when lock is acquired and engage the boosts by itself, rather than having the boosts switched on by the user.


LASTI (Ottaway)


no report


Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)


 Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)

Weekly Physics Meeting
--------------------------------
Luca Matone gave a talk explaining the phase camera pictures posted in LHO detector elog on September 14th. After that Hiro briefly explained the cause of sideband imbalance by the curvature mismatch (details in
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~hiro/T040177-00.pdf ). We had a long discussion on phasecamera pictures, the camera measurement procedure, sideband imbalances and observed ellipticity and/or astigmatism of beam coming out of the dark port. Mike Smith proposed the possibility that the astigmatism could arise from cylindrical (thermal) lensing at Input mirrors but Bill Kells and Luca pointed out that the ellipticity/astigmatism was also observed just in simple Michelson case when thermal lensing was absent.

Site-related programs/scripts
---------------------------------------
(Matt) Continued work on site related programs/scripts at LLO. I now have ezsine, ezsfft, and ezlockin working robustly here and have written example scripts which apply them to the DC diagonalization and F2P filtering issues. I've also written a test-mass actuation testing script which tests each of the coils on a mass in each of its filtering states.

Thermal heating and Sideband imbalance
-----------------------------------------------
(Hiro) The cause of the sideband imbalance by the curvature mismatch due to thermal heating has been studied using modal model. This is to understand the calculation of the FFT. It is documented in T040177 (preliminary version available in
 http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~hiro/T040177-00.pdf).

40 meter interferometer simulation
-------------------------------------------------------------------
(Monica) 40m/DRLIGO package: The validation of the static configuration gave roughly the same results for the carrier power than TWIDDLE predicted; The sidebands power have been not yet recovered as the sidebands asymmetry is still under investigation.

Length Sensing and correction for FFT runs
------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------
(Biplab) Finished Length Sensing and correction code in Matlab that can automatically calculate Length Sensing matrix from FFT output fields after adjusting demodulation angles from FFT output fields. Applied that to correct FFT's lock for H1 interferometer with or without mirror phasemaps. Xiao is using these results to compare various cases.

Alfi
-------
(Bruce)
        - Continuing box setting dialog implementation along with associated utility objects.
(Melody)
 Continuing modifications to display the FUNC_X variables in a friendlier user interface.   Currently working on the simple view which parses the C++ code in the MemberDecl primitive setting.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

Mendell:
Emphasis continues on investigations for comparison of StackSlide with Hough and Power Flux, using S2 and fake data.

Shawhan:
* Re-evaluated the efficiency of the POB_I veto for the S2 binary neutron star inspiral search, to get the final numbers for the paper.
* Studied dips in the amount of stored light in the arms of the L1 detector (as measured by L1:ASC-QPDX_DC) during the S3 run.  At least half of these dips are found to be associated with significant glitches in the AS_Q channel. See
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~pshawhan/lsc/S3/dataqual/lightdips.html 
for examples.

Sutton:
I've spent most of the past week on LIGO-TAMA and DMT work.  I have completed the full data set analysis for LIGO-TAMA, and computed the combined upper limit on the GW burst rate from the ~600 hours of S2/DT9 coincidence data. Combined with the efficiencies measured previously, this gives us the final scientific results from the LIGO-TAMA analysis. Of course, a lot of mopping-up remains.  On the DMT side, I have been debugging my new calibration classes.  I hope to have this completed for presentation at tomorrow's DetChar telecon.  I have also been preparing the infrastructure for making MDC frames for the LIGO-Auriga and LIGO-GEO bursts analyses.  Finally, I have been studying different techniques for computing upper limits from separate independent experiments with different backgrounds, with help from Lazzarini.

Yakushin:
1) Produced and verified SG4_S3_P (short duration sine-gaussian), SG5_S3_P (long duration sine-gaussian), GA1 (gaussian) MDC for S3 playground. Presented the results at last week burst telecon.
2) Working on validation of SN1_S3_P (supernova), WNB1_S3_P, WNB2_S3_P, WNB3_S3_P (band-limited white noise) MDC frames.
3) Generated some more pictures for S2 paper on Erik's request.
4) Had a telecon with Siong, Sergey and Patrick about joint LIGO-GEO analysis using waveburst.

LIGO Software and Computing Systems

Software Systems (Maros for Blackburn)
Work continues in the frameAPI to extend the createRDS command to support specification of the number of frames per file and the number of seconds per frame. Both C++ and Tcl modifications are being made.

Work also continues on the diskcacheAPI with several problems reports were closed:

   * PR 2685 -- cache::updateDirInfo log message should be more explicit
   * PR 2689 -- removed sub-second resolution code
   * PR 2686 -- cacheCheck should distinguish between different types of duplicate data
   * <><><>PR 2693 -- cacheDump fails to recognize -text option.
   * PR 2690 -- Confusing entry in diskcacheAPI log when frame.cache2 file is missing.

Unused variablesin cntlmonAPI and genericAPI were removed (PR2701). This will avoid confusion with installations.

Other problem reports that were closed this week are:

   * PR 2667 -- There should be minimal dependencies on Unix .*rc files
   * PR 2681 -- Missing trailing / in log file URL's
   * PR 2432 -- Invalid hyper links in mpi logs for job 0
   * PR 2047 -- mpiAPI won't shutdown cleanly in v0.7.0 at UWM
   * PR 2463 -- publicFile: attempt to copy directory: '/' made in file context.
   * PR 2477 -- tclDOC Table of Procedures should be alphabetized.
   * PR 2532 -- Incorrect API memory usage report
     <>
The TclGlobus project is now successfully using the 3.2 non-threaded Globus libraries. This required adding a Tcl Event which is called every 2 seconds to poll Globus's event queue for pending events. This is only required for non-threaded Globus libraries. Efforts are now underway to wrap the XIO library which is part of Globus 3.x.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)
Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)
* Continued the transfer of non-run second trends for LHO from HPSS to SAM-QFS (and their subsequent deletion from HPSS). Of the 526258 LHO files--we've transferred 471487 as of this writing (90%).
* Still working on getting a quote from STK for silo maintenance.
* Still working with Sun on the problem where shared clients (in this case alterf) ask for files, but they never get staged.
* Received 9940 cleaning tapes, but still waiting on labels.
* Corrupt LLO second trend files in CIT archive that Peter Shawhan reported seem to be the result of an rsync/network problem (part way thru one file all the data becomes 0s and stays that way for several more files). Pulled good files from LLO and made sure they were on tape here.
* Ordered replacement T3 disks for CIT.

(Hari Pulapaka)
* Working on globus xio, writing small test programs.
* Cleaned up the condor installation on the CIT cluster
* Build globus for MAC OS X. Needed to modify the GPT makefiles, etc

(Al Wilson)
* Replace drive in ideraid 4,2,5 all of then have been 160g.
* Did some prep work in 215 for the CIT cluster upgrade.

(Stuart Anderson)
* Finished placing orders to buy:
  -1 quad-Opteron test machine,
  -3 Grid servers for each LDAS cluster,
  -4 more tape drives for the Observatories,
  -12TB of QFS storage,
  -80 dual-2.8GHz Xeon cluster nodes,
  -100TB of cluster storage,
  -300 port Ethernet switch.

MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)
* Fixed pcraid1 to perform backup of cluster user data daily.
* Benchmarking power requirements of cluster node .
* Requested pcraid#8.

Livingston
----------
(Igor Yakushin)
* Firmware for controller, SES and disks are upgraded on 3510.
* Condor/LDAS/Storage hardware was down on 09/16/04 due to hurricane Ivan. Bringing the system back online.

Hanford
-------
(Greg Mendell)
* Besides routine tasks, I am starting work on some enhancements to the createrds scripts.

(Ben Johnson)
* Continuing spraying of S1 L1 LHO data to the cluster. I'm now about 2/3 of the way through the data set. Spraying has been hampered by the non-filename order in which some of the files are stored, and tape drive issues which have come up.
* Every tape drive at LHO has been cleaned since 9/10. This appears to have eliminated the "Loop OFFLINE" messages that started this weekend (see PR2694).
* Finished and announced "v1.0" of the segment archiver utility. This allows control room users to archive arbitrary data segments, without having to talk to the LDAS admins directly.
* Continuing to test 3510 check parity performance effects. Test results should be ready by Monday.

General Computing (Wallace)
MIT:
(Keith)
-Investigating spamassassin for individual use
-Patched various windows machines
-Looking into MIT LSC conference prep work
-Figuring out if we can get dtt running on linux

Livingston:
(Shannon)
-Bell South has apparently fixed the problem with our internet connection. The problem was in one of the splice trays 7100' from the observatory. Evidently there was not enough slack in the tray and during the expansion and contraction in the afternoon heat/sunlight the fiber would get pulled tight enough to break the connection.  The signal would go from -17 db to about -22 db.  The correction did not require anything more than pulling some slack into the tray and laying the fiber back in it.

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
- Attended a DASWG meeting about online data analysis to learn what part the GC network and resources will play.
- Setting up the last of the SunBlade 1500s.
- Helped users install a critical patch from Microsoft.  Also patching Netscape on the Sun computers.
- Continuing to install spyware exterminator on PCs.
- Dealing with ongoing problems on a Win2k computer that I rebuilt last week due to memory being dumped to disk every once in a while.
- Helped a few people plan specialized software and hardware purchases.
- Installing the latest version of ssh on several Sun computers.

CIT:
(Mike)
-Linda Turner: I installed additional hardware on her updated office workstation; plus restored additional data from her old computer.
-I am working on loading a PC workstation to setup another visitor's cubicle.
-Sharon Kammerling: Worked on Sharon's computer, updating her office installation to 2003. I had many problems doing this update. After many attempts of uninstalling and reinstalling the software I was able to get this computer updated. The problem was this computer needed critical updates installed. After I updated this computer, I was then able to install the 2003 & Adobe 6.0 software.
-This week I ghosted Mohana Mageswaran, and a few loaner laptops.
-Ken Mailand: I reinstalled solid works with a new license key to add additional plug-ins. This is a very time consuming process.
-Barry Barish: Loaded a laptop for Barry to take on travel.
-Rana Adhikari: I am loading a new laptop for Rana with General Computing software and all security patches.
-This week we loaded X-terminator on the following user workstations: Ken Mailand, Sharon Kammerling, Cindy Akutagawa, and Irene Baldon.
- Performed other misc. onsite/phone support that included printing and software issues.

(Veronica)
- LIGO website: Started websites for the upcoming PAC meeting and the NSF review.  Updates to other pages at the LIGO website. Help to Sharon with web issues.
- LSC website: Regular updates.
- Project Science: User support.

(Lisa)
- I've been laid up with a bad back so most of this week was spent doing routine maintenance.
- Spent some time working on the mac address tracking system.

Mail Stats 09/9 - 09/15/04
Messages Accepted:      19514   
Spam Rejected:          9604
Viruses Rejected:       580
False Positives:        7
Total Mail Thru:        29698
% spam blocked:         33%

(Larry)
-Spent a great deal of time working on different procurements. We have a number of data storage items as well as a few workstation upgrades ordered. Assisted a number of others with their procurements which is expected when we are at the end of the fiscal year. Still have a couple of maintenance contracts to get worked out.
-I have finally been able to spend a few hours on the new sandbox. The SUSE OS is a little different than the RedHat so a few items had to be recompiled, one of them being the NIS+ package. A number of file locations and file formats are also different, most items have been taken care of but there are still a few to go. Hopefully, a few people should be able to start checking out the unit by tomorrow.
-Worked on a number of PC's this past week. Mostly, minor problems dealing with configurations. Installed a couple of programs for different people.
-Continuing work on the server room. We are trying to get it cleaned up to where things don't blow all over when they run the test on the fire suppression system.
-Spent time cleaning up accounts and mail aliases. Still a lot of work to do to clean of old accounts and get current users to clean up their own directories. Added a couple of users and reset accounts for a couple of people that have moved to other locations and lost access to their account.
-Received a number of items this past week all but a couple of notebook computers have been delivered to the end users.

(Bruce Sears)
-Ilog Development and Installation:             
        - Implemented final changes requested for the new version of Ilog.
        - Updating all LIGO sites to use the new version.


Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)


Systems and Management

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

 

Progress Period from 09.10 to 09.16

 

·         ·         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

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

§         §         Continued the input of changes / preparing RFIs / responding to RFIs, as a result of the meetings with Carol and the Subsystem Teams.

§         §         Prepared a cost breakdown report for Janeen for SUS.

§         §         Attended meeting to discuss COC schedule changes.

§         §         Discussed schedule changes to SEI with Larry Jones.

§         §         Discussed schedule issues with Calum and Janeen related to RAL effort.

§         §         Continued work on the progress schedule update with progress through August 31, 2004.

§         §         Sent draft update to Carol early Monday AM for review.

§         §         Continued work on 40-Meter schedule changes for remaining work.

·         ·         ROSTER DATABASE:

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

§         §         Updated and posted a revision to the approved version of the LSC S2 Authorship List

§         §         http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/authorship/compare.htm

·         ·         COST BOOK DATABASE:

§         §         Nothing new to report.

§         §         http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/rd2005/Acct_Stats.htm

 

Seismic Isolation

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

SEI Structure:

A meeting on 9/10 between Stan Whitcomb and Rene Fraudet, president of ASI , concentrated on the sizeable contract cost growth and shrinking LIGO resources. Fraudet announced on 9/14 two actions as a result of that meeting. Scott VanderZyl, VP of Manufacturing for ASI, has replaced Tony Agajanian as AdLIGO SEI task project manager, and ASI is now developing "inch stone" metrics to better track added value.

Fabrication has started on the Blade Spring Test Tool.

Stage 0 detailed drawings have been released.

Change Request CR-040014 was presented to the LIGO Change Board. The Board decided to remove the HAM unit design from the current ASI contract, for two reasons:
1. the task is planned to be conducted later, partially expensed against FY06 funds, which are expected to be more available.
2. the task will be competitively bid (with more information than when the current contract was bid, in the form of analysis data and design for the BSC unit), and possibly bid as Fixed Price, with potentially better cost control and lower cost.
This Change Request will be revised and resubmitted and the contract revised to reflect these changes.

Actuators:

Weather problems associated with Hurricanes Frances in Florida and Ivan in Mississippi have delayed fabrication of the actuator parts for the BSC prototype unit. These are not expected to impact the prototype schedule.

Bob Taylor has precleaned silver plated fasteners for the actuators.

Displacement Sensors:

ADE is proceeding with fabricating and testing the 14 displacement sensors for the BSC prototype structure.

Accu-Glass is proceeding with fabricating and testing the 3 feedthrough flanges for the BSC chamber at LASTI, with 16 feedthrough fittings each.

Seismometers:

Nothing new


Galling/Dusting Test:

Nothing new.

 

Suspension

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


AdLIGO Suspension
Participated in a meeting at Stanford with Calum, Norna, Brian Lantz, Corwin Hardham, Wensheng Hua and Dan DeBra yesterday. It was very fruitful. Corwin gave us a presentation on his Algor stiffness analysis of quad structures. We discussed testing of the MC on the Tech Demo at the ETF. We also discussed possibly testing a concept quad structure on the Tech Demo. They plan to have their isolation research completed by ~January, at which time we could begin testing. We will be coordinating on this equipment transfer and testing in the coming months.

Reviewed Helena's preliminary ribbon/fiber/ear development plan.

Worked more on the flexibility study for suspension design for sapphire and fused silica.

Worked on a cost estimate in labor and equipment for AOS for a double pendulum pick off mirror and ETM telescope.

Worked on  upper structure concepts.

Core Optics

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


Silicate Bonding - Noise experiment

Bonded fused silica prisms (ears) to fused silica and sapphire substrates.
The bonds are to be used in a possible experiment to measure non-Gaussian noise in silica-sapphire bonds.

From: Bill Kells <kells@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
Shared with commissioning the following work is also pertinent to
AdL:

1. We are now in high gear developing a scanning bench to measure point scatter from typical (actually using a LIGO I spare ETM) LIGO I coatings. The goal is to determine whether it is intrinsic to the coating layers or mostly surface contamination. Practically its become an effort to reduce stray light effects to achieve the requisite sensitivity.

2. I have also been working on the usual array of Sapphire vs FS issues, particularly TC mechanisms as can be gleaned from measurements underway at the sites (particularly LHO 4k).

Auxiliary Optics

 

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

ADV LIGO

AOS
I have received costing information for the PO mirror and ETM Telescope suspensions from SUS. I am in the  process of updating the development schedule and cost for the AOS subsystem.

COC BIREFRINGENCE AXIS ALIGNMENT
I am in the process of developing an analytical model of a crossed polarizer alignment instrument for measuring the orientation of the birefringence axes of the hanging sapphire COC. Preliminary results indicate that with a crossed polarizer power extinction ratio of 1000:1, the orientation of the axes can be measured to within +/- 1 mrad. I believe that passing the analyzer beam through the COC twice, after flipping the analyzer beam over with a roof reflector, will remove the effect of the wedge; however, I haven't analyzed that yet.

LIGO
AS
PORT ASTIGMATIC BEAM
I developed an analytical model that predicts astigmatism of the antisymmetric output beam caused by non-uniform heating of the ITM, and/or symmetric heating of the BS. With the interferometer locked under "hot" conditions, the astigmatic beam waist ratio at the output port of the IFO is estimated to be 10% for a cylindrically lensed ITM due to non-uniform heating, and approximately 5% for the heated BS. If the heated ITM and BS are indeed the source of the astigmatism, this could be corrected by using the TCS to heat the ITM and create an appropriately assymmetric lens.
However, anecdotal information from Bill Kells indicates that, for the LHO 4K IFO, the output beam is elliptical even under cold conditions, as evidenced by a simple one-pass reflection of the input beam from either ITM. This indicates that distortion may be ocurring in the output optical train inside the vacuum. I have not yet gathered all the pertinent observations necessary to define the problem. I request data from anyone who may have made first-hand observations of the output beam ellipticity problem.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Riccardo DeSalvo <desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
Juri
Still working on my simulation program; I made some changes in the symmetry of the mesh and I used the lasers wavelength as the fundamental scale for the problem. Waiting for the results of the simulation in order to see if the strange behavior after about 50 bounces is still present. Still working on the coating thermal noise for finite mirrors and on my paper with Erika.

Maddalena
I have finished the T.F. slope exponent characterization as a function of the resonant frequency finding a strictly linear behavior below 120mHz. In this region the slope exponent change from a -2 to a -1 at zero resonant frequency.
Moreover I'm analyzing the control circuit board made by Yanyi finding several mistakes. This circuit has to be better analyzed so we may decide if to do a new one or try to fix it.
We approved the design and we prepare to send in production the remedied, new arrangement for the seismic isolation system for the 7 meter resonant cavity.
Writing the paper on 1 Hz seismic attenuation.

Anamaria:
I have finally finished all the data taking for the first blade (maraging) and found the expected 1/f^2 behavior. Now I switched to Cu-Be.
I'm also taking the Machine Shop course.

Nicky:
Creep measurement ongoing, first results confirm Maddalenas measurement of thermal variation of Youngs module, ~2.3 10^-4/oC

Simone, Francesco:
Assembled the maraging flex joint and trying to excite the flex joint resonances electrostatically and read them with shadowmeter.

Barbara's thesis draft is available.
It can be found into
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/BarbaraTHESIS.pdf
and
/BarbaraAppendixA.pdf


 

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