The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday October 4, 2004 will be:
(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)
Special Items:
Minutes of LSC Executive Committee telecon
24 September 2004, 1100 Eastern
Attendance: Bruce Allen, Joe Giaime, Dave Reitze, Peter Saulson (minutes),
Peter Shawhan (chief reviewer of Pulsar paper), David Shoemaker, Daniel Sigg,
Ken Strain, Stan Whitcomb, Benno Willke.
1. Patrick Brady has accepted Jorge Pullin's invitation to chair a Focus
Session on "Earth based gravitational wave detection" at the April
2005 APS meeting. The LSC Exec Comm endorsed this plan.
2. Peter Shawhan presented the report of the reviewers of the S2 Known Pulsar
paper, who enthusiastically endorse publication of the paper. He noted that the
paper has been mature since the August LSC meeting. Since then, the authors
worked to make the abstract and introduction stronger on the case for
publication in PRL. The comments from the most recent posting of the paper were
mostly minor and easy to deal with. The most substantive criticism came from
Albert Lazzarini, who asked that systematic errors be discussed more
completely, and also that they be folded into the final upper limits quoted in
the paper. Bruce said that the discussion of some of the errors was too
complicated for a paper of PRL length, but that a pointer to the S1 paper
(where these were discussed) had been added. Members discussed the question of
whether to include the errors in the quoted limits; while several expressed a
weak preference for doing it that way, no one felt it was crucial as long as
there was a complete and correct description of the systematic errors in the text.
The Exec Comm decided that the final choice could be left to the
discretion of the Pulgroup and its reviewers. After this discussion, the Exec
Comm voted unanimously to endorse the publication of the paper. It will shortly
be posted to gr-qc, and then (after a 3 week public comment period) will be
sent to Phys Rev Letters.
3.Peter Saulson discussed the status of LSC/Lab restructuring discussions. We
are moving forward with trying to implement the "tighter integration"
model, reducing barriers between the Lab and the LSC. We are also exploring, as
our first choice, staying with Caltech and MIT as hosts for LIGO.
Next steps: Discuss with Caltech (Tom Tombrello, to start) the changes we think we need. There are two: 1) expanding the Oversight Committee to include members representing other important LIGO stakeholders (including GEO) and also working members of the LSC, and 2) ensuring that Caltech can work with a system in which responsibility and authority within LIGO can be freely assigned to LSC members who are not at Caltech or MIT. This discussion was to have been held this past week, but was held up while we prepared documents on these two issues. That hurdle is past, so we hope to hold the first discussion next week.
We also need to draft a new charter for the LSC and the Lab. A group consisting of Sam Finn, Norna Robertson, and David Shoemaker is working on the new draft. David reported at the meeting that they are making good progress, but that the draft will miss the 24 September target by about one week. The group found that the charter of the CLAS collaboration at JLAB made a good model.
Schedule of future steps:
* 8 Oct, circulate proposed new charter to LSC Council
* 22 Oct, hold a telephone meeting of the LSC Council to discuss the charter,
and to launch an email vote.
This would allow LIGO to go into its 8-10 Nov NSF review in good shape on this
issue.
4. Status of GEO/LIGO MOU revisions
There is one outstanding issue requiring discussion before we will
be ready to sign the new version of the MOU: We need to understand how other
pre-existing bilateral data exchange agreements will be folded into the new
regime of LIGO/GEO integration. A telephone meeting between Bernard Schutz and
Peter Saulson will be set up next week to talk through the individual cases.
5. Status of Virgo/LIGO MOU discussions
So far, we have had no formal response to the message sent on 24
August to Adalberto Giazotto, outlining the results of discussion at the August
LSC meeting. Fulvio Ricci informed Peter Saulson (when they met at the Frascati
gravity wave school) that the message had sparked discussions among the Virgo
leadership, and that Giazotto was expected to reply soon.
We discussed the announcement of the foundation meeting of the Virgo-EGO Scientific Forum, secheduled for 9-10 December. Members of all European gravity wave groups were invited, as were Albert Lazzarini and David Shoemaker (presumably through their roles on the Virgo STAC.) After some discussion, we concluded that there was no action that the LSC ought to take regarding this meeting.
Benno and Ken informed us of the discussions of GEO participation in the meeting, that took place during last week's GEO meeting. Shaping those discussions was the realization that the intended goal of the VESF is unclear. It is not intended as a direct way for people to join Virgo; several members suggested an analogy with the LIGO Research Community. GEO will send several observers to the meeting. They intend to make it clear that all GEO data analysis takes place in the context of the LSC.
We also discussed the possibility of extending the LSC/Virgo
data analysis collaboration to include a search for a stochastic background.
This would take advantage of the short GEO/Virgo baseline (although the
near-misalignment of the interferometers causes a strong reduction of
sensitivity.) It might also take advantage of the move of Tania Regimbau from
Cardiff to Nice, although we don't have any insight into internal Virgo decisions
about who works on which topic. We decided to continue discussions on this idea
later, after considering the overall state of LSC/Virgo work and in particular
the question of whether we should continue to focus on only two topics.
Topics that we weren't able to cover in this meeting:
* proposed revisions to the Publication Policy
* requirements for the software review of the LIGO/TAMA analysis
* what is required to support the new ongoing H1 data recording
* ideas about expanding/reorganizing the DCC
Notes to members about future meetings:
* We will likely have to reschedule our October meeting, in order to accomodate
the 22 October LSC Council meeting.
* Peter Saulson will poll members about shifting meeting time 1/2 hour later,
to 1130 Eastern. This would work better with several members' teaching
schedules.
STATUS OF LSC MOUs
(Petrac)
(LSC Research Plans through February 2005 and Progress Reports
through August 2004)
ACIGA
CaRT
Caltech-CEGG
Columbia
Florida
GEO
IAP
Louisiana School of Math, Science, and Arts (LSMSA)
Loyola
LSU
Rochester
Syracuse
University of Washington
Washington State
Orsay Group
VIRGO
EGO
SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)
A site teleconference was held on Thursday, September 30,
2004. The following issues were among those discussed:
The list of assigned actions updated through September 16, 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
PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)
Schedule of proposals and reports planned for the remainder of the calendar
year.
CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT
(Lindquist)
HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)
>From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu>
Quality/Safety (Tyler)
>From: Bill Tyler <tyler@ligo.caltech.edu>
No report this week.
.
Summary of Commissioning
Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (Landry)
Mt. St. Helens, some 270km west of the LHO, has shown increasing activity over
the last week. See here
for seismicity from Tuesday, and here
for Thursday (click and magnify both these plots for better readability. The 2k
lock-state trend looks like a picket fence as the IFO locks and unlocks. An
online camera shot of the mountain is available with a few
minutes latency.
Some commissioning highlights this week:
4K IFO
-----------
2K IFO
------------
no report.
see also the CDS weekly meeting minutes in the commissioning archives:
Rolf Bork reporting
- We completed the changes to all front end software to
include the digital filter gain ramping previously installed in the LSC
software. This will be installed at the sites when they are ready.
- Still working on approaches to catch and/or fix ICS110B
channel hopping problems. I'm working with the ADC synch word to see if that
helps. It's encrypted and not documented, but I think I have it figured out. I
still need to do some further testing. I've been able to skew the ADC clock and
catch the channel hopping and correct for it. We are also going to try reading the ADC modules over the
Front Panel Data Port (FPDP) instead of VME. We have the necessary FPDP card
for the processor but still need the ribbon cable.
Jay Heefner reporting
Fiber Optic Timing Link (Sander)
- Recommended changes are being made to the receiver and
transmitter boards
- The test results have been summarized in a document and
sent to the dcc.
Timing System (Flavio)
- Flavio and Jay will meet tomorrow to discuss system
requirements.
Anti-Image Boards (Jay/Todd)
- Shipped 9 units to LHO
- Need to make 8 more for LLO and spares.
40 Meter (Ben/Jay)
- Working on DAQ connections for IOO signals.
- Found a problem with the code for MC1 and MC3. The LL Coil
outputs were the same. The front end software has been fixed.
- Found a pentek with glitchy DAC channels. The pentek was
driving MC1 and MC3 coils. Bad channels were 2 and 6. It has been replaced.
- Mohana's web based documentation system is coming along
nicely. We need to make sure that the documents she is referencing are the
correct versions for the installation.
LSC PD Redesign (Ben)
- Vern is setting up a review meeting for this Friday.
- Got back some boxes from the anodizer. They look
fine, and once the PCB is final, I can start having the boxes machined.
- Ben continues to test and characterize the prototype board
ISS (Flavio)
- LLO is up and running.
- Flavio met with Rana to discuss minor changes that are
needed. They will be incorporated and the boards for LHO ordered for
installation in October.
EMI Upgrade (Mohana)
- Added EO shutters to LSC schematics and cross connects.
TNI (Jay)
- Tomorrow we will incorporate the auto-locking code for the
mode cleaner and arm cavities.
LASTI (Jay)
- Determing schedule for HEPI and SUS.
Elect Shop (Todd)
- Building spares for sites.
- adding 10KHz LPF modules to QPD whitening boards. Shipped
3 filter boards to LLO last week.
- Need to build two more sos controllers for Gin Gin.
PeterKing
I helped Flavio sort out some of the EPICS-related stuff
when the new table-top intensity stabilization servo was installed at LLO last
week.
Currently I am looking into why the AC current adjust
actuator does not appear to do what I think it should do. I will have to
compare the power supply with the schematic at hand.
Mike Smith
I calculated the astigmatic eigenstate spot sizes at the ITM
mirror of a one-arm LIGO power recycling cavity with in-line transmission
through the BS. The ITM was modeled as a simple spherical mirror with a variable
thin lens next to it to describe the effect of ITM substrate heating. The
following HR BS curvatures were used: LHO 2K 83 km, LHO 4K 203 km, LLO 4K
163 km. The astigmatism caused by the BS lens at 45 deg incidence reduces the
degeneracy of the cavity, as does heating the ITM substrate. When the ITM
substrate is almost cold, the astigmatism of the recycling cavity is extremely
sensitive to the BS curvature and to the thermal lensing in the ITM. With
the ITM heated enough to cause an effective lens of 300 km, the ratio of the
vertical/horizontal eigenstate spot size was calculated to be 1.8 for the 203
km BS; 1.4 for the 163 km BS, and 1.25 for the 83 km BS. In discussions
with Hiro, he pointed out that the eigenstate spot sizes represent the steady
state modes within the recycling cavity for an infinite finesse. The actual
mode that exits the cavity will be some mixture of the launched TEM00 and the
eigenstate modes.
Ken Mailand
The output mode cleaner spacer and piece parts have been
completed and have arrived at LHO for testing.
Ken Mailand, Lee Cardenas
Working on packaging the hardware, purchase, and
manufactured parts, for the site installation of the quiet, water/coolant
chiller assembly.
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
Data treated and released please check cav1_epoxy_bw_11.pdf
Absorption Test Measurement prototype in standby
Scatterometer system in progress
The Inner test mass 2ITM04 fused silica mirror is in the scatterometer
enclosure.
We are scanning the entire mirror surface for scattered light and it is in
progress now!
We have made several scanning so far at different angle of incidence.
The Quantronix 60 watt laser No Change
*We have installed the new laser enclosure.
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.
data treated and released please check: cav3_epoxy_bs_test_1.pdf
Cavity #2 in standby
The new chamber is IN but still waiting on the viewport windows.
PSL Laser lab Laser in standby
no report
LASTI Weekly Report (Allen, Corbitt, Mason, MacInnes, Mittleman,Ottaway, Ruet,
Sarin)
Triple testing on Xend HEPI Platform
We finished the hardware installation of the triple last week, the experiment
is now complete with HEPI system working and triple pendulum working. The main
problem we encountered are : connecting HEPI board made for VME to Dspace, we
had to make some termination board to reorganize the pins of outputs and input
of HEPI boards. Installing valves and filling the new system with oil, the lack
of oil we had in the tank at the beginning produced some air in the pipes. The
problem has been simply solved by adding some oil in the tank.
Software
Iincluded HEPI and geophones of the optical table in my software so that system
ID software will run the 22 actuators (14 triple and 8 HEPI) one by one,
recording the 28 sensors for every actuators. I chose to drive with white noise
which I filter in the range of frequency I want to study, it enables me to save
time (it would take months if I drove a sinus freq by freq) by keeping a decent
level of coherence. Then I have all the data to calculate Transfer functions I
want to characterize the triple and compare with the model. I ran a complete
system ID last week, it took about 30 hours to have every data needed. So I can
compare the data I have with the model Calum made. Even though it match pretty
well, we noticed a bad behavior in high frequency (above 5Hz), the phase and
the magnitude start to be bad and the slope of high frequency looks more like a
1/f than a 1/f2. It happen for every triple's sensor whatever the actuator is
(HEPI or triple). After spending time to check calculations and trying to
understand where it could come from, we think that it is due to abnormal
damping. We are going to investigate 2 possible sources of damping : a magnetic
static force due to the magnet inside the coil, or rubbing (probably a magnet
touching an OSEM), we hope one of this 2 source to be the one we are looking
for and to get good data before we can start pumping down the air.
HEPI Support
Rich Mittleman has spent the last two weeks commissioning HEPI at LLO. In
addition to this the last two weeks have been spent recovering from the LASTI
software/hardware upgrade and bringing things back to normal wit the CDS VME
readout. With invaluable help from Alex Ivanov, most things are working again -
a few input signals are still not getting through the system, which prevents
closing control loops on the HAM HEPI.
We now have most of the electronics, minus a few cables to control two HEPI
chambers, and the CDS software is now identical to the one used at LLO to
facilitate testing. I am inventorying the cables we have and identifying the
missing cables which were held up at LLO due to the recent spate of hurricanes.
Work also continues in porting the adaptive Feed-forward system from its
current implementation in dSpace into the CDS VME system. Since with the new
CDS software, all the HEPI code resides in VxWorks, the development cycle is a
bit slower than when we had the core HEPI code running as a Linux software
module on a Linux box.
LASTI PSL
We are currently updating the wiring of the PSL so that it matches what is available
at the sites. Plus we have started upgrading the software.
LASTI Experimental Plan
We are currently looking at the feasability of performing a cavity test between
the reaction chain and the main chain of the noise prototype to look for
non-gaussian events.
no report
Project Management Progress Period from 09.17 to 09.30 (T. Frey)
·
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.
§
Attended meetings to
discuss cost and schedule changes for the following Sub-Systems - COC, SEI,
PSL, LASTI, and AOS.
§
Meetings scheduled
this Friday with IO and 40-Meter.
§
Continued work on
the progress schedule update with progress through September 30, 2004.
§
Sent draft update to
Carol regarding 40-Meter changes.
·
ROSTER DATABASE:
§
Continued to work
with Irena to provide Barry with information regarding FTEs and Institutions.
§
Assisting Irena as
needed on record changes.
·
COST BOOK DATABASE:
§
Nothing new to
report.
§
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/rd2005/Acct_Stats.htm
From: Larry Jones <ljones@ligo.caltech.edu>
Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure
SEI Structure:
A meeting will be held with ASI on 10/1 to negotiate which unplanned
activities on their task were caused by LIGO's requested scope changes. These
would be valid items for charging additional fee; otherwise, they can only
invoice LIGO for their costs.
Ken Mason will become the Technical Manager of the ASI contract when Larry
Jones retires from Caltech in January, and will be closely involved in the work
in the iterim. Ken Mailand will assume responsibility for the cleaning of the
BSC prototype parts and fixtures; in the meantime, Mailand and Jones will work
together to develop the cleaning and qualification process for parts too large
for the standard procedures.
Actuators:
Nothing new.
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.
Other:
The drawing and design requirements for the Quad structure vacuum
chamber/oven are nearly complete, and have been handed off to Oddvar Spjeld,
who will coordinate the contract sourcing, award, and design and fabrication
tasks for the two contracts. A unique feature of this oven, besides its larger
size, is the fact that the vacuum chamber is heated inside a convection-flow
oven, along with critical valves and piping. Compared with our existing vacuum
ovens, which are chambers that are wrapped with heat tapes and insulation, the
qualification data from RGA scans should be more consistent and accurate,
having more uniform chamber temperatures during bakeout. This oven will be
installed at LLO.
From: Janeen Romie <romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu>
AdLIGO Suspensions
Working with Calum on quad structure design and analysis.
Working with
From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>
Advanced LIGO Coating Development - CSIRO
Had a teleconference with CSIRO to discuss the next coating run.
They will use a standard 30 layer - quarter wave design of Ta2O5 / SiO2 were
they'll vary the oxygen content on either side of what is likely to be
considered to be optimal from the point of view of optical absorption.
On a subsequent experiment, they will repeat the coating run
incorporating an ion assist gun during the deposition. We'll be able to test
the effects on mechanical loss when the film stoichiometry is changed.
LMA
Received a report on the absorption uniformity in coated sapphire and fused
silica substrates. The report will be placed on the COC Website shortly.
From: Michael Smith <smith@ligo.caltech.edu>
AOS
The cost and schedule for AOS Adv LIGO has been updated.
COC BIREFRINGENCE AXIS ALIGNMENT
I am in the process of modeling the birefringent COC alignment apparatus using
Zemax.
From: Peter King
<pking@ligo.caltech.edu>
AdvLIGO PSL
===========
The webpage for the PSL is finally underway after a crash
course in HTML and frames. Currently I am trying to find all the bits of
information and links to put into said page.
Benno sent me what is PeterF's draft design requirements document. At
some stage Benno and I will be going over the document. Hopefully before
the next lasers working group telecon.
From R. DeSalvo:
Barbara
Yesterday succesfully defended her master thesis, with Erika as thesis sponsor.
Congratulation!
Juri
I am working on the problem of coating thermal noise for finite mirrors and for
non-Gaussian beam profile with an half analytical half numerical method.
Moreover I am running simulations about the dynamics of mesa-beam in a FB
cavity in different configuration. One is focused on the transformation of a
Gaussian beam into a mesa-beam and other two study the behavior of a
Mexican-hat cavity with symmetric and anti-symmetric tilt of the mirrors.
Maddalena
Introducing several comments from LSC members in paper, preparing for
submission to NIM, the updated paper is available in.
ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/MaddaLFseisATT.doc
Simone, Riccardo:
Initial data analysis of Maraging flex joints, Riccardo preparing for the
silicon tests.
Nicky:
Creep measurement ongoing, extended the run at 60oC for two more weeks weeks.
Monitoring.
Anamaria:
Classes started, now the work will proceed more slowly. Practically
completed the comparison of Maraging and CuBe. The behavior are similar
(both compatible with quadratic behavior) with a ~30% difference in Q factor,
except for the already mentioned ease to tune at lower frequency.
We will make more tests on hysteresis on CuBe and then will go back to Maraging
for better comparisons.
For additional information about this report, contact whitcomb_s@ligo.caltech.edu