Weekly Report for Week Ending October 14, 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  October 18, 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:


Special Announcements:

 


Weekly Report Highlights
 


LSC Issues (Saulson)


no report


LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)


STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Petrac)

(No report--vacation)



SITE TELECONFERENCE (Jasnow)

A site teleconference was held on Thursday, October 14, 2004.  The following issues were among those discussed:

The issue of cost transfers was discussed.  Transfers for expenditures over 90 days old require the signature of the Division Chair and the Controller, so it is important to keep track of expenditures as they occur to be sure they are being allocated to the correct account and are the correct expenditure type.

A follow-up audit has been scheduled at LHO by the Caltech Office of Audit services and Institute Compliance.  This audit is to assure that the recommendations of the previous audit are being followed.  The audit will take place the week of October 25.

A bulletin issued by the International Scholars Services Office has clarified the issue on the H-1b visa cap, stating that it does not apply to institutions of higher education, or a nonprofit research organization.  Therefore, LIGO can continue to hire foreign staff with H-1b visas.  The bulletin also urged foreign staff traveling abroad who need visas to re-enter the U.S. visit their office before traveling to assure that they have correct documentation to secure such a visa.

Assigned Action Items: 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>

Nothing significant to report.

 

 


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


Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (Landry)

4K IFO
-----------

2K IFO
------------

DAQ, Misc
----------------

Outreach (D. Ingram)
------------

On Sept. 30 Fred Raab and Dale Ingram attended a lunch meeting of the Tri-Cities Industrial Development Council (TRIDEC).  LHO is a TRIDEC member.  We will stay abreast of plans to expand higher ed opportunities in the Tri-City area that were discussed at the luncheon .  Jerry Schneider, a program manager for economic diversification with Fluor Hanford (the main Hanford contractor) visited LHO on 10/5 and discussed with Fred and Dale ways that LIGO's presence might contribute to local economic and intellectual development.  Benton City High School junior Preston DeLong visited on 10/8 for a one-day job shadow, an activity that we would expect to increase at the site since many schools require job shadows as part of career ed.  LHO is planning to offer a public unveiling of Einstein@Home as a way to kick off the World Year of Physics.   We will wait until the delivery date for the software is firmed up before we begin publicizing the event.  We will hold a meeting of our Local Educator Network (LEN - our advisory council on outreach issues) on 11/4.
 

 


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


Excellent progress this week on restoring the interferometer to operation. Rick Savage came down from LHO to help install the new frequency servo (TTFSS) and it works beautifully. He also helped us finally (we hope) resolve a long-standing cooling issue on our NPRO, so we are hopeful it will be much more robust. Rolf came down to install the latest code versions and some faster processors to give us more headroom on ISC as well as HEPI realtime controls. This new code also allowed us to finally tie the long-term tidal signals into HEPI; one-arm tests showed this is a huge improvement.  Rana and Vuk continued to work with the local crew on locking the interferometer and are making rapid progress. We hope to start looking at noise spectra this week.

Livingston Outreach (Thacker)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Developing 4 demos for regional GEAR UP conference, 31 Oct - 02 Nov Prepared poster display for Louisiana Science Teacher's Assoc meeting 28-30 Oct Participated in Teacher Professional Development mtng at LAGEARUP office w/ LASIP, SUBR; Conducted background work on Tautochrone Ramp exhibit and Gravity Well exhibit


Safety & security (Zucker for Riesen, Evans)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
LASER SAFETY
1). Addressing LSS access control logic which is non-consistent between  the 5 laser tables.
2).  Updating Laser Operator and Authorized machine shop user signage.

SITE SAFETY
Found no safety concerns during the weekly site tour.

PROPERTY CONTROL
Working with Ed Chargois and Tom Evans in the disposal process of computers and monitors that are no longer in service.


Thermal Compensation (Frolov)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- new X arm chiller from Neslab  was hooked up and turned on this week
- new power connectors with fused switches were installed on both TSC lasers. The lockout boxes were ordered for this connectors.
- additional PSL toroidal transformer installed. Both TSC tables were powered on to test the power supply and X arm chiller. No problems are seen so far. TSC is off until TSC commissioning restarts.
- TSC interface electronics is expected to arrive within two weeks.

AdL and LIGO 1 Mechanical Engineering (Spjeld)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- finished the updated UHV Oven drawings (no change, just additional  views)
- sent RFI and ROM to possible vacuum chamber and oven manufacturers
- received photon calibrator support shelves from machine shop
- finishing LLO layout 3D-models for museum LIGO exhibition

CDS Software (Parameswariah)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Installed Hanford crude Ramp down code. The code runs as a cron job on LLO1 as ops every minute and decrements the max variables by 10 every minute if it exceeds the limits.

Requested DAQ Changes completed and tested. Rana's elog entry requested the DAQ following changes.

Test points that were not in the DTT channel list but added now:
----------------------------------------------------------------
L1:LSC-NSPOB_IN1, L1:LSC-NSPOB_IN2, L1:LSC-NSPOB_OUT

Channel Names change:
-------------------------
L1:LSC-SPOB_MON -> L1:LSC-SPOB_I
L1:LSC-SPOB_OMON -> L1:LSC-SPOB_Q

ISS Channels added:
---------------------------
All of the new ISS channels which are for the inner loop. These should all be 16 kHz and as such, shouldn't have 850 Hz LPFs. These are not checked for filters yet. Will be looked into this afternoon.

Also I have added both Whitend(_W) and Non-Whitend(_NW) channels for

L1:PSL-ISS_CURRSHDAQ, L1:PSL-ISS_OLSENSPD, L1:PSL-ISS_OLMONPD
L1:PSL-ISS_ILMONPD, L1:PSL-ISS_ILSENSPD

If there is a decision made to keep only part of the above 10 channels, then we must remove the rest to save frame builder disk space.

Checked all the ISS DAQ Channels are 16 KHz. Had to remove filters for 2 channels. Also tested the channels. Some channels are railed and needs to be checked at the ISS box

FBO was down after the above channel addition due to disk space fill up. Fixed the directories that were removed and reduced the full frames to 2 and 1/2  days.

Working with Rolf on CDS changes. New 2.2 GHz processors installed on the RM/BS and ITM. A linux boot server installed in the MSR. Both RM/BS and ITM processors are working now.

Moved the 1.6 GHz processors from RM/BS and ITM to HEPI corner station processors. Installing the tidal input code for HEPI.

General Computing (Roddy)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Installed various software packages this week.  Visual Studio, Matlab, etc. on the visitor's machines.

Working on a couple of quotes for some network monitoring servers.

Spent a lot of time yesterday trying to get a USB memory stick working with Solaris in an acceptable manner so that I can keep my public/private keypair on it for encrypted email.  Part of the security push is for the admins to be able to send encrypted emails back and forth.  This is turning out to be fairly difficult to do on a one user basis when the user uses different machines & platforms on a daily basis (like myself).

Finishing up the auditorium.  I need to get with John and show him what has been done in there in the last two weeks.


Data analysis (Yakushin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
LDAS and Condor administration:

1) Upgraded LSCdataFind server and client to fix the bug observed with  GEO frames.
2) Upgraded Condor to version 6.6.6.
3) Changed passwords on LDAS and Condor machines.
4) u1d2@t3-6 failed and was replaced by u1d8@t3-13.

Data analysis:

1) Attended burst face to face meeting at MIT. Gave presentation about waveburst efficiency on MDC frames:
http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~igor/MDC_S3_P/ Final_waveburst_configuration_for_S3.html
2) Helping Siong and Michele to get started with running waveburst under Condor.


HPLF, L1 Commissioning, and AdL Modeling (Franzen)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Have been training Evgeny Kamenetskiy, Andrey Shaykin and Viktor Zelenogorsky to utilize the HPLF. They have now been certified as HPLF Laser Operators by Safety Officer Rich Riesen and have already started to perform a series of experiments including high power tests of an ADLIGO Faraday Isolator prototype. We have performed an inventory and have ordered several additional equipments needed for the experiments. Have also been solving several practical issues related to their visit like hotel and transportation.

2) Have continued the ITMY and BS HEPI SYS-ID. The ITMY data are now done while the BS needs to be improved a little around 0.5 Hz. I am also trying to learn how to design the required BS and RM control filters in order to be able to contribute to the efforts of the HEPI team.

CDS software (Khan)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Implemented a Watchdog timer that reloads the original MAX_VAR value of the LOS Coil output after an expiration of 2 minutes. The watchdog is there to protect an accidental over limit value on the MAX_VAR input. This is purely a database implementation which is easy to maintain.

Working with Rolf and Chethan on the CDS upgrade.


Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)


CDS

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

CDS Software

no report

(Rolf is at LLO this week installing new code and supporting HEPI controls commissioning.)

CDS Hardware

Held a review of the Fiber Optic Timing Link system. Review committee report is pending.

 

Ben Abbott reporting

RFPD Redesign:

1) After much review, the gerber file went to PCB Express this morning for two prototype boards.

2) The long lead parts are either here, or on their way, and the Digikey order will be placed tomorrow.

 

ISS:

1) Six ISS PDs have been shortened to be used on the PSL table where the beam height is only 3".

2) These modified blocks will now be stuffed with their electronics, tested, and shipped by the end of this week.

PSL

PeterKing

The latest revision of the intensity servo is being fabricated.  The first production model is expected to be tested later this week.  As part of the preparation for the installation of the servo at LHO, a set of MEDM screens was generated.

 

At the last test drive of the low-frequency intensity servo state code, I left feeling that the code worked and the problems encountered so far were because of the current limit of the laser power supply.  The maximum total current was not increased after installation of the modified current shunt leaving less current for the AC current adjust actuator.

TCS quiet chiller

Ken Mailand, Lee Cardenas

The chiller first article manufactured parts are in the CIT shop and should be complete
Tue. 10-19, purchased parts are in house, and assembly should take 2 days.

Point Scatter Loss Measurements

Bill Kells, Liyuan Zhang
Have some good Reflection/Transmission Scanner (RTS) results now on directly scanning HR surfaces to identify the "point" scatter loss. The results are remarkably clear, however we are still interpreting. Now that we have demonstrated a viable technique, I predict that a selection of samples will need to be similarly measured to bring out full understanding . For example something from Mackowski.

AS Port Astigmatic Beam

Mike Smith

I have written up the analysis I made of the astigmatism in the power-recycling cavity, and will distribute it shortly as a technical note: T040204-00, Astigmatic Spot Size in the Power-Recycling Cavity Caused by BS Curvature.

The astigmatism introduced into the LIGO1 power-recycling cavity by a non-flat BS affects the degeneracy of the cavity differently in the vertical and horizontal directions for the transmitted and reflected arms. When the ITM is relatively unheated, the astigmatism dominates the mode shape of the cavity and causes the eigenmode spot size to become highly elliptical. This effect may be the underlying cause of the elliptical side-band beams that are observed at the antisymmetric ports of the LIGO interferometers.

The effect of the thermal lensing, which occurs due to absorption by the ITM substrate, on the vertical and horizontal eigenmode spot sizes of the power-recycling cavity is calculated, using actual values for the radii of curvature of the LLO and LHO BS mirrors.

The calculated power needed to achieve stability of the eigenmodes agrees semi-quantitatively with the recent observations using the TCS and the phase camera.

The calculations agree with the observations that the ITM in the reflected arm of the recycling cavity must be heated a greater amount than the ITM in the transmitted arm in order to produce equal spot sizes of the side-band beams in the two arms. The effect is significant in the 2K IFO with the 83 km BS HR radius. The 163 km and 203 km BS radii cause a somewhat lesser effect.

 

I am in the process of studying the quantitative observations made by V. Sannibale of the LHO 2K Michelson AS astigmatism during July 2002.

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
The Inner test mass 2ITM04 fused silica mirror is in the scatterometer enclosure.
We have finished scanning the entire mirror surface  for scattered light.
We can see many spots on the mirror surface more than it was measured in LHO by Bill Kells
We think that probably the real scattering centers on the mirror, which it could be on the
coating or on the substrate itself.
The latest results can be seen at: 2itm04_hrs4_1.pdf By: Dr. Liyuan Chang.
 
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  in standby
We took the old chamber with its legs welded to have it cleaned and bake.  
We got the viewport windows and the base mount for the cavity, already baked!
We'll start to put the chamber together and mounting all the components.

 


 

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)


·  Main IFO commissioning:

·  PSL, ISS, MZ:

·  Mode cleaner:

·  Length sensing and control electronics:

·  Suspensions and Oplevs:

·  Electronics and computers:

·  South Annex bake ovens (Bob Taylor):

·  Lab infrastructure and safety:


Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)


TNI
Jay Heefner
- The lock acquistion code using the linux pc running epics is now operational and can auto lock the mode cleaner, north arm cavity and south arm cavity. Features to record lock times, durations and duty factor are being added.


LASTI (Ottaway)


(Mason, Ottaway, Sarin, Allen, Mittleman, MacInnes,Ruet)

Bob Laliberty, a mechanical technician from CSR will be starting monday working with Myron 3 days a week. Bob will help dissassemble the prototype quad and vacuum chamber, remove the old style seismic isolation from the BSC chamber, and other work in preparation for the assemblly and installation of the advanced Ligo seismic isolation and suspensions at LASTI.

Completed the design and structural analysis of a stand to hold the BSC dome at LASTI.  This is needed to clear floor space during the advanced ligo seismic isolation and quad suspension installation. Floorspace in the high bay is needed for 3  assembly areas, a seismic subassembly area, a seismic overall assembly area, and a test stand for the seismic isolation and quad assemblies prior to installation into the BSC chamber.


Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)


 Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
FFT study
--------------
(Biplab) Tried to understand from FFT results for various cases for the interferometer: Why, in the presence of mirror phasemaps, it was not possible to do both length and angular corrections together, although separately those could be achieved. Results indicate that choices of values for Beam-splitter thickness and size/shape of its diaphragm have impact on the calculation of WFS signals for yaw and could give incorrect yaw offset values.

Alfi
------------
(Bruce)   Completing work on the Box Settings Declarations editor.

(Melody) Continued 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. Finished code integration with Bruce's changes. Working on the consistency of the displayed default values.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)
Mendell:
I've checked into the LAL inject package fixes for bugs in LALFastGeneratePulsarSFTs (a fast way to produce SFTs for Monte Carlo simulations): 1) the trig lookup tables (LUTs) code could run off the table, and 2) a factor of two was missing in the use of the polarization angle.  I've also updated the tests of this function when "make check" is run.  (Files checked into lal/packages/inject: GeneratePulsarSignal.c GeneratePulsarSignal.h and GeneratePulsarSignalTest.c)  These bugs did NOT have an effect on any of the current searches.  Only the StackSlide search currently used this function, and it avoided the bugs by turning off LUTs and using random polarization angles during Monte Carlo simulutions (so the factor of 2 did not matter).

Shawhan:

* The Burst Analysis Group had a very productive face-to-face meeting at MIT over the weekend.  Besides helping to organize and lead the meeting, I spent some time looking into the effect of amplitude consistency cuts for the S2 burst analysis.  Erik and I also have been coordinating the slate of talks for the November LSC Meeting and for GWDAW.
* Talked with Greg Mendell and others about mechanisms for "discovering" science-mode data segments during online running.
* Wrote a little gui to help test the Einstein@home screensaver 
software.

Yakushin:
1) Attended burst face to face meeting at MIT. Gave presentation about  waveburst efficiency on MDC frames:
http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~igor/MDC_S3_P/ Final_waveburst_configuration_for_S3.html
2) Helping Siong and Michele to get started with running waveburst  under Condor.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)
LDAS:

Created a tarball of the changes to the diskcacheAPI C++ source code that Mark Turner left. This will support more general GPS time interval frames in subdirectories. This tarball has been attached to the PR that is associated with this code (2392) since it is untested and not ready for CVS. This is not critical functionality for the next LDAS release so we will postpone working on the code and testing it until critical requirements are in place.

Made code changes to the thread ID argument class constructor to test if the argument is Null.

Have now successfully generated RDS frames files with LDAS that contain multiple frames per file. These RDS files have been tested and verified for content, as well as being used in LDAS jobs. A specialized test script was also developed to be added to the LDAS system test procedure to verify this functionality on a weekly bases. Currently expanding the test program to include generation of concatenated RDS frame files where the time series data has been extended in length within single frames.

Checked on availability of DB2 version 8.2 for academic licenses. Still not posted on website for academics, but this is not unusual given how long previous releases took to be posted there.

Began working on PR 2451 to correct issue with internal nodes in the cluster using for master MPI processes being unintentionally reused for slave processes.

The new LDAS command to resolve PR 2705, too many files being retrieved separately in a single job is now completed and utilizes tarballs of files. Documentation on the new command structure is being written and when complete the PR can be closed.

Modified all graphs in the controlMonitorAPI's GUI to use text widgets for displaying info instead of label widgets, allowing more data to be inserted and printed in a single graph. Also added support for printing any size of graph. This is associated with PR 2682.

Added LSYNC test documentation. Working on adding an LSYNC integration test to the weekly test procedure.

For the most part the system and integration tests results were much improved this week after fixing the half dozen issues that were part of the recent upgrade of the frameCPP and frameAPI code to support the new createRDS methods. One mystery is that this resulted in a discovery of tests for frames that should have failed prior to the code upgrade actually passing. The behavior is now correct, but the earlier test scripts were incorrectly reporting a pass that should have been a fail.

Activities on the LIGO/GriPhyN project are now in the last couple of weeks of preparation for the Super Computing Conference. The focus will be on running inspiral DAX scripts on mulitiple condor clusters. There probably will not be any demonstration for the pulsar search given the intensity of things still needed for the inspiral search demo.

TCL/GLOBUS:

Currently developing a TCL Test Client/Server Application that utilizes six of the asynchronous XIO SWIG wrapped Globus functions.

Also worked on a TCL Test Application that utilizes two of the scatter read/write XIO SWIG wrapped Globus functions

Documented how to acquire certificates for running Globus applications and how grid-proxy-init works (the Globus GSI API uses this to generate the proxy certificates. Began reviewing ways to document SWIG interfaces that are being exposed to TCL as part of the project.

Installed the MyProxy client and server software on the tclglobus server box. Still need to test out the client for this.

Held a meeting to go over the current usage of Tcl/Globus and the steps being taken to run globus functions. This included evaluating all the parameters and data products associated with the GSI process. Also reviewed how this authentication applies to our Tcl/Globus test scripts.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)
Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)
* Did the last of the HPSS clean up work (migrating other people's stuff off our tapes and then getting said tapes out of HPSS so we can reuse them in SAM-QFS).
* Got 9940 cleaning tape labels from Disk-O-Tape, applied them to cleaning tapes (already received) and put them in the silo.
* Got quote for more 9940 tapes from Disk-O-Tape.
* Got Valerie at StorageTek working on a unified maintenance quote for  our silo and drives.
* Worked with Sun on extensive hardware/software upgrade for SAM-QFS and /archive.  Among other things, replaced all controllers in 3510 RAID units and got all firmware up to date.

(Hari Pulapaka)
* Published the new Burst-MDC data into ldas-cit and ldas-gridmon.
* Removed entries related to Burst files which were in the wrong format.
* Modified ldas-pcdev2 to use GSI-Openssh.

(Al Wilson)
* Replace disk drives on IDE Raid units.
* Finished setting up BB for monitoring kernel crashes on the CIT  system.

(Stuart Anderson)
* Finished testing newer version of SAM-QFS and upgraded the central frame archive with Dan Kozak to version SAM-4.2.2. This included a large number of device firmware updates, OS patches, and replacing 10 RAID controllers.
* Changed all the LDAS computer passwords at Caltech.
* Received test 3511 FC/SATA RAID unit from Sun.
* Received test Quad-Opteron unit from Sun.

MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)
* Updating passwords on all ldas machines.
* Added several more users to condor.
* Updated certificates on ldas.mit.edu.

Livingston
----------
(Igor Yakushin)
* Upgraded LSCdataFind server and client to fix the bug observed with  GEO frames.
* Upgraded Condor to version 6.6.6.
* Changed passwords on LDAS and Condor machines.
* u1d2@t3-6 failed and was replaced by u1d8@t3-13.

Hanford
-------
(Greg Mendell)
* I am working with DASWG to prepare for online analysis during the   upcoming runs.

(Ben Johnson)
* I haveagreed to write a publishing tool for the DASWG online analysis project, LSCfileAdd. I am designing it such that there will be classes which can be used by admins for easy disaster recovery/publishing.
* Upgraded 3510@fb0's disk firmware
* Nearly finished with L1 data spraying. Probably finished by this   coming Monday.
* One percentpublishing had died around Oct. 6 due to me not upgrading the rlscert.pem and rlskey.pem files appropriately. Once those files were upgraded. Publishing resumed.

General Computing (Wallace)
MIT:
(Keith)
-Working on setting up control room for computer use
-Helped with Burst face2face meeting last weekend
-Installed and setup test software on standalone sun box
-Patched DMT machines
-Patched several windows desktops
-Upgrading toadskep to solaris 9

Livingston:
(Shannon)
-Installed various software packages this week.  Visual Studio, Matlab, etc. on the visitor's machines.
-Working on a couple of quotes for some network monitoring servers.
-Spent alot of time yesterday trying to get a USB memory stick working with Solaris in an acceptable manner so that I can keep my public/private keypair on it for encrypted e-mail.  Part of the security push is for the admins to be able to send encrypted e-mail's back and forth.  This is turning out to be fairly difficult to do on a one user basis when the user uses different machines & platforms on a daily basis (like myself).
-Finishing up the auditorium.  I need to get with John and show him what has been done in there in the last two weeks.

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
- Modified the xhost settings for Exceed and SSH on several PCs in compliance with a security vulnerability notice.
- Tested using Sun's Star Office software to open PC files sent in e-mail.  Netscape won't open the file, the file has to be saved to disk and then opened using Star Office.
- Investigated Solsoft software versus Cisco Works ACL Manager software for use to generate router security lists.  Also looking at other Cisco Works software for network management.
- Started installing gpg on my Sun and Windows computers.
- Started running security audit software on the Sun servers.
- Misc. user support.

CIT:
(Mike)
-Dennis Coyne: I finished up loading engineering software and transferring Dennis's data to his new Dell workstation, and I swapped out his old computer equipment.
-NTSRV: Pictorkeeps rebooting itself. This turned out to be a DS1410D service that was trying to run, causing many system errors that would lead to a reboot. This service is for a (Parallel Port Button Holder.) I am thinking this has something to do with the FlexLM services that are running on this server. I remove this service from the registry and rebooted. (Fixed)
-Wilson House: Wentdown this week, due to their fast-iron network switch going out. Larry and I swapped this out, with a backup switch we had stored in GC.
-Continued loading software to setup a visitor's workstation in Bridge  Annex.
-I tried loading LINUX on a new Dell computer that came with Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit C onboard Network Card. After creating a network boot disk with the Broadcom drivers I was able to get to the network, but I came across a problem with partitioning scheme. LINUX OS would not recognize the Serial ATA hard disk.
-NTSRV: I ran a security audit using the CIS software, and found many security patches that were missing on all NTSRV's. I have updated all NTSRV's with current patch levels and made other security changes. I still have more security procedures to test before trying to implement these changes on all NT servers.
-Other misc. onsite/phone support.

(Veronica)
- LSC website: Updates to the November Meeting webpages as they arrive. Updates to papers under LSC review webpage.
- LIGO website: Installed the latest newsletter and troubleshoot the code. Addressed the issue of updates to the LIGO seminars page; these postings will now be made by Sharon. Larry and I have set up a template to help her started and advised on how to use it. Updates to the webpages for the upcoming NSF review and PAC meetings. Set up a password-protected directory for the NSF review proposals. Misc. user support.
- CaJAGWR website: Updates to the upcoming seminars webpage.

(Larry)
-Replaced the edge switch for Wilson House. This installation took more time than it should have. The programming of this edge switch is different than the other edgeswitch units which caused some confusion in getting it up and running. The company assures me that they are working on getting the setup of the switch to be similar to their other switches. Once the unit was programmed Mike and I were able to install the unit.
-Took the opportunity, while working on Wilson House and having Mike around to help, of swapping out the UPS batteries and the single mode edge switch connection to a multi-mode connection.
-Took a couple of days going over a number of logs and checking out different file systems. This is to help in cleaning out old accounts as well checking out a hack on one of the systems.
-Went through a number of procurement items. Still no feedback from SUN so I will have to ping them again. Working on a getting a new updated maintenance contract with Foundry. Ordered a number of workstations for the LDAS group but their installation will have to wait until a new LINUX kernel is out. The present kernel doesn't support some of the h/w and there are plans to update the LINUX OS at the end of the month.
The 400GB disk drives ordered in May finally arrived. The company that the new tape backup system was ordered from is now trying to clear up a problem on their end. They made a partial shipment and someone closed the order so now they are trying to open it up again and get the rest of the equipment shipped out to us.
The IDEAS licensing is still in limbo. Campus is working on it but no new information so far.
-Assisted Lisawith a couple of e-mail issues. Setup a couple more e-mail alias groups. I will change one of the setups to where others can edit the group file and not depend on someone in the admin group to do it for them.
-Having Lisa and Mike run a few audit scripts on the servers, SUNS and PC's. These will take some time to review and have the units updated but the work is going on and should wrap up (this round) in the next week or so.
-Assisted a number of users with different items. Setting up PC configurations, getting their e-mail setups to minor printer repairs.

(Lisa)
- Spent most of my time doing a security audit and beginning the process of updating all the servers in the server room.  This is a big job that will take a substantial portion of next week as well.
- Spent quite a bit of time teaching Sharon about web pages.
- Did monthly backups.
- Spent time cleaning up the home disks.
- Misc. user support.

Mail Stats 10/07 - 10/14/04
Messages Accepted:      23531
Spam Rejected:          7750
Viruses Rejected:       676
False Positives:        3
Total Mail Thru:        31957
----------------


Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)


Systems and Management

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

 

Progress Period from 10.08 to 10.13

 

·         ·         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.

§         §         Continued work on the progress schedule update with progress through September 30, 2004.

·         ·         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

 

Seismic Isolation

 

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

SEI Structure:

A meeting was held with ASI on 10/12 with discussion as shown below:

ASI has now decided to include all of the remaining task of the current cost-plus contract, in their proposal for a fixed price contract. They expect to present the proposal on about October 22. ASI expects to present an estimate of cost and schedule for completion under the current contract at the same time. They gave a bounding of schedule slippage of "a few weeks to six months", to which LIGO objected. They will attempt to minimize slippage, and possibly offer an option for a tighter schedule. VanderZyl has stopped most of the work on this task until better planning and cost control tools are in place; at that time (near the end of Oct), the contracting mode will likely have been determined. He is developing other proposals for cost savings, including LIGO's direct purchase of some items (to save ASI's G&A charges) and possible changes in ASI's methods.

ASI presented their Contract document markups, covering the latest changes; this will be reviewed by LIGO and implemented.

ASI has completed their shear slip analyses and made the necessary design changes.

ASI has completed the global tolerance policy document and has begun implementing that policy.

ASI presented a "weekly" report as of 11 Oct (their first in four weeks), and has committed to posting these on their LIGO web site weekly in the future.

ASI has released several drawings in the last month, but did not post them on their web site as they had previously agreed. They will return to that policy.

Ken Smith's writeup on the tilt effects of side and end loads on a curved blade is now nearly complete; submittal is expected this week.

ASI significantly reduced the size of the "Parts Count Increase" lien by restricting it to costs associated with the spring redesign and the pod splitting, and LIGO accepted this. Only one minor lien now remains.

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:

Ken Mailand and Larry Jones met with Jerry Knepper of Astro Pak on 10/8 to begin planning the task for cleaning, air baking, and FTIR qualifying of the BSC prototype parts that are too large for LIGO personnel to process. These total 21 pieces of 12 different parts, with mass totalling over 3700 lb. Several problems exist having to do with size and processing/handling, which are not insurmountable. Jerry is developing a ROM (rough order of magnitude) cost for our budgeting purposes for both this task and a pathfinder cleaning development task that we've planned.

Accu-Glass is developing quotes for our in-vacuum cabling needs.

Suspension

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


AdLIGO Suspensions
Working on quad structure design and analysis with Calum and Tim.   

Core Optics


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

1. We (Liyuan Zhang) have now interesting results on lab measurements of the "LIGO I" HR point scatter. The measurements are quite clean, but we must interpret !

2. I have refined a calculation of what the intensity noise induced by BS motion through the RC standing wave field means for AdL. Infact   this may have been measured (at LHO). The up conversion only significantly goes up a few 10s of Hz. This might be noticeable on AdL. More exact numbers need to be used.l

3. Got around to enhancing (updating) my model of mode duality for distorted "arm" cavities ( practically applied to the "mexican" hat scheme for far advanced configurations). This is being tossed around those specializing in  this matter.

Pre-Stabilized Laser

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

    The mode matching from the master laser to the slave was optimized and the high power laser was run in its injection-locked configuration.  The output power was 185 W.  The output beam will be studied with a pre-modecleaner.  Part of the preparation for that included development of an auto-alignment system.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Juri Agresti <jagresti@ligo.caltech.edu>

 Juri
I have finished the preliminary study about thermal noise with finite size mirrors, and the optimization of the mirrors dimensions and beam size for Advanced-LIGO (draft available in ligo.caltech.edu/~jagresti as optimization.doc). Now I am working to include in this analysis the thermoelastic coating noise and repeating all the calculations for the Flat-Top Beam Profile. Moreover I am extending the equivalence relation between non spherical cavities to the case of a cavity with non-equal mirrors.

Virginio, Riccardo
finishing up the paper on first MGAS results, LIGO-P040041-00-D, draft available in
ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/MGAS.first.paper.doc
or
ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/MGAS.first.paper.pdf

Alessandro, Riccardo
working on accelerometer papers drafts, available soon

Riccardo,
Assisting for assemblying of SAS towers at TAMA.

Simone
sent in SURF report and presentation
ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/Napolit-rep-040182.pdf
ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/Napolit-pres-G040440.pdf

Nicky
monitoring creep data,  Juri found a power fault and repaired, run at 60 degrees extended a week to compensate

Anamaria
small activity except for machining classes

Yanyi
sent in SURF  report draft.


 

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