Weekly Report for Week Ending November 12, 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, November 15, 2004 will be:

 (Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)  

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

Special Items:

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights

An NSF Review Panel conducted an annual review of the LIGO Program November 8-10, 2004 at Caltech.  We want to thank everyone who helped the review go so smoothly.  The panel was pleased with our progress, and we should all be proud of accomplishments over the past year.  Following is their draft summary findings presented during the exit debriefing:

 

NSF Annual Review Summary

 

The Panel is very pleased to see the significant improvement in strain sensitivity for the H1 Interferometer at the Hanford Observatory since the last review.   The achieved sensitivity is within a factor of two over nearly all of science bandwidth of the design goal.

 

The Panel endorses the plans for achieving the remaining factor of two on the H1 Interferometer and looks forward to the implementation of these improvements on the other two interferometers.

 

The successful implementation of the active seismic isolation system, HEPI, on the Livingston Interferometer is a major step.  In addition to demonstrating the effectiveness of one of the key elements of the Advanced LIGO design, it will enable 24–7 operation of the interferometer and dramatically improve the duty cycle of the observatory.

 

As LIGO approaches the S5 science run planned during 2005, increased emphasis should be placed on improving the duty factors of all three interferometers.

 

The prototype thermal compensation system on the H1 interferometer should be further refined and commissioned at all the interferometers as soon as possible, with further research continuing to allow the interferometers to reach their full laser power design goal by the end of science run S5.

 

The transition from the leadership of Gary Sanders as Deputy Director and co–PI to Stan Whitcomb as Deputy Director and co–PI has been very smooth.  The Panel wishes Stan well in his new role.

 

The Panel wishes to thank Gary Sanders for the outstanding leadership he has provided during the critical eight years of LIGO construction, commissioning and early science running. 

 

While both choices for the test mass substrates, fused silica or sapphire, appear to satisfy the Advanced LIGO science requirements, it is very important to make a decision soon so that other design efforts can go forward.  Better is always the enemy of good enough.

 

The establishment of the new position of Visiting Associate at Caltech is a welcome step forward.  It will enable non-Caltech members of the LSC to assume line management roles in the operation of LIGO and in the construction and operation of Advanced LIGO.

 

The mechanical properties of the optical coatings for the optical elements in LIGO remain a concern for Advanced LIGO.  The Panel is pleased with the strategy that is being followed to resolve this issue.

 

The Panel encourages the continuation of the investigation of the effects of electrostatic charging of the mirror surfaces and the mitigation of these possible effects on the performance of the Advanced LIGO interferometers.

 

The active participation of the foreign collaborators in Advanced LIGO is an essential element of the Advanced LIGO construction project.  The Panel is pleased to note that PPARC has already awarded the funds for the suspension system and some optical elements and that the collaborators in Germany are well along in securing the funding for the high power lasers.

 

The Panel endorses the proposed revision to the LIGO organizational chart.  The expansion of the Directorate to include the Spokesperson of the LSC and the expansion of the Oversight Committee are very positive steps.   The inclusion of the LSC under the LIGO Directorate will bring coherence to the overall LIGO program as the science matures and the Advanced LIGO construction project gets underway.

 

The requested increase in the operating budget when the construction of Advanced LIGO is complete will have to be justified in detail at the time when the budget is submitted.  The projections will have to be accompanied by a detailed manpower plan.

 

As a possible improvement to the performance of Advanced LIGO, the Panel encourages the LIGO group to continue exploring noise-squeezing techniques developed by outside groups and participating in the testing of these techniques possibly at the 40 m.

 

The Panel endorses the plan to develop the specific security policies for assuring the integrity of the LIGO computer systems.  Patch management is an important activity in the near term and deserves special attention.

 

Approval of the construction of Advanced LIGO by the National Science Board is welcome news for the Panel.  The Panel urges the LIGO collaboration and the National Science Foundation to move forward as aggressively as possible with the construction of this important project.

LSC Issues (Saulson)

No report.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Petrac)

(LSC Research Plans through Feb. 2005 and Progress Reports through Aug. 2004)

ACIGA

• Attach. A / to PI for sign-off / McClelland
• Attach. B / signed-off
• Attach. C / signed-off
• Attach. D / signed-off
• Attach. Z / signed-off

CEGG

• Attach. A / in sign-off by PI (reminder processed)
• Attach. B / Rev. 1/ in sign-off by PI (reminder processed)
• Attach. Z / in sign-off by PI (reminder processed)

EGO

• Attach. 3 (flat beam profile Fabry-Perot interferometer-concept) / to EGO for sign-off / DeSalvo

Florida

• Attach. A / signed-off

GEO

• Attach. B / to PIs for sing-off / Danzmann
• Attach. C / to PIs for sing-off / Danzmann
• Attach. D / to PIs for sing-off / Danzmann
• Attach. Z / to PIs for sing-off / Danzmann

 MOU for Data Analysis

•  Addendum B / in LIGO review / Barish

Goddard

• Attach. A / to PI for sign-off
• Attach. C / signed-off
• Attach. Z / signed-off

IAP

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

Louisiana School of Math, Science, and Arts (LSMSA)

• MOU (LLO Outreach project) / in LIGO review / O. Reilly and Saulson

NAOC (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

• Draft-Attach. 1 (R&D in flat-top beam profile technology) / in NAOC review / DeSalvo

NAOJ-TAMA

• Attach. D / signed-off
• Attach. Z / signed-off

Orsay Group

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

Rochester

• Attach. A-draft / to PI for further inputs / Melissinos

SIOM

• Extension of Attach. 2 / in LIGO review / Billingsley

Stanford

• Attach. A / in LIGO review / Barish
• Attach. B / in LIGO review / Barish
• Attach. C / in LIGO review / Barish
• Attach. D / in LIGO review / Barish
• Attach. Z / to PI for sign-off / Byer
• Progress Reports for Attach. A, B, C, and D / in process for web posting / Turner

UTBRG

• Attach. A / in LIGO review / Barish
• Attach. Z /  in LIGO review / Barish

VIRGO

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

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Jasnow)

A site teleconference was held on Thursday, October 07, 2004.  The following issues were among those discussed:

• Procedures:  (Action 124) Flowcharts for taxation need to be revised based on information currently being provided.
• Funding:  Funding for the first half of FY 2005 for Operations has been received from the NSF.
• Costs:  Tracking reports for the end of October have been issued.
• Contracts:  Still no contract from the Exploratorium.  Caltech legal department has approved the A&E Contract for the Outreach Building.  Still waiting for the final version from the contractor.  Estimates for mitigation efforts associated with building are sugnificantly reduced.
• Property:  Ed scheduled to be at Hanford next week.
• Audit:  A followup audit of the procedures for handling checking accounts at Hanford was conducted.  The report was relatively positive although there were a few recommendations.  To be addressed.
• 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>

• Provided assistance to the Detector Group (H. Armandula) with packing and shipping four (4) THI substrates and five (5) 3" diameter x1" Q-substrates to Research Electro-Optics, Boulder CO. Attn: Dale Ness. Account Number P204296.
• Provided assistance to Caltech's Property Services with the campus audit being conducted by PWC.
• Provided assistance to Caltech's Property Services with information concerning the General Services Administration Vehicle Usage Report as required by the National Science Foundation. This report was completed and forwarded to the NSF. Attention: Mr. Kevin Rorer.
• Returned several sets of  Government Licenses Plates to the NSF. Account Number P204254.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

• Attended and supported the LSC Meeting at MIT.
• Supported the NSF Review.
• Met with Peter Saulson and discussed options for LSC meetings.  He asked me to work with a collaborator currently preparing for the March 2006 LSC and to provide a budget analysis showing percentage of increase between the meeting being held here in the States vs. in Europe.  He also asked me to do preliminary investigation into feasibility of holding LSC meetings in Atlanta (rather than Livingston) and Salt Lake City (rather than Hanford).  Work has begun on the Atlanta portion.
• Finalizing presentations from the LSC.  These should be posted by this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

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

• No report.

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

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

• For ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA Press Here.

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

• Working on the two new change orders to Northrop Grumman.
• Completing boxing the FY2003 and FY2004 closed purchase orders and set up the new files for FY2005.

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

• No report.

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

• Completed and posted monthly reports as of the end of October for both fiscal year 2004 and fiscal year 2005.  The reports were a little delayed this month because the month end closing for Oracle ran into some problems, and data for the end of October was not available until Monday November 8th.
• Submitted a Cost Transfer to correct the allocation of ASI expenditures between the BSC and HAM fabrication accounts.  Unfortunately, I made an error on the Cost Transfer and the  adjustment was made to reduce the charges to the BSC fabrication.     I informed the Finance department of the error and they are in the process of reversing the incorrect adjustment and entering the proper adjustment.

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)

• MIT: Change Order allocating first half of FY 2005 budget for the LIGO effort at MIT is in preparation.

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

• We're still awaiting the proposed contract documents from the Exploratorium for the 15 exhibits that we've ordered.  These are 12 for LLO and 3 for LHO.  We expect the contract documents by tomorrow.
• The draft report from the follow-up audit conducted at LHO has been issued for review.  LIGO is preparing its response to the findings set forth in the report.
• The final version of the architect/engineering contract with Eskew - Dumez - Ripple is due today.  It will include an appendix calling out unit prices for construction management.  LIGO will determine the amount of construction management required at the time of selection of the construction contractor.
• The ASI contract will be modified to remove the prototype for the BSC chamber.  This will leave only the BSC design to be completed on the contract.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Kammerling, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

• Processed the paper work for six (6) new/revised trips.  There are six (6) trips to be completed and ticketed at this time. 
• Completed thirty (30) Expense Reports and there are three (3) reports yet to be done.  I continue to contact travelers who have outstanding Expense Reports (more than one (1) month old) to ask for their cooperation in sending me their receipts so that these can be closed in a timely manner.  Presently there are ten (10) reports more than 30 days old.  Travel Audits new policy of accepting only original signatures seriously holds up the process of closing reports.  I have nine (9) Expenses Reports waiting for original signatures to be sent/returned to me.  [Please note that of the ten (10) reports more than 30 days old (Travel Audit's Delinquent List) nine have been completed and are awaiting original signatures to be sent to me.  Only one (1) traveler has not responded to my request for his/her receipts.]

>Sharon Kammerling

• No special projects to report.

>Dorothy Lloyd

• Processed the usual invoices for payment. Tracked and followed up on invoice problems. Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther the week of November 1.
• Initiated electronic requisitions for change orders 36 and 37 to Northrop and change order 18 to REO. Processed payment requests.
• Placed P-card orders in Ruth's absence.
• Jim continued with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

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

• November 8-10 -- NSF Review
• December 31 -- FY 2007 - 2011 Operations Proposal including impact of Advanced LIGO funding
• April 2005 -- NSF Review of Operations Proposal for FY 2007 - 2001
• April 2005 -- NSF Review of Advanced LIGO Proposal Revisions as required

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

• D. Coyne has submitted a change request for the ASI effort along with supporting documentation.  Modifications are proposed in response to ASI's latest estimate increase. The change request will be distributed for discussion during a future meeting of the Executive Committee..

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

• Various personnel/payroll /HR related work.

 

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

No report this week.

 

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

Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (Landry)

The weeklong engineering run E11 begins next Wednesday, Nov 17th at LHO.

Commissioning highlights from the past week are detailed below.

4K IFO

• force-to-pitch (F2P) and torque-to-position (T2P) digital filters, recently found on the 4k and the 2k IFOs to be incorrectly defined given the data acquisition rate, have been redefined and corrected
• WFS2 behaviour as a function of laser power was characterized here and here
• This report describes power levels during full lock.  More IFO/Thermal compensation system (TCS) studies are available here, and  here.
• thumbs up for the new, quieter TCS chiller
• the VCO was acting up
• the 4k sideband analyzer was saturating; ND filters added
• multiple fixes and improvements were made to the 4k ISS hardware
• a WFS spare was modified to improve noise performance (by ~5dB)

2K IFO

• The F2P filter investigations noted above led to the realization that piston motion on the FMY mass results in excess yaw motion.  Checking for possible electronics mis-wiring.
• 2k TCS chillers were tested.    Problems with the chiller were noted.
• New F2Ps were designed
• WFS demod boards modified to reduce noise
• The 2k has been steadily improving, running Wed eve on ASPD2 and ASPD3 with a range of about 1Mpc.  Next, input laser power will be ramped, and auxillary loops will move to larger bandwidths, as was done on the 4k.

DAQ (some of the many items this week)

• Software upgrades on both IFOs now allow the ramping of gains in  filter modules
• For some time it has been noted that requesting several (or more) test points of the LSC front end adds noise to the gravity wave channel.  Two responses this week were to i) add a more representative CPU load monitor number (in place and presumably reporting accurately), and ii) ensure that asking for many test points does not impact AS_Q
• fast ADCU's installed on 2k and 4k in place but not hooked up
• Dataviewer was upgraded
• remote reset capabilities were added for various frontend CPUs

Outreach (D. Ingram)

We convened our Local Educator Network (LEN) for a productive meeting at LHO on 11/4/2004.  The LEN provides input and advice for our outreach program.   We hosted students from two WSU Tri Cities education courses for class sessions on the mornings of 11/3 and 11/4.  The course instructor is Dr. Judy Morrison.  Fifty teachers-in-training (primarily grades 1-8) participated in the 3-hour lessons.

 

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

Despite continued problems with ISC110B channel hopping, HEPI commissioning is moving forward. The fourth test mass chamber (ITMY) is now isolating with sensor correction in the most relevant 2 of 3 degrees of freedom, and the beam splitter is 1 for 3.

 

IFO commissioning took further steps in preparation for high power; high-speed shutters and new thermal compensator interface electronics were installed.

 

We also exercised a new method for tuning optical lengths; HEPI allowed us to move the MC length to smoothly "dial in" a new resonant frequency to match our crystal oscillators.

 

Tom Lucas of Lucas Productions is filming at LLO tomorrow (Friday) and next week. Special guest stars are flying in from LA and Boston.

 

Livingston Outreach (Thacker)

 

LIGO SEC Education and Outreach Summary

 

• completed LIGO SEC Project Execution Plan 1st Draft
• contacted vendor about supplying gravity well exhibits; all looks good; awaiting invoice
• met w/ SUBR & LA GEAR UP Tuesday afternoon to discuss Proj Exec Plan details;
• After discussions w/ Steve McGuire, have tentatively identified a final total of 5 exhibits, of initial 12, to be installed at SUBR.

 

L1 Interferometer Commissioning (Frolov)

 

• MC length was changed by 0.7mm using HEPI HAM2 actuators. The required change is 1mm. To make this change the position sensors will have to be repositioned to get more range, MC length changed by full amount, and dial gauges installed.
• Found problems with BS satellite amplifier box(had a short) and bad connection to MC1 satellite amp box.
• ITMX optical lever cable had to be reterminated.
• MC EO shutter removed to accommodate the cross-connect change for the TSC installation. The fast shutter was installed and tested. The optical table was realigned and light levels were set for the new operation scheme. MC was locked after the change.
• The electronics for both TCS interfaces is installed and tested. The RS232-485 link for the rotating polarizer has just been shown to work (communication established). The test of the rotating polarizer will be completed when we are allowed into LVEA later today (HEPI test is underway).

 

HEPI commissioning (O'Reilly)

 

There were no valve failures this week. We have not checked accumulator pressures that may happen tomorrow during filming.

 

Work continues on HEPI. ITMY is now commissioned and has working sensor correction in the Y and Z directions, although some further investigation is needed for the X direction. The BS has sensor correction in the Z direction and will hopefully have X and Y by tomorrow (which is Rich Mittelman's last day).

 

The HAM3 blend filters had to be reworked due to a blend frequency that was too low. We are now taking sensor correction data for this tank.

 

We continue to have problems with channel hopping, which necessitates frequent reboots of the l1hepi1 and l1hepi2 processors.

 

We removed two filters from PUMP1 and examined them for contaminants.  This was in an effort to better understand our problems with valves.  We found contamination in the 25 um filter (metal debris and a spider), but the 3 um filter was very clean. PUMP1 will go back into service tomorrow.

 

Safety & Security (Riesen)

 

LASER SAFETY: Nothing to report

 

SITE SAFETY: Found no safety concerns during my weekly site safety tour.

 

TRAINING: Continuing the training for control room operators on the LSS and site security systems software and hardware.

 

AdL and LIGO 1 Mechanical Engineering (Spjeld)

 

• received and reviewed quotes, ordered safety screens and adapter plates for two hydraulic actuators
• looking into history of hydraulic servo valves; attempting to eliminate continuous troublesome valves from the system
• dissection and analysis of pump station filters for HEPI hydraulic system: no contaminations found on “clean” side
• working on design suggestions for HAM chamber door removal fixture: measured critical distances in LVEA, clean room and fork lift
• preparing for quotes evaluation meeting for the UHV Quad Bakeout oven
• working on assembly and modification of hardware for the Photon Calibrator Support Shelves; aiming to complete within early next week
• working on design requirements report for Quad Suspension Installation Tooling

 

CDS Software (Parameswariah)

 

Mike Fyffe dressed up the timing cables in the High Bay. All processors were restarted to get them resynced up.

 

Updated database/installed new database for Fast shutter controls, TCS and MC Trasmitted QPD. all channels are now wired to first cards on l1iool0 processors. Extra cards removed.

 

CDS's main disk containing all CDS user accounts and the main /cvs/cds disk filled up. Last night fixed this and will have to move this to a bigger disk. Conlog data is now at 15GB and occupies most of the disk space.

 

Frame Builder died and restarted itself again at 04:34 Hrs this morning.  Found the following message logged in its log file: "Nov 11 04:34:25 fb1 daqd[2565]: Lost cycles: -1056975780; shutdown".  Traced this to a spurious interrupt on the reflective memory.

 

LSC Aux processor - added new database records for ISCT1 Fast Shutter controls and restarted it.

 

Working with Rus on getting the POX PD / REFL2 PD wired up.

 

Working on HEPI Status screens. Fixing scripts/c programs/medm screens/database that generate the status screens.

General Computing (Roddy)

Finished setting up a central log host last week.  This machine is on an internal network and is not reachable from the outside.  I will be setting up firewall rules to restrict access to this machine from the public subnet. Spent Monday-Wednesday at the NSF review. Discussed networking issues with several people while in Pasadena since we could meet in person with a whiteboard, etc. and hash out certain issues.

LDAS/Condor Sysadmin and Burst Analysis (Yakushin)

 

LDAS/Condor admin:

 

Two extra tape drives were added to L700 robot. Firmware on all the drives was upgraded to version 1.34.408, firmware on L700 itself was upgraded to 3.06.00.

 

Data analysis:

 

1) Attended burst f2f and LSC meetings in Boston;

2) Submitted for LSC approval GWDAW-9 S3 burst search talk abstract and preliminary version of slides;

3) Siong Heng from GEO is visiting me this week to learn how to use waveburst for joint LIGO-GEO burst analysis;

4) Preparing plots of S2 double coincidence trigger rates requested by the burst review committee.

 

HPLF, L1 Commissioning, and AdL Modeling (Franzen)

 

1) Have been trying to communicate with the people at IPG, who are supposed to fix the broken HPLF laser. Yesterday we got to know that the problem have been identified to a burned fiber which will be replaced this coming Friday. If everything works out during a 40 hours full power it will be returned to LLO next week giving the IAP visitors a chance to finish their experiment.

 

2) Have been working with Richard Mittleman on HEPI BS, MC1 and MC2 sys-id and control filter design.

 

CDS software (Khan)

 

1) Fixed the bug in the Beamcentering servo code that was crashing the servo whenever a value of 0 was entered for the averaging factor, also enhanced the medm screen as per request from Andre.

 

2) Helping John and Valera on the TCS wave plate controller interface.  Established communication between the Newport Motion Controller unit and the vme162 processor.

 

Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)

CDS

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

CDS Software

Rolf Bork reporting

• Alex was at LHO past week and a half. Changes made at LHO during that time:
  • Change ASC front end for bulls eye detector. This involved removing FS5 from overall ASC gain.
  • Change to LSC to support TCS.
  • Installed new 2.2GHz in LHO4k ITM controller.
  • Installed fast ADCU on both LHO IFO. Code still needs work to port to Linux.
  • New dataviewer installed at LHO.
  • Gain ramping filter code installed on all systems.
• Continued work on FPDP readout of ICS modules for HEPI. This software, along with new watchdogs, will be installed next week during my visit to LLO.
• Some of the new 2.2GHz VME processors w/3 PMC slots should arrive by tomorrow.  These units are to be used in ETM controllers and LSC. I ported the LSC software to Linux yesterday, but have not tested it yet.

CDS Hardware

Rich Abbott reporting

• Helping complete needed calculations for tradeoffs of performance on new LSC RFPD
• Wrote procedure for transferring an electronics design from one location to another with proper supporting documentation
• Completed block diagram explaining the HEPI system

 

Ben Abbott

RFPD Redesign:

• Testing of the prototype continues.  Attention is now being paid to the ASI servo matching.
• The final gerber file has gone out to PCB Pro for manufacture.  It should be back next week when we can begin stuffing and testing.

DMT

John Zweizig

This week I have been working with Tom Evans and Alex Ivanov on trying to understand the loss of frame data to the DMT. Considerable progress has been made, the DMT network configuration has been cleaned up, we found that the broadcaster packet burst parameter has to be set to a higher value than previously used, and the network interface card for delaronde was moved from a slow (33MHz) PCI slot to a fast one. Each of these changes should have had a significant effect on the ability to handle higher data rates, but at this point the data losses persist. At this point the only known difference between the LLO system and the LHO one (that successfully handles a higher data rate) is the operating system (Solaris 9 at LLO, Solaris 8 at LHO). I don't think that this is a problem, but this presents a good opportunity to upgrade the patch level of the LLO DMT machines.

 

I have also been creating a utility program to generate the xml calibration files used by SenseMonitor from the calibration group data products.

PSL

PeterKing

The problem reported last week with my PSpice model of the differential receiver on the intensity servo was fixed by the addition of a few 100MEG resistors.  Probably for reasons owing to the model for the VAC voltage source, this solution worked.

 

The power from the 10-W laser seems to have stabilised out at just under 6 W after the latest re-alignment.  Although the output power is low, this is the most stable this particular laser has been since delivery.

TCS quiet Chiller

Ken Mailand

I’m working on 5 laser chiller assemblies to supply the LHO and LLO sites.  I have a corrosion test in progress using the Chloramine-T, water mixture used for the PSL laser and TCS laser, and also the LHO site house chiller fluid, and the CIT system chiller fluid. Brass, Aluminum, plated steel and Copper are the test metals; to accelerate the process the fluid temps are @~135F.

AS Port Astigmatic Beam

Mike Smith

I completed the write-up of the technical note, and will submit it to the DCC, T040204-00.

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 standby
The Inner test mass 2ITM04 fused silica mirror is in the scatterometer enclosure.
We are waiting on the digital read out for the x-y motor travel bead.
Company contacted and they are sending it back next week.

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'll continue taking daily measurements.

Cavity #2  in standby
The assembly of the new chamber is in progress.

 

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

IFO commissioning:

• We've achieved another important milestone in the path towards full ifo lock acquisition. Osamu, Hartmut and Rob, working late nights, have acquired lock of the dual-recycled Michelson (DRMI) with the 33 MHz sidebands resonant in the PRC.
• Previously, they locked the DRMI with the carrier resonant in the PRC, but the arms cannot be added to this configuration; now, they can (when the carrier resonates in the arms, the arm reflectivity flips sign, bringing the carrier into resonance in the PRC as well). After some work, lock acquisition proceeded quickly, and relatively long locks (~ 7 minutes) were achieved. Optical spectrum analyzers (OSAs) at the SP, PO and AP confirmed that the RF structure was as expected with the detuned configuration: the 166 MHz sidebands were unbalanced, with one sideband reflected to the SP and the other transmitted to the AP. The carrier was, of course, absent at the AP.
• Details: lock MICH by dithering the BS at 1230 Hz and using digital-demod signals at the PO and AP; lock PRC with 33 MHz at SP, with servo sign set to lock on sidebands; lock SRC with (166-33) MHz signal at PO.
• Rob wrote a script to (partially) automate the lock acquisition procedure. Unfortunately, we don't yet have an easy way to automate the detection of lock; we look at dataviewer traces, scope traces, and OSA displays. Soon, we will implement the SPOB photodiode, which will help a lot.
• Lock loss was associated with spikes at the dither signal, which appear to be due to electronics couplings at the whitening boards. This was greatly reduced by turning off the whitening; but the boards themselves can and will be fixed. Also, digital notch filters were implemented and tuned to reduce the ringing in the servos. The lock stability is strongly affected by the alignment of the PRM and SRM (mode hopping?), so these were carefully realigned by maximizing the peaks in the optical spectrum analyzers. After these mods, DRMI lock was more robust, but problems remain.
• While in lock, Osamu was able to measure OLTFs for all the servos. UGFs are 16 Hz for MICH, 175 Hz for PRC, and 140 Hz for SRC, with 30-50 degrees of phase margin in each loop.
• Rob has been working with Hartmut to implement various "guided lock" schemes in the LSC front-end code, to slow down the optics as they approach resonance. This should make lock acquisition much faster. When used on the arms, it should minimize the chance of sideband resonance in the arms disturbing the lock of the central part. This will be tested with arm locking, and then employed for the central part as well.
• Rob has been tweaking the arm locking filters that were installed by Rana to reduce the gain at high frequencies, which were causing ringing.
• Sasha has been tuning up the mode cleaner WFS system, with help from Rob and Osamu. At Rana's suggestion, he adgusted the gains on the WFS heads. Rob implemented a digital filter to compensate for the phase delay in driving the coils on MC1 and MC3 (which use old SOS dewhitening boards with elliptical LPFs). Sasha then re-aligned, re-diagonalized, re-adjusted the demod phases, and re-diagonalized the servo matrix. He then was able to turn up the gains and UGFs on the loops from ~2 Hz to ~4-5 Hz. Above the UGF, there is significant excess noise, from 5-10 Hz. This is not understood, and work to eliminate it is in progress.
• Bryan continues to develop a FINESSE model of the 40m and AdvLIGO, which incorporates TEM higher order modes, in order to develop an automated alignment system and set tolerances on alignment in the main ifo.

Electronics and computing:

• The length control front end CPU is nearly maxed out (59 usecs out of 61 for each time step). Generating the dither signal and doing the dither demod is taking up a lot of that time. Rob is exploring changes to speed up the computations.
• Bob, Bryan, Ben and Jay completed the installation of the remaining cross connect wiring for the aux controls of the additional LSC RFPDs (c1iscaux2). In the process, they discovered the undocumented wiring of the in-vac PZT controls (and whached the PZTs around for a while). This was discovered and fixed by Jay & Ben, and the drawings were updated.
• Jay worked on the EPICS database and screens for the c1iscaux1 and c1iscaux2 systems, which monitor and control the LSC RFPD signals.
• Ben swapped out the ADG333 on one of our LSC Whitening boards, and replaced it with a MAX333A. Hopefully this will fix a problem with one of the channels being noisier than the rest with specific gain settings.
• Two LSC RFPDs remain to be installed: double-demod at the AP port and SPOB at the POB port. Steve and Mike Smith ordered parts for the RFPD mount assemblies.
• Hartmut has been tuning, and then commissioning, the remaining two LSC double-demod RFPDs, to notch out the 33 and 166 MHz signals while maximizing response to 133 and 199 MHz. The DD RFPD at the PO is now in use (see above), and the one at the AP will be fully commissioned soon.
• Hartmut has been tracking down various noise sources, oscillations, offsets, and signal degradation in the LSC electronics. Signals are now much cleaner, with improved S/N and smaller offsets. He continues to work on reducing electronics noise in the MICH dither signal.
• Bob has finished looking for grounds in all of the elevated wiring trays in the 40m and will begin looking in all of the lower trays this week and next.
• Bob wired up controls for three more mechanical shutters (POX, POY & POB) with help from Ben.
• Jay is working through a list of issues related to computing at the lab. He now has saverestore working on the vacuum EPICS controls. He configured a new linux desktop for EPICS monitoring of the vacuum system, and plans to implement an EPICS IOC database on it for RGA monitoring/logging and other misc tasks. He configured a linux wireless laptop for EPICS display, and is in the process of diagnosing the long-standing problems we've been having with our wireless reception in the lab. He's investigating the installation of a proxy web server such as exists at the sites, to allow us to read and update our ilog from within our martian cds network. He's planning to finally get an ALH system working at the 40m.
• The new MC2 oplev is very noisy, presumably due to scattered light and motion of the distant optical table. The QPD has been moved to the nearby optical table, and the beam will be focused to improve the resolution. Steve ordered a box to cover the optical table to reduce stray light.
• A TT FSS system is expected to arrive from LHO. We hope it comes with some documentation, drawings, instructions... Rick Savage has offered to come help install it. We are holding off on any major PSL mods (such as this) for a while, to continue progress in lock acquisition and length control of the main IFO.
• Never enough scopes! We ordered two more, to keep a constant eye on the OSA's at the SP and AP.

Lab Infrastructure and Bake oven Lab:

• Virginio and Steve learned how to take open loop transfer functions of the STACIS isolators, with help from the cognizant engineer Emil from TMC. They took OLTFs for all 9 loops in the ETMY STACIS system. Only the x and z OLTFs from the south isolator showed anomalous behavior, at 33 Hz. Work is in progress to identify the cause of this problem and fix it. All the other STACIS systems seems to work well, although the ITMX system can't get much more than 10 dB of isolation.
• Rob wrote a script to read out the Dycor RGA through a cute RS232-to-ethernet adapter that Bob will use to put his bake oven temperature controllers on the web. The script also checks tolerances and can set alarms. Rob and Jay will integrate it with the EPICS system and automate it.
• Bob has 20 Hybrid OSEMs ready for the air bake of the ceramabonded Diode boards.
• Bob has completed the construction of a heated bell jar for Helena.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

no report

LASTI (Ottaway)

no report

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)

Weekly Physics Meeting

Matt Evans gave an update of the interferometer commissioning and operation at LLO.  Hiro Yamamoto presented e2e simulation results for signals measured before or after the Output Mode Cleaner.

Commissioning Related

(Biplab) Prepared "summary Statistics" files corresponding to various sets (Total no. 37) of measurements that Luca & Keita made on Phase Camera: http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~bbhawal/PC_modal_data/1Stat.  Some of the files show that some modal parameters for the beam-profiles varied significantly even under same "Thermal Compensation" state on a specific date. For some sets of measurements, good fitting could not be achieved even by considering upto 4th order Hermite-Gaussian basis (15 modes) and it seems more modes are needed to describe such images.

Effect of OMC on the AS signal

(Hiro) The effect of the Output ModeCleaner (OMC) on the Antisymmetric (AS) port signal was studied by comparing the Q-demod and I-demod signals measured before and after OMC (OMC just filters all but 00 mode).  The analysis is still going on, but the signal after OMC seems to be preferable.

Simulation of 40m interferometer

Monica is calculating transfer functions, L- to Power Recycling Mirror and Signal Recycling Mirror outputs.  Hiro helped her to set up and use modeler freq.

Modeler code

Hiro modified modeler code to add and improve a few modules for the study of OMC, and addressed an inconvenient feature of modeler_freq.

Alfi

(Melody) Finished unit testing and fixing bugs (found during testing) for the simpler view for FUNC_X variables. Currently preparing the code for cvs checking and adding proper comments for javadoc.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

Brown:

• Attended inspiral face to face and LSC meeting at MIT and presented final result of S2 MACHO search.
• Continued working on MACHO paper for review.
• Helped Scott Koranda with final preparations for SC2004 demo.

Mendell:

Gave progress reports on the StackSlide search for continuous gravitational waves, including comparisons with the Hough and PowerFlux searches, and a first look at the analysis of the S3 hardware injected pulsar signals.  These reports will appear as DCC documents G040501-00.pdf and G040502-00.pdf

Sutton:

This past week I attended the Bursts and LSC meetings at MIT, where I presented the almost-final full-data-set results of the LIGO-TAMA S2/DT8 bursts analysis.  Since then I have been debugging the coincidence codes and preparing the results for review and  (hopefully) approval for presentation at GWDAW.  I'm also re-running the coincidence incorporating additional TAMA data that was provided just before the LSC meeting.  The final coincidence and efficiency numbers should be ready for review by this afternoon.  Finally, I've circulated the LIGO-TAMA GWDAW abstract for comment and approval.

Shawhan:

·         Attended the Burst Group face-to-face meeting and the LSC Meeting at MIT

·         Read the LIGO-TAMA and LIGO-only paper drafts carefully for comments

·         Gearing up to review Pulsar Group results to be presented at GWDAW

Yakushin:

• Attended burst f2f and LSC meetings in Boston;
• Submitted for LSC approval GWDAW-9 S3 burst search talk abstract and preliminary version of slides;
• Siong Heng from GEO is visiting me this week to learn how to use waveburst for joint LIGO-GEO burst analysis;
• Preparing plots of S2 double coincidence trigger rates requested by the burst review committee.

 

Zanolin:

• Worked with Sergey during the LSC to set up environment on my desktop to run single interferometer Wave burst version 5.
• Worked on the stand alone parameter estimation a) to verify robustness of analysis with respect to error in signal duration, b) test the implementation of the errors.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

Pushed a pre-release version of LDAS to LHO, LLO and TEST systems to allow further testing prior to the release November 15. Greg Mendell has been testing the new features available for creating RDS frames. A few minor issues have been identified and will be fixed before the release. The pre-release also identified an issue with the email notifications for files that are moved around frequently at LHO, which is not seen at other sites. A quick fix to this was written up and tested here at Caltech and then pushed to the sites for testing. The main task for us prior to the release is to assure adequate testing of the new features associated with generation of RDS frames.

A possible large memory leak may be present in the new frameCPP/frameAPI code. More running will be needed to determine the degree to which this is a memory leak versus a tremendous startup cost for the new code. Close to a gigabyte is being used in only a couple of hours. This is roughly an order of magnitude larger than in the previous code base.

Wrote up documentation describing usage and content of LDGC third party package environment.

Fixed the problem with concatenation of AUX data within the FrAdcData structures identified when first testing 40 meter code which makes use of this for storing data-valid array data.

Updated ddd to version 3.3.10, added rrdtool version 1.0.49, added ganglia version 2.5.7, updated openssl to version 0.9.7e, and updated gnupg to version 1.2.6.

cmonClient - fixed PR 2734 by commenting out debug puts statement for diskcacheAPI directory tree.

Documentation: updated cmonClient client documentation and passed to librarian for cvs inclusion.

Testing: ran ldas System tests on version 1.2.63, updated results web page and cvs new results html. Committed result updates to cvs.  Added options to new RDSVerify script to bypass verification, run individual test, run as continuous loop and to dump RDS commands for cmonClient test panel.

Updated cntlmon resource files for test, lho and llo, created new databases and ran cmonClient tests at lho and llo. Modify Makefiles to generate new RDS commands for cmonClient test panel.

TCL/GLOBUS:

Completed SWIG wrapping of 2 asynchronous XIO read/write functions, globus_xio_register_read() & globus_xio_register_write().

Working on Tcl test cases to exercise asynchronous XIO client/server.

Four additional XIO functions are just completed.

Globus XIO functionality summary (latest):

• A total of 31 functions.
• There are 12 functions not being used for our testing purposes.
• 17 functions are completed.
• 2 asynchronous iovec functions are still buggy.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

• Set up GRID account for Anand and helped to debug problem he was having logging in (lack of a FQDN in NIS+).
• Did 4 tests of how long it would take to stage all offline files to restore a bad disk in the cluster.  Answer: for just under 10,000 offline files (~60% full cluster filesystem) just under 5 hours, with 10 tape drives.
• Helped with installation of new 9940B tape drives at LHO & LLO.
• Working on rearchiving data and relabelling some poorly allocated tapes at LHO.

(Al Wilson)

• Setting up kickstart to work with Fedora 3.
• Testing systemimager for raid1 system setup.
• Continuing prepping nodes for installation of second 200g disk.

(Stuart Anderson)

• Successfully installed Fedora Core 3 on a laptop and desktop. The next step will be to try a cluster server and node.
• Debugging hardware issue with new large Ethernet switch at Caltech.

 

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

·         Two extra tape drives were added to L700 robot. Firmware on all the drives was upgraded to version 1.34.408, firmware on L700 itself was upgraded to 3.06.00.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

Preparing for E11, I have incorporated new LDAS options to createRDS jobs into the createrds drivers scripts.  The options allow the number of frames per file and the number of seconds per frame of the output RDS frames to be specified. I am currently running tests of these options.

(Ben Johnson)

• The L700 was running low on free tapes here, due to tape misallocation by samfs (caused by not labelling them before restarting sam). They are presently being freed. Enough tapes are available so that we can make it until the new tapes arrive next week.
• I have ordered 30, unlabeled, 9940B tapes. Greg has ordered 60. These are due next Thursday or Friday.
• The two additional tape drives have been added to samfs. Both appear to be working fine (in addition to the previous four).
• Completed "burntest" of 3511s. Had some benign scsi warnings, and one bad sector on a single 3511 disk drive. The bad sector was handled automatically by the 3511.
• node47 went offline due to bad ram. New ram is being ordered today.

 

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT:

(will report next week)

Livingston:

(Shannon)

• Finished setting up a central log host last week.  This machine is on an internal network and is not reachable from the outside.  I will be setting up firewall rules to restrict access to this machine from the public subnet.
• Spent Monday-Wednesday at the NSF review.
• Discussed networking issues with several people while in Pasadena since we could meet in person with a whiteboard, etc. and hash out certain issues.

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.
• Still contacting network providers to see what network services are available.  Nothing to report so far.
• The OS patches and security hardening done on the main servers over the weekend has caused problems with NIS+, e-mail and the elog mirror web site.  I've had to remove most of the security hardening in order to get services working again.  I'm still fixing the elog mirror web page.
• I'm still patching, changing passwords and beefing up security on all the Sun workstations.
• The new Caltech ITS VPN3000 software won't install properly on my Sys Admin laptop.  I use this laptop and the VPN software to connect to the Caltech Software site and download much of our PC software.  I've spent several hours trying to get it working and have consulted ITS Support, but no luck.  The VPN software works fine on other site computers.
• Modified the firewall access list to block an IP address that was bombarding everyone with virus email.
• At our weekly safety meeting I reminded everyone of the rules for personal use of government computing equipment and reminded everyone of the location of the Computer Use Policy and other policy documentation.
• Misc. other user support.

CIT:

(Mike)

• Control Room 3rd floor W/B: Moved all computer equipment across the hallway into Phil Willems' old office. This is now the new location for the control room.
• Jim Covington: Workstation infected with a virus that required a complete rebuild. He is back up and running.
• Phil Willems: I loaded a new laptop for him with GC software and additional engineering software.
• Started loading laptop and PC workstation for loaner pool & Millikan.
• This week was mostly dedicated to the NSF conference this included setting up the network, printing, and user support.

(Veronica)

• LIGO: Last minute updates/support for the NSF review.  Updates to the PAC meeting website.  Working on a website for Aspen Winter conference.  Updates to other LIGO webpages.
• LSC: Updates to the website.  Discussed with Peter and Larry the proposed changes to the ligo.org support/administration.  A webpage for the presentations from the last meeting.
• CaJAGWR: Website updates/user support.

(Lisa)

• Lent a hand with the NSF review.
• Spent quite a lot of time working on the backup system.  Began using the new LTO drive.
• Did monthly backups.

Mail Stats 11/03 - 11/10/04

• Messages Accepted:      34795
• Spam Rejected:          8996
• Viruses Rejected:       1308
• False Positives:        3
• Total Mail Thru:        45099

(Larry)

• Working on new maintenance contracts for Matlab. Still have a few items to get cleared up but this should be wrapped up in the next few days.  Resolved a couple of P-card issues. Still waiting for receipts on a couple of items.
• Put in purchases for a variety of items and working on a purchase of a new printer for the DCC.
• Assisted the DCC with a number of different tasks. Most dealing with the documentation for the NSF.
• Worked a number of logistical issues concerning the computer server room. Yes, the room is still being worked on but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It should be ready to test the new fire suppression system this next week.
• Resolved a cascading problem with one of the servers. One of the E2E machines had a disk failure, which caused a number of problems down the line causing one of the servers to be flooded with requests (similar to a DOS attack).  The E2E machine is taken off line and all of the other offending units have been rebooted and tested. So far no problems since the reboots.
• Resolved a couple of minor issues with the LIGO web server. There was a naming conflict taking place on the unit itself.
• Assisted in the setup and takedown of items for the NSF review.
• Wrapped up some documentation with the MIT audit. The summary should be in the DCC in next few days.
• Resolved a couple of printer problems and reset a number of workstations on the third floor of Bridge.

 

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Systems and Management

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

Progress Period from 11.05 to 11.11

OUT OF THE OFFICE Thursday the 11th.

·         See http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/index.htmlfor 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")

§         The 40-Meter schedule remains to be completed with changes.

§         Finished work on updated request curves inclusive of some schedule changes received on Tuesday the 2nd.

§         Sent revised curves to Carol for comment / distribution on Saturday the 6th.

§         Started work on progress update with progress through October 31, 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:

§         Posted revised cost data as a result of the latest revisions of last week.

Seismic Isolation

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

SEI Structure:

I am awaiting cost and schedule estimates from ASI in order to complete a draft rewrite of their contract.

Ken Mason has received quotes for fabricating the bulk of the parts (65% of the total cost, by ASI's estimate) for the AdLIGO SEI BSC unit prototype, from shops in MA. The level of these quotes confirm the August estimate by ASI, which is considerably below ASI's latest estimate. This information is a significant input to the study on how we should proceed.

Ken Mailand and I talked with Brent Ekstrand of Astro Pak to get technical details of their cleaning capabilities and recommendations. I'll be putting together a draft plan for our cleaning pathfinder task, for the development of cleaning procedures and quality evaluation methods to be used for parts too large to be cleaned and RGA scanned at LIGO facilities.

Actuators:

We have told PSI that the 12 actuator coils that failed the high-pot testing will need to be reworked or replaced. Due to the severity of potential problems, we cannot stand the risk of failure in service that may be caused by relaxing the requirements.

Displacement Sensors:

ADE is proceeding with fabricating and testing the 14 displacement sensors for the BSC prototype structure. They have provided a quote for two calibration blocks.

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>

Ian Wilmut from RAL has joined us for 3 weeks, starting on Nov 8. We welcome him and look forward to working with him on quad controls prototype design issues.

Working on the quad tablecloth design.

Prepared for and participated in the NSF Review.

Working on SUS Primavera update.

Organizing the visit from Justin and Caroline at the end of November. Getting travel arrangements in place for our visit to Glasgow in January.

Created the first draft of the Advanced LIGO safety stop design requirements document. I have sent it to Mark for review.

From: ctorrie <ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
Advanced LIGO SUS

Weekly report

1) Structures

Tim has been working on the lower structure (containment truss) and is visiting Russell in Glasgow next week to discuss its interface with the assembly rig (catcher).
We have a first resonance of the overall structure of ~ 90 Hz in both ALGOR and ANSYS. The structure weighs ~ 140kg and is lightweight around the lower three masses.

2) Design Meeting

We have created an updated overall assembly with a drawing tree and all of the various sections identified with LIGO numbers.
The task summary (our schedule for the quad) was reviewed at the weekly meeting
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~ctorrie/QUAD_ETM/quad_etm_setup_page2.html

3) Visits

Ian Wilmut is visiting us from RAL for 3 weeks. Mike Lloyd has another week left of his visit from Glasgow.

4) Design Guidelines
To go along with the drawing guidelines by Dennis we are trying to create a list of "rules" to ease the exchange between PRO-E and SolidWorks files. A draft is available at http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~ctorrie/SW/Hints.html.
 
From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
Adv. LIGO "Q" measurements
Silicate bonded a prism on a sapphire rod so "Q" measurements can be taken.

Adv. LIGO SUS
Continued the development of indium cold welding to attach magnets to holders and sensor flags.
Bob Taylor put together a small vacuum to be used to melt indium on the aluminum parts to enhance bonding.

Pre-Stabilized Laser

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

AdvLIGO PSL

As Benno was here for the NSF Review, we had a discussion about some aspects of the PSL.  In particular some laser safety related concerns and the need for having a clean room around the laser table enclosure.  The latter is due to the finding at LZH that some dust had stuck to one of the quartz rotators and was promptly burnt by the laser.  This in turn impacted the beam quality of the laser along with the output power.

The pre-mode cleaner that was on loan to Stanford was returned.  The appearance of the packing material caused some concern.  The pre-mode cleaner will be checked out.

Auxiliary Optics

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

ADV LIGO
I am in the process of "scrubbing" the AOS cost book with a fine, bristle brush.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Riccardo DeSalvo desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu

Juri

I made the calculations for the thermal noises (coating and substrate / Brownian and thermo elastic) for finite mirrors in the case of using a Mesa-Beam. I have only preliminary results for the sapphire substrate because the calculations are still running, however the results for coating and thermo elastic noises show a noise reduction with respect to the Gaussian beam of a factor ~1.5 / ~1.7 for a mirror radius of 16 cm. and diffraction losses of ~1ppm. I will check these results with other calculations present in literature. I am taking measurements for the “creep” experiment and I found a simple procedure to overcome the strange behavior of the equilibrium position we observed sometimes (a satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon is still lacking).

I am writing the short pre-thesis I have to present on December in Pisa University.

Marco

The final design of the “servo circuit” has been completed as the assembling of the circuit on the board. I began to take the first measurements from the “creep experiment”: on Saturday I and Juri have seen a second equilibrium point quite far from the usual point.

The creep is at 90 centigrades, it has something sticking inside generating a sort of bistability.

Unfortunately we cannot stop the measurement and check, we will have to proceed as is.

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