The LIGO Executive Committee meeting for December 20, 2004 is cancelled because of the Staffing Committee meeting and the one for the following week because of the holidays. The next LIGO Executive Committee meetingwill be January 3, 2005.
Minutes of LSC Executive Committee meeting
Fri 19 Nov 2004 1130 Eastern
Attendance: Bruce Allen, Patrick Brady, Sam Finn, Joe Giaime, Albert Lazzarini,
Dave Reitze, Keith Riles, Peter Saulson (minutes), Bernard Schutz,
David Shoemaker, Daniel Sigg, Rai Weiss, Stan Whitcomb, Benno Willke, Alan Wiseman,
and guests: Stuart Anderson, Erik Katsavounidis, Mike Landry, Marialessandra Papa,
Joe Romano, Peter Shawhan, and Alan Weinstein.
The main order of business of the meeting (and of the
subsequent continuation on 9 Dec) was to discuss and approve (with whatever
changes were necessary) the proposed talks for the GWDAW-9
meeting at
A few other items of business were also briefly discussed.
*The
*The LSC Executive Committee was given an update on the latest discussion of LSC/Lab restructuring. The latest drafts of the new LSC Charter Preamble and the management memo were briefly discussed. A new feature in the latter is the LIGO Management Council, which is described there as follows:
"The LIGO Directorate will consult with the LIGO Management Council, consisting of the Heads of the MIT group and the LLO and LHO Observatories, on major decisions. The Council advises and participates in e.g., the preparation of the annual workplan, the strategy for staffing across the Laboratory, and decisions on infrastructure investments. The MIT group head represents MIT's institutional role in the operation of the Laboratory."
GWDAW talks:
Inspiral talks:
Alan Weinstein reported on behalf of the Inspiral review committee. There are three Inspiral talks for GWDAW: a results talk on the BNS and MACHO search, and status talks on the Binary Black Hole search and on the LIGO/TAMA Inspiral search. The BNS result has been reviewed in considerable detail, and is close to final; exceptions are only the final checks of the efficiency calculation, and full consideration of systematic errors. The result is well established, and leaves little room for strange mistakes. The MACHO search is newer and thus less well-checked, but uses the same analysis pipeline as the BNS search; the only differences are the source model (which is simpler) and the template bank. The result seems robust, and the reviewers saw no problems after their questions were answered. The issue of low statistics in the software injections was raised, but not considered necessary to resolve for the S2 search. Sam Finn asked if Vicky Kalogera had approved of the way the source modeling was done; she had.
After this discussion, the LSC Executive Committee unanimously approved presenting these results at GWDAW.
Next was a discussion of the two inspiral status talks. Patrick Brady pointed out that the Binary Black Hole search talk would present no result, nor a quantitative statement of sensivity, not even on the playground data. On the other hand, the LIGO/TAMA talk would make a statement of the expected sensitivity of the search, based on study of background from non-zero time lags. Rai Weiss raised the issue of how we can check the TAMA part of the results. Alan, Patrick, and Peter Shawhan helped construct the answer: a full software validation can't be carried out by us, but we can exchange information and questions about how the software works on both sides. In addition, many black box checks and "sanity" checks can be carried out. Alan said he expected that all of these checks could be carried out before the 7-8 Dec talk run-through telecons.
After this discussion, the LSC Executive Committee unanimously approved presenting these results at GWDAW.
Burst talks:
Keith Riles reported on behalf of the Burst review committee. The Burst Group proposed three results talks: the S2 LIGO-only untriggered search, the S2 LIGO/TAMA search, and the S2 LIGO/HETE search. Three status talks were also proposed: S3 LIGO-only untriggered search, S3 LIGO-GEO untriggered search, and a talk about the Q transform event trigger generator.
Keith described the S2 LIGO-only untriggered result as sound and well-reviewed. The controversy over how to handle the veto of the single zero-lag event caused by an airplane at LHO led to a compromise (perform the veto, but quote a large systematic error) that was considered acceptable by the reviewers. There remained a controversy over how to handle the software injections of astrophysical signals, but the expectation was that a suitable solution could be found for the talk. Final numbers were just presented, and graphs were still being prepared, but were expected to be fine.
Questions were raised about the handling of the veto of the airplane event. Patrick said he felt that the process for establishing the LSC's policy on it was inadequate. Sam also agreed that insufficienct time had been devoted to exploring the issues. There was general agreement that the issues raised by this example should get more attention in the future; suggestions included a special talk on the statistical issues at GWDAW or at the May 2005 GravStat meeting, and the construction of a technical document or published paper exploring the statistical issues.
After this discussion, the LSC Executive Committee approved (with one dissenting vote) the presentation of this talk at GWDAW.
Keith reported that the LIGO/TAMA talk raised no fundamental concerns with the reviewers. Efficiencies are understood well; the reviewers still needed to look into the effect of some non-stationarity, especially in the TAMA data, and also to check the code used to carry out the coincidence test. This was expected to be accomplished before the run-throughs .
Based on this report, the LSC Executive committee approved the presentation of this talk at GWDAW.
The talk on Katherine Rawlins's work on LIGO/HETE coincidence raised a question, mainly because the review committee had not been able to devote any time to reviewing it. Keith reported that the statistics were simple, but that the modeling of GRBs is not simple, and hadn't been examined yet at all. Erik Katsavounidis concurred that this part of the analysis was not straightforward. After some discussion, the LSC Executive Committee asked that this talk not contain results of the LIGO/HETE coincidence, but instead just report the plan of the analysis and of the models. Thus, as a "methods" talk of work by Katherine, it could be presented at GWDAW without a complete review.
At this point, the meeting adjourned, even though the other talks had not been discussed. Discussion was resumed at a subsequent additional meeting, minutes of which are presented next.
Minutes of LSC Executive Committee meeting
Thurs 9 Dec 2004 1130 Eastern
Attendance: Bruce Allen, Barry Barish, Dave Reitze, Keith Riles, Peter Saulson (minutes),
David Shoemaker, Stan Whitcomb, Alan Wiseman,
and guests: Stuart Anderson, Erik Katsavounidis, Mike Landry, Marialessandra Papa, Joe Romano,
Peter Shawhan, and Alan Weinstein.
This extra meeting was devoted entirely to a consideration of proposed talks for GWDAW-9. We met on the day after the two-day series of talk run-throughs, so we were able to discuss the talks themselves, not just the results. Discussion began with the topics not discussed at the 19 Nov meeting, Pulsars and Stochastic, then returned to the Burst and Inspiral talks to wrap up outstanding issues.
Pulsar talks:
Peter Shawhan reported on behalf of the Pulsar review committee. He noted that there were five talks from this group: an overview talk (which raised no issues on its own), and four talks on specific searches.
The talk on the LIGO/GEO S2/S3 time-domain search has two aspects. The first is a report of the S2 result, which has been submitted to Physical Review Letters. This was thoroughly checked before submission to the journal, so no further issues arise here. The second aspect is a status report on the S3 search. The additional features here are extending the search to many more pulsars, including a number that are in binaries. The necessity to model the binaries adds additional complication. The talk discusses how these additional features are being addressed, but gives no results.
With no dissent, the LSC Executive Committee approved the presentation of this talk at GWDAW.
The Hough transform search has been the subject of substantial code review by the review committee, and there are no outstanding issues left from that review. However, the review committee had not yet had a chanceto complete the review of the whole pipeline, in particular of the conversion from Hough number count to strain. Thus, the talk could not present a final result, although it could (and does) show graphs of maximum Hough number counts versus frequency, and discusses the outliers that are seen in those graphs.
With no dissent, the LSC Executive Committee approved the presentation of this talk at GWDAW.
The talk on the all-sky F-statistic search for isolated pulsars is mainly about the method. On its final slide, a few "result-like" numbers are presented, namely the loudest value of the F-statistic both before and after the coincidence test. Also, expected sensitivities are quoted. The reviewers are comfortable with these numbers, and feel that these numbers are unlikely to change much after final review.
With no dissent, the LSC Executive Committee approved the presentation of this talk at GWDAW.
The talk on the F-statistic search for a signal from Sco X-1 is mainly a method talk. It does contain a statement of expected sensitivity, but this is based on a well-checked derivation. There was some discussion of a statement on the last slide that said, "The preliminary events are consistent with statistics." It was agreed that this sentence should be deleted if it is reporting a partial result of the search; if it simply means that the noise level is as expected, the sentence should be rewritten to make that clear.
With this one change, the LSC Executive Committee, with no dissent, approved the presentation of this talk at GWDAW.
Stochastic talks:
Stuart Anderson reported on behalf of the Stochastic review committee. The group is presenting two status talks.
The talk on the S2/S3 LIGO-only search gives the sensitivity of the search, although not the result. The sensitivity of the search has been well checked, and makes sense. Although the talk as presented in the run-through shows the value of Omega yielded by the search, these plots have now been fixed, so that only the error in the search is presented. The quoted S2 result needs to be properly referred to, and to be marked "preliminary".
With these changes, the LSC Executive Committee, with no dissent, approved the presentation of this talk at GWDAW .
The talk on the S3 LIGO/ALLEGRO search has been fairly extensively reviewed. The novel issue here is the use of data from ALLEGRO, requiring different kinds of checks. The committee (especially Harry Ward) checked the ALLEGRO calibration, and is satisfied. There is one outstanding issue before the talk can be approved: the committee needs to check the calibrated LLO noise spectrum, to do a final round of tests. Assuming that is supplied and that the tests are passed, the reviewers would recommend approval of the talk.
With this proviso, the LSC Executive Committee, with no dissent, approved the presentation of this talk at GWDAW.
Burst talks:
Keith Riles reported on the remaining outstanding issues relating to Burst Group talks, on behalf of the Burst review committee.
Keith reported on the successful conclusion of the remaining tests of the LIGO/TAMA result. The reviewers now feel that they have intensively reviewed this analysis. The issues about TFCLUSTERS have been resolved, the coincidence code was successfully checked, and the information and test results supplied by TAMA have all been fully satisfactory. Thus, this talk is ready to go.
The talk on the S3 LIGO-only untriggered search has had some serious review. All of the sanity tests have been passed. The background numbers are preliminary, largely since the Burst group still needs to establish its final veto strategy, but the numbers are unlikely to change much, and will only go lower. Thus, this talk meets the standards of a status talk.
Barry pointed out that the slide comparing the result to the IGEC result could be misinterpreted. It was agreed that a caveat warning of the subtleties of comparison should be added to that slide.
With no dissent, the LSC Executive Committee approved the presentation of this talk at GWDAW.
The status talk on the S3 LIGO-GEO search also looked good to the reviewers. The efficiencies look reasonable, and are based on the standard WaveBurst pipeline. There is a final check that needs to be made to ensure that the results used only the GEO data from their S3b run. Also, an explicit statement needs to be added to the talk that the numbers shown are for H1-H2-G1 only, but that an additional four-way coincidence analysis will be added later.
With no dissent, the LSC Executive Committee approved the presentation of this talk at GWDAW.
The status talk on the Q transform was only reviewed the previous night, and only by one external reviewer (Riles), working with Isabel Leonor and Lindy Blackburn as internal reviewers. Nevertheless, no issues are apparent, and Shourov Chatterji has carried out impressive sanity checks and comparisons with theoretical calculations on simulated data. Thus, the reviewers are comfortable with the statements made in the talk.
With no dissent, the LSC Executive Committee approved the presentation of this talk at GWDAW.
Inspiral talks:
Alan Weinstein reported on behalf of the Inspiral review committee.
The S2 BNS/MACHO talk looks good. A conservative value of the BNS upper limit will be presented, because error estimates are still not final. The MACHO result vetting has been completed. There is a chance that the numbers might change before the paper is done, but only very slight changes are to be expected. There was some discussion about the plot on slide 14, and clarifications are in the works to address any potential confusion.
The S2 Binary Black Hole talk also looks good. It met the standards for a status talk. All of the plots have been checked.
The LIGO/TAMA talk has been refined from the version presented at the run-through, especially regarding which portion of Takahashi's slides are part of the talk to be given at GWDAW. (The extra slides on the website that look like an analysis are not to be presented.) The talk will show efficiency and sensitivity of the search, but not give a result. All of the "black box" and "sanity" tests of the TAMA analysis have been passed; the reviewers were very pleased with the prompt and complete response of the TAMA team to their questions.
With no dissent, the LSC Executive Committee approved the presentation of this talk at GWDAW.
During the discussion of these talks, several issues came up regarding the format of the presentations. A summary of the outcome of these discussions are given here, in the form sent to speakers after the meeting:
Statement on authorship of talks, and other mentions of specific names (from discussion at LSC Exec Comm meeting 9 Dec 2004)
For any talk that
* gives results of LIGO/GEO observations,
* gives the status of searches on LIGO/GEO data,
* makes substantial use of LIGO/GEO data, or
* grows substantially out of the work of any LSC data analysis group, the authorship should be given as Speaker Name, for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration.
(Technical or "methods" talks that do not meet any of the criteria above should have author lists constructed by the principles for technical contributed papers, as given in the LSC Publication Policy.)
In addition, it is frowned upon to mention by name those who have performed particular
tasks.
Talks may include citations of published papers on relevant subjects, and may give the author list of the paper.
(For GWDAW-9, the talks to follow this rule include all of the talks given at the practice session (with the exception of the talk by Katherine Rawlins on LIGO-HETE work) and also the two talks on vetoes.)
All such talks should also follow this policy on display of logos: (from LSC Exec Comm meeting of 9 July 2004) Each slide should have the LIGO logo in the upper left corner, and the LSC logo in the upper right corner. Slides in talks involving work with GEO data should also display the GEO logo.
Finally, all such talks should obtain and display a number
from the
STATUS
OF LSC MOUs (Petrac)
(LSC Research Plans through
February 2005 and Progress Reports through August 2004)
EGO
GEO 600
Shanghai Institute of
Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM)
Southern University and
VIRGO
Collaboration of the
Russian Research Institutes (CRRI)
SITE
TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)
A site teleconference was held on Thursday, December
16. The following were among the issues discussed:
PROPERTY
MANAGEMENT (Chargois)
>From: Ed Chargois
<chargois_e@ligo.caltech.edu>
>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>
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)
Nothing new to report.
CHANGE
CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)
HUMAN
RESOURCES (Akutagawa)
>From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu>
Quality/Safety
(
>From: Bill Tyler
<tyler@ligo.caltech.edu>
Nothing significant to report
.
Summary of commissioning activities at the
LIGO Hanford Observatory (RSavage)
One of the main activities this week has been the installation and
characterization of the thermal compensation systems (TCS) for both H1
and H2. Dave Ottaway has been visiting from MIT
for the TCS work and other commissioning activities including the investigation
of the anomalous heating in the H1 ifo.
Efforts to get H1 back to long locks at high power are beginning to bear fruit
- H1 was locked in common mode for more than 12 hours overnight, with the last
8 hours at an input laser power of 4 watts. H2 is also
locking reliably and staying locked for long periods.
Commissioning highlights:
4k IFO
o Acoustic coupling to electronic components on the ASPD demod boards was discovered,
but expected to be one our two orders of magnitude below levels that would
impact the ifo. sensitivity
at the SRD level.
o Magnetic coupling at the demod boards was found
to be a significant noise source and may be responsible for peaks in the
AS_Q spectrum..
o Efforts to optimize modematching and reduce noise couplings in the output modecleaner gave mixed
results. Characterization efforts continue.
o Recent investigations of excess
heating indicate that the anomalous absorption is not localized at a single
input test mass as previously suspected. The most
probable explanation is that H1 has a highly absorptive beamsplitter.
o Modifications to the WFS3 and
WFS4 heads resulted
in 12 dB more gain without oscillations.
o There were elogs
almost every day regarding details of the TCS work.
2k IFO
o The interferometer modulation frequencies were adjusted
and were subsequently locked
to a rubidium standard as is the practice on H1.
o TheY-arm
mid station was switched
over to the new balanced power system. Note that one must be careful
when connecting diagnostic equipment.
o The AS_I
servos were set up for ASPD2 and ASPD3 at the AS port but some relative
gain issues are not yet resolved.
o The common mode servo was characterized.
o The new layout of IOT7 is
documented here.
Outreach (Dale Ingam)
On our front page you will now see
a link to our slate of IYP events. We have also added An
Overview of LIGO, sending you to an excellent presentation on LIGO by the
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ordered gravity well exhibits
from Hypertek, Inc., for LLO and LHO.
Safety and Security (Riesen)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I found no site safety
concerns during my weekly site tour.
The HPLF is now active,
running a high power (100watts) endurance test on an EO crystal. The
startup began last Tuesday (12-14-04). All safety devices (hardware and
software) were exercised and found fully functional prior to startup. This
test will run 24/7 for the next couple of weeks with the HPLF mainly
unattended. Authorized experimenters will check on the progress of the
test multiple times daily.
Work is in progress on the
end stations laser safety upgrades. The Photon Calibrator enclosures are
90% complete and the end stations wiring is approx 25% complete.
L1 Commissioning
---------------------------------------------------------------------
No report
General Computing (Roddy)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
L1 and AdL
Mechanical Engineering (Spjeld)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- Moved valve calibration stand
from machine shop to high-bay area in staging building. Re-connected and
calibrated test stand successfully.
- Calibrated and analyzed
several HEPI servo valves.
- Tested valve safety screen
adapter plate on calibration stand.
- Placed order for six
additional servo valves; delivery ~ 4 weeks.
- Vacuum Board Review
Meeting; new UHV Cleaning Oven to be re-designed. The oven is to be built
at a later time.
- HEPI Documentation
web-site; updated valve placement/history charts and information on hydraulic
fluid analysis.
- Currently working on servo
valve calibration and failure analysis.
- Machine drawings for HAM
Chamber Door Removal Fixture (for manufacturing quotes and delivery) in
progress.
- Advanced LIGO Quad
Suspension Installation Fixtures design in progress; review meeting scheduled
for Jan-11.
- Assembly drawings and BOM
for LHO photon calibrator shelves in progress.
- Reviewed AdL SEI assembly time estimates; recommended some changes.
High Power Laser Facility,
Optics Modeling and L1 Commissioning (Franzen)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1) The IPG laser returned to
LLO (again) a few weeks back. It was re-installed and tested. The visiting IAP
scientists resumed their work on measuring depolarization and thermal lensing compensation in an Advanced LIGO Faraday
isolator. I continued to support their efforts. They could finish their
planned experiments in time and a presentation of their results can be found at
http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~franzen/HPLF/Faraday/main.html
After their departure I
started to clean out the lab and prepare for the next experiment which involves
high power long term testing of an RTP crystal which will be used in an AdLIGO EOM. This test also includes a lambda/2 waveplate, a thin film polarizer and BK7 optics which
endurances also will be part of the test at a power level of around 100 W.
Together with Rupal Amin we
acquired background data of the beam without the crystal inserted into the beam
line. Since a few days back the crystal is being exposed to a beam of width
less than 0.7 mm at 93 W. After inspection and approval from Safety Officer
Rich Riesen we will now leave the experiment running
24 hours a day until next year.
2) I found the problem which
has been causing the imbalance in the transmitted mode cleaner locking side
bands in the AdLIGO Melody mode cleaner model. This
means that we more or less start to believe in the produced numbers from this
model. Results are posted at
http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~franzen/melody/amber3.html
and are being heavily discussed within the UF LIGO group.
I am now producing data from the same model with sapphire substrate instead of
fused silica for a comparison.
3) There was some confusion
regarding sign reversal in some the HAM2 sys-id data I and others took before.
According to well informed (?) sources the polarity of the sensors at pier 4
might or might not have been switched sometimes during the autumn. This makes
it difficult to design reliable blending and control filters. In order to sort
it all out I performed a few measurements so we know the present phase of the
pier 4 data around 1 Hz excitation from all actuators for both the position and
geo sensors. See LLO e-log entry November 29 for details. I have also been
working with HAM1 blended sensor and control filters together with Rich Mittleman. These filters are now ready for testing.
LDAS/Condor Sysadmin and Burst Analysis (Yakushin)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Igor is away presenting
results at GWDAW
CDS software (Khan)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Created new MEDM STATUS screens, that include changes in the IOO WFS database.
2) Making diagnostic medm screens that would help debug the CDS Controller
problems. The screens are basically a map of the data acquisition channels and
the Rack cross connect, that would help trace the signal path from source to
destination.
3) Working with Chathan on identifying CDS maintenance tasks.
see also the CDS weekly meeting
minutes in the commissioning
archives:
Rolf Bork reporting
- Alex got EPICS running on a PC104 module, along with EPICS
drivers for a couple of I/O modules. First use is with the new cross connect
chassis, so Jay will probably say something about this.
- Rana discovered the cause of the
recent ASC crashes (which sometimes crashes the optics controllers). Problem is
NSPOB and NPTR can be very small when LSC is not locked and therefore scaling
can become very large to the point of becoming
Rich Abbott reporting
1. Working the oscillation issue with the wave-front
sensor whitening board. The output driver is not happy with the
capacitive load of the feedthroughs. A test on
the bench shows no steady state oscillation, but simulations reveal low phase
margin at the frequency that is reportedly the oscillation frequency. In
any scenario, it seems as though there is no time now for board mods prior to the run, but this issue will not go
away. For the run, we may be limited to running without RFI feedthroughs on this chain.
2. Working another small issue of an offset in the L4C
witness channel for pier 4 of ETMX. There appears to be an issue with the
cabling between the pier pod and the seismic interface chassis.
3. The remainder of the week will be spent working
with Rana on known electronics commissioning issues
Jay Heefner reporting
FO Timing Link (Sander)
=============================
- Re-layout almost complete for 4 boards. Should be done by
tomorrow.
TCS Chiller (Mohana)
===============================
- Mohana stuffing one board.
- Boxes and front panels are in.
Anti-Image filters (Todd)
==============================
- Boards fab'd but not tested. Awaiting priority.
40 Meter (Ben/Jay)
===============================
- Rework of PSL cooling proceeding.
- Alarm Handler running.
- 2 laptops have beeen upgraded to
faster wireless cards.
- DAQ signal cleanup and checkout in progress. Ben will do a
system drawing.
- ISS is fully functional and appears to be working nicely.
LSC PD Redesign (Ben)
===============================
1)The enclosures should be back
from Front Panel Express any day.
2)This first board of this run is
currently being characterized, everything looks fine so far, but some of the
measurements still remain to be completed.
3) Nine other boards have been stuffed by Todd all but the
frequency dependant components are in. The rest will be stuffed soon, and
tested.
4) Sixteen boards are at Screaming Circuits, and should be
back soon.
5) All the generic parts, and long lead
parts are now here to stuff the boards that we have.
6) Internal cables are mostly done, and should be available
when the boxes arrive.
7) three old PDs
will be sent to LHO to meet immediate needs.
AdLigo SUS (Jay)
================================
- Have boards needed for quad controls at CIT. Just need to
install with cables by late Jan.
Elect Shop (Todd)
===============================
- Safety audit conducted yesterday was successful.
- fabbing
4 pin LEMO and RFPD cables for LHO.
no report
PeterKing
The frequency stabilisation servo
slow loop code was modified to reflect standardised
variable names, object code and program name. Similar changes will be
migrated to the intensity stabilisation AC current
adjust state code.
Ken Mailand
This week I should have the Chiller documentation finished,
and 5 units assembled and tested.
In my tests of a fluid to use in the chiller reservoir I had
4 flasks with 4 metal samples in each aluminum, copper, galv
steel, and brass, these represent the metals in the system.
The fluids tested were LHO and CIT house line fluid, also the LHO site Chloramine-T mix and a Chloramine-T
mix I made here at the suggested 1 gram per gallon ratio.
The Chloramine-T mixes behaved badly showing white
snowy froth that accumulated in the bottom.
The Site fluids blue color for CIT and an amber colored fluid for the LHO site
also had some white material to a lesser degree, and the LHO site fluid had the
least showing.
I think some time should be spent looking at the compatibility of fluid and
materials it comes in contact with.
The purpose of the Chloramine-T in a biocide the prevent the growth of algae in the system.
I received a call form Steve Vass describing a problem at the 40 meter, with
the fluid and the Chloramine-T mix, he said it was
clogging the system and deteriorating the metal parts.
The sample I have from the LHO site of chiller fluid is bright Pink in color
and not the amber of the first sample I tested. When I put the 4 metals in a
flask and let them be for 5 days I see some of the white material accumulating
in the flask. I have inquired of Cheryl
at LHO why the sample sent me was pink, instead of amber,[suggesting
a different mixture] and have not received an answer yet.
This means to me that over time the fluid may be a problem, in the chiller, as
it seems to be now with the PSL.
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 still locked.
We have completed the test But the cavity still
pumping until a new test sample will be
available.
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 had the End Test Mass 2ITM04 cleaned with C02 gas New scanning
is underway, this time we have introduced an integrated scanning sphere to
detect all the scattering beam from the mirror surface.
The fabrication of a mount to hold END TEST MASS BLANK
(40 meter) of ~ 4.92" in diameter is on waiting.
The Quantronix 60 watt laser No
Change
OTF Lab at Lauritsen ROOM 38
Cavity #3
The contamination test for (6) new disks of VAC SEAL Epoxy samples
is in progress. Cavity is locked and we are taking measurements for absorption
and ring down for contamination loss every day.
Cavity #2 in standby
no report
no report
----------------------------------------------------
Data Analysis and Computing (
----------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------
Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
--------------------------------
Weekly Physics Meeting
-----------------------------
Sany Yoshida presented results from his group's study of
the length control of Mode-Cleaner using E2E simulation.
Various Studies
--------------------
(Biplab
and Hiro)
- FFT study: We
revisited the problem of sensing and controlling Length and Angle degrees of
freedom together in the presence of mirror phasemaps.
It seems the equivalent offset angles due to asymmetries in mirror aberration
lies in the nonlinear region and so the calculated angular corrections do not
take the system to a state of non-zero signals. Probably we need to include
second order term in sensing matrix.
- PhaseCamera
simulation using e2e: Due to large variation observed in modal content of the
fitted data of phase camera images, we decided to investigate how the (spiral)
scan time of 1 sec could affect the images and its modal-decomposition
calculation while various motions are affecting the beam even though the
interferometer is in same thermal state. Biplab
started studying such images calculated from SimLIGO
dark port outputs.
Simulation code development
----------------------------------
(Hiro)
When Matt Evans was visiting Caltech, the simulation code development plan was
discussed. Major focuses are (1) fast simulation module of dual recycling
cavity, (2) Rewriting FFT for LIGO I and II, with telescopes and realistic
locking, (3) internal code update (different time step support, better thread support ).
(Matt) Investigated
multi-thread execution for E2E with latest compiler (gcc
3.3.3) and 4 processor architecture. Unlike similar investigations
last year, this test seems to have produced positive results (a speed
increase). I will need to update modeler to confirm this result in-situ.
(Melody) Working on speeding
up the dynamic link process used in the FUNC_X primitives. Currently breaking
up the libAdlibMM.a to create a shared object that
will be dynamically linked with FUNC_X shared object(libe2e.so)
Alfi
-----------
(Bruce) Continuing
work on reimplementation of bundles to fix the problem of multiple overlapping
connection generation from completely inherited bundles.
-------------------------------------------
LDAS Software Systems (Maros for
-------------------------------------------
The frameAPI
has been extended to allow for the creation of short frames. This overcomes the
limitation present in the last engineering run. Greg Mendell
is verifying this version on ldas-test and has
requested a pre-release at
The manager now uses
persistent socket protocol when communicating with firewalled
clients. This allows better use of iptables to govern
firewall rules.
Fedora Core 3 was installed
on a tandem system this week which allowed for the porting of LDAS to Fedora
Core 3 to begin. The largest change to the LDAS code base involved reading of
the /proc file system as it has changed from previous Fedora and Red Hat
versions. Evaluation of LDAS on Fedora Core 3 has begun. All tests from the cmonClient test menu passed. Performance testing of the dataPipeline scripts and database insertion scripts should
be ready by early next week.
The function createLDASdb in the cntmonAPI was
updated to handle situations when LDAS had not yet been installed. This was observed
with the fresh installation of LDAS onto Fedora Core 3.
Tcl/Globus:
The four functions that
remain to be wrapper all have variable number of arguments. These functions
understand the arguments based on the sub-command and the driver. So far a mapping
of driver to driver type has been added. This will allow for parsing of the
variable arguments. The first of the four functions to be wrapped is the globus_xio_attr_ctl. The other three functions will be
wrapped similarly to globus_xio_attr_ctl.
4 XIO functions are still
buggy.
* globus_xio_attr_ctl
* globus_xio_server_cntl,
* globus_xio_data_descriptor_cntl,
* globus_xio_handle_cntl.
GRID:
Researched on what it would
take to for LIGO-caltech to become a Grid3 site. Have been looking into the hardware, software and policy
requirements for being accepted as a Grid3 site and manpower requirements for
installing and maintaining the site.
Naveen Palavalli got the host
certificate for his machine and is now the official Grid Admin at Ligo-caltech for issuing host/service certificates to
others. He also installed simpleCA for certificate
authentication.
-------------------------------------
LDAS System Administration (
-------------------------------------
Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)
* Added another 350TB of tape
storage to the SAM-QFS archive at Caltech by re-purposing the original
HPSS tapes in the same silo.
* Finished re-archiving data
from the original low-density SAM-QFS tape drives and relabeling
the
same physical tapes to operate at high density.
(Al Wilson)
* Setup desktop machine with
fedora 3.
* Starting on the golden node
for fedora3 on the new cit cluster nodes. The list of RPMs
should be ready
by this week.
* Found a security issue on one
of our systems. Contact me for more info. No breach, just someone knocking on
the door.
(Stuart Anderson)
* Started a memory test on
the 80 new cluster nodes at Caltech and carefully monitoring the additional
power and heat load in the computer room. The new units are using 300W each.
* Investigating NFS server
performance from our SAM-QFS servers directly to cluster nodes.
(Phil Ehrens)
* Installed 80 new nodes into
the beowulf cluster.
* Wrote persistent socket
protocol extension for ldas to use when communicating
with firewalled clients.
* Added support to generic
API to handle proc filesystem changes in Fedora Core
3.
* Studied cfdef
and big-brother as installed and used by ligo/ldas.
MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)
* Going ahead with
maintenance contract for LDAS sun equipment.
* Added more cluster users.
-------
(Greg Mendell)
* This week I am working with
LDAS to test new createrds functionality that allows
greater flexibility in the output frame length.
(Ben Johnson)
* Added several new grid users,
including one using PSU's new RT interface.
* Changed the URLs in
gateway's RLS database to point to the new locations in /archive. Used a newly
written Publisher.mv() method.
* Packed and shipped 8 T3s
plus rack and supplies to LLO. Ed Chargois arranged
the shipping.
* Changed d2d script to write
md5sums to parent_dir_name.md5
-----------------------------------
Data Analysis Activities (
-----------------------------------
(Alan Weinstein)
- Inspiral
review for GWDAW.
(Patrick Sutton)
It's been another week
devoted to review of the LIGO-TAMA bursts analysis. I've resolved the
remaining major issue pointed out by Katsavounidis
(the apparent discrepancy in background rates estimated via time lags vs Poisson statistics). I also drafted the LIGO-TAMA
talk for GWDAW, with help on plots from Laura Cadonati.
The talk has been approved by the review committee and by the executive
committee, so once I get the nod from TAMA I'll be good to go. (I sent
the draft to TAMA on Dec 6).
(Shourov
Chatterji)
Continued review
process for Q Pipeline
- Provided support for
algorithm and code review by Isabel Leonor and Lindy Blackburn
- Detection efficiency
curves vetted by burst review committee for presentation at GWDAW9
Prepared draft
presentation of GWDAW9 talk on Q Pipeline
- Presented draft for
review and comments on LSC wide teleconference
Re-ran
S2 H1H2 double coincident data set using most recent version of Q Pipeline.
Identified 207
potential airplanes in H0:PEM-HAM7_MIC during S2 H1H2
double coincident live time.
- Approximate deadtime of 0.5% over 2.2e6 seconds.
- 195 are clearly
identified as airplanes when scanning spectrograms by eye
- 66 produce doublecoincident ASQ triggers as seen by Q Pipeline when
searching up to a Q of 64.
Implemented
calibrated post-processing of Q Pipeline triggers to estimate hrss.
- Current in testing,
but initial results are very encouraging.
(Vuk
Mandic)
I worked on modifying the
stochastic analysis code to allow introducing a relative time offset between
two detectors in MC simulations. With much help from Dan Kozak
and Stuart Anderson, I have access to the CIT grid and I hope to start running
the modified code there soon.
---------------------------
General Computing (Wallace)
---------------------------
MIT:
(Keith)
-Going ahead with maintenance
contract for gc sun
equipment.
-Working on quieting down a
desktop pc (fan noise)
-Ordered UPS for cds servers
-Ordered spare computer parts
-Tweaked webservers
to allow for longer filenames
-Migrated Marie's desktop to
new Dell machine
(Nothing to report)
(Christine)
- Network usage can be seen
at
http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~christin/mrtg/198.129.208.1_198.129.78.122.html
- Spent some time
un-installing the Einstein@home screen saver software
from an application server and modifying the start times for the screen saver
on three guest PCs.
- Several people had problems
with virus emails that were quarantined by Norton, but not deleted from their
inbox on the mail server. Every time they checked their e-mail, they kept
getting the same virus e-mail. The inboxes on the mail server were
manually edited to remove the offending e-mail. Netscape seems to be able
to handle deleting the virus emails off the server, but Eudora doesn't.
- I purchased a compiler
software package from Sun several weeks ago. Turns out my software was
delivered to someone in a different department at Caltech. Sun is now
trying to track it down and re-direct it to me. This is a common problem with
Sun. Meanwhile, I'm downloading the trial version of the compilers.
- Installed Spyware X-terminator on a couple more computers.
- Continuing with the patch
updates, system password changes and security hardening of all the Sun
computers.
- Other misc. user support.
CIT:
(Mike)
-Updated NTSRV's
llpdmworks, pdmworks, pictor, and m79, with critical updates
and checking logs for system errors. There are a few problems that came up in
the logs, that turned out to be some hardware issues on the llpdmworks
server; and unknown user login attempts on Pictor,
that were unsuccessful.
-Assisted a few users running
XP and W2K, downloading and installing critical.
-Started loading a new laptop
for Rolf Bork.
-Working with Larry Wallace
on the spam filters.
(Veronica)
- LIGO: Security
patches and audits on Windows servers. Compressed a videoclip
for MIT, posted the stream and a downloadable file on the network. Video/DVD editing of the Keck presentation for TAPIR. Prepared high-resolution images for a printed publication.
Website updates.
- LSC: Website updates.
(Bruce)
* (BS) Ilog
Development: (0.5
days)
- Misc analysis of bugs since the recent major
release.
(Larry)
-Went through a number of
procurement items.
Placed
orders for the LDAS group and a couple of end users needing new PC related
items.
Clearing up
a couple of contract issues.
Cleared up
a number of mis-charges to the account.
Reconciled
P-card.
-Assisted a number of users
with account modifications.
Worked on a
couple ofprinter issues including the refurbishing of
the HP8500.
-Worked on the E2E servers.
Still have one to rebuild.
-Worked on the e-mail
servers. They both had a minor problem but it took some time to clear out the
mail queue once the s/w was working correctly. Continual work
on keeping up the mail aliases.
-E-mail statistics Dec 09, 04
- Dec 15, 04
Rejected
13,432
Virus
1,038
False
Positive 258
Accepted
11,689
Total 25,121
From: Dennis Coyne coyne@ligo.caltech.edu
Adv. LIGO Systems
Dennis Coyne
See
also the AL
Systems web page
See also the RODA status web page
In the last week:
· Carol Wilkinson drafted a
Requirements
· Set guidance on the quantity of material needed for qualification for vacuum use for RGA and optical contamination testing – see the Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV) requirements, guidance and status web page
· As part of an effort to establish optimal beamsplitter optic dimensions, calculated the effect of beamplitter dimensions on the first elastic mode frequency. More analysis to follow…
· A Vacuum Review Board (VRB) meeting was held to review the proposed large, high and uniform temperature, vacuum bake oven. The VRB endorsed the basic approach, but questioned the need for as large an oven or as high a temperature as proposed. The oven requirements will be reformulated and a new proposal submitted. In the interim, for the suspension quadruple controls prototype, existing vacuum bake ovens will be used for small parts and an air bake/FTIR process will be used for the large quad sus structure.
· Rai Weiss has suggested that the hydrocarbon outgassing requirements for advanced LIGO defined in T040001-00 are too conservative and should be reformulated based on the Dubinin-Radushkevich adsorption theory (see appendix D of E960022-B).
Interface Issues
· Reviewing the AL optical layout to check Mike Smith's observation that the BS pick-off beam appears be insufficiently separated from the main beam.
From: "Thomas Frey"
<tfrey@ligo.caltech.edu>
Progress Period
from 12.10 to 12.16
·
See http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/index.html
for a complete listing of all project related cost and schedule data.
Accomplishments:
·
Sub-system
PLANNING activities
§
Continued
work on preparing web space for posting Adv. LIGO reports. ("The Whole
Enchilada")
§
The
40-Meter schedule remains to be completed with changes.
§
Continued
work on progress update with progress through
§
Executed
meeting telcom with Carol and the following
subsystems: SEI, LASTI, and PSL
§
Schedule
changes compete for SEI, SUS, LASTI and AOS (Baseline and Progress). More
changes pending meetings after first of the year.
·
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:
§
Continued
work on changes to estimates for AOS and IO.
From: Larry Jones <ljones@ligo.caltech.edu>
Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure
SEI Structure:
We have reached agreement with ASI on the content of the Design Package
deliverables.
Recent progress in drawings completion and drawings check has required
significantly less man hours than had been estimated. Anticipated completion of
this task is still
Jasnow will novate the ASI
contract with Maher to Caltech, with ASI's
assistance.
LIGO's recent decision to ship the SEI structures in
an unassembled state may allow all of the high strength bolts to be changed to
standard strength. VanderZyl will check on the labor
required to make this evaluation, and the potential cost savings.
ASI will provide copies of the fabrication estimates that they have received.
ASI supplied an estimate of $9217 for the Information Exchange meeting that we
are requesting to assist the Jones/Mason transition and to pick the brains of
the ASI staff prior to the close of contract. We will be listing the areas we
want covered in this meeting to better tailor it to our needs, and expect to
reduce this cost.
ASI is reviewing its options for a method to permit LIGO to use referenced
standard ASI specifications and procedures in its procurement of fabricated
parts. These documents normally have proprietary claims, with restrictions on
duplicating and distributing.
Actuators:
PSI has stripped and re-anodized all of the bobbins. They could not
get the Cytec adhesive off of the bobbins so they had them bead blasted prior
to stripping and anodizing. The next step is to wind, pot and test the
two pathfinder units. They are sending the parts to Caltech for another precleaning prior to winding. They now plan to deliver the
completed units by the end of January,in
part due to LIGO's delayed need and other needs by
PSI customers.
Displacement Sensors:
Nothing new.
Seismometers:
Nothing new.
Galling/Dusting Test:
Nothing new.
From: Janeen Romie <romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu>
Advanced LIGO
Working on the tablecloth design. Looking at the ECD design and prototypes. Ordering
parts for the quad prototype. Still running Algor analysis of upper structure.
Met with Thomas last week about Primavera structure of
ribbon, fiber, ear work.
Gin Gin
Trying to sort out continued customs problems.
From: ctorrie <ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>
QUAD ETM
1) CANTILEVER BLADES
Blades arrived from CES. Characterization un\derway
VP blades, data being analysed
2) UI MASS and REACTION UI MASS
All of the drawings in shop
3) TOP STAGE
All of the drawings in the shop
4) BLADE CLAMPS
All of the drawings in the shop
5) BLADE WIRE CLAMPS
Middle and bottom blade wire clamp drawings in the shop. They are also
released.
6) UPPER STRUCTURE
Now have a upper structure that meets the resonance
goal. Drawings underway at RAL. Parts to shop in early
January
7) LOWER STRUCTURE
I am visiting
8) EDDY CURRENT DAMPERS
Copper parts to workshop!
9) TOP MASSES
The top masses have been assembled and required two small modifications. The
drawings will now be released.
10) LOWER 4 MASSES
The workshops have finished most of the parts. First assemblies have been
carried out and the drawings are in the process of being released.
11) SUSPENSION TO
A crate of lower suspension parts was shipped to
From: Helena Armandula
<ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>
Advanced LIGO SUS
Characterizing blades with Bob Taylor.
Adv. LIGO Coatings
CSIRO finished and shipped coated substrates where Xenon was used as sputtering
gas.
In order to achieve a fairly low absorbing coating, they needed to carry out a
number of experiments varying the ion gun operating conditions to obtain films
with similar optical properties as for Ar.
The overall 30 layer run took about 9 hours to complete as against about 7
hours for a normal Argon sputtered coating.
The stress on Xe sputter films is likely to be
considerably different to Ar. If this changes
the mechanical loss there is considerable scope to vary a number of deposition
parameters that may change it further (hopefully in the right direction).
From:
Bill Kells <kells@ligo.caltech.edu>
As many of the Core optics selection issues are
heating up now, especially the downselect, I have
been looking closely at the question of the PRC/SRC optical config.
Actually this was specifically prompted by being "tasked" with
studying the BS size question. An obvious way to reduce this (and presumably
ameliorate many problems associated) is to configure the PRC/SRC as a stable
cavity. Numerically, sufficiently stable for us requires a quite cone
shaped beam (~ mm at RM---->6cm at ITM).
This has prompted me to seriously consider the question of now, with what we
have learned from LIGO I TL, etc., to have such a config.
change for AdL. Its been an implicit concept for a long time. BUt details.
I have worked through many (RM TL and thermo-elastic noise, Optics reasonableness,.....), however there are many more! I
believe its time has come [to high level consider] ! Of course this pretty soon revealed to me that
Phil W. and a student of Kip's have been looking into
this (with some different emphasis: the SRC influence on what the GW sbs are doing).
My immediate message is wrt the downselect
(Arrrrggghhhh, another element of consideration
!!!). In one version, at least, of such a "cone" cavity, the
additional optical power would be taken up by the ITM (its AR surface). The ROC
would be ~ 10m, ie BIG sag by our current
standards. THis
might very significantly influence choice of substrate material (additional problems/limitations
for crystalline sapphire ??).
From: Michael Smith <smith@ligo.caltech.edu>
STRAY LIGHT CONTROL
From: Peter King <pking@ligo.caltech.edu>
Sections of the conceptual design
document are being worked on with progress to be discussed at a telecon Thursday morning.
From: Riccardo
DeSalvo <desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu>
Juri
I attended the VESF (Virgo-EGO Scientific Forum) foundation meeting held in
Now Im working with Enrico Campagna on the modelling of
thermal noise for finite sized mirrors: in particular he is using a Finite
Elements Analysis to reproduce my semi-analytical results and he will calculate
the mirrors resonances in different aspect ratio configurations in order to
have an estimation on the validity of the quasi-static
approximation I used in my assumptions. Im preparing a presentation for the defence
of my pre-thesis.
Marco (14dec)
Mesa-beam cavity experiment:
We observed several transverse modes of the cavity. Im
beginning a first quantitative analysis but avoiding a bad little reflection on
the beam scanner output beam, now I observe beam shape astigmatism. Ill study
if the problem comes from the output devices or the cavity mirror misalignment.
Im upgrading the PZTs
circuit drivers.
I helped Juri for running the new saffire
mirrors thermal noise calculations for mesa beam.
Alban Remillieux (Lyon)
Here are some news about the Mexican Hat (MH)
1 General shape
In my previous mail, I explained you that we had an off-axis rotation of ~ 250
m on the rotation of the substrate inside the coater which generates a deposit
that does not have circular symmetry. Finally, after several
modifications, the off-axis rotation got smaller than 30 m and the obtained
profiles are quite symmetric.
Anycase, the first obtained profiles had a shape
quite different from the theoretical profile, and the improvement of the fixed mask
shape placed in front of the rotating substrate didn't allow to
converge to the theoretical profile. We realized that the mask center
which was perfectly centered with the substrare
rotation center, in atmospheric pressure, was de-centered by 0.82 mm when the
coater was under vacuum! Once this offset was adjusted, we started improving
the profile improving the mask shape. On Monday, we will try the fourth and the
last mask.
2 Corrective treatment
We've made 2 little diaphragms with different sizes, and accounted for the
offset position problems between the substrate and the diaphragm. We've
measured the projection footprint of the diaphragms which will be used for the
corrective treatment.
3 mirror deposition over the MH profile
We've deposited a mirror (HB)10HBB above a general MH
shape. The deposit sticks well on the profile and the absorption is smaller
than 1ppm. The diffusion is 65 ppm over 30 mm
diameter, but the substrate used for this experience wasn't a smooth one
to start with. TheTransmission was 1770 ppm.
As you see, we have picked some delay because the required positioning
precisions are too large and we've encountered some problems (offset sous vide) that we didn't suspect.
I remind you that our only way to measure the surface is an interferometer with
a resolution en X et Y of 0.35 m that we have to make
corrections with a precision of 0.1 m. We have the impression that we are
playing a violin with boxing gloves.
Before Christmas, we will finish the point 1 and will continue the corrective
treatment beginning January.
Creep experiment:
We completed the data collection at the temperature of 40C, observing a small
step of the payload position not well understood. Now it has been switched to
120C.
Riccardo,
Gianni
Finalizing design of HAM suspensions. Assembly drawings ready, Details
drawings ETA end of month.
For additional information about this report, contact whitcomb_s@ligo.caltech.edu