Weekly Report for Week Ending January 6, 2005


 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  January 10, 2005 will be:

 (Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)  

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


Special Items:


Special Announcements:

 


Weekly Report Highlights
 


LSC Issues (Saulson)


no report


LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)



STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Petrac)
(Weekly update on the status of LSC MOUs and Research Plans and Progress Reports, and non-LSC MOUs)

California State University of Dominguez Hills

  • Attach. A / in LIGO review / Lazzarini, Riles, Weinstein
  • Attach. Z / received

EGO

  • Attach. 3 (flat beam profile Fabry-Perot) / in sign-off by EGO / DeSalvo

GEO 600

  • Attach. *A, C, D and Z / signed-off (*for 02-15-04 to 08-15-04)
  • Attach. A for 08-15-04 to 02-15-05 / PI reminded of outstanding inputs / Papa, Schutz
  • Addendum B to Data Analysis MOU / signed-off

Louisiana School of Math, Science, and Arts

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

Chinese National Academy of Sciences

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

University of Oregon

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

Penn State University

  • Attach. A, D and Z, and Progress Report / PI reminded of outstanding inputs / Finn and Saulson

Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM)

  • Attach. 2 extension / to PI for sign-off / Li

Southern University and A&M College

  • Attach. C and Z / signed-off

Stanford University

  • MOU for Data Analysis and associated Attach. A and Z / pending LSC Council deliberations in March

University of Wisconsin

  • Attach. A and Z, and Progress Report / PI reminded of outstanding inputs / Allen and Saulson

VIRGO

  • Attach. 4 and 5 / in LIGO-LSC-VIRGO review / Barish and Lazzarini, Saulson, and Giazotto and Cavalier

Notes:

  • MOUs and Attachment updates processed to date are being consolidated with the DCC data base and the record of postings on the web page / Petrac and Turner
  • Informational copies of new MOUs (issued pursuant to Operations Coop. Agreement) were forwarded to NSF.


SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

A site teleconference was held on Thursday, January 6.  The following issues were discussed:

  • Budgetary Issues:  The reports for the end of the first quarter FY 2005 have been published.  Realized carry-forward from FY 2004 operations is pretty much as projected.  FY 2005 is running a less than 2004.
  • Assigned Action Items: The list of assigned actions updated through November 18, 2004 may be found Here.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)

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

  • Provided assistance to the Director's Office (C.Akutagawa) with the preparation of Purchase Requisitions to complete relocations.  Account Number LIGO.DIR 1.1.1 NSFLIGO.FY02ON.
  • Provided assistance to the Data Analysis Group (S. Anderson) with the preparation of a Purchase Requisition to transport LDAS equipment from LHO (B. Johnson) to LLO (I. Yakushin).  Account Number LIGO.HAN.2.12 NSFLIGO.FY02OF.
  • Provided assistance to the Detector Group with the packing and shipping of one (1) FS substrate, S/N 45, to MIT (G. Harry) Account Number LIGO.OPT 5.4 NSFLIGO.FY02ON.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

  • No report (vacation).

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

  • No special projects to report.
  • Packages: in - 20, out - 4
  • Faxes: in - 17, out 4

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

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

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

  • Completed an internal fund transfer on U.S. Civilian Research & Development so that close out of a poeta can be completed.
  • Completed the new subcontract for Lisa Bogue and mailed it to the vendor.
  • Completed change order #29 to Excel and faxed it to the vendor.
  • Completed change order #6 to LSU to add the annual funds for the climate instrument. Submitted it to the vendor for acknowledgement.
  • Prepared requisitions and placed pcard orders for Riccardo's group. Followed up on inquiries made on shipments. Called vendors for copies of invoices on charged transactions.
  • Submitted purchase order 1066001 issued to IPG Photonics and purchase order 1063030 issued to Lightwave Electronics to the auditors as requested.
  • Completed change order #9 to SIOM for the no-cost extension and revised Memorandum of Understanding. Submitted the change order to the vendor.
  • Issued the purchase order to Sun Microsystems for maintenance of the MIT servers and faxed it to the vendor.
  • Issued the purchase order to Zemarc for the valves for LLO.
  • Placed one-time, standard purchase orders for the sites and Caltech.

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

  • No report.

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

SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

>From: irena@ligo.caltech.edu (Irena Petrac)

  • SIOM: Change Order No. 9, for a no-cost extension of the Order performance period through Dec. 31, 2005, was released to SIOM.

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

  • The contract with the Exploratorium for the exhibits for the LLO Science Education Center, as well as three (3) exhibits for LHO, has been executed and sent to the museum.
  • A transition meeting with ASI is scheduled for Tuesday, January 18.  This is to cover the change in technical manager from Larry Jones to Ken Mason, due to Larry's retirement on January 28.
  • The initial Statement of Work for the procurement for an electrical maintenance contractor for LLO has been completed, and is undergoing review now.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Kammerling, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

  • Completed the usual catch up.

>Sharon Kammerling

  • No special projects to report.

>Dorothy Lloyd

  • No report.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

Nothing new to report.
 
CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

  • Discussed change requests CR 040016 and CR 040017 during the Executive Committee Meeting on Monday (December 6, 2004).  CR 040016 adjusts the SEI scope in the ASI contract.  No budget change was proposed at this time.  However, the request is held pending additional information from ASI so that budget can be returned to a planning package.
  • CR 040017 is for improved vacuum processing capability.  The vacuum review board reviewed the analysis and recommended no action at this time.  The change request is not approved.
  • Draft minutes have been distributed to the Executive Committee (LIGO-M040397-A-P)

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>

The annual safety audits of LIGO (Caltech) campus labs are now underway.  As of mid-December, six labs had been audited, with two more (40M and DeSalvo labs) scheduled for audits during 2004.  Generally, the labs that have been audited, appear to be well managed and are practicing appropriate safety methods and procedures.  However, there is still a need to improve "house-keeping" activities in a few areas.  Remaining unaudited LIGO labs, will be audited early during 2005.

 


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



 Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (Landry)

4k high power locking, ISS work, DAQ and WFS mods were typical activities over the holiday break.  The 4k ran with a remarkable duty cycle of 80% during this quiet period, higher than any science run.

Some commisioning highlights from the past week are bulleted below (please see the elog for more holiday entries):

4K IFO

  • A 90m lock stretch with 4.3W illuminating the MC and the thermal compensation (TCS) at 1.8W is reviewed
  • higher noise levels observed with the output mode cleaner (OMC) in place have been tracked to beam jitter
  • beam centering code was revamped to hurdle EPICs problems
  • ISCT4 components were assessed for offensive jitter-couplers
  • relative intensity noise as a function of the ISS was reassessed

2K IFO

  • Initial attempts at high power (1.4W into the MC) on the 2k were made.  Ten Hz combs at 1 and 2kHz were observed.
  • FM dewhiteners were modified to match BS and RM ones
  • as the 2nd order violins had been ringing up over the holiday break, a filter was added
  • the PRC correction already resident on the 4k was added to the 2k
  • WFS modifications were made
  • A later power up attempt resulted briefly in 2Mpc ranges on the 2k
  • shot noise was measured

DAQ

 


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


Livingston Outreach (Thacker)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

completed Education and Outreach APS abstract for April meeting of APS

 

Safety and Security (Riesen)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

no report

 

L1 Commissioning (Frolov)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Most of the interferometer activities this week were related to the electronics and DAQ system. The ETM coil drivers were modified to reduce the noise from the feedback resistor. While measuring the transfer functions of the coil drivers the digital cross-talk in the DAQ readout and missing readbacks were found on some channels. On channels without digital problems the new coil driver transfer function was found to be properly compensated by the digital filter. The debugging  of the electronics for additional low noise AS port photo detectors continued. The problem with epics control of the whitening gain was found to be in the epics database. Rolf is working at the site this week on the LSC and HEPI processor and code upgrade. The awg output driver has been reinstalled in the new electronics room. It was one of the last items to be moved from the LVEA as part of the EMI retrofit. This will enable the ISS and FSS excitations from the dtt.

 

 

L1/HEPI Commissioning (O'Reilly & Shyang)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

In an effort to avoid tilt coupling problems in the HAMs we have changed to a non-blended, position sensor only loop configuration. Shyang Wen designed and installed new filters over the weekend and has been taking data for Sensor Correction since. The up and down scripts have been modified as has the HEPI status. The new approach appears to work quite well for the Y direction, but unfortunately the tilt problem remains in X. We are now attempting to compensate for this term and to fit a corrected transfer function. This idea follows from work by Rich Mittelman at LASTI. One difference between LLO and LASTI is in the mount position of the witness sensors used to take Sensor Correction data. We may want to explore mounting ours in a similar fashion.

 

 

L1 and AdL Mechanical Engineering (Spjeld)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

working on the HAM door removal lifting fixture; hoping to have quotable drawings within 1-2 weeks

 

working on the AdL Quad Suspension Installation Tooling; review meeting scheduled for Jan. 11

 

working on a information database for the recycled hydraulic servo valves for HEPI

 

received four of six new hydraulic servo valves for HEPI; eight valves sent to LASTI

 

participated in cost/labor review meeting for the AdL SEI on Wednesday 1/5

 

 

General Computing (Roddy)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Still investigating the bandwidth issues of our WAN connection.  Using a server in Nicholson Hall (Physics building on campus) I ran some bandwidth tests.  Since this computer should be gigabit all the way through to the LLO LAN, I expected to see reasonable bandwidth. However, the numbers were very similar to what we see when testing the connection to CIT.  It is still a bit of a mystery.

 

Wrapping up the configuration and burn in of the CDS GigE switches.

 

Looking into prioritizing the firewall rules to see if I can improve the bandwidth issues for LDAS.

 

High Power Laser Facility, Optics Modeling and L1 Commissioning (Franzen)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Rupal Amin and myself have received, installed and tested the table enclosure obtained from University of Florida. The tests show that the airborne dust level at the table has dropped from >1000 per cubic feet down to virtually zero. This is good news if you are using a high power laser beam. The enclosure also provides thermal stabilization, scattered light protection and also debris protection during destructive testing of various optics.

 

Just before the holidays the RTP crystal exploded after being exposed to 93 W during one week. This occurred when the power was being ramped up after a test. We believe that the the explosion was caused by either the power being ramped up too fast or that I did not align the crystal correctly after a small accidental misalignment which occurred during the test. We have received a new RTP sample and are now preparing for another RTP long term test.

 

LDAS/Condor Sysadmin and Burst Analysis (Yakushin)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Condor/LDAS admin:

1) Installed second hard drives into 70 nodes.  Several data cables were too short to handle two drives so I had to buy some extra cables.

2) Installed SysKonnect GigE card into gateway. Have not yet finished configuring it.

 

CDS software (Khan)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Coordinated with Chathen for the work in progress he was invloved with.

 

2) Working with Rolf to upgrade the LLO timing system; including awg setup that has been moved from the mass storage room to the highbay area. Upgraded the l1lscl0, l1lscex and l1lscey system from VxWorks to Linux.

 

3) Prepared a sitemap that displays the LIGO daq channel mapping system on an medm screen.
 


Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)



 CDS

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

CDS Software

Rolf Bork reporting

At LLO this week:

  - Replaced the LSC CPU with a new 2.2GHz processor running Linux.

  - Lost reflected memory (RFM) network to EY yesterday. Found two problems: bad fiber in MSR and poor fiber connection at EY patch panel. Along with fixing the total loss of comms with EY, the latter also appears to have fixed the excessive CRC checksum errors  seen on HEPI1 and HEPI2 by the Framebuilders for some time. Over the past sixteen hours, no CRC errors have been detected, whereas, in the past, several hundred would have been detected over the same time period.

  - Today, we plan to move the AWG from the mass storage room into a rack in the high bay. This will allow analog outputs to be run to the PSL. Given some IFO downtime, I also plan to install one of the new 2.2GHz processors into an ETM controller and verify that it works properly. LHO is waiting on this test prior to installing their units.

CDS Hardware

Rich Abbott reporting

  • Working with Ben to get the RFPDs ready for Ben's trip next week to LHO and Jay's trip next week to LLO.
  • Tracking details associated with the ISS for my trip next week to LHO.

Dennis Coyne reporting:

  • Two ISS modules (new design) were tested and shipped to LHO. One has since been installed on H1 and appears to work well. Installation of the 2nd unit on H2 will happen if/as an opportunity arises and may be deferred till after S4. [Peter K., Todd E.]
  • Two TCS quiet chiller controller have been tested. Plan to ship 4 units to LHO this week. [Mohana M.]
  • Fiber optic timing link components will not arrive till the end of the month. Estimated shipping date to LLO is mid-Feb (too late for S4). In the meantime, LLO plans to install another GPS antenna and receiver in the hope that this will improve the timing signal degradation in the timing distribution system.
  • 15 RF photodetector modules (new design) will be shipped this week for Ben's visit to LHO and Jay's visit to LLO.

DMT

no report

PSL

PeterKing

Two intensity stabilisation servos were assembled, tested and shipped out to Hanford.  Two comparatively minor changes to the circuit boards were made to enable consistent performance of the LM311 voltage comparator.  A Monte Carlo simulation was made of the step response of the two-pole filter used to filter the VMIVME-4116 control voltage in order to calculate the tolerances on the rise time.

A small high voltage amplifier circuit was just completed this afternoon.  A quick test revealed some distortion in the output of the circuit, which hopefully can be improved with component tweaking.  The full power bandwidth appeared to be about 15 MHz.

TCS Quiet Chiller

Ken Mailand, Lee Cardenas

A total of 6 TCS CO2 Laser cooling system assemblies have been completed & shipped to the observatories.  We have two complete assembled chillers left.  These are waiting to be shipped.  We have completely cleared and cleaned the area where the assembly took place.  We left a nice flat table for future chiller assembly in the area and the rest of the spare parts has been put into storage ready to be used if needed.

[Note by Dennis: There is some thought that we might want to use the TCS quiet chiller design for the PSLs rather than than the noisier commercial fluid/air chiller units. This is a possible post-S4 task.]

Optics

Helena Armandula

Generated specification sheets, sent out for quotes and received REO quote for higher quality ISC table optics requested by Daniel Sigg and Peter Fritschel.

Optical Contamination Cavities

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

OTF Lab. (W. Bridge)
This chamber has two samples, white Ceramabond, and disks of TRA-BOND #2254
color light brown epoxy.  Cavity still locked.
The test has been completed and reported as "clean" samples.
This chamber will be refurbished completely as to change optics and better
mounts and translation stages.  The vacuum pump will go through a complete
restoration(oil change, new fittings, filters ...)


Absorption Test Measurement prototype --  in standby

Scatterometer system  -- in progress
The Inner test mass 2ITM04 fused silica mirror is in the scatterometer enclosure.
beam scattering test on this ITM completed. The results are the same as previous.
The scanning of the integrated scanning sphere to
detect all the scattering beam from the mirror surface has been completed.

The fabrication of a mount to hold END TEST MASS BLANK
(40 meter) of ~ 4.92" in dia. by 53mm in thickness  is on waiting.


The Quantronix 60 watt laser  -- in recovery
We have recovered the chiller cooling system.
We'll be testing the laser and making proper
alignment for the absorption test measurements.

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.
so far we can tell that the samples are clean since the measurements are almost
the same before the samples went in.

Cavity #2  -- in standby

 


 

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)


  • IFO commissioning:
    • The error signals for the arms show clear correlation with the mode cleaner WFS alignment servos. Osamu sees greatly increased noise on the x-arm servo when the WFS sero is on, from 6 to 100 Hz. The WFS servo had a UGF of 6 Hz. Osamu turned down the gain, reducing the UGF to 0.6 Hz, and added a 10 Hz elliptical filter; this eliminated the excess noise on the x-arm servo. But now the WFS gain is too low. The coupling is probably due to poorly diagonalized coil driver output matrices on the mode cleaner optics (MC1, MC2, MC3) suspension controllers, giving large angle-to-length coupling. This is exacerbated by the high seismic noise and the poor quality seismic stack under MC2. There is also overly-large length-to-angle coupling, producing a lot of angle jitter on the MC transmitted beam, clearly visible on the ccd cameras. More work must be done to better diagonalize the suspension.
    • Osamu re-aligned the MCR beam onto the WFSs, and now the servo is working well (at the lower gain).
    • Osamu re-locked DRMI but with a big offset. He originally thought this was due to a small change in the 33 MHz modulation frequency. But then he realized (and confirmed with a Finesse calculation) that using the 33 MHz SP signal to lock the PRC produces an offset, because the 33 MHz sidebands become unbalanced when the detuned SRC is added. This makes it very difficult to find the correct demod phases for the double-demod (DDM) control of the PRC. Osamu has investigated this issue and has come up with a scheme to correct for the offset and get the DDM phases correctly. Details are here.
    • But the small changes to the modulation frequency that are required to maximize transmission through the mode cleaner need to be investigated. It could be due to real changes in the mode cleaner length, due to expansion of the mode cleaner beam tube, due to temperature fluctuations in the lab. If it is too large, it will need to be stabilized.
    • Rob is now quite handy with Finesse, and is writing some utilities for making it more useful; he will pass these on to Andreas Friese.
  • PSL:
    • The PSL ISS is still saturating frequently, even when the mode cleaner is in lock, requiring frequent resetting. We will set up a system to monitor and reset the ISS whenever this happens.
    • Rana pointed out that the strange spikes seen in the NPRO temperature DTEC are due to the ISS current shunt being switched on and off when ISS is reset following a saturation. So, it's not a worry.
    • When the laser is turned off (which happens very infrequently), the chiller over-cools the laser, causing condensation, which is bad. We need to teach the chiller thermostat to not do that (and, in general, never turn the laser off!).
  • Electronics and computing:
    • Hartmut and Osamu had noticed that the QPD at the y-end had two quadrants with much lower gains, and that the EPICS controls on the gains were not working. Jay found and fixed a bad cable, and fixed the gain controls. QPDY now works fine. He also checkout QPDX and it also works fine. He updated the EPICS databases so that the gain buttons now show the correct gains for each button. The total transimpedance calculation was also fixed.
    • On Monday morning 1/3/05, everything was down. Jay found that the network hub on the PSL rack was busted; he replaced it and brought everything back up.
    • In an effort to fix the OSEM sensor signal glitches seen on many channels, Ben replaced a cable on the OSEM sensor AA chassis with a shielded one. But it didn't help. Richard at LLO has seen a similar problem when the crate 5V supply was going bad. Ben will check if this is the problem.
    • Ben has completed production of the new RFPDs. He tuned one to 33 MHz and installed it on the x-arm pickoff (POX) to test it, before travelling to LHO to install them.
    • Rob wrote scripts to smoothly shut down suspenson controllers by turning down the biases before turning off the coil drivers, and the reverse for smoothly bringing the suspension controllers back up. There's a button on the watchdog screen.
    • Rob installed a script to find DSC watchdog limit values that were left on too high, and slowly bring them down to the desired values.
    • We continue to collect experience with the newly-working EPICS alarm handler system that Jay set up.
    • Rana is trying to get TDS working on our computers, which don't have the sun C compiler (cc) installed, so he has to do that first.
  • Lab Infrastructure:
    • Daniel Busby has been going through a very detailed daily checklist to find problems early and often.
    • Rob got the RGAlogger working again and checked that the daily cron job works.
    • Last month's safety inspection uncovered several instances of power strips plugged into other power strips, daisy-chained. Steve went around and eliminated most of these; not all. He is arranging for electricians to install more wall plugs and 20-amp breakers. He has moved all control room computer AC to one 20-amp breaker.
    • Several instances of AC plug trip hazards were found. Steve is getting trip guards for all of these.
    • Steve has updated the emergency call list maintained by Campus Security, to include Bob and Osamu.
    • Last week's rain leaked into the control room, producing a flood in the NW corner of the room, which was mopped up. No leaks have been seen in the main IFO hall.
    • But there are lots of ants and crickets. Steve will mop up with ant killer on Friday afternoon.
    • Bob addressed many small safety issues. Re rerouted a cable trip hazard. Working with the carpenter shop to install tie downs for gas cylinders and for cabinets in the 40m foyer. Installed trays under the liquid chemicals in the hazardous chemical cabinets. Separated acids from flammables. Cleaned up bottles and unlabeled containers in sink and hood areas in South Annex and IFO foyer. Removed expired epoxy from the South Annex clean room.
  • Bake oven Lab:
    • The Bake oven lab has LOTS of AC power strip daisy-chaining and potentially overloaded AC strips. Bob is working with the electrical shop manager to add lots more breakers and wall plugs.
    • Bob is making lots more AdLIGO OSEMS for Janeen.

 


Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)


no report


LASTI (Ottaway)


no report


Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)


 

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)

E2E Physics Meeting

------------------------

Dominic Joseph Dubois and Sany Yoshida from Southern Louisianna University presented their results for the effects of the motion of Mode-Matching Telescopes on the interferometer.

 

DARM offset

--------------------

(Hiro)  For H1 interferometer, it was found in both experiment and simulation, that the higher order modes force the DARM dof off by 10^-12 m from the locked length using only 00 mode. For L1, a similar offset is observed in data. Because the two arms of L1 is much better matched than H1, the dependence of this offset on the thermal compensation can be different. This is being investigated using e2e and FFT.

 

Phase camera Analysis

-----------------------

(Biplab) Studied using SimLIGO, how the modal content of the dark port output changes in time and how well the phase camera images taken at this port with 1 sec scan time can capture this information.

 

FFT study

---------------

(Hiro) Application of the locking mechanism of LIGO Length Sensing and Control in the FFT simulation has been looked into more carefully. The locking done so far seems to be not enough, i.e., some error signals are still too large, and a better procedure needs to be  identified. This is necessary to quantify the effect of the thermal deformation in the locked IFO.

 

Simulation of 40meter interferometer

-----------------------------------------

(Monica) PSD measurements of inphase and quadrature phase signals in different configurations: moving the Mach-Zehnder steering mirror or one or more mirrors of the main interferometer core optics.

 

Dual Recycling Michelson (DRM) coding

---------------------------------------

(Hiro) I have started the coding of C++ version of the DRM fast simulation, which will be used in e2e for adv.LIGO.

 

Alfi

---------

(Bruce) - Misc. bundle work. (2.0 days)

 

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

 

Brown:

- Worked on finishing MACHO paper for LSC review.

- Reviewing an LSC technical paper for Peter Saulson.

- Working on a project to look at quasicircular post-Newtonian inspiral with Scott Hughes.

- Helped Stuart sort out some grid issues on ldas-cit and helped the tapir numerical relativity group get grid credentials.

 

Mandic:

Iworked with Joe Romano on completing the stochastic analysis for the H2L1 pair, for both Hann and Tukey cases.

 

I performed Monte Carlo simulations of the stochastic signal for the H1H2 Tukey case. Simulations were done with a random time-offset in each trial to obtain uncorrelated noise realizations.

 

I made a rough comparison of classical and Bayesian confidence intervals for the S3 stochastic analysis. I also worked on some cross-checks of the S3 results.

 

Mendell:

Reported on comparisons of Hough Number Counts from the StackSlide and Hough codes at the Dec 21, 2004 and Jan 04, 2005 PULG telecons. The codes agree within a 2-5% error and studies are underway to determine if this is due to remaining bugs or a real difference due to the two different algorithms used to find the number count (each of which introduces unique rounding errors). Comparisons with PowerFlux continue, as well as unit testing of the StackSlide code. The goal now is to have preliminary S3 results from the StackSlide code by Feb 1, 2005 for the Feb 2-5 PULG F2F meeting, hopefully for direct comparison with Hough and PowerFlux.  Scripts for generating a pipeline of condor jobs (a DAG) to produce upper limit estimates have been completed and will be checked into the lalapps/src/pulsar/StackSlide cvs archive today.  (Previously, various steps in the pipeline had to be run by hand.)

 

Shawhan (over the last few weeks):

 

* Attended the Gravitational Wave Data Analysis Workshop (GWDAW) in Annecy, and gave a talk about the status of LIGO.

* Took part in a day-long review of the pulsar F-Stat analyses in Annecy.

* Edited/polished the S2 LIGO-only burst search paper.

* Continuedstudying frequentist coverage properties of analysis procedures which allow a post-hoc veto, using Matlab simulations.

* Constructed several lists of data quality flags for the E11 run.  Also did the bookkeeping to make E11 available remotely using 'getFrames'.

* Maintained conlog software, adding it to the CDS CVS repository and reconciling differences between the two sites.  Also made a work-around for client connection problems at Hanford.

* Walked Vuk through the hardware signal injection software, which needs to be resurrected for the E12/S4 runs.

 

Sutton:

The big news since last week is that I finished and released a complete draft of the LIGO-TAMA un-triggered bursts search paper for S2/DT8.  I'm now waiting for feedback from TAMA and the bursts group.  Otherwise, I'm back working on some long-dormant projects, namely the characterization of the space of GWBs detectable by LIGO (the "cheese"), and studying variants of the Gursel-Tinto technique for solving the inverse problem for GWBs.  Thanks to Chatterji providing some filters, I am also about ready to make some TFClusters triggers for Willems to use in his Barkhausen noise test.

 

 

Chatterji:

Generated single detector S3 playground triggers using the Q pipeline applied to gravitational-wave and microphone channels.  Potential airplane events are being investigated to observe their effect in the gravitational-wave channel.

 

Investigating extensions to the loudest event statistic (mth loudest event, multiple tuning parameters) for setting upper limits in future burst searches.

 

Working on corrections and upgrades to LPEFilter DMT class.

 

Lazzarini:

Learning about maximum entropy Bayesian techniques for application to sky map generation from raw data (stochastic GW background) and possibly certain aspects of burst detection (using maxEnt as a smoothness constraint on, e.g., Tinto-Gursel algorithm to limit minima of solutions).

 

LIGO Data Analysis Systems

 

Software Systems (Blackburn)

LDAS:

 

Spent much of the past few weeks porting LDAS software over to the Fedora Core 3 Linux OS. This has not been as transparent a process as hoped given the Redhat origins of FC3. However, we have been able to run LDAS on a tandem system (combination of one Sun server and one Linux server) without too many concerns. We are now in the process of configuring the LDAS-DEV system to run with the FC3 OS. This will allow a more thorough investigation of the stability and thread safety of FC3 once the configuration changes by the system administrators is completed.

 

An issue with the building of the tar-ball distributions of LDAS under Fedora Core 3 was discovered and fixed this week. It required upgrading the automake/autoconfig toolset along with some changes to our scripts.

 

The SINSTALL script's rule sets were upgraded to support building LDCG and LDAS on Fedora Core 3 systems this week.

 

cmonClient - working on PR 2765 - problem with listing directories: found bug in displaying large status message into status window caused cmonClient to use 99% CPU and unable to refresh properly. Directory listing with blt tree works very fast. Will convert to use blt tree to manage table data for PRs related to tables in cmonClient.

 

Documentation: updated documentation for installation of DB2 8.1.5 on Fedora Core 3.

 

Testing: ran ldas System for version 1.3.35. cvs test results.

 

Other - ran pipeloops on tandem-ii and tandem-iii for comparison between RH9 and Fedora Core 3. Finished major system tests for Fedora Core 3. Installed DB2 8.1 on new dev metaserver

 

(Peter Shawhan):

The new persistent socket connection feature in the LDAS manager API was debugged on the dev system, and a copy of guild was successfully modified to make use of this feature.  Updated versions of guild and other client software in LIGOtools will be released along with the next release of LDAS.

 

TCL/Globus:

 

Completed SWIG wrapping of basic data type (int, double, string) support for globus_xio_attr_cntl(), globus_xio_handle_cntl(), globus_xio_data_descriptor_cntl() and globus_xio_server_cntl(). Now, we are able to use XIO with GSI driver successfully.

 

Still need to support pointer and callback datatype. We're still working on this problem.

 

Wrote the TCL test programs for TCP and UDP and tested that we can modify the default XIO and GSI driver attributes.

 

Working on Latex instructions on how to use TclGlobus test suites.

 

GRID3/OSG:

 

Researching the various sofware needed to become a GRID3 site and am currently learning the installation instructions for the same. Discussed internally the pros and cons of joining GRID3 Production versus Development. The general opinion at this time is that we should join the development GRID3 to bring us closer to the environment for OSG. Some continued discussion on this is likely. Stuart is planning to have two servers available to us for GRID3 gatekeepers once the existing gatekeepers for the LSC Computing Grid are upgraded.

 

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech

-------

(Dan Kozak)

* Validating postS3 LHO data shipped on tape to CIT.

* Working on getting 1% data moving again via LDR and trying to craft a more generic storage module (despite not knowing Python :-).

* Consulted with Ben on LHO /frames reconfiguration.

* Put in request for new LLO framebuilder QFS license.

* Put old /archive samfsdumps from olddataserver-cit into SAM-QFS.

* Staged frame files for restore of node9.

 

(Phil Ehrens)

* Continued work on patch.tcl ssh based remote system administration tool.

* Added concurrent asynchronous run mode to scancluster, making it possible to run long-running tasks on cluster nodes and collect data as it is available instead of looping through the nodes sequentially. This has been tested and debugged and is now usable .

* PR #2760 - Fixed incorrect API free memory calculation in LDAS module genericAPI.tcl

 

(Al Wilson)

* Setting up fedora for the new nodes on cit

* installing fedora on the ldas-dev system

 

(Stuart Anderson)

* Worked on restoring node9 data after failed disk drive.

* Finished benchmarking the new Cisco cluster Ethernet switch.

* Additional testing of NFS/QFS combination and problem ticket with Sun.

* Helped upgrade LDAS-DEV to Fedora Core 3.

 

MIT

---

(Keith Bayer)

* Worked on heat/power numbers for ldas lab.

 

Livingston

----------

(Igor Yakushin)

* Installed second hard drives into 70 nodes.  Several data cables were too short to handle two drives so I had to buy some extra cables.

* Installed SysKonnect GigE card into gateway. Have not yet finished configuring it.

 

Hanford

-------

(Ben Johnson)

* Generation of .md5 sum files started on 12/30/2004.

* /frames has been "grown" by 3.8 TB (8 T3s). All old data has been preserved, and new data is being written to all 16 T3s.

* /frames has also been mounted on the cluster nodes (remounted after "grow"). SAMFS mount parameters have been adjusted on gateway as well to aid the NFS transfers.

* New and improved LDR publishing code is progressing, and should be ready by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

 

General Computing (Wallace)

 

Lazzarini: Working with Roddy, Narker and others to have a kickoff meeting at LHO sometime in January regarding identifying, discussing, planning and eventual implementation of the Observatory Critical Security System modifications

.

 

MIT:

(Keith)

-Rebuilding wireless router with failed harddrive

-Made several software orders

-Investigated trouble with duplicate IP address on network

-Investigated windows encryption software for Marie (winpt) which has GnuPG embedded in it - useful for simple symmetric key encryption of sensitive files etc.

-Looked into DVD burn troubles on desktop pc

 

Livingston:

(Shannon)

-Still investigating the bandwidth issues of our WAN connection.  Using a server in Nicholson Hall (Physics building on campus) I ran some bandwidth tests.  Since this computer should be gigabit all the way through to the LLO LAN, I expected to see reasonable bandwidth. However, the numbers were very similar to what we see when testing the connection to CIT.  It is still a bit of a mystery.

-Wrapping up the configuration and burn in of the CDS GigE switches.

-Looking into prioritizing the firewall rules to see if I can improve the bandwidth issues for LDAS.

 

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

- Created accounts and setup a computer for a temp who was sitting in for a few days while Terry Gunter was away.

- Continuing to monitor the Cisco network switches and router following a network slow down that occurred just before the holidays.  No indication what caused the problem, but cycling power on the main network switch "fixed" the problem.

- Helpeda couple of users with ssh and e-mail setup problems on their home computers.  The e-mail server SSH was set to require reverse DNS mapping for incoming connections.  Some ISPs in the area do not have reverse mapped IP addresses.  The requirement on the e-mail server has been removed for now.  Created several web pages with detailed instructions for setting up ssh and e-mail software to use ssh tunneling.

- Created a couple new user accounts, maintenance on a couple other user accounts.  Moved several user accounts from a full disk to an unused disk.  Corrected some problems with e-mail addresses that occurred because of moving the user accounts.

- Took care ofstuck backups from 1/1/05.  For some reason the rewind command from the server to the tape drive failed and was unable to restart itself.

- Followed up on a lost order from Sun.  Renewed the support contracts for several software packages.

- Upgrading the software on the application license server.  Installed the latest patches, and several software specific patches and libraries.  Will be upgrading this computer to Solaris 9 in the next few weeks.

- Setting up a new PC for a user.

- Other misc. user support.

 

CIT:

(Mike)

-Todd Etzel: loadeda new computer for him, with all General Computing software plus a few engineering packages. Plus transferred over his old data to his new workstation.

-Loaner Pool: Reloaded a laptop for the loaner pool.

-NTSRV's: I worked on LLPDMWORKS and PICTOR, updating patches and troubleshot some hardware errors. On PC 72 IIS ended up getting corrupted; I had to restore from a ghost image. This webserver is back up and running.

-I have been continuing to work with Larry on the Spam filters, searching for false positives.

-Worked with Larry, cleaning up old user accounts that are know longer being used.

-Ran the monthly ghost backups on all NTSRV's.

-Other misc. onsite/phone user support.

 

(Veronica)

- LIGO:  Updates to the website.  Finished/installed Aspen05 website. Windows server maintenance:  Scheduled backups and security audits. Image processing per several requests from publishers and other user support.

- LSC:  Website updates and user support.

- CaJAGWR:  Website updates and user support.

 

(Larry)

-Placed a couple of orders for the LDAS group.

-Working outsome license issues. We finally received information on the IDEAS license and it looks like we will be purchasing a new license for LIGO. Installed the updated mathematica license. Distributed a couple of Matlab licenses, just as a note we do have the CD's for the Rev14 service pack 1 of Matlab.

-We were able toremove over 200 accounts from the system. We still have some minor items to clean off and another group of accounts to check for removal. However, this has been a good start and has cleaned up a few items.

-Ran the first set of monthly backups. Another set will be run so a set of tapes can be sent to a off-site storage location.

-Reset the E2E servers. They are still having some timing problems causing them to lock up. Will switch over to a cron job to reset the clocks on a regular basis.

-Worked a number ofWEB issues. Most dealt with the automount table not working properly on the web server.

-Assisted a number of users with different issues. Covering the spectrum from e-mail on PC's to hardware issues on the SUN boxes.

-Worked with Mike on the spam filters and resetting of the e-mail services.

E-mail statistics Dec 16, 04 - Jan 5, 05:

 

Rejected Mail   33,185

Virus            2,494

False Positive     457

Accepted        25,706

 

Total Mail      58,891

 


Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Systems and Management

Adv. LIGO Systems
Dennis Coyne

See also the AL Systems web page

Records Of Decision or Agreement (RODA)

See also the RODA status web page

No changes since the last weekly report

Requirements

·        As part of an effort to establish optimal beamsplitter optic dimensions, performed some calculations of coating strain induced change to the radius of curvature and compared to experimental results. A report to follow soon.

Interface Issues

·In 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, have found that the physical distance to place the pickoff mirror in front of the ITM was not taken into account. This and other minor corrections will be incorporated into a pending revision. The revision will take into account the COC material selection choice to be made very soon.
See Mike Smith's AOS weekly report for consequence on BS wedge angle.

· Calculated the stresses on the BSC chamber flange for a large articulated installation arm (T040234). This preliminary analysis serves to verify that the interface torque/load is not too high. Further design and analysis (by Ken Mailand) is required to determine if this concept for an installation jig is truly feasible.

·With advice from Joe Giaime, I'm revisiting the coupled dynamics model of the SEI/BSC-SUS/quad with the intent of calculating modal transfer functions with reasonable levels of cross-coupling to determine if the interaction is siginificant from a controls standpoint. Plan to have results for the 1/13 SEI critical review.

Reviews

· Working with the SEI team to prepare for the upcoming Critical Reviews (1st scheduled for 1/13 is focused on cost/schedule, 2nd in mid-Feb focused on ETF results). A revised cost estimate for the AL SEI BSC prototype and the production phase has been made and is being scrubbed.

 

Advanced LIGO Project Management

from Carol Wilkinson (wilkinson@ligo-wa.caltech.edu)

Seismic Critical Review
    Preparations are underway for the seismic critical review teleconference on January 14. This review is an interim status review to verify that the BSC seismic isolation design and development is on track to produce a LASTI prototype and, ultimately, production units that meet performance requirements as well as proposed costs and schedules. A subcommittee met this week to review costs for prototype and production units.
  
Progress reporting

    The next progress update is due February 4 and will include progress from December 1 through January 31.

(NOTE: Thomas Frey will be out of the office from 12/16/04 to 01/10/05)

Progress Period from 01.03 to 01.07


Accomplishments:

  • Sub-system PLANNING activities
    • The 40-Meter schedule remains to be completed with changes.
    • Progress update with progress through November 30, 2004 posted on website.
    • Schedule changes complete for SEI, SUS, LASTI and AOS (Baseline and Progress).  More changes pending meetings after first of the year.
    • The next progress update is due Feb. 4, with progress though Jan. 31.
  • ROSTER DATABASE:
    • No changes/updates since 12/16/04 .


COST BOOK DATABASE:
Changes to estimates for AOS and IO will be pursured starting next week 01/10/05.

-- 

Seismic Isolation

 

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


SEI Structure:

The content for the modified contract has been finalized.

ASI plans to release 65 more drawings early next week. These have been at various stages in the release process, awaiting the return of Richard Fleischner, their chief designer. Only one drawing has been released since ASI's change of Project Manager on
9/14/04, making a current total of 21 released drawings of a planned 131 drawings.

The next monthly status meeting will be held on
1/12/05 at ASI; these were formerly held biweekly.

The Information Exchange meeting will be held on
1/18/05 at ASI, to aid in the transition from Jones to Mason as Technical Manager and to provide a discussion format on ASI's modal testing plans. This will be very informal to minimize costs.


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.

Suspension

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

Advanced LIGO Suspensions

Finishing up the design of the tablecloth. Starting to make detail
drawings.

Reviewing Justin's scope document. Signed Ian's drawing DCN.


Core Optics

 From: GariLynn Billingsley <Billingsley_G@ligo.caltech.edu>


A request for quote went out to
Corning for fused silica suitable for use in LASTI.

Pre-Stabilized Laser

 

From: Peter King <pking@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
    Most of the monthly lasers telecon was taken up by discussion of the conceptual design document.  At the moment the plan is to hold the conceptual design review at the time of the Spring LSC Meeting.  The document is scheduled to be assembled mid-January.

    After a mis-hap with the high power laser --- a dust particle was burnt onto one of the optics --- the laser was re-assembled and its output power is back up to 175 W.  A round of measurements is scheduled to take place in either January or February.

Auxiliary Optics

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

STRAY LIGHT CONTROL     
I have completed an analytical model of the main beams and the ghost beams in the ADVLIGO IFO vertex, using MathCad. The analytical model is verified with a ZEMAX ray trace program.
I calculated the minimum wedge angle of the BS that produces a 0 mm separation distance and the base-line wedge angle for a separation of 30mm between the main beam and the BS PO beam at the location of the BS PO mirror @ the 100 ppm diameter of the beams.

0 mm separation
BS wedge        = 1.502 deg, symmetric
ITM wedge       = 1.25 deg, symmetric

30 mm separation
BS wedge        = 1.65 deg, symmetric
ITM wedge       = 1.36 deg, symmetric

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Riccardo DeSalvo <desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu>


Marco

I finished the PC design for the PZTs driver circuit and the list of needed components, sent for production at PC express, ordering most components.
In the Mex-Hat interferometer, I moved the feedback photodiode behind the folder mirror and now Im studying the new feedback stability and the cavity alignment.
Taking data for the creep experiment at the temperature of 1200C.

Riccardo
Draft OMC seismic attenuation design advances. The descriptive report and the design drawings, both still in evolution, can be found in: http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/HAM-SAS.doc <http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/%7Edesalvo/HAM-SAS.doc> for the report and http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/HAM-SAS <http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/%7Edesalvo/HAM-SAS> for the drawings.

 


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