Weekly Report for Week Ending January 13, 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 for January 17, 2005 is cancelled because of the Caltech Holiday.


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)

Cal State Univ. of Dominguez Hills

  • Attach. A / to PI for sign-off
  • Attach. Z / PI for sign-off
  • Progress Report / in preparation

GEO 600

  • Attach. A  / PI reminded of outstanding inputs / Papa, Schutz
  • Progress Report-Attach. A / PI reminded of outstanding inputs / Papa, Schutz

Oregon

  • Attach. A / PI for sign-off / Brau
  • Attach. Z / PI for sign-off / Brau

Penn State University

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

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

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

EGO

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

Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM)

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

VIRGO

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

Other

MOUs, and Attach. A, B, C, D and Z updates and Progress Reports that have been processed to date are being consolidated with the record of web postings / Petrac and Turner

LSC driven process for evaluation of bi-annual research proposals/research updates was definitized. Proposal Review Committee is being constituted for the coming round of research updates through August 2005.

A call for the next LSC period inputs went out (to PIs) along with a summary of the new evaluation approach for the proposed research updates that is being set up. The due date is February 10th

A web based access for distribution of LSC documentation (to the Proposal Review Committee) is being set up. The documentation will include research updates in Attach. A through D, group coordinates in Attach. Z, and Progress Reports.
 



SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

A brief site teleconference was held on Thursday, January 13.

  • Assigned Action Items: The list of assigned actions updated through November 18, 2004 will be found Here.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)

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

  • Nothing significant to report.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

  • We met concerning future evolution of the LIGO DCC See below (Proposals and Reports). As part of this effort, have begun assembling a list of requirements.

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

  • No special projects to report.
  • Packages: in - 22, out - 4
  • Faxes: in - 30, out 16

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

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

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

  • Completed the procurement package for the new subcontract to Ares Corporation and submitted it on 1/12/05 for approval. Awaiting the approval to send to the vendor.
  • Completed change orders #1 & #2 to Parker Hannifin and submitted it to the vendor.
  • Working on change order #7 to ASI.
  • Completed the purchase order to MTK for the conversion of the Caltech-supplied pieces and faxed it to the vendor.
  • Completed change order #1 and #2 to Stephen Osder. Re-opened the blanket and changed the expenditure type, as requested. Revised the consulting agreement and submitted it to the vendor for signature.
  • Completed change order #2 to LSU and submitted the change to the vendor.
  • Completed the order to ABF for the shipment from MIT to Caltech.  This order replaced the request originally for Yellow Transportation.
  • Reconciled the billed pcard transactions which currently total $11,876.33 for 21 charges. Obtained invoices for these reconciled pcard transactions in preparation of the monthly pcard reconciliation and the reconciliation is current. Reviewed stale items in my pcard log and following up on the status of orders still open over 6 months whether they should remain open or should be closed and cancelled..

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

  • Working with C. Wilkinson to generate a contract to hire a Project Control contractor for Six months.
  • Process a revision to the ASI contract per E. Jasnow and L. Jones, which will include design changes and the scope of building the BSC chamber only.

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

  • The FY05 budget numbers indicated on the financial reports to date did not reflect the latest version of the FY05 budget.  Worked on revisions to the budget to reflect the latest numbers.  Net effect will be an increase in the FY05 budget of approximately $90K.
  • Worked on comparison of FTE's budgeted to filled FTE's as of the end of December.
  • Updated financial reports.
  • Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport. (For passwords contact Florence)

SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

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

  • Nothing significant to report (see status of LSC MOUs above)..

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

  • The statement of work for the LLO electrical maintenance contract is nearly completed.  The current schedule calls for advertisements to be placed in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans newspapers the week of January 17, a Request for Quotation issued the week of January 24, a job walk on February 2, and quotations due on February 11.
  • The list of exhibits for LLO is being modified slightly.  This revision will be reflected in a modification to the contract with the Exploratorium.
  • The modification to the lease between LSU and the NSF which will allow for the construction of the Science Education enter will be presented to the LSU Board as a consent item on Thursday, January 20.  LSU approval of the design will be presented at the completion of design development.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Kammerling, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

  • Worked on two (2) Special Projects, one (1) of which will be ongoing for the foreseeable future. 

>Dorothy Lloyd

  • Processed requisitions for standard purchases and  payment requests. Initiated electronic requisitions for new contract with independent contractor for LIGO experimental physics and Ares Corporation (project control contractor). Change Order 9 for Southern Enterprises (detector work) and Change Order 25 for Galli & Morelli (Proto-type HAM test inverted pendulum / HAM-optical bench) were also initiated. For more detail see Cost Schedule Control Systems report by Ruth Brambilla.
  • Continue to monitor contract and blanket order encumbrance and notify task/contract managers when supplements are needed.
  • Attended TechMart (SciQuest) meeting on LIGO requirements.  [This is the new purchasing system that is being rolled out for all of Caltech over the next few months. -pel]
  • Jim continued with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

Nothing new to report.  Did meet with D. Shoemaker and L. Turner to prepare a proposal for a DCC Steering Committee.  The purpose of the committee will be to prepare a recommendation as to how the LIGO Document Control Center should evolve to address anticipated requirements related to Advanced LIGO and to the process of giving the LSC a larger presence in the organization.  Our proposal for committee members and a process has been forwarded to S. Whitcomb for comments and concurrence on the names proposed for the committee.  If/when approved, we will contact the proposed committee members and schedule a meeting.  Since the next executive committee will not be scheduled until January 31, we suggest a first meeting of the committee prior to that date.  We would like to schedule sufficient time for a few brief presentations and a lot of discussion.
 
CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

  • The LIGO Change Control Board met on Monday, January 11, 2005  during the normally scheduled Executive Committee Meeting. The following change request was discussed: CR-050001--Improve Advanced LIGO Project Planning by Adding Performance Software and Temporary Contractor Personnel.  The proposed change would add temporary contract help for six months as well as some management software and support.  The change request was approved.  We will review the status of the effort after three months
  • Draft minutes have been distributed to the Executive Committee (LIGO-M050006-00-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 safety audits of LIGO Caltech labs is now almost completed. At this time only the LIGO OTF lab "complex" remains to be audited during the week of 24 January.  An audit report "draft" (without the unaudited OTF) will be distributed during the next week for comments/revisions.

 


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



 
Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (Landry)

Some commisioning highlights from the past week are bulleted below:

4K IFO

  • At first glance it appears that the CPU change from 1Ghz to 2GHz in EX have increased the LSC skew numbers there, resulting in AS_Q glitches.  Note that the same change in EY resulted in no problems.  The old 1GHz unit was swapped back in for the weekend.  And then the 2GHz model was back again, no code change, no hardware mods, yet it seems to be working.  We will keep an eye on it.
  • The ISS outer loop monitor photodiode was installed on the 4k REFL port.  Attempts to eliminate the 60Hz oscillation continue.
  • Coil driver noise was reassessed on both the 4k and the 2k.  Given 3MHz oscillations were noted at LLO, this was checked on both LHO instruments but not observed.  Later this ETM coil driver transfer function was made.
  • RF phases on the bull's eye detectors were set by monitoring I and Q demod signals during common central heating with the thermal compensation system (TCS).
  • After setting the phases, the TCS servo was employed at high power, resulting in hour-long, fluctuating-range locks of 8-9Mpc.  The TCS power required to maintain this state grows linearly with time until the maximum is achieved and the good state is truncated (catalyzing this simulation).  More on the TCS here, including a chiller-water induced mode hop.  Later in the week, a long lock with a highly stable range of 7.5Mpc was achieved.
  • output mode cleaner mode-matching performed with a bright Michelson degrades with high power operation
  • fast channel commissioning is underway

2K IFO

  • Mystery noise on the 2k kept inspiral ranges down on the weekend.  Dust was theorized as the culprit and HEPA filters were run.  Thursday evening, we were still suffering from combs of 1, 10, 100 and 1000Hz noise, origin unknown.
  • the RM has been mobile
  • the new 4k-like mode cleaner servo board was added to the 2k
  • ISCT10 received a revised SPOB photodiode

Outreach (D. Ingram)

We have mounted slides of the talks by Fred R., Greg M., and Mike L. from our January 8 Einstein@Home event.  Our next WYP event will be a showing of the film "Runaway Universe" on February 5.

 


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


L1 Commissioning (Valera Frolov)

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

Interferometer Commissioning Report

 

The ifo was locked  in the low noise state after much work on electronics. The best inspiral range achieved this week was around 2.5Mpc. The oscillator phase noise investigation continued this week. The Mode Cleaner length and sideband modulation frequency were changed to minimize the coupling of the phase noise to the ifo output. The beam centering servo was added to the angular control system. While commissioning the beam centering servo it was found that  the phase noise coupling changes by a factor of 2-3 depending on the beam position on the beam splitter. The WFS sensing matrix and noise were measured. The WFS are limited by dark noise above ~30Hz.

The list of  electronics problems:

- ITMX optical laser was producing a lot of noise and was replaced and also put on the bench power supply. The attempt to put it back on rack power supply was not successful and oplev is back on the bench power supply.

- the ETM coil drivers were oscillating at 3MHz. The driver were taken out and modified to tame the oscillations. The coil driver noise and transfer functions  were measured after they  were returned to the end stations.

the MC1 mirror continues to change the alignment for a few minutes with a period about once a day. Replacing the electronics chain for the mirror bias did not eliminate the problem .

- intermittent connections were (re)identified in the optics damping and LSC PD(ASPD5) electronics chains

 

Livingston Outreach (Thacker)

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

Conducted Tour for Friendship Force of BR

Started collating summer SURF projects

 

Safety and Security (Riesen)

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

1)  Found no site safety concerns during weekly tour.

 

2)  The routine IR scan of all IO tables found no errant beams.

 

3)  The laser safety upgrades for the end stations is now complete and fully functional.  The laser safety sop will be revised to incorporate the changes.  The end stations will remain in the laser hazard condition as before until the laser safety sop is completed and signed off by upper management.

 

L1 and AdL Mechanical Engineering (Spjeld)

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

Oddvar Spjeld

 

- Updated Quad Suspension Installation Tooling Design.

- New, stiffer GS13 HAM Platforms designed for X- and Y- direction.

- SEI Review Meeting on Thursday 1/13.

- Calibration of new servo valves.

- Preparation for meeting at ASI next week; review of requirement documents, drawings and models.

 

In progress:

- Revise design of HAM Removal Tool; lighter fixture required.

- Revise design of Quad Installation Tooling; re-design lift table.

- Photon Calibrator Shelf Drawings and BOM.

- HEPI Valve Status Database & Website.

- Analysis of latest servo valve failure.

- Follow-up of HEPI hydraulics fluid test results; improved filtering?



General Computing (Roddy)

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

This week I have done some testing of the network connection between LLO and LSU.  Using a shell account on a machine located on campus I was able to confirm that there is a bottleneck at our connection to campus. Monday I spent the afternoon on campus with Boyd and did some further testing.  Testing between a couple of other machines on campus showed expected speeds ruling out the router on campus and confirming that it was probably our router.  Tuesday and Wednesday I put together a Linux router to put in line replacing our current router to test with.  With moderate hardware and no firewall rules I was able to significantly improve the performance of the connection.  The next test will be with the firewall rules duplicated to see to what degree it degrades the performance.  Whether or not we replace the current router with a Linux router or not something needs to be done.  The bandwidth spike visible at

 

http://kahuna.net.lsu.edu/mrtg/corerouters/ligo-liv.html

 

shows the test I performed last night.  It shows a peak at about 2:00 am this morning.

 

Working with Solsoft on a couple of support issues and also working on getting a temporary license to test with Linux.

 

Working on a couple of Matlab licensing issues.

 

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

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

1) Rupal Amin and myself prepared and started a new long term RTP crystal high power endurance test. A few more pick-off points were added to the beam line in order to study more in detail the previously observed power loss when the IPG laser is run continuously for several days. The ramping up of the power went well and the crystal was initially being exposed to more than 90 W. After a few days running, the power delivered by the laser has decreased by 5%. We will continue to keep a close eye on the development.

 

2) I have started to write up a short LIGO note documenting the results of the Melody AdvLIGO MC model.

 

LDAS/Condor Sysadmin and Burst Analysis (Yakushin)

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

Condor/LDAS:

 

1) With the help from Excel, the new T3s are physically installed into racks, fiber cables connect T3s to the switch, UPSes are installed. The new blade with 8 ports is installed into the fiber channel switch. What remains now is to configure T3s and include them into our file system.

2) SysKonnect card is configured and working fine on gateway.

3) Running badblocks tests on second harddrives in the nodes.

4) Working to restore 1% data flow to CIT.

5) Replaced 3 failed disks in datagateway2 and 2 failed disks in datagateway. No data was lost.
 


Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)


CDS

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

CDS Software

no report

CDS Hardware

no report

DMT

John Zweizig

This week I started getting the DMT hardware and software ready for the M6 run at LLO. I have started to set up the process configuration for the AstroPhysical Search sensitivity monitors. I also chased down a few errors that caused these monitors to execute inefficiently at LHO during the last engineering run. Meanwhile with Keith and Daniel we have been specifying a new trend channel naming scheme that will guarantee unique channel names and make the source of the channel clear. To support this effort I have written a class to parse these channel names and added  code to check that the channel names meet the specification when trend  writing is requested.

PSL

PeterKing

I stuffed another intensity stabilisation servo board.

As part of testing the intensity stabilisation servo boards, I was curious as to what set the variations in gain magnitude and phases between the various boards.  After running a number of worst case scenarios with the resistor and capacitor tolerances, it appears that most of the variation is due to variations in the op-amps used.  I have not figured out how to incorporate op-amp tolerances into the circuit model.

    A number of problems exist with my new high voltage amplifier.  The small-signal output is largely okay except in the region between 4 to 7 MHz, where the output is a little distorted.  In addition the full-power response at 30 MHz is better than it is at the lower frequencies around 10 MHz.  All testing thus far has been with a capacitive load attached to mimic a PZT.  Some problems might be associated with the board layout but I do not know for sure.

Quiet TCS Chillers

Ken Mailand

After Phil Willems checked the results of the fluid corrosion tests he wants the TCS chiller fluid to be the DEX mixture, and also the running LHO chiller fluid changed out to the DEX mixture. The mix ratio is 1 part DEX to 5 parts distilled water, this matches the viscosity of the existing working fluid, and is the ratio in the flask corrosion tests.

Note from Dennis Coyne: Alan Weinstein pointed out reports of corrosion problems with Dexcool. It seems that even small amounts of traditional phosphate/silicate coolant are not compatible with Dexcool (or other modern "long life" coolants) and can cause corrosion problems. Corrosion problems may also arise when using Dex-cool/water solutions with less than 40% dex-cool. More study is needed before this coolant is deemed the final solution for the TCS chiller and before considering its use in the PSL chilling system. It does appear to be the best coolant for the TCS quiet chiller system, when the system has not been previously wetted with other coolants.

LHO has their chillers, and two additional complete tested units are ready to go to LLO.

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.
Taking measurements on and off just to keep on track how "clean" is the cavity.
Waiting on new samples to come in.

Absorption Test Measurement prototype   in standby

Scatterometer system  in progress
The Inner test mass 2ITM04 fused silica mirror is in the scatterometer enclosure.

The integrated scanning sphere to detect all the scattering beam from
the mirror surface has been installed and left there for future reference.

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

The Quantronix 60 watt laser  has been recovered.
Alignment for the absorption test measurements, setting new optics
and optical train set-up is in progress.


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.
No change in measurements, good indication that the samples are "clean"

Cavity #2  in standby

 


 

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)


  • IFO commissioning:
    • Osamu will be at Aspen next week, and will present one talk on the status of the 40m, AdLIGO optical configuration & control, and another on the overall status of AdLIGO.
    • Osamu was able to lock the dual-recycled Michelson (DRMI) on Wednesday, but by Friday it became very unstable and woudn't lock. Could be due to the weather; not clear. The power-recycled Michelson could lock easily, but not with signal recycling. The problem might be due to some misalignment in the POB beamline, or, more likely, the demod phases are not set right. Osamu adjusted the SP beamline, and will tune up the POB and AP beamlines and optimize the demod phases, when he gets back.
  • IFO modeling:
    • We will hold a telecon tomorrow (Friday) to discuss the design of a homodyne (DC) readout experiment at the 40m. See 40m_DCdetect.pdf for details.
    • Rob and Rana have been thinking about methods for constructing a simple output mode cleaner, various OMC locking schemes, and an in-vac DC photodetector.
    • Rob and Virginio are looking at modeling noise propagation in the 40m and AdLIGO interferometers.
    • Monica will be visiting throughout calander 2005, and is working at the 40m lab. She has completed a full optical model of the 40m in e2e. Validation of DC fields against twiddle is done. She is now working on comparing the transfer functions and error signals with Twiddle and Finesse models. She plans to begin work on the control plant, and start by simulating the controls for one arm.
    • Rob continues to work on a useful wrapper for FINESSE.
  • PSL:
    • The PSL chiller temperature setting/control has a problem. We typically keep the PSL at ~22C (the sites run theirs colder, but our power amplifier has lived longer, and maintained high power ~ 11 watts, for years; so we're happy with running it cooler). But, if the laser it put into standby, the power amplifier gets too cold, causing condensation which is bad. There is some communication between chiller and power supply temperature sensor, but not smart enough to do the right thing w/ standby, or when communication fails. Solving either/both requires a new EPROM from Lightwave, which no one else in the lab has. So, we have no protection against that. We are exploring what to do about this.
    • The PSL chiller water is now supermarket distilled water, rather than de-ionized. We add a small amount of chloramine-T. We are closely following the discussion of whether to switch to a different additive, which would be less corrosive while still an effective algicide and anti-freeze. Dex-cool is being investigated for a replacement.
  • Electronics and computing:
    • After an earthquake (midnight Tues night), all 5*10 OSEM sensors had nice ringdowns, except: MC1 and MC3 each have one side OSEM sensor which doesn't damp down normally, it has a strange excitation, to be investigated; and MC1 UR and MC3 LL OSEMs read zero. Rob traced this latter problem to a strained cable; he has made a temporary fix, and awaits a new cable. But it looks like MC3 LL is still sick.
    • In addition, the ITMX LL sensor, when damped, has occasional discontinuous jumps (very small, but still strange); and ETMX LR has half the gain as the others. To be investigated.
    • And, the ITMX SIDE coil has been busted since the last vent. To be fixed in the next vent.
    • Rob had trouble rebooting c1susvme1 reliably. The ethernet cable from the hub was flaky; to be replaced.
    • The EPICS vacuum control screen is messed up and needs repair.
    • Dan is learning how to modify EPICS state code for vacuum control, etc, to fix some long-standing problems.
    • Mike updated mathematica licenses on all but one computer.
    • Rob improved the RGAlogger script; it now logs specific AMUs which exceed a pre-defined threshold. A cron job runs RGAlogger once a day and stores the data in an archive.
    • Rob installed gnuplot on the martian computers so that we can, eg, plot the RGA data easily.
  • Lab Infrastructure:
    • Virginio and Steve have more-or-less finished working on STACIS. Virginio is documenting the performances of all 4 systems. There is still room for performance improvement, they didn't iterate the gain adjustments enough times, but it's good enough. OSEM and oplev noise spectra with STACIS on and off show significant improvement: the rms, dominated by the bounce mode at ~12 Hz, is reduced by a factor ~3. The broad-band noise is reduced by as much as a factor ~20 in the 2-10 Hz region. Still, ITMY has one (of 9) loops with ~30 Hz oscillation, but it doesn't contribute significantly to the RMS.
    • Some STACIS hardware problems remain. The controllers often report faults, (eg, communication with isolators), but the isolators still work. We have 3 spare isolators, but one has 2 (of 5) broken PZTs. Dan fixing a HV driver on a spare HV board. The HV board needs to be screwed in tightly, if not, it can break a PZT.
    • Bob and Steve cleaned up the office area in preparation for a major ant killer application. This was done on Friday afternoon; by Monday morning the office was habitable, and the ants had moved to the IFO hall. Steve will spot-apply ant killer there, soon.
    • Steve & Bob changed out a failing TP2 roughing pump with a spare. The failed pump will be shipped out for repair.
    • Steve is working with electricians to add another 20A circuit and many wall plugs, so that we don't overload or daisy-chain our power strips.
    • Steve bought an 18A UPS for the control room computers, spare batteries for the UPS protecting the vacuum control rack, and spare batteries for the TP1 backup.
    • The enclosure for the new oplev for MC2 is in and will be installed soon.
  • Bake oven Lab:
    • Bob is working with Larry Wallace to set up a secure web site for his bake oven lab activity.

 


Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)


no report


LASTI (Ottaway)


LASTI Weekly Report (Allen, LaLiberty,Mason, McInnes, Mittleman, Ottaway, Ruet)

 

BSC Seismic Preparation

 

An assembly document E040507-A, a cost study, and a project schedule was created for the advanced LIGO seismic prototype for LASTI.

 

The dome platform arrived and was set up between the BSC chamber and the y-mid HAM chamber. This platform will hold the upper dome of the BSC chamber during seismic and quad installations to give us the floor space we need for assembly.

 

Electronics

 

Jon Allen is designing a low noise detector PCB for Nergis, and is awaiting files from Caltech before commencing. The network foiled Jon's efforts to verify PSL wiring, so nothing has happened on that front for a while.

 

HEPI Support and Re-Installation of Valves at MIT

 

We received 8 hydraulic valves from LLO and have begun recommissioning the BSC.  The valves have been installed and the actuators are currently in bleed mode, when neither of the HAMs are running.

 

Rich have been working on a method to reduce the in-loop inertial sensor tilt-coupling, which involves geophone sensor correction, which seems to be working pretty well, allowing us to reduce the blend frequency by a factor of 2-3. There are some entries in the LASTI ilog over the last 2 weeks giving some details.

 

MC Controls Prototype Testing

 

The first complete reliable system ID of the triple pendulum was made the last week of November. The sys-ID enabled us to identify 5 problems, 4 are related to the triple and 1 to HEPI :

 

1)roll0 to roll TF

Examining the data and the models, we have been able to detect a mistake in the roll0 (pendulum attachment point) to roll TF, This problem seems to be linked to an error in the B matrix where a term is not logical. The TF given by the model shows a DC value above 1, which is not logical with the configuration of the pendulum (the value has to be between 0 and 1 (0 would be the value if the 2 upper wires were attached to the same point). Mark's model seems to be correct, This problem should be fixed easily by comparing both models.

 

2)Frame resonance

On the first sys-ID, we could see a frame resonance at 37 Hz, this value is too low in comparison with the expectations and it has been suggested to add some clamps to attach the frame to the optical table strongly. These clamps didn't change the first frequency a lot (41 Hz) but by taking the sys-ID in higher frequencies, I noticed that many resonances (41,51,85) occur. These values are going to be confirmed by new acquisition next week, but it seems to show that the low ones (41,51) could be in fact the osem's bracket resonances. I'll confirm that with other data soon

 

3)Pitch to Pitch TF

the mass1-pitch to mass1-pitch TF of the pendulum doesn't match the model, the resonance frequencies are about 10-20% higher than the model. It has been suggested that one or many of the model's parameters could be wrong, so we measured the important parameters on the pendulum to compare with our model's parameters, every parameter we measured matched the model perfectly, so this is more and more unlikely that the problem comes from the model's parameters (but still possible). The other idea was that an asymmetry could generate such a difference, the asymmetry could have been due to the pitch adjuster mass that was really off, to check the hypothesis, we placed the pitch adjuster back to the center and used the upper wire adjuster to correct the DC pitch. The TF showed no noticeable difference. This issue is still unsolved.

 

4)Noise in TF

we noticed that the TF showed some noise at about 10 Hz, the coherence also drop to 0 for some TF at this frequency, after some experiments, we realized that the HEPI platform amplifies ground noise at this frequency (see next point). This problem is reinforced for "weak" signals (for cross coupling, or for HEPI platform rotations). In order to reduce this noise, I am currently modifying the system_ID method, I first added 3 geophones on the ground so i can measure the ground noise and remove the part of the signals that is coherent with the ground geophones. It produces a significant improvement (coherence goes from 0 to 0.7/0.8). the second thing is to filter the drive with the inverse of the expected TF (using the model), it enables us to drive the resonances less and thus to increase the mean magnitude of the drive (when using white noise drive, of course, this method was already used in stepped sine to avoid breaking the pendulum). I am still playing with this but it has already improved the coherence a lot.

 

5)HEPI resonances

To understand this 10Hz issue better, we did some experiments using positions sensors, geophones on optical table and accelerometers we could move on the structure. The HAM has 3 major resonances at 7 9 and 12 Hz (Y, X, Z). By comparing with old data taken on the other HAM, we noticed both present the same resonances. The strange part is that the positions sensors in the piers don't see this resonance but the geophones on optical table do. With the the accelerometers we have been ale to detect the flexible point that causes this resonances : the gallwings' elbows, we are thinking about some ways to stiffen this part and decrease the effect of these resonances.

 

6)last little thing, we have measured the motion of the ground during vent up and confirm that it was the cause of the problem we had when the pendulum's osems went out of range in vacuum .


Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)


 

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)

Weekly Physics Meeting

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

Matt Evans gave an update of site activities at LLO. We discussed about various interferometer issues including Wave Front Sensors and the observation that the WFS1 signal goes down as temperature increases. This goes against what was observed in H1/H2 and the theoretical results obtained from FFT studies [ref. T040066 by Biplab]. Probably more FFT studies including details like mirror phasemaps and proper LSC locking, introduction of differential heating to create intentional sideband imbalance etc would be needed to understand the cause of this problem

.

 

Phase Camera and Fitting Routine

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

(Biplab and Hiro) We mainly worked on (i) testing matlab fitting routines used to fit phasecamera images to Hermite-Gaussian modes & (ii) studying (with SimLIGO's time-domain simulation) if the phase camera's  1 sec scan-time (while mirrors may swing and the modal content of light coming out of the interferometer may vary) can distort the modal information of the beam in a significant way. We made satisfactory testing of the fitting routines and found that the scan time does not significantly affect the information of the beam-content.

 

Simulation of 40 meter interferometer

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

(Monica) I'm trying to simulate transfer function from Mach-Zehnder steering mirror to the asymmetric port using the e2e psd module and injecting on the MZ steering mirror a sinusoidal signal at a given frequency. Other transfer functions will be done either with a sinusoidal signal or white noise.

 

Code Maintenance

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

(Melody)  Working on speeding up the dynamic link process used in the FUNC_X primitives. Currently looking for a way to export the symbols of the shared library to improve the link process performance.

 

Also working with Tom Evans to build E2E in their system (which uses gcc 3.4.1). E2E has been tested using gcc 3.3.3.  There are some link issues which need to be resolved using the new version.

 

Alfi

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

(Bruce) Work on the chaining of Links to allow them to be used recursively in opaque boxes.

 

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

 

Brown: - Still working on writing MACHO paper: a draft should be ready for the collaboration by Monday's inspiral meeting.

- Learning more about the details of post-Newtonian theory.

- Added time domain inspiral template filtering to the inspiral code.

- Writing complete documentation for all the inspiral codes.

- Talkedto prospective grad student Diego Fazi about a possible LIGO data analysis project and submitted a SURF project proposal.

- Helped Stuart configure the CIT condor pool to allow Lee Lindblom's MPI numerical relativity codes to our access idle cycles.

- Helping Stuart and Dan get Condor and the grid tools installed after the Fedora Core 3 upgrade on the cluster.

 

Creighton:

This week, and for the previous two weeks, I have been working on result validation code for Einstein@home.

 

Chatterji:

* Preliminary spectrogram studies of S2 and S3 accoustic events identified by the Q pipeline are available at the following (passworded) URLs.

  Other microphones are being investigated based on suggestions by R. Schofield and J. Zweizig.

  - http://ligo.mit.edu/~shourov/q/airplanes/

  - http://ligo.caltech.edu/~shourov/s3_h1_airplanes/

The improvements associated with the accoustic mitigation effort are readily apparent.  However, some accoustic coupling is still evident by eye and H2 appears more susceptible than H1.

* Investigating coherent and targeted sky search for bursts using the Q Pipeline.

* Continued work on upgrading LPEFilter DMT class.

 

Mandic:

I worked on the time-shifted stochastic analysis of the H1H2 Hann case. In particular, the time trace of one detector is shifted by deltaT, and then the usual analysis is performed. The purpose of the study is to understand the behavior of the noise in the CC spectrum on the time scale of a few seconds.

 

I also got gpssync to work again - this piece of software allows synchronized hardware injections at the LLO/LHO sites.

 

Mendell:

Participated in LIGO Hanford Observatories program "Say Hello to Einstein@Home", to start our "World Year of Physics" activities.  More can be found here

http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/010805_event/010805_event.html and

http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/world_year/iyp_events05.html.

 

A comparison of efficiencies for detection above the loudest event for the StackSlide, Hough, and PowerFlux searches was run.  First results

are posted on the (password protected) PULG S2 investigation page:

http://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/cgi-bin/enote.pl? nb=puls2stackslide&action=view&page=22.

More comparison are under way for presentation at the Feb. 3-5, 2005 PULG F2F meeting in Milwaukee.

 

Shawhan:

 

* Reviewed final version of S2 known-pulsar paper.

* Starting the formal review of the StackSlide and PowerFlux methods for wide-area pulsar searches.

* Worked on S2 untriggered burst search paper.

* Released a new version of the LIGOtools 'segments' package.

* Figured out how to retrieve data from the GEO frame server (with help from Martin Hewitson) to collect interferometer status information.

 

Sutton:

This week I have been studying techniques for solving the inverse problem for GWBs; ie, determining the sky location and h+(t), hx(t) for a generic GWB.  I compiled and distributed a long list of comments and suggestions regarding global detector networks in response to Saulson's memo of Dec 21.  At Landry's request, I also re-ran SenseMonitor over the E11 data to produce complete records of the alpha and beta factors for the "official" calibrations.

 

Zanolin:

Corrected two bugs in the time estimation part of the stand alone parameter estimation module in matlab. Further testing of the module above performed. Background study to choose the new astrophysical motivated waveforms for the LIGO Virgo collaboration. Spent time studing and discussing with K Rawlings Feldman-Cousisn limits with post veto.

 

Lazzarini:

Working to implement a toy reconstruction algorithm based on the maximum entropyy method. While my main motivation is developing a measurement-to-map algorithm not requiring matrix inversions, it appears that many of the same ideas may be applicable to network-based burst detection (coherent detection).

 

LIGO Data Analysis System

 

Software Systems (Blackburn)

LDAS:

 

Continued migration effort from Redhat 9 (RH9) to Fedora Core (FC3) this week. Last Friday's initial testing showed a tremendous slow- down in the performance on the threaded LDAS-DEV environment. After a bit of detective work and a few experiments it was learned that the use of the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL environment variable that was first introduced to stabilize RH9's threads was the cause of the bottle- neck. Removing it brought the performance back in line with best results previously seen AND as an added bonus, has greatly decreased the random unexplained job failures seen with RH9/LDAS. There have only been a couple of days of testing LDAS under FC3 so the port is not yet considered ready for prime time, but we expect to be able to have an LDAS release by early to mid next week, just in time for the mini-run.

 

Several issues were discovered with the createRDS command code that popped up with the recent changes to the underlying C++ code in the frameAPI that made the createRDS command more flexible for creating RDS frames in the neighborhood(time) of data drop-outs in the raw frames. This came up in E11 as a "wishlist" item for the next release and has been implemented in time for the mini- run. The issue had to do with incorrectly populating the phase field of the timeseries in FrADC structures of the RDS frames and with not completely passing history metadate from all input frames into the RDS frames. Both have now been fixed.

 

The SINSTALL rules used to build LDCG were enhanced to fix the "whoami" program overwrite when GNATS was installed.

 

Effort continued in support of the system administrators as they upgraded the various system from RH9 to FC3. This typically meant backing up databases, reinstalling DB2, restoring databases and testing out LDAS once the system was brought back up.

 

The issue with LD_ASSUME_KERNEL still exists in a few of the utility-helper programs that support monitoring LDAS and the Database. These are being sorted out this week.

 

Tcl/Globus:

 

A first draft of the instructions for how to use the TCL/Globus test suites was sent out for review. The document is in LaTeX and converted into PDF for publishing on the web. A first attempt at casting the document into HTML from LaTeX proved useless and a new tools for translation is being sought. Work on the document also revealed a few minor issues with the test scripts which were also fixed while drafting the document.

 

OSG/Grid3dev:

 

Since the machines for installing grid3 software will be available in 2 weeks time, I have been installing the grid3 software on an FC3 workstation to check if there might be any problems. As part of this, began working with beta version of VDT-1.3.0 which is the required version for grid3-dev. It installed fine but requires a additional configuration.

 

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech

-------

(Dan Kozak)

* Replaced T3 and 3510 failed disk drives.

* Fixed stuck tape in tapedrive.

* Restarted LDR after 2 coredumps.

* Investigated how QFS striping works when growing an existing filesystem.

 

(Phil Ehrens)

* Connected the new 80 cluster nodes to CIT Beowulf switch.

 

(Al Wilson)

* Upgrading the LINUX machines on cit to Fedora core 3.

 

(Stuart Anderson)

* Upgrading the LDAS-CIT cluster to Fedora Core 3.

* Working with Shannon to test network bandwidth from LLO to CIT for E12 and S4.

 

Livingston

----------

(Igor Yakushin)

* With the help from Excel, the new T3s are physically installed into racks, fiber cables connect T3s to the switch, UPSes are installed. The new blade with 8 ports is installed into the fiber channel switch. What remains now is to configure T3s and include them into our file system.

* SysKonnect card is configured and working fine on gateway.

* Running badblocks tests on second harddrives in the nodes.

* Working to restore 1% data flow to CIT.

* Replaced 3 failed disks in datagateway2 and 2 failed disks in datagateway. No data was lost.

 

Hanford

-------

(Ben Johnson)

* Expanded /frames on fb1 to 8TB, by adding 8 T3s to the filesystem. Filesystem was grown non-destructively.

* Added gig-E card to gateway.

* Connected HDDs on all 138 nodes in operation. Nodes 139 and 140 will have to wait until they are converted back to proper nodes.

* samfs crashed on dataserver requiring a reboot. This seems to have been related to the stager, and caused by running "release -n" on files that were in or were being placed in the staging queue.

* Replaced HDD on node77.

 

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT:

(Keith)

-Swapped out orinoco wireless hub with one sent from Caltech (so far so good - 2 days)

-Added new urop 'bbloom'

-Setup windows flexlm license server for algor software

-Investigating wireless solutions for nw22 dead spots

-Upgrading NW17-009 CAD pc to XP

 

Livingston:

(Shannon)

-This week I have done some testing of the network connection between LLO and LSU.  Using a shell account on a machine located on campus I was able to confirm that there is a bottleneck at our connection to campus.  Monday I spent the afternoon on campus with Boyd and did some further testing.  Testing between a couple of other machines on campus showed expected speeds ruling out the router on campus and confirming that it was probably our router.  Tuesday and Wednesday I put together a Linux router to put in line replacing our current router to test with.  With moderate hardware and no firewall rules I was able to significantly improve the performance of the connection.  The next test will be with the firewall rules duplicated to see to what degree it degrades the performance.  Whether or not we replace the current router with a Linux router or not something needs to be done.  The bandwidth spike visible at

http://kahuna.net.lsu.edu/mrtg/corerouters/ligo-liv.html shows the test I performed last night.  It shows a peak at about 2:00 am this morning. -Working with Solsoft on a couple of support issues and also working on getting a temporary license to test with Linux.

-Working on a couple of Matlab licensing issues.

 

Hanford:

(Christine)

- Network usage can be seen at

http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~christin/mrtg/ 198.129.208.1_198.129.78.122.html

- Downloaded some of the latest versions of software from Caltech ITS. Made the software available to all users in the standardsys directory.

- Updated a couple of the guest PCs to the latest versions of software, virus updates, Windows updates, etc.  One of the PCs was infected with a virus which had corrupted some of the system files.  This required a repair of the Windows OS.

- Created some new user accounts for a couple of visitors.  Provided procedures for getting a contractor setup on our network.

- Spoke with NOAnet again about an alternate network connection.  NOAnet can provide us with network service to Seattle,  there are several options for connections to Internet2/Abilene/ESnet in Seattle, but all require contracts with other organizations.

- Other misc. user support.

 

CIT:

(Mike)

-40 Meter: Worked on an access point for the martin network, to resolve a networking issue. Plus update all GC computers with service packs and reregistered Mathematica licenses. -Ghosted Workstation(s): Irene Baldon, Sharon Kammerling, Cindy Akutagawa, Florence Kaufman, Ed Jasnow, Gina Salone, Irena Petrac, Dorothy Lloyd, and Phil Lindquist.

-Paul Russell/Peter King: I reloaded their lab workstation to accommodate protel DXP. This required a hardware upgrade, and OS reload from 2000 pro to XP pro. Plus I re-loaded all GC software and many engineering packages.

-Loaner Pool: Reloaded a laptop for the loaner pool. I have turned this back into Ed Chargois.

-RMA: I setup multiple RMA's on faulty hard disk. I have turned this over to Ed C. for shipping.

-Worked with Larry Wallace moving equipment around in the server room.

-Spam Filters: Continued to work on spam filters with Larry.

 

(Veronica)

- LIGO:  Updates to Aspen, seminars, undergrad websites.  Updates to the roster database.  Loading loaner laptops for GC.  Security patches and audits on Win servers.  Helped Larry with cable/KVM switch swapping.

- LSC:  Website updates.  Assisting Irena Petrac with webpage setup for MOU reviews.

- CaJAGWR:  Website updates and user support.

 

(Larry)

-Purchased a few PC's to start replacing some of the PC servers and to allow for at least one unit to be used as a spare. Working maintenance issues with CIT on SUN boxes and with Foundry for the network equipment we have installed. Received and distributed a number of purchased items that arrived this past week.

-Worked on a couple of wireless issues. Most were standard problems with the exception of the 40M wireless unit, which was worked with Mike and Jay. It had issues with the MAC address with one of the rack units. Once we were able to track that down Jay was able to change the MAC address which allowed the wireless unit to see the rack unit on the network.

-Swapped some equipment around in the computer room with Mike and Veronica. We are installing a new tape robot. We tried swapping out a KVM switch but found that not all of the PC's would work with the new switch so we still have the old one in place.

-Updated the patches on a number of PC's as well as the definition files. Assisted Mike in debugging a few PC problems. Most dealing with Spyware corruption.

-Worked on a number of user accounts. Updating old ones, reactivating a couple of accounts in-which the password had expired and removed a couple more dead accounts.

-Performed another full backup of the user accounts. These tapes will be shipped to the Hanford Observatory for storage.

-Cleaned up and resolved a number of web related issues. We are working on centralizing a number of items that are currently located in users home accounts and should be located somewhere else.

-Continue working with the mail services. Assisting Mike with the filters.

 

E-mail statistics Jan 06, 05 - Jan 12, 05:

Rejected Mail   10,789

Virus              859

False Positive      83

Accepted        12,537

 

Total Mail      23,326

 


Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)


Systems and Management

Systems and Management

Adv. LIGO Systems
from 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

·        nothing new

Interface Issues

·        nothing new

Reviews

·        Held the first of two SEI/BSC Critical Review meetings. The focus of this meeting was on cost and schedule issues, but the status of all technical concerns were also addressed. A review report from the committee is expected by 1/30.

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

 

Progress Period from 12.17 to 01.13

 

Out of the office for the holidays from 12.17 through 01.09

·        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")

§        Started work on the 40-Meter schedule changes.

§        Finished work on progress update with progress through November 30, 2004.  Posted reports / tables on Friday the 17th.

§        Executed brief telcom with Carol.

§        Read materials provided as part of the SEI meeting.

§        Continue to catch up on filing from last year.

 

·        ROSTER DATABASE:

§        Assisting Irena as needed on record changes.

§        Assisted Irena with setting up her web site to accommodate review of attachment As.

·        COST BOOK DATABASE:

§        Continued work on changes to estimates for AOS and IO.

 

Seismic Isolation

 

From: Larry Jones <ljones@ligo.caltech.edu>
 


Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure


SEI Structure:

As of late afternoon on 1/12, no new drawing releases have been posted by ASI.

The next monthly status meeting will be held on 1/13/05 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:

The stripped bobbins were received at Caltech. Bob Taylor precleaned them as before and shipped them to the PSI shop in MS for winding.


Displacement Sensors:

Nothing new.


Seismometers:

Nothing new.


Galling/Dusting Test:

Nothing new.


Suspension

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


 
AdLIGO Suspensions
Working on tablecloth design details and interface with Calum, Tim and Mike PL.

Met with Riccardo about maraging steel. We have some sheet material that he may use. He showed us his rolling machine.

Reviewed Justin's UK Scope document and provided comments.

Reviewed some drawings for Ian and Calum.

Core Optics

 

From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>
 



Pre-Stabilized Laser

 

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

AdvLIGO PSL
===========
    I have been working on the intensity stabilisation section of the conceptual design document.  A small number of issues have come up that I did not fully account for, namely the required testing of any electronics in order to meet our electromagnetic emission control requirements.

Other Laboratory R&D


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


Justin Kamp
From Cal Poly in Pomona just joined the group.
He will be working testing monocrystalline silicon flex joints.
He started setting up his experiment in the Synchrotron hall. Eventually the experiment will be carried out in vacuum.

Marco
I improved the beam height on the optics bench and raised the cavity height by 2 cm. After cavity realigning, Im studying the difference of the output beam on the fundamental mode from a perfect Gaussian profile. For a while Im watching a large coupling among higher order modes, which means misalignment and perhaps not good mode matching. The measurements are in progress.

Riccardo and I mounted the first new maraging springs for the cavity suspensions. We noted at once a strange deviation from elasticity. After finding the working point, I measured the curvature of the two blades which turned out to be uniform within 5% and compared the blades hardness with other maraging blades.
When I measured the hardness of the blades with the machine shop hardness meter I found that the used hardness meter is not calibrated , so I compared its reading with old blades of known hardness ~50 to 52 Rockwell. I observed a not negligible difference from the old pieces:

Tested blades Clamping point Blade middle
first old maraging blade 68.5 67.5
second old maraging blade 69.0 68.0
old mesa cavity blade 67.0 67.0
new mesa cavity blade 63.5 59

We dont know if the problem is a zero point shift or a change in slope of the reference scale: however, the old parts maraging hardness value was known to be 51, so I can conclude that I observed a large discrepancy between 13 % and 22 % in Rockwell scale.
Then we disassembled this spring I measured a sagitta of about 4mm in the two blades 150 mm which were originally well flat.
These tests started a deep investigation about maraging treatments and preparation and point towards a poor precipitation of Maraging.

Creep experiment: after a brief test at 400C, were now taking data at 1700C. Note that for most of last month, when we believed to measure at 120oC, in reality, because of a mistake in farheneit to centigrade conversion, we were at 150oC. We therefore missed the measurements at 140-150oC.

Juri
I just came back from Italy where I defended successfully my pre-thesis (available as LIGO-T040225-00-R) and started a collaboration with Enrico Campagna in the VIRGO group in Florence on the study of the mirrors thermal noise. Now I am writing the presentation for the Aspen conference and in the meanwhile Im continuing the calculations for the thermal noise suppression using a Mesa Beam, changing the diffraction losses requirement from 1ppm to 5 ppm.

Riccardo
Updated draft OMC seismic attenuation table document is available in
Ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/HAM-SAS.doc
It contains final construction bids and prototype construction schedule.
The design drawings are available in the folder:
Ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/HAM-SAS
We are ready to start production.
If started immediately a finished passive HAM SAS unit could be ready as early as end of March.
Cleaning and transfer to LASTI would happen after a round of passive performance testing on the factory.

 


 

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