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 for January 24, 2005 is cancelled because of the Staffing Committee meeting.


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 through February 15, 2005)

Cal State University of Dominguez Hills

  • Attach. A / in sign-off by PI
  • Attach. Z / in sign-off by PI
  • Progress Report / in process for web posting

GEO 600

  • Attach. A  / PI reminded of outstanding inputs / Papa, Schutz
  • Progress Report-Attach. A / PI reminded of outstanding inputs / Papa, Schutz
  • Attach. C / in sign-off by GEO

Oregon

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

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
  • 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 Feb. 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 20, 2005. The following items were among those discussed:

  • Operating Budgets: The FY2005 Operating Budgets have been modified somewhat to reflect 1) more current data concerning rates, 2) Change Request CR050001 for CSCS support at Hanford, 3) a new account established to cover some LSC costs, and 4) reductions to reflect underruns during the first quarter.  The modifications to reflect the underruns will be held pending a change request.
  • P-Card Training:  P-Card Training is scheduled at Livingston on February 21, 2005.  It is hoped that this can coincide with the job walk scheduled for the Outreach building to minimize travel and disruption at Livingston.
  • Assigned Action Items: E. Jasnow has assigned himself an action (#128) to research the use of a web site for registration for the LSC meetings.  The next LSC meeting is scheduled for March 19, so this has a short fuse.  The list of assigned actions updated through January 20, 2005 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>

No report.
 
>From: Cleveland Mak <mak_c@ligo.caltech.edu>

  • Processing a large stack (over 80 documents) of MOU's.
  • Packages: in - 15, out - 4
  • Faxes: in - 24, out 16

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

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

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

  • Placed credit card orders as requested for Caltech. Obtained a long-past due credit of over $1,000 on returned merchanidse to Edmund Industrial and had it applied to my credit card. I had pursued this credit multiple times this past year, and succeeded in having the vendor finally apply it.
  • Reviewed open credit card orders over six months and followed up with status. Closed several orders that had been billed jointly with other orders, and left two old orders open as the vendor had been requested to stall delivery.
  • Submitted change order #13 to ASI for review and approval. It came back for changes, which have been made. The change order was re-submitted for approval and is pending return.
  • Completed change order #9 to Southern Enterprises of SE LA and faxed the change to the vendor.
  • Reconciled 27 pcard transactions for January 2005 totalling $20,930.49, submitted the pcard report to management for approval, and forwarded it to Pcard Administration for review.

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

No report.

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

  • Completed and sent out reports as of the end of December for the following awards AJL.INT, DIA, LONOIS, MIT.GRID, LIGO.VISIT, and Outreach Awards.  The Outreach Award as of the end of December has been posted on the network.
  • Submitted a Cost Transfer to transfer expenditures from task 2.6 to 2.11.
  • Prepared chart comparing FTE's budgeted to filled FTE's for the 3 months ended December 31, 2004.
  • Calculated the reduction in FY05 budgets as a result of unfilled positions to date.
  • Adjusted FY05 budgets to reflect the latest version of the budget, allocation of budget for LSC expenditures, CR-050001 - Project Controls, and the reduction for unfilled positions.
  • 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 contract with Alliance Spacesystems, Inc., has been revised to reflect the de-scoping and reduced target cost and fee.  Final deliverables under this contract consist of about 120 drawings for the design of the internal pre-isolation system for the BSC chamber.
  • A contract was awarded to the Ares Corporation for the establishment of a performance measurement system for Advanced LIGO to be located at LHO.
  • A workshop on the design of the Science Education Center at LLO was held on Tuesday, January 18.  There were some action items produced from this workshop, which will be resolved by Eskew - Dumez - Ripple this week.  The next workshop is scheduled for February 21, at which time the final design will be presented for LIGO management approval.

 SUPPORT (Baldon, Kammerling, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

  • Tracked Raindance Teleconference calls and assisted users with any problems that they might have incurred.  Was alerted by Raindance of fraudulent activity on one (1) of LIGO's cards, checked with card holder and determine it was fraudulent, and cancelled card and had new card issued.
  • Processed the paper work for ten (10) new/revised trips.  There are seven (7) trips to be completed and ticketed at this time.
  • Completed five (5) Expense Reports and there are nineteen (19) reports yet to be done.  I continue to contact travelers who have outstanding Expense Reports (more than one (1) month old) to ask for their cooperation in sending me their receipts so that these can be closed in a timely manner.  Presently there are eight (8) reports more than 30 days old.  Travel Audits new policy of accepting only original signatures seriously holds up the process of closing reports. 

>Dorothy Lloyd

  • Processed the usual invoices for payment. Tracked and followed up on invoice problems. Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther the week of January10.
  • Processed requisitions for standard purchases, payment requests and change orders. For more detail see Cost Schedule Control Systems report by Ruth Brambilla.
  • Jim continued with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

Nothing new to report

DCC Steering Committee (Lindquist)

We have contacted proposed members of a steering committee to schedule a meeting next week.  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.
 
CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

  • A change request (CR-050002) is being prepared to address costs less than the amounts budgeted for the first quarter of FY 2005.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

  • A staffing meeting is scheduled for January 24, 2005.  The DRAFT Agenda has been posted.  All files are posted and up-to-date on the web.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

Nothing significant to report this week.

 


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



 Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (Landry)

Displacement noise on the 2k now rivals that on the 4k, yielding an extremely stable binary inspiral range of 3.5Mpc.  Important contributions to this improvement were the correction of a completely wrong cable connection into the RF distribution (a configuration which had produced combs of artifacts), more laser input power and working photodiodes (bulleted below).

Additional commisioning highlights from the past week are briefly described:

  • it was suggested that magnetic fields from 60Hz electronics may couple into AS_Q via the test masses, and thus such electronics should be moved at least 15' from BSCs
  • IFO-IFO coupling!  Free-swinging masses in H2 were detected in H1, which presumably restricts alignment activities on one IFO if the other is in science mode

4K IFO

  • a modified heating model (original noted last week) for the ITMs and thermal compensation (TCS) was posted
  • the binary inspiral range has been generally mobile through the week
  • high performance Heliax cables were installed on LSC photodiodes, and respective RF phases adjusted
  • broadband noise at the sweetspot of the IFO was traced to TCS intensity noise
  • the OMC has been removed from the antisymmetric port table ISCT4
  • H1 ISS tests are underway

2K IFO

  • gun bore brushes double as PSL plumbing scouring pads (see the link for modifications to the laser current shunt, too).  Later, the laser died.
  • QPDs were recentered, after which alignment problems were notedRecentering and adding scripts made for arm buildups of 2650.
  • Acoustic coupling at the dark port of the 2k was investigated
  • if you power up your photodiodes, the interferometer works better
  • the 260Hz peak seen in E11 is the result of modulation settings

DAQ

  • GPS and atomic clock comparitor code was installed on both IFOs...more on timing here
  • ISS testing on the 4k prompted this DAQ reconfiguration
  • the use of single-precision floating point numbers in DARM_CTRL adds digitization noise
  • mid-stations received the 2GHz CPU upgrade

 


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


L1 Commissioning (Valera Frolov)

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

This was another up and down week for the interferometer locking. We had a long stretch of

<a 

href="http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=

detector&date_to_view=01/16/2005&anchor_to_scroll_to=2005:01:16:14:37: 02-harryo"> stable locking </a> with one 9 hour lock.

But continuing problems with electronics and DAQ system prevented us from locking most of the week. The interferometer work was mostly focused on getting the angular control to work with thermal compensation system to improve the stability and sensitivity.

 

Some highlights of the interferometer commissioning activities:

 

- the RM/BS DAC was producing the angular instability and was <a 

href="http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=

detector&date_to_view=01/15/2005&anchor_to_scroll_to=2005:01:15:05:40: 34-rana"> replaced </a>

 

- the WFS sensing matrix was measured in <a 

href="http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=

detector&date_to_view=01/15/2005&anchor_to_scroll_to=2005:01:16:17:10: 56-rana"> cold </a> and

<a href="http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=

detector&date_to_view=01/17/2005&anchor_to_scroll_to=2005:01:17:01:45: 36-mevans"> hot </a> states, and inverted to enable the high gain WFS with ugfs of 1-3Hz.

 

- the new interferometer readout channel was introduced - <a 

href="http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=

detector&date_to_view=01/17/2005&anchor_to_scroll_to=2005:01:17:02:38: 54-rana"> DARMA </a>. This channel is taken after the dynamic matrix in the control loop.

 

- most of the <a 

href="http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=

detector&date_to_view=01/14/2005&anchor_to_scroll_to=2005:01:14:12:17: 18-DougL"> PEM </a> sensors are operational

 

- new coil balancing technique for <a 

href="http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=

detector&date_to_view=01/13/2005&anchor_to_scroll_to=2005:01:14:03:07: 51-rana"> RM, BS,MMT3 </a> was proposed.

 

- the problem with MC1 optic angular shift was finally narowed down to a cable which was not plugged in all the way.

 

- the MC WFS demod boards were checked in the elab. High voltage cables repaired. The MC WFS is now back on. It is still not clear if the problem was in the demod epics controls or may still be with us.

- noisy dewite board and ETMY optical lever electronics were <a

href="http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=

detector&date_to_view=01/17/2005&anchor_to_scroll_to=2005:01:18:01:47: 59-rana"> identified </a>.

 

- the <a href="http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=

detector&date_to_view=01/18/2005&anchor_to_scroll_to=2005:01:19:02:07: 31-mevans"> data corruption </a> problem required reconfiguring the small optic front end code and multiple front end and Frame Builder reboots. The rate of data corruption is reduced from one check sum per minute to one per hour. It allows us to continue but more debugging is needed.

 

CDS software (Khan)

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

1) Worked with Alex on different CDS related problems, including configuring the frame builders, debugging the CRC checksum error on the data transfer, installing high speed DAQ system. AWG setup and GPS installation.

 

2) Perform general maintanence of CDS controllers.

 

Livingston Outreach (Thacker)

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

Conducted two tours

identified color schemes for Exploratorium exhibits

Set up exhibit production space in warehouse

 

Safety and Security (Riesen)

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

Nothing to report

 

L1 and AdL Mechanical Engineering (Spjeld)

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

Oddvar is on travel at Caltech this week attending the ASI closeout and working with Dennis, Larry Jones and Ken Mason on taking over some AdLIGO engineering scope.

 

General Computing (Roddy)

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

Working on an agenda & notes for the security meeting.

Working on translating the Cisco ACLs to Linux iptables rules.  I might be able to script this???

Getting pricing for a rack mount Linux PC to act as our router to replace the Cisco router.  Assuming that further testing goes well, I will purchase one of these and possibly a spare depending on price.  If I can get the proper device support from Solsoft to support both the Linux and Cisco router, a back up solution could be put in place within ~1 hour if the router failed.  An automatic failover solution would be much more expensive .

Helping Igor with a T3 disk issue.

Replaced a failed power supply in a workstation.

Going through the syslogs and security notices this week.

 

High Power Laser Facility, Optics Modeling and L1 Commissioning 

(Franzen)

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

1) Have been monitoring the ongoing high power endurance test of the RTP crystal. So far so good. However, the laser power has slowly been decaying during the last couple of days by more than 5%. We are worried and have contaced the IPG people for some advice on this.

 

2) Writing a short note on the results from the Melody AdvLIGO mode cleaner model together with Amber Lynn Bullington and Ray Beausoleil.

 

LDAS/Condor Sysadmin and Burst Analysis (Yakushin)

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

1) badblocks failed on the new drive on node26. Ordered 10 more spare drives. All the other drives seems to be OK.

2) having trouble with one of the new T3 units: cannot log into it.

3) 1% dataflow is restored.


 


Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)


from Dennis Coyne

CDS

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

CDS Software

no report

CDS Hardware

Rich Abbott reporting

Trip summary (LHO) for week of 10 January 2005:

  • Measured transfer function of LOS coil driver ETMY to check for 3 to 4 MHz peaking as seen at LLO by Peter Fritschel.  There is some peaking, but not as bad as the observation at LLO.
    2.  Met with Rick Savage regarding the ISS and made plans for Flavio's trip to LHO.  An agenda was created and relayed to Rick and Flavio.
    3.  Met with LLO staff to get a feel for where the rough spots are perceived with respect to the electronics documentation system.  It was useful to hear the observations made by folks on the front line as any solutions must address their concerns.
    4.  Met with Richard McCarthy and discussed the plans for RFI retrofit at LHO.
    5.  Worked through about 75% of the test procedure on one of the new CM/MC boards designed by Daniel.  This gave me an opportunity to see the design up close.  Overall, I think it is an excellent piece of design work, even the test procedure is good.
    6.  Did some trouble shooting with Paul on a spare 80 MHz VCO module that was exhibiting higher than normal second harmonic distortion.

Planning next trip to LLO in early February.

Setting up team for initial developments on new documentation system.

Jay Heefner reporting

Fiber Optic Timing Link (Sander)

====================================

- Phoenix is stuffing the transmitter, receiver and fanout boards.

- Paul is fabbing the chassis.

- Sander is writing the test procedures.

- Need 4 pin lemos. They are due by the end of the month.

Anti-Image Boards (Todd)

=====================================

- 7 more complete and ready to ship.

LSC RFPD (Ben)

=====================================

Ben went to Hanford to deliver some of the RFPDs there.  Vern and I put one in for SPOB, and after some light level adjustment by Daniel, it appears to be working fine.  I delivered 9 units to Hanford, and 5 to Livingston.

Some minor adjustments were needed that only became evident after the high-power testing.  The summing weight resistor needs to be changed in order to better adjust the feed-forward loop weight.

There are more units here that are mostly stuffed, but need tuning, testing and assembling into their boxes.  These will be done and shipped when Todd can fit them in the queue.

ISS (Flavio)

=====================================

- Flavio at LHO

- 2 boards being fab'd. Dave doing box assembly

TCS Quiet Chiller (Mohana)

====================================

- Units shipped.

DMT

no report

PSL

PeterKing

The qwerks of the high voltage amplifier reported last week I think are due to the inductance in the leads of the capacitive load I used as a dummy. Otherwise when compensated for maximum gain flatness, the small-signal 3-dB bandwidth is about 9 MHz with a unity gain frequency of 67 MHz.

The layout for a small battery powered single-ended to differential/differential to single-ended board was completed.

TCS quiet chiller

Ken Mailand

The LHO Chillers are being plumbed in this week, and Phil Willems is at the site. The Chiller at the site has been running now for two months with a mixture of glycol and water, showing some corrosion on the internal parts.

That system has been flushed and the recommended Dex-fluid mixture has been substituted. The overnight indications are excellent performance has been maintained with a small increase in flow rate to 1.3 gpm.

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.
We are going to shut this cavity down due to the repair of the A/C unit in the hallway.

Absorption Test Measurement prototype   in standby

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

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

The Quantronix 60 watt laser  has been recovered
Alignment and optical train set-up still 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
This cavity will be recovered ASAP due to shut down at Bridge.
As mentioned before, all the components required are gathered.

Misc.. tasks, machining of the scatterometer head holder has been completed.
some fixing in the labs to comply with safety inspection is undergoing.

 


 

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)


  • IFO commissioning:
    • Osamu and Steve are at the Aspen workshop this week. There's been no progress on interferometer commissioning.
    • Dan and Rob repositioned the POY RFPD and realigned it. The the process, they found a problem with the gain settings of the QPD at the end of the Y-arm, and fixed it.
  • IFO modeling:
    • Last week we had a very useful telecon to discuss plans for a homodyne detection experiment at the 40m. We are now developing concrete plans for an in-vac beamline consisting of a simple MMT, PZT steering mirrors, a simple 4-mirror output mode cleaner, and a DC photodetector; and associated in-air sensing beamlines and electronics. AJW, Mike Smith and Jay are preparing a cost estimate for the hardware.
    • Monica has been making steady progress on the development of the 40m / AdLIGO optical configuration in E2E. She has gone through several validations with Twiddle, and is working on implementing doubple demodulation and the next level of validations with Finesse.
    • Rob continues to develop his wrapper for Finesse. He's also building E2E and alfi on his linux machine.
  • PSL:
    • Dan and Rob wrote a short script to reset the ISS servo when it saturates. The script, ISSautoreset, checks the Current Shunt voltage every minute, and if the value is greater than 2 volts it will turn off the servo for 5 seconds, then turn it back on. It also logs the time of the reset in ISSautoreset_info.
  • Electronics and computing:
    • Rob wrote a checkOsem script to compare all osem sensor readings from EPICS with the readings reported from the front-end software. This uncovered four or five problem osem sensors, and he and Ben are troubleshooting them.
    • Rolf is preparing the front-end software and controls for the main IFO alignment control system.
    • Alex is preparing a computer, funning FreeBSD, that will act as a firewall and gateway for our controls network, which will allow us to access our ilog. We also hope to replace our disk server with a dedicated linux box. The new configuration will probably require us to upgrade to a bigger network switch.
    • Rana is building Matt's TDS package, as well as many other bits of software, using gcc on our controls computers.
  • Lab Infrastructure:
    • Jay fixed the vacuum control screen, but the EPICS database maintained by c1vac2 is corrupted for some reason. We'll reboot when Steve gets back.
    • Dan fixed the broken STACIS HV board connector, but it needs testing.
    • Dan continues to study the EPICS state code that controls the turbopumps, and will put in mods to have it read in more information.
    • Bob is babysitting the vacuum system while Steve is at Aspen. He's keeping an eye on the dry scroll pump that replaced the one that failed 2 weeks ago; it does not provide the foreline pressure that it should. He is preparing to send the failed scroll pump back for repair.
  • Bake oven Lab:
    • Bob continues to build OSEMs for Janeen. He's found out why so many of them seem to fail in testing: the ultrasound cleaning seems to jar loose the little platic lenses that focus the LED onto the PD.
    • Bob continues to develop his web-based bake lab job scheduling system; right now, he's building web forms.
    • Bob is doing 2 air bake jobs for Ken Mailand.
    • Bob obtained a quote from Caltech electricians for adding more electronic circuits and AC wall plugs for the equipment in the bake oven lab.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)


no report


LASTI (Ottaway)


no report


Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)


 Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)

Weekly E2E meeting

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

We had discussion on the level of longitudinal and angular motion for mirrors in the Mode Cleaner and in Mode-Matching Telescopes and how these may affect the performance. This is related to the simulation of input optics currently being studied by Sany Yoshida and his group. Matt reported about commissioning activities at LLO.

 

Analysis of rotating astigmatic beam from H1 dark port

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

(Hiro) Keita measured the beam profile of the beam coming from the dark port to find that the beam is astigmatic and major/minor axis is rotating as a function of z position (Oct.22,2004 LHO elog). This is studied by decomposing the field by a few lower order modes. Practically, this is useful to prepare an optic to correct this astigmatism.

 

PhaseCamera Data Fitting and E2E studies

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

(Biplab, Hiro) We did more testing and improvement of our fitting technique using Matlab and time-domain outputs of SimLIGO.

 

Simulation of 40m interferometer

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

(Monica) I'm doing transfer functions calculations of error signals for each degree of freedom using MATLAB after the e2e time series file has been generated. I'm doing analytical calculations of error signals for the Dual-recycling configuration.

 

Modeler Codes

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

(Hiro) Matt sent in a revised code to utilize threads more dynamically. Modeler code is revised to include this and other minor issues for the next 2.5 release.

 

(Melody) Solved Tom Evans' problem with building the E2E in LLO system (which uses gcc 3.4.1).   The fix required some code changes as well as using a new version of the binutils library.

 

Working on speeding up the dynamic link process used in the FUNC_X primitives. Found out that symbols can only be exported in shared libraries, whereas we're using a static library.  Currently working on streamlining the static library to see if that improves the overall performance.

 

Alfi

----------

(Bruce)

        - Reorganizing parameter setting and parameter link

          objects to make their usage less confusing.

        - Continuing work on chaining parameter links.

 

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

 

Chatterji:

Completed modification and testing of DMT LPEFilter and FIRFilter classes.  Proposed corresponding modifications to the kleineWelle and glitchMon monitors.  All code has been committed to the DMT CVS repository with the exception of glitchMon modifications, which are awaiting testing by Masahiro Ito.

 

Implementing Q pipeline modifications to improve computational efficiency and incorporate calibration.

 

Mandic:

I worked on ways of identifying the instrumental noise correlations in the H1H2 stochastic analysis. In particular, by time-shifting one of the two detectors, we can reconstruct much of the structure observed in the original cross-correlated spectrum. Hence, such structure is likely not stochastic in nature.

 

With Peter Shawhan, I started preparing the hardware-injections code for the E12/S4 runs.

 

Mendell:

Updated comparisons of the StackSlide, Hough, and PowerFlux searches: scripts now exists that can run jobs on the cluster which calculate the detection efficiency of each type of search for a fixed false alarm rate.  Results will be discussed at the Feb 3-5 PULG F2F meeting in Milwaukee.

 

Virginia Re, for the University of Birmingham, UK, is visiting LHO until Feb 20.  he is working with me to add options to the StackSlide code to perform a search for periodic gravitational waves from neutron stars in binaries, such as in Sco. X-1.

 

I am working on improving the Monte Carlo simulations used by the StackSlide code in several ways: 1) the search for injected signals should include all neighboring templates, not just the template nearest the injected signal, 2) the LAL function, LALFastGenerateSFTs, used to make software injections, and main bottle neck in producing results, will be sped up by a factor of 10 or more I think, and 3) Hann windowing of injected signals into SFTs produced by the University of Michigan group (which are Hann Windowed) will be implemented for comparison with usual rectangularly windowed SFTs.

 

Shawhan:

* Worked on S2 LIGO-only burst paper.

* Reviewed StackSlide and PowerFlux search methods for continuous-wave GWs.

* Re-implemented GW interferometer status display as a web page.

* Did some preparation for M6/E12/S4 data runs.

 

Sutton:

I've been editing the LIGO-TAMA bursts paper draft, focusing mainly on revisions suggested by the review committee and burst group members, mainly Riles, Tohline, and Weinstein.  On the DMT side, I've made some minor changes to SenseMonitor for M6, and helped Marc Cenac at Loyola get StochMon running with modern calibration codes.  I'm continuing to studying the inverse problem for GWB detection (determining sky position and waveform for GWBs) for arbitrary networks of detectors.

 

Lazzarini:

Continued to work on maximum entropy methods for data analysis. I developed a toy Mathematica model that demonstrates its operation.

 

LIGO Data Analysis System

 

Software Systems (Blackburn)

LDAS:

 

The long awaited release of LDAS(1.4.0) for Fedora Core 3 came out this week. The big break through came last week with the discovery that the threaded performance was coupled to the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL environment variable, which was introduce when LDAS was ported to Redhat 9 to deal with the poor implementation of threads in that release. Fedora Core 3 has greatly improved the thread implementation and this has allowed us to drop the use of LD_ASSUME_KERNEL all together for this OS. This had the effect of greatly improving performance AND stability of LDAS under Fedora Core 3. It is now running the best we have seen in many years! One down side to the migration is that it has nearly quadrupoled the rate of memory leaks in the dataConditionAPI. There is some speculation that this is related to how the dataConditionAPI loads in several third party libraries (FFTW, CLAPACK, maybe others) which is different from other APIS and more closely involved with Operating System issues. The release is available for downloading and currently running on LDAS-DEV LDAS-TEST, and LDAS-CIT. It will be installed and started up on the LDAS-LLO, LDAS-LHO and LDAS-MIT systems once they are upgraded to the Fedora Core 3 Operating System. Other major changes to this release address previous issues with the creation of short RDS frames and the FrHistory records.

 

Began exploring the port of LDAS to work with TCL 8.4(.9) series of interpreters. We are currently boxed in to TCL 8.3.5 due to several major changes to the TCL 8.4 series that are incompatible with LDAS. We are exploring a minimal set of changes to LDAS to allow compatability with the newer TCL. This will also be necessary for TclGlobus code to be integrated into LDAS.

 

TclGlobus:

 

Debugging XIO attrs and cntls functions to support pointer data type.

 

Investigating GSSAPI issues - SWIG wrapping and Tcl test cases - to support standalone applications using security mechanisms such as X509 or Kerberos v5.

 

Investigating GridFTP issues - SWIG wrapping and Tcl test cases - to support data movements.

 

Resolved some issues with wrappign pointers in SWIG.

 

Investigated the integration of control monitor API with certificates. Checked out LDAS and am now identifying where changes can be proposed to indroduce certificates for authentication.

 

OSG/Grid3:

 

Performed the configurations for the various components of VDT 1.3.0. Faced problems in some components like edg-mkgridmap and edg-crl-update and condor. So I installed the latest download again. But still facing the same problems. Contacted the VDT software lead to get these resolved. The problems are not pertaining to Fedora core3 but more of VDT issues.

 

Still waiting for hardware to become available to start configuring a new Grid3dev site for OSG testbed activities.

 

Discussed modifications to Pegasus abstract job flow control tool with the developers at ISI to better support the movement of large datasets typical of LIGO inspiral data analysis on grids. A follow up on this as well as tutorials on running codes with Pegasis on grids will take place next Monday and Tuesday at ISI.

 

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech

-------

(Dan Kozak)

* Brought ldas-pcdev1 up as grid post-processing node.

* Upgraded LDAS-CIT cluster to Condor 6.7.3.

* Got QFS license for new LLO framebuilder.

* Received replacement 146Gb drive for 3510, installed in spares unit.

* Got 1% + interesting scientific data LDR flow going again.  LHO is copying a backlog now then we'll find out if things working for LLO.

* Fixed Greg Mendell's grid cert on ldas-grid & ldas-pcdev1/2.

 

(Phil Ehrens)

* Cabled the 80 new beowulf nodes.

*Debugged the scancluster utility based on feedback from Ben Johnson, who used it to run badblocks in parallel on the Hanford cluster.

*Migrated improvements made to badblocks to the patch.tcl remote system management utility. Ongoing testing and debugging of patch.tcl.

* Arranged with Maxtor to allow us to return drives that we determine to be bad without running the Maxtor disk diagnostic

.

 

(Al Wilson)

* Finished upgrading the 210 node in the CIT system to FC3.

* Started installing Fedora Core 3 on the remaining 80 nodes in the CIT system.

 

(Stuart Anderson)

*Helped with various cluster tasks associated with upgrading from RedHat 9 to Fedora Core 3. Initial feedback from users has been positive.

* Received new support contract for tape library system at Caltech.

* Continued testing NFS mounting SAM-QFS filesystems on cluster nodes with much higher success after the FC3 upgrade.

 

Livingston

----------

(Igor Yakushin)

* badblocks failed on the new drive on node26. Ordered 10 more spare drives. All the other drives seems to be OK.

* Having trouble with one of the new T3 units: cannot log into it.

* 1% LDR dataflow is restored.

 

Hanford

-------

(Greg Mendell)

* Media storage tapes for archiving data between now and this summer, including S4 data, are being ordered for LHO.

* I am currently working on upgrading the createrds scripts to use new functionality available in LDAS version 1.4.0.  The scripts will now allow the running of LDAS createRDS jobs that output RDS frames with an arbitrary number of seconds per frame. This will allow, for example, the merging of 60s GEO frames with 32 s LIGO frames, and the output RDS frames can be of any length.  The script will also fill in times near gaps in the input data as much as possible by adjusting the number of seconds per frame.

 

(Ben Johnson)

* Restored L3 RDS files to node71. L1 files have not been restored yet.

* Ran badblocks on all of the new HDDs. Only node92 showed bad sectors.

* Assisting Igor with setup of Segment Archiver at LLO (the single segment util for calibration folks); though there probably isn't enough time to get it working before M6.

* Now publishing full-frame postS3 data to LDR@gateway. I'll start publishing /frames data to ldas-gridmon, with a lower thread count in megamd5 to take some of the load off of gateway.

 

General Computing (Wallace)

Lazzarini+Roddy: We have scheduled a meeting at LHO for 4 Feb. to begin discussion on the changes needed in the observatory LANs to support security requirements for the Observatory Critical System.

 

MIT:

(Keith)

-Upgraded library PC to windows XP

-Installed new Axis camera in library per request should require no config time - just turn it on and point browser to thread.mit.edu

-Removed and replaced burned out fan in external SCSI drive on backup server.  Myron helped me solder new fan leads to the power supply to make the connection permanent.

-Patched several windows computers

-Experimented further with smartmon disk utilities

-Upgrading certificate on calendar service on emvogil-2

** looking into troubles running dmt with connections to LLO/LHO - I think firewall issues at the sites could be part of the problem.

 

Livingston:

(Shannon)

-Working on an agenda & notes for the security meeting.

-Working on translating the Cisco ACLs to Linux iptables rules.  I might be able to script this???

-Getting pricing for a rack mount Linux PC to act as our router to replace the Cisco router.  Assuming that further testing goes well, I will purchase one of these and possibly a spare depending on price.  If I can get the proper device support from Solsoft to support both the Linux and Cisco router, a back up solution could be put in place within ~1 hour if the router failed.  An automatic failover solution would be much more expensive.

-Helping Igor with a T3 disk issue.

-Replaced a failed power supply in a workstation.

-Going through the syslogs and security notices this week.

 

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

- Installed two new 36 Gb disks for user files.  Moved some user home directories around to create more space on all the disks.  Added the new disks to the tape backup software.

- Richard connected the LDAS server directly to the main GigE switch in the server room.  Ldas has started transferring more data across the network.  The increase can be seen on the network usage chart above. LDAS is now using 30 to 50 Mbits/s.

-  Started upgrading the firmware on all the printers.  There have been repeated problems with printing postscript files.  The firmware upgrade is supposed to fix these problems.

- Installed some new software on the license server.

- Other misc. user support.

 

CIT:

(Mike)

-Bob Taylor: His computer had some hardware issues. I was able to find an identical pc, and swapped out the defective hardware with parts from this unit. He is back up and running.

-Setup more RMA's for Stuart Andersen. I have turned this over to Ed Chargois for shipping purposes.

-NTSRV's: Updated service packs on LLPDMWORKS & PDMWORKS.

-Working the spam filters; checking for false positives.

-Ordered toner cartridges for all printers.

-Additional misc. onsite/phone user support.

-Burned ghost images of NTSRV's for Larry Wallace to send off-site.

 

(Veronica)

- LIGO:  Updates to Aspen'05, undergrad, meetings webpagesUpdates to the roster database.  End-of-year maintenance of the DCC databases. Security updates/ audits of Windows servers.  Attempting to repair a laptop for a loaner pool, loading another one.  Assistance to the LIGO seminar speakers in setting up their presentations and updates of the seminars webpages.

- LSC:  Website updates.  Posted papers for the LSC review and started working on a website for the upcoming meeting.

 

(Larry)

-Worked a number of procurement issues. Just received a new set of quotes from a company that SUN is using for their maintenance contracts. The LDAS group has already used them and the company so far has been pretty responsive. No other major procurement problems. P-card reconciliation went well for once. Purchased misc. items for the GC and LDAS groups.

-Started preparations and going over the logistics for the abatement, in West Bridge and Bridge Annex, that is to start next month.

-Assisted the DCC group with a variety of issues. So far all have been resolved without any major effort.

-Worked with Janeen on a couple of PC issues. The last item is a problem with the Algor s/w not being able to complete its FEA on a model brought in from Solidworks. Presently, it looks like there is a resource conflict with a fortran program used for the analysis. We still have some more digging to do before this issue is resolved.

-Worked on the computer room. We still have a lot of hardware that needs to be shuffled around.

-Added a couple of new user accounts and modified a few accounts for existing users.

-Resolved a number of e-mail issues.

Continual work on the spam filters with Mike.

E-mail statistics Jan 13, 05 - Jan 19, 05:

Rejected Mail   11,758

Virus              794

False Positive      79

Accepted        11,522

Total Mail      23,326

 


Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)


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 new RODAs this week

RODA M040005-01 on "CP location, dimensions and mass baselined", is further along in the review/signature process

Requirements

· nothing new

Interface Issues

· posted a list of SUS quad interface issues that were discussed 12/2, with post meeting notes (T050005-01); See the "Interfaces" section of the AL Systems web page

Reviews

· Continued discussion on cost, schedule, interfaces and performance issues for the AL SEI/BSC System as part of the Critical Review. A draft report will be circulated to the SEI team and review committee next week. A review report from the committee is expected by 1/30. Follow up review meetings will be needed.

 

 

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

 

Progress Period from 01.14 to 01.20

 

Out of the office on 01.14 and 01.17

·        See http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/index.html for a complete listing of all project related cost and schedule data.

Accomplishments:

·        Sub-system PLANNING activities

§        Continued work on preparing web space for posting Adv. LIGO reports. ("The Whole Enchilada")

§        Continued work on the 40-Meter schedule changes.

§        Executed telcom with Carol.

§        Continue to catch up on filing from last year.

§        Continued work on AOS schedule changes.

 

·        ROSTER DATABASE:

§        Assisting Irena as needed on record changes.

§        Continue to assist 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

 

Larry Jones ljones@ligo.caltech.edu  has passed the baton for Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure reporting to Ken. Thanks again, Larry!


 
From: Ken Mason <kmason@ligo.mit.edu>
 

Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure


BSC SEI Structure:

An Information Exchange Meeting was held at ASI this week. ASI Engineers walked us through their plans for the assembly, alignment, and testing of the advanced LIGO seismic design.

22 additional structure drawings have been posted on the ASI web site this week, making a current total of 43 released drawings of a planned 131 drawings.
 
We recieved a CD which contains the solid models of  the fixtures and tooling required to assemble the BSC seismic isolation. These models will require some additional design and we will need to create the fabrication drawings.

A monthly status meeting was held on 1/12/05 at ASI. We aggreed to return to a bi-weekly meeting as we enter the final month of the contract.

Several days were spent with Larry Jones reviewing project status and information. I want to thank Larry for all his help during this transition.


Actuators:

We anticipate delivery of the actuators by January 31st.

Displacement Sensors:

Nothing new.


Seismometers:

Nothing new.

 




AdLIGO SEI (Jay)
====================================
- Todd will start working capacitive position sensor chassis design.
- Dave will work on large coil driver as time permits.




Suspension

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


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

Held a meeting with the installation fixtures design folks and ironed out a number of details. It was helpful to have Ken Mailand and Oddvar, along with Ken Mason and Calum in one room to go over these issues.

Held a meeting with David Shoemaker, Laurent, Ken Strain, Norna and Calum about the testing of the mode cleaner. We will have a follow-up discussion on February 1st.

Algor has had a number of errors trying to analyze the complete structure and we are trying to understand the sources. Calum, Russell, Mike P-L and Tim have been working to make sure the models have integrity. I'm working with Larry Wallace to make sure it is not a computer problem of mine.

Will hold a quad wiring meeting tomorrow morning at 8:15am to finalize details of the wiring issues for the quad especially with respect to the number and type of connectors to use, along with the type of wire.

 
AdLIGO SUS (Jay)
====================================
- Need to build up quad test stand in Sync Lab.

 

From: Ken mailand <kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu>
 I'm currently working on the lower suspension installation arm to move the suspension from a carrier outside the BSC chamber, to the fine locating adjustment table inside the chamber.

 

Core Optics

 

From: Bill Kells <kells@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
Continuing on analysis of the HR scatter loss issue. There is now data from LLO coming out (via G. harry) which can be compared to that I have accumulated from LHO. Consistency not clear yet.

Also have been looking[more] into the possibility of measureing a signature of the "parametric instability" (say in present LIGO). This would be a sub threshold noise enhancement at the parametric resonant frequencies.

Pre-Stabilized Laser

From: Peter King <pking@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
    As part of writing the intensity stabilisation section of the conceptual design, I have been looking into the various standards the electronics are supposed to conform to but I have not figured out the dependency tree yet.  Thanks to Todd for leading me to MIL-HDBK-454.

Other Laboratory R&D

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


Marco

I helped Juri for the Flat Top Beam Cavity Prototype presentation for the Aspen Workshop. Riccardo and I prepared the vertical suspensions blades for a re-cooking and fixing their hardness, and so bringing them to the elasticity region.
Completed and tested the DPM circuit for the PZTs drivers, and then calibrated his scale.
I begin the layout design of the box and Im inventorying the needed parts.
I saw the first TEM00 data on Matlab. Data analysis in progress (only a study of the ASCII data from BeamScan software).
Im continuing to take data from the creep experiment at the temperature of 1700 C. After a week, the equilibrium point is quite stable.

Alessandro
Submitted the two accelerometer papers for internal review, they can be found in:
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/bertolini-acce-mech.pdf
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~desalvo/bertolini-acce-elect.pdf

Riccardo and Juri,
in Aspen

 


 

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