Weekly Report for Week Ending July 21, 2005

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday Jul7 25, 2005 will be:

(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)  

  1. Announcements
  2. Comments on Weekly Report
  3. LSC Issues (Saulson)
  4. LIGO Lab Operations
      • Administration (Lindquist)
      • Sites (Raab, Zucker, Shoemaker)
      • Commissioning (Fritschel), Detector (Coyne)
      • Campus Research Facilities
        1. 40 Meter (Weinstein)
        2. TN, ( Libbrecht)
        3. LASTI  (Shoemaker)
      • Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)
  5. R&D and Advanced LIGO (Shoemaker)
  6. CHANGE CONTROL BOARD/TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD SESSION AS NEEDED
  • CR 05007 for additional funding for LDAS power and HVAC at the sites

Special Items:

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights

LSC Issues (Saulson)

no report

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lindquist)

  • Peter Saulson has issued a call for revised MOUs due Friday, August 5, 2005 in preparation for the MOU Review Panel meeting scheduled 22 August..

Non-LSC MOUs (Lindquist)

  • No report.

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

  • A brief site teleconference was held on Thursday, July 21, 2005.  The following were among the issues discussed.
  • Science Education Center (SEC)—the pre-bid conference was held last Thursday.  There were five potential bidders and very few questions.  An addendum is in the works with clarifications and Davis-Bacon labor rates.
  • TechMart Training—Bonnie is working on a date for Livingston.
  • The list of assigned actions updated through May 26, 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>

  • Met several hours with representatives from both Synergy and Xythos to identify all areas of the DCC system requirements that needed development work in order to satisfy the stated requirement and to determine the additional costs associated with each item.  Reviewed summary of final costs with the DCC steering committee.
  • Continued to work on the MOU's inherited from the February review cycle.  Cleveland and I have organized email through March and are about 2/3 of the way through the pile.  Numerous duplicate submittals were found.  This complicates the process to determine which version is to be processed and posted.  I hope to begin the posting of the MOU and attachments on the web early next week.
  • Designed and prepared more than 25 reports for Caroline Cantley.  She provided a list of nearly 30 authors from which she needed a list of documents submitted by each since 2005.  This request was completed this afternoon.
  • Working on a draft executive summary of the activities, process, and final recommendations of the DCC Steering Committee.
  • Met several times with Dorothy to help her with the set up and status of the MOUs.  Will be showing her how to merge multiple PDF files into one document.
  • Made calls to several shredding companies to determine the cost effectiveness of outsourcing the shredding of the financial documents currently being scanned.  The lowest bid was $3.75 per box, which made outsourcing a best option.
  • Set up a new temp person for scanning.  Showed her how to scan, label the file, QA it, and bookmark it.  As soon as she finishes a couple of months of account charges, I'll burn the CDs for them and add the boxes to the pickup load for the shredding company.
  • Burned CDs of all 1998 account charges.  One set was given to Dorothy and another set retained for archive in the DCC.  This represented 12 boxes of paper ready for destruction.  When 1999 is completed, another 8 boxes will be ready to destroy as well.  Twenty boxes are required for pickup by the shredding company, so as soon as 1999 is completed, we will be 20 boxes lighter.
  • Prepared a report of all P and T documents in the database.  All those that were in electronic format were highlighted.  Each electronic document will be opened and a quick "search" on a word will be initiated to determine if the document is text searchable or simply an image file.  All image files will be OCR'd.  Additionally, documenst in the database but not in any electronic format will be scanned and OCR'd. Finally, a last check of the list against the shelf copies will ensure that no documents on the shelf haven't been added to the database.  Once this process is completed, a DVD will be burned and the hard copies can either be destroyed or put into box storage.  Cleveland is working on the P documents and I'm working on the T's.  We each finished viewing and checking about 200 documents of each category.  In anticipation of a new document management system, where text search will be available, these two categories would be most helpful to have 100 percent electronic ready.

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

  • Continued with the organizing/processing of MOU's and Progress Reports.
  • Began working on the multi-step task of transferring old account charges documentation from paper to cd's.  (A temp was hired this week to assist with the project.  She has been very helpful and efficient.)
  • Began an audit of all electronic "P" documents to confirm that they all are "OCR" ready so that text searches can be performed on them.
  • Activity:

Week Ending

07/21/05

In

Out

Packages

17

7

Faxes

17

13

 

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Cunningham, Brambila, Kaufman)

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

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

  • Responded to vendors' calls and met with the outside account rep for Newark who informed me of the new ROHS law going into effect in Europe.
  • Set up the JPL work order for Helena Armandula.
  • Prepared the RFP package for LLO to replace some pipes.
  • Completed expenditure type changes as requested.
  • Received the signed Release of Claims for CSIRO and completed close out of subcontract 1006029.

>From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman>

  • Three Equipment Fabrication Requests have been submitted 2 for the HVAC improvements for LDAS at the sites and one for the Pre Stabilized Laser.
  • Cost Transfer prepared per Terry Gunter's request to reclassify expenditure to PMA discretionary account.
  • Requested correction of expenditure type for p-card purchase inappropriately classified as Equipment.
  • Sent e-mail notifying Property Services department that p-card purchases should be aggregated in the property records because the purchases, even though made from different vendors, were part of the same system.
  • Updated projection for FY05 based on data through June 2005.
  • Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport. (For passwords contact Florence)

SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Jasnow, Salone)

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

  • Nothing significant to report.

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

  • No report (vacation).

SUPPORT (Baldon, Hiroto, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

  • Processed the paper work for thirty-six (36) new/revised trips.  At this time there are eight (8) trips completed but awaiting the necessary paper work to enter the P-Card system and five (5) new trips that need to be completed and ticketed before the paper work can be completed (hotel and car reservations made and prepaid by my P-Card as well as advance checks made out.  Assisted several LIGO people with their travel arrangements using their P-Cards and made several reservations for outside visitors coming to LIGO/Caltech or one of the LIGO sites.
  • Completed seven (7) Expense Reports and there are twenty-three (23) 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 five (5) reports more than 30 days old.  Travel Audit's new policy of accepting only original signatures seriously holds up the process of closing reports.  I have zero (0) reports awaiting signature at this time.  Reconciled seventy-eight (78) P-Card charges for the week requiring telephoning hotels and car rental agencies to verify which traveler used my card and for what amount.

>Julie Hiroto jhiroto@ligo.caltech.edu

  • Entered data for Annual Report updating on FastLane.
  • Updated existing web pages for Barry.  Reconciled previous travel reimbursements.  Met with outside departments as training resources.  Continued work on upcoming travel arrangements for Barry.

>Dorothy Lloyd

  • No report.
  • Jim continued with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

LIGO must submit an Annual Report for Operations by August 1, 2005 and this annual report must be accompanied by a request for a two year extension (FY 2007 and FY 2008) as well as a justification for supplemental funding.  The final draft of the Annual Report is being entered into FastLane.  We are working on the Proposal for an Extension and Supplement.

DCC Steering Committee (Lindquist)

We met this week to discuss current status and plans after having had several weeks without a meeting.  The committee is basically ready to make a recommendation to the executive committee.  Linda Turner is preparing a written summary of the document management committee’s findings and recommendation.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

  • Change Request CR-050007 requesting additional funding for power and HVAC for LDAS at the sites has been distributed and will be discussed during the executive committee meeting on Monday, July 25, 2005.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

  • The next Staffing Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 29, 2005.
  • A Staffing Committee meeting was held on Monday, July 18.  The minutes and action items from that Staffing Committee meeting have been posted on the SC web page.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

Nothing significant to report for Safety and QA (I've been sick).

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

Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (Landry)

A decision on when to open the gate valves on the 4k vertex will be made next Monday.  Four ion pumps are speeding the reduction in pressure, currently at 5e-8 Torr.

4K IFO

  • progress on photon calibrators: EX was reinstalled after a layout change, and access control sorted out.  Note that as per EY, arm cavity baffle structures occult a beam centered on the ETM, so that the PC laser has to land about 4cm off-center of the end test mass.

2K IFO

  • Work on the 2k has restored some of the lost binary inspiral range.  The placement of a black glass beam dump on an ISCT9 periscope restored us back to 2.9Mpc.  Tuning of MICH and PRC loops brought us further, to 3.3Mpc.  Note that Sensemon ranges are out of date, and new response and sensing functions will be produced shortly - but this week saw the best binary inspiral ranges achieved on the 2k, those on the order of 4.6Mpc (from Autocal and NoiseModel).  The above-noted tuning of MICH and PRC loops involved offloading some of the long-term alignment drifts of the FM's onto the BS and RM.  The 4.6Mpc noise spectrum is better than S4, partly due to the recent oscillator change, plus double the power since February (now, 3W into the MC, whereas during S4 we were at 1.4W).
  • Thermal compensation (TCS) work: the servo works on a stable, reasonable 2k IFO, in the sense that it maintains a constant calibration line amplitude.  Inspiral ranges with TCS were variable.  Later in the week, we ran without TCS and things improved - ranges were more stable.
  • Absolutely no singing in the mid-stations: acoustic coupling and failed 'pinky tests' (where the tester gives a light pinky-push to transmission monitor piers, etc) suggested the midstations as noisy coupling sites.  Multiple scattered light sites were found in the midstation end-test mass monitor QPD boxes.  Beams were dumped and the noise improved.  As noted above, ranges in excess of 4.5Mpc have been recorded e.g. this link (an aside: the recently modified 2k strain goal yields a BI range of 8.8Mpc; scaling the 4k S5 goal/SRD (10Mpc/13.9Mpc) gives 6.3Mpc as an informal 2k target for S5 (although there is no formal goal for H2 for the run).  Coherence between AS_Q and the QPDs, before and after dumping the stray beams, were recorded, showing excellent improvements at acoustic frequencies.
  • photon calibrator work: access control was readied, other progress was summarized, 
  • The laser down for a while for 7kHz peak hunt , still awaiting result as IFO to relock in low noise.  More on this peak.
  • The REFL 2 path on ISCT7 was reworked.  The REFL LO was found to be trouble

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

L1 Interferometer (Frolov)

Interferometer running is still limited by undiagnosed angular control instability.  Low-noise mode can be gained with 3 W input power, but one to two hours after acquisition the alignment drifts and the alignment controls can't keep up with it. Diagnostics in progress.

The input test mass angular control bias modules were found to have an intermittent failure mode which came from insufficient protection of the PA85 amplifier. Modifications were made to the bias electronics to eliminate this problem.

##MZ An ECN is being prepared to prescribe tests/mitigation for this failure mode at LHO##

The 5 V power supply for the length and angle sensing and control electronics was reworked once again to remove oscillations.

The Mode Cleaner WFS slow relief servo was commissioned. This servo keeps the input beam aligned to the MC at DC when the input power is low. When power is increased above 1 W the MC axis is aligned to the input beam to counteracts the radiation pressure.

Education and Outreach (Thacker)

Conducted education outreach to two summer camp groups Provided professional development to 15 middle school science teachers.

Site Safety and Security (Riesen)

No report.

LLO General Computing and LIGO Computing Security (Roddy)

No report.

HPLF, Optics Modeling, Data Analysis and L1 Commissioning (Franzen)

1)      HPLF: The staff of IPG Photonics could not find any problem with the 100 W laser. They continue to test it and will also performed some maintenance before shipping it back to us.

2)      Have been testing the MC WFS relief code.

3)      Briefly discussed the REFL port beam stabilization system with Rolf Bork who is visiting LLO. Ordered black glass from Edmund Optics which will be used to reduce back reflection of the transmitted part of the beam passing through the periscope mirrors.

Mechanical Engineering (Spjeld)

AdL Quad SUS Installation Fixtures

  • Completing manufacturing drawings

AdL SEI Engineering

  • Working with Mike Pedraza on checking in ASI documents to vault

LIGO Outreach Building - Pendulum Exhibit

  • Had to redesign slightly due to interference with support structure
  • Completing design illustrations
  • Working on manufacturing drawings for quote

General Engineering

  • Checking new HAM door removal tooling in SW assembly

CDS code  (Khan)

1)      Helping Sam and Valera in implementing the Bull's eye detector. THe pico motor controller part has been added to the l1iool0 and database portion has been added to the l1ascauxl0.

2)      Working with Rolf on CDS upgrade.

LDAS/Condor Sysadmin and Burst Analysis (Yakushin)

The interferometer running is still limited by the angular control instability.  The low noise mode can be gained with 3 W input power but for time period of one to two hours after that the alignment drifts and the alignment controls can't keep up with it.  The input test mass angular control bias modules were found to have an intermittent failure mode which came from insufficient protection of the PA85 amplifier. The modifications were made to the bias electronics to eliminate this problem.

The 5 V power supply for the length and angle sensing and control electronics was reworked once again to remove the oscillation.

The Mode Cleaner WFS slow relief servo was commissioned. This servo keeps the input beam aligned to the MC at DC when the input power is low. When power is increased above 1 W the MC axis is aligned to the input beam to counteract the radiation pressure.

Initial LIGO Detector Science & Engineering (Coyne)

CDS

see also the CDS weekly meeting minutes in the commissioning archives

CDS Software

Rolf Bork

  • Installed new HEPI software at LLO this week. The new software incorporates tilt correction feedback.
  • Updated all the front end code at LLO to include the latest library revisions, including "bumpless" filter coeff reload. Also updated the ASC/IOO code with the PIN ramping feature.

CDS Hardware

Jay Heefner

Refl Beam Stabilization: Began putting together the software for the LLO beam stabilization system.

Ben Abbott

LSC RFPD: I'm expecting the boxes for the RFPDs to arrive any day now. The boards will be sent off for stuffing shortly.

DMT

John Zweizig

This week I brought up the new V40Z DMT machines at LHO and installed the development environment and DMT software for the new architecture. The current DMT version was tagged gds-2.10.4. In addition to adding the new machines, the LHO GDS (broadcast) network was upgraded to use Jumbo ethernet frames (this required replacing the switch and the network interface cards on all the GDSnet machines) and the DMT cluster was reconfigured for better security and reliability.

PSL

PeterKing

I have been having some problems with a high voltage amplifier due to a few mis-stuffed parts and a solder bridge.  These were corrected and the amplifier now works as expected, although the output voltage noise is a little higher than what I had expected.

ITM07 Optic

Helena Armandula

We can capture images from the dark field microscope once again. The video camera needs to be replaced.  At this time, we have one on loan from the vendor for a few weeks until we procure a new one.  Since the camera model changed, we'll need some new adapters also. Waiting for an estimate.

Baffle Inspection: I inspected the glass baffle and I did see a film. The film looks more like stains, it was not even and, I am sure, the result of cleaning.  I see this effect when a solvent does not dry properly.  These defects are seen on both sides of the glass.  Some are prominent, some more subdued.  Dust is also observed, not in the same amount as seen on the mirror, because, the wrapping used for shipping removed quite a bit of it.

ITM07

An account has been set with the Analytical Chemistry Lab at JPL to perform FTIR analysis on the mirror's surface.

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

IFO commissioning

  • Rana, Rob, Ryan, Seiji and Osamu measured the contribution of frequency noise to TRX when the IFO is locked with DRMI+2arm with DC-offset on CARM. Coherence is pretty close to 1 around 20Hz and 100Hz. This can be a cause of losing lock when the CARM offset is reduced. Steve and Osamu checked the contribution to frequency noise from the Mach-Zehnder, and found it to be not significant. Effort is now going in to reducing the frequency noise by implementing a common mode servo.
  • Rana discovered that the common mode servo "was doomed" because the PSL frequency stability pickoff was misaligned through thr AOM. He and Osamu realigned the beam through the EOM and AOM to the reference cavity, ensuring that the beam was double-passed through the AOM as it should be. They then readjusted the gains on the PMC and FSS servos. The MC is now locking fine, and Osamu is working on the common mode servo.
  • Rob, Rana and Osamu made a script called 'c1_cmstep' to switch off CARM and handover control of L+ to the LSC-MC path. It seems to work, but is not very stable; work ongoing.
  • The X arm has always been noiser than the Y arm. Osamu measured the fluctuations are 3 to 8 times noisier than Y arm below 10Hz. This suggests that the damping of ITMX or ETMX is not performing well, or maybe the seismic noise is much worse (directionality).
  • Steve, Rana, Ryan and Osamu tried tilting the optical table on which ITMX sits. The three ITMX stack legs, which were on Stacis, were put on hard supports instead. Small (~0.5 mm) adjustments were made of the leg heights to tilt the stack and bring the sensor values to with in nominal (0.8-0.9). The X arm noise did not improve significantly.
  • Dan shut down the damping of all the suspensions for a night and took new data on the suspension frequencies. There was no significant change to the frequencies of the ITMX modes after the stack was tilted.
  • David Blair and Ju Li compared the Xarm noise as seen at C1:LSC-XARM_OUT with and without the side OSEM damping. The Xarm noise is distinctly larger than Yarm below about 10Hz and it was unchanged. This conclusively proves that the excess noise in the X-arm is not caused by cross coupling of the side OSEM.

IFO modeling and DC detection development

  • There has been lots of work on the design of the DC readout system for the 40m, in praparation for a design review.
  • Ben Abbott is proceeding with the design of the in-vac DC photodiodes, including the mounts (working with Mike Smith) and the in-vac electronics (working with Rana to be sure that it's appropriate for the currently envisioned needs).
  • Jay prepared a block diagram of the electronics required for the DC readout system. Most of the controls uses existing spare channels in our front-end system and EPICS system.
  • Ben sent off the gerber files to PCB Express for the Piezo-Jena adapter boards for the in-vac PZTs that will be coming in the near future. These are the same files as were sent off for the boards currently installed on the in-vac steering PZTs.
  • Rob and Marcus, along with Alan and Mike Smith, have developed the top-level design parameters for the output mode cleaner, including the length, layout, ROC of the curved mirror, finesse, etc.
  • Mike Smith is proceeding with the design, and preparation of POs, for the two in-vac PZT steering mirrors, output mode matching telescope (OMMT), output mode cleaner (OMC), mounts for in-vac DC photodiodes, and auxiliary in-vac optics.
  • We had a review of the plans for DC readout at the 40m. Slides are here, in ppt and pdf.
    The review committee chair, Ken Strain, is assembling the report. The biggest concerns were about losses and scattering in the optical components, especially the choice of CVI mirrors for the output mode cleaner (they are higher loss and higher scattering than REO mirrors, but require a much shorter lead time and are much less expensive). A common refrain was: OK, try doing something cheap and quick, learn your lessons, then do it better in a next iteration.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

No report.

LASTI (Ottaway)

SOS Test Cavity

This week we spend some time resurrecting our mini-test cavity. This will be used to confirm the frequency noise performance of the PSL and will start the build-up of control systems for the QND measurements using ponderomtotive squeezing. A saturation problem was identified in one of the SOS controllers. This will need additional study to determine its cause.

Modal and Estimator Control (Ruet)

I have finished to write the document about the modal control and estimator loop (The idea we had to reduce the re-injected sensor noise in advanced LIGO suspensions). I am waiting for comment from some readers before I can make it a bit more official.

HAM Chamber Characterization (Ruet)

I have now started working on the HAM 10 Hz noise enhancement. We know this noise is very likely coming from the crossbeam (it has been measured and tested here in LASTI). I am now working on FEA for the gallwings to see if we can identify the problem in siumation and know how to improve the design. So far I have trouble with the software and the meshing, the software works a lot easier with solid elements but those are really inaccurate to analyze thin elements like the gallwing's walls. It works a lot better with plate meshing but in that case I have trouble to make a complete simulation with the tubes...So far it's either one or the other, with advantages and drawbacks for both. I am still working on it.

Data Analysis and Computing (Anderson for Lazzarini)

Data Analysis Activities (Anderson)

(Greg Mendell)

I have been working with Joe Betzwieser and Mike Landry to track down the one Hz harmonics found in the S4 LHO and LLO data. A report will be given at next Tuesdays PULG telecon. The next StackSlide code review is Friday, July 22, at 9:15 PDT.

(Igor Yakushin)

1)      Processed SG18 and SG19 MDC frames with waveburst and discovered that there is a problem with them: wrong hrss, wrong beam pattern coefficients. PSU group is working to correct MDC frames.

2)      Trying to understand why we observe high variability of noise in LIGO-GEO waveburst triggers.

(Philip Charlton)

  • Fixed a parsing bug and some memory leaks in the metaio library.  Extended and updated documentation for metaio and added more tests.
  • Made new post-processing Matlab script for the stochastic analysis which reads in the same parameter file and job file used by the analysis, so that we will always use a consistent set of parameters. Have started testing the new pipeline with new V7 segment list using Xavi's calibrated strain frame files.

(Shourov Chatterji)

  • Extending Q Pipeline code to allow more robust consistency tests for the S3/S4 double coincidence H1/H2 analysis.
  • Continued targeted sky search code development with S. Hormoz and coherent network analysis code development with P. Sutton, A. Searle, L. Stein, and M. Tinto.
  • Participated in kleineWelle code review with L. Blackburn, A. DeCridico, J. Zweizig, and E. Katsvanounidis.

(Patrick Sutton)

Good news:  I posted the LIGO-TAMA S2-DT9 un-triggered bursts search paper to gr-qc/0507081.  I've spent the rest of the week working on efficient choices of sky positions to test in the coherent network analysis problem, and in getting Maria Principe (new SURF student) started on making a network simulation package.

(Antony Searle)

Seminar preparation and delivery took up some time this week. Pipeline significantly optimised, now runs about 20x faster than original  version.  Several optimisations still being worked on, including sky maps facilitating the reuse of expensive timeshifts, and trying a range alternative timeshifting implementation ideas.

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)

Code Developments

(Hiro)

  • Modeler: Resumed code development of the fast version of the dual recycling module.
  • FFT: Resumed the design of the major revision of the FFT program to be used for the advanced LIGO simulation.

Alfi

(Melody) Continuing with fixing the Problem Reports (PRs).  Fixed PRs 460, 467, and 470. Investigating possible solutions for PR 483 - "check into new way to display java remotely"

LDAS Software Systems (Blackburn)

LDAS

The GPSTime information used by LDAS has been updated for the leap second on January 1, 2006 (PR#2856). This includes modifications to the General::GPSTime class and leapsecond file used by cmonClient.

The blindness to files on /archive file system has been resolved (PR#2722). The fix required releasing a mutex lock when opening of a directory failed. An issue with unbalanced curly braces was also resolved.

LCDG upgrades:

1)      OpenSSL was upgraded to version 0.9.8.

2)      lftp was upgraded to version 3.2.1.

3)      FrameL was upgraded to version 6r19.

4)      FireFox was upgraded to version 1.0.5.

Currently working on failures experienced by Greg Mendel while testing his createrds script on ldas-dev.

cmonClient - closed PR2874 - submit button on a loop test did not reset from cancel. Force deletion of a job directory if  it fails to work around file system problem on dev.

datacondAPI - fixed cleaning of defunctJobs if there are no active jobs in manager.

diskcacheAPI - closed PR 2855 - do not send duplicate email with the specified time limit

frameAPI - fixed cleaning of defunctJobs if there are no active jobs in manager.

System and Integration Testing: ran system test for ldas build 1.6.36 and updated test results to dev and cvs. Fixed fracc6.tcl verification for Proc tRange data. Got a set of results with fr2ilwd by generating file files with one set of data type via FrSample.

Wrote up resource file PR for mpiAPI for use of FC3 LAM. Updated tandem-iii and tandem-iv mpi resource to use FC3 LAM.

TCLGLOBUS

Completed GASS Copy documentation (Robodoc & tutorial).

Globus GASS Transfer

1)      A total of 64 functions from globus_gass_transfer.h

2)      11 functions associated with buffer management have been SWIG-wrapped manually.

Still writing Tcl test cases to exercise synchronous and asynchronous GASS Transfer but/get/send_bytes/receive_bytes functions.

OSG

Worked with the GriPhyN-LIGO team to port the inspiral search code onto the OSG. Significant progress was made with running the code on OSG, though a few issues still remain. It was tremendously rewarding to see a LIGO Science Collaboration search code utilizing computer cycles at Atlas, CMS, and other OSG grid sites.

For the OSG Consortium Meeting and OSG  Roll Out of July 20, the test bed  site was verified in compliance with OSG requirements as determined by the site_verify script run locally. The resource provider form was submitted to the OSG for the test bed site. OSG personnel added the test bed site to the OSG ITB web page and configured the GridCat application for remote testing. GridCat indicates that the Globus gatekeeper, gsiftp and Condor are available and that the proper locations for shared file systems are published.

Debugged several Virtual Organization credential problems including duplicate credentials for one individual added to a VOMS server and an incorrect X.509 certificate being used by a LIGO investigator. This indicates a need for a software daemon that daily examines both the gatekeeper log and the tomcat Voms log to determine authentication failure events due to credential problems. This software could be of significant value in reducing Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) in these instances.

Used VRVS conference framework and OSG power point presentations for remote listening to plenary sessions of the OSG Consortium meeting.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

  • Assisted in converting LHO's /dmt to use md devices.  This is the last QFS filesystem that needed this change.
  • Cleaned up old fibres and in Booth.
  • Mounted /archive on samtest.
  • Moved /archive/S2 to /archive/frames/S2, fixed up pfns in RLS.
  • Moved /archive/postS3 to /archive/frames/A3.
  • Continued to replace failing 3510 disks at CIT as fast as Sun can ship them.
  • Cleaned up after node190 failure (recopied S4 L1 data, started md5sum'ing the other frame data on the node).
  • Provided some assistance for LLO's fb0_frames 3510 upgrade.

(Phil Ehrens)

  • Installed new RMA motherboard into LDAS-CIT node 267 and returned it to the cluster. Returned LDAS-TEST node 4 to the LDAS-TEST cluster (it had been serving as LDAS-CIT node267 while that machine was out of service).
  • Finished testing dimm's using LDAS-TEST node 8 and returned it to the cluster.  6 512MB dimms were returned to Transcend under warranty.
  • Transferred 5 computers and 2 monitors to Ed Chargois for disposal.
  • Cleaned up shelves in Millikan 6th floor equipt room and moved several out-of-service computers to the shelves in that room.
  • Added second HD to machine 'dziban' and moved it to the Millikan 6th floor equipt room, placing it on UPS power.  Dziban is our Subversion (svn) server.  This machine was formerly under my desk.
  • Presented a box full of 10-40 Gb Hard Drives to Larry Wallace. These drives were stripped from the computers that were marked for disposal. The memory dimms from the computers marked for disposal were added to desktop machines in Millikan.
  • Various cluster related admin tasks. 4 drives were replaced within the last week!
  • Minor code written for LDAS to support use of Fedora Core LAM rpm based install.
  • Supported Duncan Brown's OSG (?) demonstration prep on machine kitalpha.

(Stuart Anderson)

  • Reconnected samtest to the SAN for Solaris10 testing of SAM-QFS after a broken fiber pair between Bridge and Booth was repaired.
  • Working on various LDAS hardware upgrade plans.
  • Reported a few more Condor problems.
  • Started discussing LIGO/CACR/TeraVoxel collaboration in light of Terragrid leaving Caltech.
  • Tracking widespread problem with FC3 2.6.12 kernel failing to boot on SMP machines, e.g., https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=163437
  • Helping to coordinate LDAS-1.7.0 release and transition to FC3 version of LAM.
  • Finished move cluster users home directories from IDE-RAID to SAM-QFS.

MIT

(Keith Bayer)

  • Reviewing computer situation in NW17-017 w/r/t new cluster nodes from Caltech.
  • Giving up on 2 7500 ATA 3Ware cards in pcraid3 - request either the purchase of new ATA cards or upgrade to SATA and purchase SATA drives.
  • Installed (and rebooted) new packages on ldas-grid

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

  • Discussing with Mike, Allen, Rusyl, Joe, Shannon, Stuart and Albert the LDAS upgrade plan at LLO;
  • Upgraded SES, controller firmware and disk firmware on CDS 3510 unit; the first two attempts to do so failed because the baud rate on the 3510's serial port was set to an unexpected value.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

  • I am currently working with LDAS to test createRDS jobs in anticipation of the upcoming new release of LDAS.

(Ben Johnson)

  • Replaced one bad T3 disk.
  • Move of ldas-pcdev1 to the new server will be complete today.
  • Moved the 3 biggest users of /dso-test to /archive/home this week.  The moves went smoothly.
  • Helped out move from postS3 to frames/postS3 naming scheme at the 3 labs.
  • Completed remake of /dmt filesystem. It now supports small files.
  • Helped Greg Debug some condor DAG log file problems. Apparently, the code and/or Linux kernel and/or Solaris NFS now explicitly states that condor dagman can't get a proper lock on the log files now, when they're mounted on an NFS filesystem.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT:

(Keith)

  • Worked on print spooler (lprng) and trouble handling text documents experimenting with the built-in filter 'ifhp' along with external 'file' code that can handle stdin files (Solaris /bin/file cannot)
  • Continuing work on spamd e-mail filter

Livingston:

(Shannon)

Will report next 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
  • This has been a busy week concerning the upcoming network upgrade.  PNNL reports that they have already tested their new hardware and fiber and everything seems to be stable.  PNNL will be ready to start testing the Ligo connection in mid Aug.  I asked that this be postponed until after the LSC meeting.  Several options for a backup network have emerged.  I'm currently talking with ESnet about IP addresses.  ESnet will not allow their IP addresses to be announced over a commercial ISP, however they will allow the IP addresses of an ISP to be announced over the ESnet network.  Still waiting for a formal quote and proposal from PNNL for the primary network connection.
  • Spent some time trying to get going with the new TechMart purchasing system.
  • Configuring a NAT router to be used at the LSC.  I'm also replacing the wireless access points in the auditorium.

CIT:

(Christian)

  • East Bridge: setup computers for new temp users that started this week. Also moved fax/scanner from 3 floor to basement.
  • Millikan: replaced 3 toner cartridges on HP 5000n printer.
  • Synchrotron: Inventory of computers and updated the LIGO IP & Inventory Database.
  • 40 Meter:  Inventory of computers and updated the Ligo IP & Inventory Database.
  • RMA'd two hard drives back to the manufacture for replacement. Both drives had bad sectors and couldn't be formatted.  Other misc. onsite software/phone support.

(Mike)

  • Synchrotron: Worked on surf student workstations trying to get a Data Acquisition cards to work. I tried loading these cards on an XP installation, and got no where. I ended up loading win 2000 with the current drivers from National Instruments, and making some modifications to the registry, which worked.
  • Surf Students: setting up user accounts, trouble shooting network, email, and software issues.
  • Barry Barish: Worked on his backup laptop trying to fix a hardware issue.  I ended up swapping out the hard disk to another IBM that is almost identical to what he had. Backed up his new laptop, but came across some bad sectors which made it very difficult to backup. I successfully manage to complete this backup.  I will have to get his drive replaced. Larry ordered an additional drive with the unit, however, it is on back order.
  • Bridge Annex Server Room: Larry and I swapped out a two UPS, and moved DHCP125 into the server room.  I also re-routed some network cables.
  • Spam filters: Working the spam filters with Larry.
  • Ken Mailand: His workstation is having a hardware issue. This looks like the hard disk is dying. I was able to get his drive to startup again which allowed Ken back up his data. I am currently trying to get a ghost image of his drive to dump to another drive. This is an on going project.
  • Ed Chargois: I gave Ed a hand getting surplus equipment ready for transportation to pick up.
  • Printers: Took an inventory of all printers to restock print cartridges and other supplies. I placed an order with Gina Salone.
  • Other misc. user/phone support.

(Veronica)

  • LIGO:  High-resolution images for a publisher.  Roster database updates.  Website updates.  Video compression /conversion per user request.  Other web-related user support.
  • LSC:  Posted new MOU templates, papers for review.  Other website updates.  August meeting website updates, online registration application troubleshooting and updates.
  • Project Science:  Issues related to migrating the website to be hosted at ITS.
  • CaJAGWR:  User support.

(Larry)

  • Purchasing activities have varied this week. Reconciliation, had a few items that took a couple of hours to get worked out to get the numbers to match.  Purchased a number of cables, mice and other items in support of existing equipment.  Cleared up a printer cartridge order for Mike.
  • Finally, HP is sending out a replacement part for a printer. Evidently, even after the warranty paperwork is sent in, it still takes a couple of weeks for it to get through their system.  Anyway, the printer for the 40M should be fixed by next week.
  • Still working air-conditioning issues. It looks like it will be awhile before we have any resolution on that situation.
  • Cleared up a few issues in the sub-basement labs. They are setup to get a edge-switch installed.   Fixed a couple of the PC's and got the network connection going on one by resetting the configuration of the unit.
  • Assisted a number of SURF students with different applications. Also, continuing work on getting their computers configured for the work they are doing.
  • Setup a number of new user accounts for visitors and more SURF students.
  • Assisted Mike and Christian with a number of different PC related items.
  • Assisted the DCC with the temporary scanning setup.  Also, still working with the committee to determine the new DCC s/w package to be used.
  • Reconfigured a couple of server systems while swapping out the UPS units and the batteries of a UPS in the server room.  During the swap out discovered that a couple of servers are starting to have problems and will need to be replaced in the not too far future.

 

Mail Statistics

July 14-20, 2005

Rejected Messages

22,157

Virus Messages

437

False Positives

212

Accepted Messages

12,227

Total Messages

34,494

 

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Suspension

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

Advanced LIGO Suspensions

Ian Wilmut and Joe O'Dell from RAL joined us this last week to support the build of the quadruple pendulum suspension. We thank them for their visit. As they had to leave yesterday afternoon, we pushed the machine shops to provide us with the necessary parts to assemble the entire quad suspension. We suspended the masses for a short time. You can see the quad in the clean room on the video cam at:  http://131.215.114.242/view/index.shtml

Other pictures of the quad being built may be found at:

http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~ctorrie/pictures/QUAD%20JULY%2018th%202005/QuadJULY18th2005.html

http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~ctorrie/pictures/QUAD%20JULY%209th%202005/QuadJULY9th2005.html

Stuart Aston from the University of Birmingham will be joining us on Monday for wiring of the electrostatic drive and setting up the cabling for the osems, global and local. Bob Taylor will also be supporting.

The spacer parts for the LASTI mode cleaner should be ready tomorrow. I'll bring them to Bob for cleaning and baking. I'll send them to MIT after that. The spacer is used to bring the optic up to quad optic height.

Last thursday, I had a meeting with Carol and Caroline on the suspension schedule update.

From: ctorrie ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu

 

From: Ken mailand kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu

 

From: Jay Heefner <jay@ligo.caltech.edu>

AdL SUS

  • Began system layout drawings for possible LASTI quad controls in light of last week's AdL CDS architecture discussions.

AdL SEI

  • Received GS-13 pre-amp boards. Now waiting for a decision as to what amplifier configuration to use.
  • Received remaining 10 capacitive position sensors and amplifiers from ADE following upgrade.
  • Continued low frequency noise testing of the first 4 capacitive position sensors and amps.

Pre-Stabilized Laser

From: Peter King pking@ligo.caltech.edu

AdvLIGO PSL

I received information from JenOptik about the particular laser diodes used by LZH in the 200-W laser.  There are now two variants, a 30-W model and a 45-W model.  The small quantity price is approximately 2600 euros for the lower power version.

Shally Saraf informed me that the output power of the laser on loan to Stanford is now approximately 6 W.  He wanted to know what to do in order to increase the power back up to 10 W, other than the brute force solution of increasing the power amplifier diode current.  The last time we looked at the laser was just over 3 years ago when the output power was 10 W.  There is still plenty of margin left on both the NPRO diode current and the amplifier diode current.

Auxiliary Optics

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

OPTLEV

Aabeg has aligned the beam through the Oplev 3, 14meter EFL receiver lens assembly. He measured the output spot size with a beam scanner. The output spot size is too large, and will be reduced by reducing the input beam size with a beam reducing telescope. Ben Abbott is in the process of providing the QPD read-out electronics.

SLC

Shasta has aligned the the BRDF apparatus. The AOM driver failed and Peter King repaired it. Peter is helping her with the amplitude modulation of the AOM output beam.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Riccardo DeSalvo desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu

Riccardo

Preparing the bid requests for the production of the LASTI OMC HAM SAS system.  Looking into the control problems with the help of Valerio Boschi and Virgo experts.

Juri

I calculated the diffraction losses of the first twenty modes of a Fabry-Perot cavity with Mexican hat mirrors using numerical solutions of the eigenmodes equation for a cavity with arbitrary cylindrically symmetric mirrors. I used the same program with spherical mirrors in order to evaluate the difference between the “real” diffraction losses and that found using the clipping approximation on the Laguerre-Gauss or Hermite-Gauss expressions of the higher order modes of a spherical resonator. The results show that using the nominal parameters for Advanced-LIGO spherical mirrors and using Mexican hat mirrors which support a fundamental Mesa beam with the same diffraction losses, the higher order modes of the Mexican hat mirrors cavity have smaller (even more than one order of magnitude) diffraction losses. Now I’m studying the generalization of the ABCD propagation law for general optical beam (Belanger et al.) in order to apply this formalism to our Mesa beam experiment.

Francesca

In order to apply the Real Time control PID to Maddalena’s thesis GAS filter system I tested a Labview program simulating the input voltage of a LVDT with a voltage generator, and reading the computer generated output voltage with an oscilloscope. I modified and run this program in order to obtain the desiderate results. I found that Lab View is able to make a real time control under 1 KHz (provided the computer is not running other programs, if its only priority is to acquire and control the LVDT voltage). During the test, we observed that the output signal was much too noisy, we think that the a bit in the DAC acquisition computer card is blasted, and so I will have to change it.

Chiara

I’m working on the mechanical set-up for the test of horizontal attenuation system with four inverted pendula. In order to better excite the system I’ll put under the bottom level of the apparatus the three old “legs” obtained from the three inverted pendula used in the first test. Now I’m making aluminum safety supports for these IP legs.

Marco (19Jul)

Coupling efficiency measurements were very affected by misalignments: we have not been able to recover any cylindrical symmetry in the resonating beam yet. Maximum coupling is about 20%, but it was achieved by different transverse beam patterns. Thus, we are continuing these measurements in the lab.

John

I’m using various methods to determine the finesse of the cavity from experimental data. These include fitting the Airy function to cavity spectra and analyzing properties of the mirrors.

The computer in the OTF was damaged this week and all data was lost - including our LabVIEW data acquisition program. I have written an upgraded version which displays real time data and allows us to perform frequency analyses in the lab. This will be beneficial if structural resonances are to be studied in the future.

The previously designed mode-matching telescope did not form a practical solution. The alignment tolerances of the lenses were too small. Having discussed the problem with Mike Smith I am now working on a new solution.

Justin, Sean:

(last week report)

This week we have continued working on the 3D ANSYS analysis of the complete system including both flex joints, the intermediate mass, and the test mass. We have also been preparing for the experimental tests of the mono-crystalline silicon flex joints.

Bill Johnson last week reported to us that reanalyzing our own Q-factor data in LM001, he found the losses completely compatible with 1000 ppm of Hydrogen into the zirconium of the alloy, which is natural to be there. He knows how to get it out of there, or use a non hydrogen adsorbing formula (platinum instead of zyrconium) so he anticipated a possible increase of Q factor of one, two or even more orders of magnitude.

Jan Schroers offered to test on our blades a new technique of pressure molding a LM001-like glassy metal. A technique that would allow fabrication of springs of any size, up to tons if needed. We will test soon tha blades that he will try out for us.

Anamaria and David:

The glassy metal blades were assembled last week and we hung an amazing amount of weight on them. The approximate weights were 3.5kg for Cu-Be, 10kg for maraging, 20 for lm002 and 30 for lm001. We should receive the Lvdt's soon and then the setup will be complete.

Comment from Riccardo: Anamaria and David, you are right, this is amazing, even scary to see on 50 mm long blades. If you will measure smaller or equal losses and hysteresis than Maraging, and we confirm the theoretical expectations of negligible creep, this is the material of the future for the mid-level mirror suspensions.

Glenmary, Linden

This week I've basically been trying once again to set up labview. We got a new computer that works well. Linden and I have also been looking at Anamaria and Francesca's labview programs to see if they can help ours.  The hydraulic wiring is almost complete.

glennie

Alberto

The carbon fiber tubes have been delivered and now I'm just waiting for the pieces of the joints from the manufacturers. As I get them I will be able to begin assembling the arm. Meanwhile I'm trying to find the best way to mount it over the springs. I'm also making a rough estimate of the amount of counterweight I will need according to the kinematics involved in the system. Because of the measures I will have to do involve accelerometers, I'm checking in the existing literature about these instruments in order to get more ease with them.

Ilaria Taurasi and Maria Paola Clarizia joined us from Universita del Sannio in Benevento (innocenzo Pinto’s group.  Ilaria will work on Ansys simulations of IP legs as a warm up, and mirror thermal noise issues later.  MariaPaola will work on wireless controls of a stepping motor to be used at the top of the ad-LIGO quads to finely adjust the mirror pitch and null the DC current from the voice coil actuators.

For additional information about this report, contact Stan Whitcomb or Phil Lindquist