Weekly Report for Week Ending September 15, 2005

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday September 19, 2005 will be:

(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)  

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

Special Items:

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights

LSC Issues (Saulson)

No report

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

  • Received modifications to MOUs as requested by the Review Panel for the following: University of Texas at Brownsville, Trinity University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Pennsylvania State University, and IUCAA.

Non-LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

  • No report.

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

  • A site teleconference was held Thursday, September 15, 2005.  The following issues were discussed:
  • Budgetary Issues—budgets are being prepared for FY 2006.  We will need to identify what hardware budgeted in FY 2005 was procured or fabricated, what has not been purchased but will need to be carried forward into FY 2006, and what will never be procured.  We must also scrub FY 2006 procurements.  A number of people are currently involved in this review.
  • There are no open action assignments.  The list of assigned actions updated through September 01, 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>

  • Drafted a first-cut for the contract between LIGO-DCC and FileHold Systems, Inc. for attaining Synergy 4.0 and consulting services for the migration of the current DCC system and setup of the new system.
  • Typed in all the abstracts for electronic publications from 1951 through 1999.  This represented 150 abstracts.  Will hopefully finish the abstracts for the remaining electronic publications--2000 through 2005.  Following the electronic versions, will pull hardcopy publications that have an abstract and add those to the database.

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

  • Working on determining, which "P" documents in the DCC have 'abstracts' included within the document.  These abstracts are then being entered into the database by Linda.
  • Assisted in sending out two RFQ's for the Fabrication for Advanced LIGO Seismic Isolation System.
  • Assisted in sending out Time and Material Price Contract for the relocation of LDAS @ LLO.
  • Total volume of handling incoming/outgoing packages was much higher than normal..
  • Activity:

Week Ending

09/15/05

In

Out

Packages

33

19

Faxes

27

25

 

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Cronin, Brambila, Kaufman)

>From: "Cronin, Holly" <Holly.Cronin@caltech.edu>

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

  • Issued the order the purchase of the trailer for LLO and the corresponding wire transfer.
  • Working on the new order for the PBX telephone system for LIGO Hanford which is being completed today.
  • Working on reducing the number of blanket purchase orders that are soon to expire at the end of this month. It looks like we may be closing about 6 blanket orders that had very little activity within the last year. I have confirmed that all of the six vendors do accept Caltech's mastercard, and also one time purchase orders. It looks like we'll only be looking at extending the MCI blanket at this time.
  • Working on the new subcontract for the Time and Material contract with Excel for LLO.
  • Working on coordinating the renewals of the subcontracts expiring this fiscal year end.
  • The deadline for any FY2005 orders to be encumbered this fiscal year is tomorrow, Friday, September 16, 2005.

>From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman>

  • Indirect Costs which had improperly been assessed on SURF student charges and participant support costs have now been reversed.
  • Prepared a spreadsheet showing FY06 budget numbers compared to FY05 budgets at a summary level.
  • Prepared and sent out reports for the DIA Award, Conference Account at Hanford, US-India Award, Low Noise Award, MIT Grid Award, Visitor Award, and the discretionary accounts at Hanford and Livingston.
  • 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>

  • The low bidder for the LLO Science Education Center, Cangelosi-Ward, has revised his bid as a result of the revised specifications and drawings received from the architect, Eskew-Dumez-Ripple.  The proposed contract will be forwarded to the NSF for approval, with a letter explaining the cost growth and budget sheets showing the re-distribution of the Outreach funds.
  • Excel Corporation received their contract for the relocation of the LDAS equipment at LLO.
  • A travel trailer was procured for LLO due to the lack of available hotel or motel space in the Baton Rouge area due to Hurricane Katrina.  This trailer is temporary, and will be turned over to the GSA as surplus equipment when rooms become available.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Hiroto, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

  • Processed the paper work for two (2) new/revised trips.  At this time there are ten (10) trips completed or in the works but are awaiting the necessary paper work to enter the P-Card system.
  • Due to Hurricane Katrina there were several trips to LIGO/Livingston that were either completed or were in the works and needed to be canceled or rearranged.  All tickets were either refunded or applied to other trips and all car and hotel reservations were released.  I've been attempting to assist Janeen Romie with temporary housing until her Escrow closes but as of this writing the hotels in the Baton Rouge area are still not accepting any reservations due to the Louisiana Attorney General's order that Evacuees are to be housed before all reservations.
  • Completed twenty-six (26)Expense Reports and there are seven (7)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 four (4) reports more than thirty (30) days old.  I have two (2) reports awaiting signature at this time.  Worked on copying and recording all the expense reports completed last week to be sent to Travel Audit for final auditing and payment.

>Julie Hiroto jhiroto@ligo.caltech.edu

  • No report.

>Dorothy Lloyd

  • Monday and Tuesday I processed two weeks worth of invoices (all received while I was on vacation) for payment and followed up on problems. Updated contract invoice log for the period July 18 through August 26.
  • Processed requisitions for standard purchases and payment requests. 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)

Additional material for request for supplemental funding for Operations for FY 2007 and FY 2008 is in process.

DCC Steering Committee (Lindquist)

Purchase Orders fo new document management software, support, and the hardware to put it on are in process.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

  • No open change requests.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

  • No report, vacation.

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)

Some commissioning highlights are linked below:

4K IFO

  • there is no ezcableservo: the 4k REFL1 and REFL2 paths were rephased via hard wire.  The link includes some nice cookbook points for doing this, including pitfalls.  Additionally, SPOB was rephased, too
  • a glitch in the TCS power on the Y arm was coincident with a significant range drop; this may or may not be causal
  • the IOO WFS1 head was replaced and tuned
  • Sensemon, autocals and noise budget code yield very similar noise curves and binary inspiral ranges
  • [this bullet entry by Bill Kells, regarding testing of the ITMX that was removed from H1 in late June - ML] Another week, and another round of ITM07 HR absorption scans. The results quoted so far have been determined to be stable under changes in pump beam chopper fequency (= thermal diffusion length). Although on the low side, the scans we have taken, including a fair sampling of "hot spots" could be interpreted to be responsible for a large portion of the H1 thermal lensing. What we can say is that the hot spots we have identified do contribute a dominate fraction of the average HR surface absorption. Our calibration is, after all, too uncertain to conclude the true absolute average. Pinning this down will be next. -BK

2K IFO

  • the 7.7 New Ireland Papau New Guniea quake disrupted locking on Friday
  • the refurbished laser arrived on Monday.  It was installed successfully on Monday. Losing some power initially, it was stable and fully functional by Wednesday.
  • ISCT10 was refloated without impacting the binary inspiral range negatively.  Pressure changes causing the table to then drift were attributed to the effect of opening the door to the table and the subsequent temperature and pressure effects on the regulators.

DAQ and CDS

  • photon calibrator excitations were added to frames in preparation for S5
  • a mod to the new timing system has made it less sensitive to diurnal temperature variations

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

General: As reported last week and confirmed below, LLO is functioning normally. However the local housing infrastructure remains strained by the many families displaced by Hurricane Katrina. LLO has now secured *limited* temporary housing for mission-critical visitors, and has scheduled a few visits to resume at the end of the month. Please contact Mike with questions.

We are pleased to welcome Dwayne Giardina as our new network systems administrator. Dwayne comes from a background in networks and application development at MCI in Mississippi, and will be working with Shannon and Igor on general computing and LDAS cluster support.

L1 Interferometer (Frolov)

The interferometer's longest lock this week was almost seven hours. Inspiral range was 8 to 8.5 Mpc during that lock stretch. Day time locking was limited to short stretches no longer than 20 minutes, likely due to on site digging (water pipeline to connect our new well) and increased microseismic motion from Hurricane Ophelia in the Atlantic. This increased ground motion also caused one of the HEPI systems to trip several times a day over the last several days.

Other interferometer work this week:

  • started the installation of the anti-symmetric port dust covers. The covers were test assembled on the table to make marks for the cables and the beam, and to check for interference with other elements.
  • started commissioning of the reflected port active beam centering system. The hardware, which includes the PZT mounted mirrors and electronics, was first tested in the llo optics lab and then installed on the interferometer.  Characterization of the open and closed loop performance is underway.

CDS (Bogue)

  • Removed spurious 'H0' channels from the l1iscepics burt save request.  Confirmed that we now can burt restore l1iscepics with full success.
  • Worked with Mike Fyffe shuffling equipment in the MSR.  Because of this equipment move, l1iscepics, l1hepiepics, l1susepics and l1tcsepics were down for a while.  Worked with Tom Evans to get the front ends back up and cheery after these machines were brought back up.
  • Installed an LTO autoloader and 2 raid systems on llo1.  These are not yet configured.  I am currently testing all of the disks for the arrays to make sure they are good.
  • Because of the hardware change of control3 (due to hurricane) the CDS matlab licenses were not working.  Right now, matlab is using the GC licenses until I can migrate the CDS licenses.
  • Worked on a script to automate the control7 login process.

CDS Code Support (Khan)

  • Prepared the documentation for the L1ISC_Network, describing the reflective memory network loops present in the CDS system.
  • Updated the TCS Servo medm screens for the prepation of the TCS servo implementation.
  • Prepared Stat screens that include hepi tidal settings.

Education and Outreach (Zucker,Thacker)

Discussions with architects EDR and construction contractor regarding cost reductions for proposed SEC construction contract.

Site Safety and Security (Riesen)

  • Started Laser/Site safety orientation for Dwayne Giardina (including laser base line eye exam), and Janeen Romie.
  • A procedure for getting the LSS server operational after a computer crash has been written and now resides in the Operator's "How To" folder on the operators computer.  This is temporary until the new hardware and software has been installed.
  • Site security camera replacement parts have been ordered and are being directed to Mike Fyffe.
  • Found no concerns with either laser or site safety this period.
  • Volunteered to instruct CPR/first aid for the American Red Cross 2 afternoons for two weeks in light of their shortage of manpower after Hurricane Katrina.
  • The HPLF 100 watt laser has not been turned on since Katrina due to manpower needs with the IFO. A spare 100 watt laser should arrive within 2 weeks.

LLO General Computing (Dwayne Giardina-- Shannon is away)

Replacement of disk in Harry's laptop not successful, as image creation on external USB drive failed.  waiting on additional memory for this laptop.  will try to create image again after memory arrives.  Hopefully can start it Friday afternoon since it will take several hours.

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

  • Tested the Piezo Jena PZT mirror holders with 2 inch mirror mounted in the optics lab. Installed them on ISCT1. See the elog for details.
  • HPLF news: Due to the above activities I did not have time to run any HPLF tests. News is that IPG Photonics has almost finished the 100 W laser back-up system.

Mechanical Engineering (Spjeld)

  • dimensioning machine drawings for Quad SUS installation jig - finishing redesign of HAM door removal tool - converting remaining active project files to SW 2005 and resolving errors

LDAS/Condor Sysadmin and Burst Analysis (Yakushin)

Storage/Condor/LDAS admin:

  • Got a quote from StorageTek to help to move tape robot to the temporary location in the high bay. The most likely scenario is: StorageTek would remove tape drives and the extension door from the tape robot, secure the arm, put the robot on a pallet (which they provide, it has a ramp and holes to attach the tape robot with bolts). We rent a forklift that can reach all the way up to the second floor and use it to move the tape robot to the temporary LDAS location. StorageTek would reassemble the robot. As a backup solution I am also investigating the possibility for StorageTek to do a complete move including a forklift.
  • The most likely dates for the move to the temporary location are Sept 26-28. I have scheduled StorageTek to come on Monday, Sept 26 and the nodes to be moved from the warehouse to the site on the same day.
  • Firmware on tape robot have been upgraded to 3.09. Firmware on tape robot drives have been upgraded to 1.35.402.
  • Restored metaserver after the disk failure.
  • Got 1020 tapes for S5.
  • Spending time with Dwayne to get him started with LDAS part of his duties. In particular I'd like him to be responsible for monitoring and replacing all the disks in nodes and T3s.
  • Purchasing 2 year Gold contract for the FastIron 1500 network switch.
  • 3 failed disks in 3510 were replaced. No data loss or interruption.
  • Stored partition and disk images of linux servers in /archive/backup/images to simplify the recovery after a disk failure.

Data analysis:

Working on updating waveburst online infrastructure that was used in S4 to be ready for S5.

Initial LIGO Detector Science & Engineering (Coyne)

CDS

see also the CDS weekly meeting minutes in the commissioning archives

CDS Software

Rolf Bork

  • Revised Fast ADCU code is complete and installed at LHO. Daniel is going to test this new software.
  • Revised ADCU software to record excitation channels to photon calibrators. This code is now running on LHO 2K.
  • Revised ETM code, per Landry request, with additional filter bank for useismic control. This software, along with startup sequencing software loaded at LLO last month, will be loaded on LHO 4k on Monday.

CDS Hardware

Jay Heefner

Refl Beam Stabilization

  • One chassis has been tested and shipped to LLO for installation. It should arrive by 9/15. 2 more chassis are in process for LHO. They should be ready in 1 week.
  • All of the databases and screens have been completed for H1 and H2.
  • The epics filter module code has been compiled for H1 and H2.

Ben Abbott

LSC RFPD

  • Todd is stuffing boards to complete the delivery of new RFPDs to the sites.  He has been held up by some components that are discontinued.  The last of them arrived today, and will be stuffed this week.

Fast Shutter

The second prototype fast shutter was completed this week.  It is working well with ~66% attenuation happening in around 1.2 ms.  I will see what can be done to start reliability testing, and production on this type of unit.  ,

ISS PDs:

I've picked up the bodies from the anodizer, and have begun assembly of the three units that are needed at Hanford.

DMT

no report

PSL

nothing significant to report

4ITM07

GariLynn issued a report (T050178-00) for comment, with a brief summary of our findings to date regarding 4ITM07, the optic removed from H1, ITM-X position, in June 2005 due to high absorption. The document also contains urgent recommendations for further measurement at the observatory in order to isolate the cause of the absorption.

Helena Armandula

Tested the carrying aluminum case and shipping container of ITM07 to evaluate the possible contribution of the containers to mirror contamination.  The results are reported in T050175-00-D.

TCS

Ken Mailand

Cheryl received a quiet chiller flow meter mounting bracket at LHO and will set it up this week.

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

IFO commissioning:

  • Osamu has been working on locking the dual-recycled Michelson with one arm (DRMI+XARM, YARM blocked), since it should be much easier to lock than DRMI+DARM+CARM during the day.
  • He believes that the difficulties in acquiring lock are due to a considerable amount of excess noise on the XARM error signal (with DRMI locked), at the level of 1e-10 m RMS. After some work, he reduced the RMS noise by factor 10, to ~ 1e-11 m RMS. He estimates that locking the full IFO will require an additional reduction in RMS noise of a factor ~3.
  • There was considerable MC2 suspension noise around 16 Hz; reduced by reducing the MC length gain and applying a resonant gain stage in the XARM loop. Broadband noise and many peaks around 100 Hz also show up in the MCL error signal, probably due to PSL table vibrations; reduced somewhat be modifying the XARM loop filters. Many peaks which don't show up in the MCL error signal, presumably from vibrations of in-vac components in between MC and IFO (MMT, PZT mirrors).
  • After the reduction in XARM noise, Osamu was finally able to lock the XARM with a DC offset, switch to the RF signal from POX, smoothly reduce the XARM offset to zero, and resonate the beam in the XARM with the DRMI locked. The power buildup was in good agreement with what is expected from the model (including the arm losses as measured). The lock was fairly stable and lasted for 11 minutes, despite the trucks going by just outside. Next: try to do the same with the YARM, and then DARM+CARM.
  • Rob tried "kick & pull" locking Tuesday night. First he locks the dual-recycled Michelson (DRMI), then DARM (RF signal, no offset) and CARM (DC signal with offset). Then he turns off (holds) the DC CARM servo and turns on the RF CARM servo, gently kicks the CARM degree of freedom and then pulls it back to slow it down, and watches the signals (hoping that the RF CARM servo will catch and lock). No success, but lots of data to look at.
  • Dan and Monica are working on developing a noise budget for the 40m (building on Ryan's summer work).

IFO modeling:

  • Rob has employed his Finesse model to investigate what happens to the length control signals when the PRC is undercoupled (as appears to be the case for us). There is no significant qualitative change, but the signals all get smaller (ie, a gain reduction). He estimates that the observed arm reflectivity of 85% (which results in an undercoupled PRC with a gain of 5 instead of the design of 14) is consistent with round-trip losses of 200 ppm. Much larger than we'd hoped for, but not unbelievable.
  • Monica is working on her report for Advanced VIRGO. She'll be in Europe for STAIC and other meetings, in October.

DC detection development:

  • Following suggestions from the 40m team, Mike Smith has modified the ACad drawing of the in-vac beam paths in the DC readout beamline.
  • Mike has updated the parts list for the DC readout beamline, and is preparing quotes.
  • Alan has submitted a budget and schedule/milestones for the DC readout experiment, to Carol & David.
  • Mike and Helena are exploring options for obtaining quality mirrors for our output mode cleaner.
  • Jay is looking at the signal paths for the output mode cleaner sensing and control, and is beginning make some detailed drawings.

Electronics, controls:

  • Dan wrote up a how-to document on balancing the coils on our suspended optics (the ones that have oplevs).
  • Dan is working on implementing a script for suspension diagonalization (pos to angle and angle to pos) for our mode cleaner optics, using our MC length and angle sensors. This is important because Osamu has identified significant amounts of frequency noise and beam jitter arising from our mode cleaner suspensions.
  • Ben built an analog divider circuit for the CM servo, stuffed, tested and delivered earlier this week.
  • Ben got all of the RFPD DC signals that are acquired to come via the P2 backplane connectors in the LSC rack, rather than from separate cables from the PD, in an attempt to reduce 60Hz noise-producing ground loops. All the seaparate cables are disconnected and tagged.
  • Ben is making a bunch of ISS PDs, including spares for the 40m. He and Todd are preparing a bunch of RFPDs for the sites and for the 40m.
  • Ben continues to develop a fast beam shutter, for the sites (S5) and for the 40m. His 2nd prototype starts attenuating the beam in ~1.2 msec.
  • Jay is thinking about how to redo the (currently inadequate) power for the LSC rack.
  • Jay and Alex are repairing the CPU that we use for the suspension EPICS monitoring (c1losepics). We currently have a temporary CPU, which is not configured properly. He hopes to get the repaired system in, in the next few days.

Lab Infrastructure:

  • Steve says that our maglev turbopump will fail at any time (it is 15 years old) and is getting quotes for a replacement.
  • Our laser safety glasses disappear at an alarming rate (please return the one you took!). Steve is investigating inexpensive replacements.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

We have spent the past couple of weeks double checking our measurement of the loss angle in silica/doped-tantala coatings. Our initial conclusion that the loss angle in the coating is 1.3e-4 stands. This is slightly better than the expected value of 1.7e-4, but it is within the range of values expected, based on independent ringdown measurements of the mechanical Q's of similar samples.

LASTI (Ottaway)

LASTI Weekly

This week the remaining support table and the optics table were removed from the BSC chamber and we are currently planning on going to vacuum. The new dome stand support makes working in the crowded high bay considerably easier. Once we are under vacuum we will continue our final commissioning of the PSL.

Laurent and Rich are currently in Caltech preparing the second triple suspension for its re-location to LASTI and assisting with the shakedown of the Quad.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)

Weekly E2E Physics Meeting

Sany Yoshida presented his plan of work for SimAdLIGO (Seismic isolation, Triple/Quad suspension, Dual Recycled Michelson) and SimLIGO (Mode cleaner work, Violin dynamics) models of e2e.

E2E as Educational tool

Soumya Mohanty of Univ. of Texas at Brownsville is interested in using E2E and its GUI interface as an educational tool. Hiro, Biplab and Sany Yoshida supplied him related information and presentation materials related to such efforts, in particular, at SouthEastern Louisianna Univ.

Advanced LIGO Seismic Isolation

(Sany Yoshida) Continued working on e2e modeling of AdvLIGO seismic isolation. Looked at the BSC seismic model (state space representation) provided by Brian Lantz and confirmed that it can be incorporated in our e2e model. Converted Brian's ABCD (state space) matrix into ASCII format so that it can be included in an e2e file.

FFT studies

(Biplab) On request from Ju Li (Univ. of Western Australia) calculated diffraction losses for a few more modes. She needs such numbers for calculations of parametric amplifications.  Results from ordinary FFT with varying resolution and Adaptive-grid method of FFT calculations are being compared and analyzed.

Simulation of 40m Advanced Interferometer

(Monica) Characterization of the optical parameters for 40m arms is in progress: The estimation of the 40m relative mirror velocities (XARM and YARM) is done analyzing raw data of the transmitted light and the Pound-Drever signal at the symmetric port demodulated at 166 MHz. Two methods of velocity reconstruction are used and then the values obtained for mirror velocities are inserted in e2e simulation to compare the agreement between raw data and simulation.

Dual Recycled Michelson

(Sany Yoshida) Started a project to convert the scalar (plane wave) model of dual recycled Michelson developed by Hiro to a modal model. On campus of SLU, Ryuta Sasabayashi (a new SLU Master Course Student) collected related references to understand the basics about the modal model and dual recycled Michelson interferometer.

Alfi

(Bruce)

  • Testing JProfiler as a tool to enhance Alfi performance in general.
  • Researching and experimenting with graphics options in Java and Alfi in order to increase the speed of Alfi when being displayed remotely on an X server.

(Melody)

Continuing with fixing the Problem Reports (PRs).  Working on PR 474: view all windows in a miniature mode.  Finished first workable version of the feature.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

Mandic:

I studied the S4 H1L1 stochastic hardware injections. I identified a bug in the code used to calculate these injections, which introduced a delay in the injected signal at LLO as compared to the signal injected at LHO.  After correcting for this delay, the signal was successfully recovered.

With Peter Shawhan, we wrote the first version of the code to be used for the S5 hardware injections. The goal of this code is to inject the burst and inspiral signals continuously (injecting zeroes most of the time), using a predetermined schedule file.

I also started working with Lars Bildsten (and Stefan, Albert and Stan) on calculating the expected stochastic background from LMXBs.

Mendell:

I have completed and checked into LAL and LALapps, changes mentioned in last weeks report that speed up the StackSlide Monte Carlo simulations.

Specifically: 1. changed the SFTclean.* files in the LAL utilities package to fix a few minor bugs and a make random parameters variable the last argument to the LALCleanCOMPLEX8SFT function; 2. in the GeneratePulsarSignal.* files in the LAL inject package I added Dterms as a parameter to the LALFastGeneratePulsarSFTs function so that this now injects a fake signal onto a band 2*Dterms bins wide (rather than across the entire input SFT band) centered on the signal frequency in each SFT, in the same way as is done in LALDemod; 3. updated the StackSlide code to use the above changes in LAL, and added options to the weightFlag and testFlag that can speed up Monte Carlo Simulations. StackSlide users will need to update LAL next time they update the StackSlide code from LALApps CVS.

Mike Landry and I will meet with Peter Shawhan, Teviet Creighton, and Phil Willems at Caltech on Sept. 28 and 29, for a two day StackSlide code review F2F meeting. Progress of the reviews continues to be reported on this page (with the usual PULG access):

Shawhan:

  • Wrote LAL code to handle segments and segment lists.
  • Worked on revising the "state vector" and "science mode" logic with Dave Barker, Rick Savage, and Keith Riles.
  • Helped Vuk Mandic with preparations for S5 hardware injections.
  • Reviewed StackSlide pulsar analysis.
  • Modified SeqInsert to allow server and client to be on different computers, following discussions with John Zweizig about S5 DMT configuration.
  • Gave SURF student Sarah Caudill feedback on a draft of her final report.

Yakushin:

Working on updating waveburst online infrastructure that was used in S4 to be ready for S5.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Maros for Blackburn)

LDAS

The effort of compiling ldas for Solaris 10 and Fedora Core 4 continues. STLport 5 RC 5 has been compiled for both Solaris 10 and Fedora Core 4. The lam, xerces and Object Space libraries have been rebuilt using this version of STLport. The LDAS code base needed to be modified to adhere to the stricter definition of the STL library as specified in the C++ standard. The largest impact was with slice_arrays. Currently, all code compiles but not all unit tests pass.

The integration of TCLGlobus into LDAS continues. The controlMonitorAPI (client and server) was extended to support additional monitoring functions such as job statas and status.

Trying to extend the basic globus xio sockets to handle certificate authentication causes a failure in the xio_register_open call. It is being investigated and should be solved by next week.

It was also discovered this week that the tight loop of the client needed to have a rework in how TCLGlobus registered and handles registering TCLGlobus events. More on this in the TCLGlobus section.

TCLGlobus

It was discovered this week that there is a subtle difference in how wish and tclsh process events registered by applications. As a result, the code has been enhanced to dynamically detect if it is running wish or tclsh and take the appropriate action. This solution works for all invokations of tclsh and wish. To ensure continued proper functionality, all unit tests are being converted to run once with tclsh and once with wish.

OSG/GRIPHYN/IVDGL:

A. Inspiral work flows on OSG - ITB

Using a patched version of the OSG 2.1 release of the VDS with components from vds-binary dated  20050901.tar.gz.1, a 603 node inspiral pipeline DAG was run on the LIGO_CIT_ITB cluster. However, the condor_sub_dag process halted during the DAG execution due to faulty components and was manually restarted via the rescue dag during testing to complete the work flow.

Using the latest nightly build of September 14 from the vds repository, a fresh version of vds client tools was installed on verruca.  The following worker node components were updated on the LIGO_CIT_ITB cluster to determine if a patch process would be possible: dirmanager, kickstart and transfer. A condor_sub_dag process halted after successfully executing 602 nodes of the 603 node inspiral pipeline.  Documentation of this problem for the vds development team is underway.

In preparation for testing at UWM OSG PROD site, Brian Moe was furnished the LIGO VO URL. Subsequently a test has confirmed the capability of authenticating and executing simple fork jobs submitted from the Verruca hosted Inspiral work flow test bed and the UWM  OSG PROD cluster.

B. GUMS and PRIMA configuration:

Eliminated a problem due to entries for usaltlas and uscms VOs in the gums server throwing exceptions. Updated the VO Members DB in the GUMS server with the entities from the added VOs. Generated a grid-mapfile for the set of VOS that are mapped and determined that name='usatlasProd' and its associated groupMapping resulted in no entries in the gridmapfile for usatlas users.  Insufficient documentation exists on the "Atlas Privilege use and configuration for OSG" OSG Twiki sites for non-ATLAS sites to configure Atlas privileges. Communications with the author of the Twiki document is planned to explore role-based authentication models for GUMS/VO and PRIMA.

C. On-going monitoring and systems administration.

Performed a yum update of the LIGO_CIT_ITB cluster and rebooted all nodes.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

  • Got the final details of our Sun support contract hammered out with Ray Gedert (Dynamic Systems) and filled out the PR and gave it to Dorothy Lloyd.
  • Participated in the Synchrotron 215 changes/moves, including removing Cat5 bundles and boxing them for shipping, re-racking nodes, moving ldas-cit to Booth, rerouting fibre patches to support ldas-cit in Booth, reconfiguring network interfaces on ldas-cit and dataserver-cit
  • Did more work getting my personal environment back to normal after moving to FC4 (sending mail in particular).

(Phil Ehrens)

  • Installed host, datarobot, and ldap certs on Verruca.
  • Killed errant java processes on Verruca that were consuming all cpu in the execrable busy-wait routine. They were waiting for a pid to exit that did not exist. Foolish java.
  • Moved tons of hardware around and out of the refrigerator in Synchrotron. Pulled cables, affixed tarps with tape. Installed  a number of the removed servers in the machine room on the Millikan 6th floor.
  • Investigated 3dm2 and cli software from 3ware and successfully installed and tested all of it on ldasdatatest1. Copied tarballs to ldas-sw:/ldcg_admin with a README file included.  These utilities can be used with any 3ware raid controller card on any intel 32 or 64 bit platform.
  • Replaced bad HD on Peter Shawhan's desktop machine Garrak.
  • Synched all current scripts with svn repository on dziban.
  • Replaced all drives on Controller 1 of ldasdatatest1 with new Seagate 400Gb HD's. Investigating configuration options.

(Stuart Anderson)

  • Shutdown and shipped/relocated several computers from 215 Synchrotron including 70 nodes now on their way to LHO.
  • The LDAS-CIT cluster is now running with just 1 node for test purposes until the computer room upgrade in Synchrotron is completed.
  • Monitoring the increased (~50%) network performance for gridFTP transfer of LHO IFO frame files after the recent GigE WAN upgrade at LHO.
  • Observed and reported another Condor schedd crash bug.
  • Decommissioned the penultimate hybrid SRL/LIGO computer at Caltech (jelly).
  • Monitoring and coordinating activities associated with the Synchrotron computer room upgrade.

MIT

(Keith Bayer)

  • Gathering performance metrics for new 5U pcraid unit.
  • Coordinating LSCDataFind configuration with Junwei.
  • Initiating contact with MIT HVAC for 5Ton liebert a/c install.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

  • Got a quote from StorageTek to help to move tape robot to the temporary location in the high bay. The most likely scenario is: StorageTek would remove tape drives and the extension door from the tape robot, secure the arm, put the robot on a pallet (which they provide, it has a ramp and holes to attach the tape robot with bolts). We rent a forklift that can reach all the way up to the second floor and use it to move the tape robot to the temporary LDAS location. StorageTek would reassemble the robot. As a backup solution I am also investigating the possibility for StorageTek to do a complete move including a forklift.
  • The most likely dates for the move to the temporary location are Sept 26-28. I have scheduled StorageTek to come on Monday, Sept 26 and the nodes to be moved from the warehouse to the site on the same day.
  • Firmware on tape robot have been upgraded to 3.09. Firmware on tape robot drives have been upgraded to 1.35.402.
  • Restored metaserver after the disk failure.
  • Got 1020 tapes for S5.
  • Spending time with Dwayne to get him started with LDAS part of his duties. In particular I'd like him to be responsible for monitoring and replacing all the disks in nodes and T3s.
  • Purchasing 2 year Gold contract for the FastIron 1500 network switch.
  • 3 failed disks in 3510 were replaced. No data loss or interruption.
  • Stored partition and disk images of linux servers in /archive/backup/images to simplify the recovery after a disk failure.

(Dwayne Giardina)

  • Master disks in nodes 18, 28, 33, 36, 43, 50, 52, 55, 59, 62, 65, 69 were replaced with slave disks from nodes 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 respectively. ( all replaced master disks were out of warranty, from February 10, 2003 ).  The slave disks in the above mentioned nodes were replaced with new disks.
  • Noticed a bad slave disk in node 7, needs to be replaced.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

  • The LDAS HVAC upgrade at LHO continues. The LHO LDAS cluster was down for two days this week to upgrade the electrical panels. This has been completed. Brazing of refrigerant pipes for the HVAC has started.  We will then have 2-3 days of downtime next week to install the new HVAC unit, if it arrives as scheduled on Sept. 22. The downtime will be announced to the DASWG.
  • I have restarted RDS generation of astrowatch data at LLO. I have also removed L1:LSC-AS_Q from the Level 3 RDS channel list. All Level 3 RDS frames with GPS start-time greater than or equal to 808645888 (Aug 21, 2005 02:51:15 CDT) no longer contain L1:LSC-AS_Q. (H1:LSC-AS_Q and H2:LSC-AS_Q  were removed in previously at LHO, as documented in last weeks report.) The LLO Level 3 RDS channel list for astrowatch data now is:

L1:LSC-DARM_ERR

1

L1:IFO-SV_STATE_VECTOR

1

L1:IFO-ACTIVITY_TYPE

1

L1:IFO-ACTIVITY_STATE

1

L1:IFO-ACTIVITY_INDEX

1

(Ben Johnson)

  • The first panel in the LDAS room has been upgraded to 125A breakers.  We now have 72kW (90kW * 80%) total usable power.
  • Fixed two nodes which did not come up after power was restored to LDAS room.
  • Working with Sun on fixing the L700 + SAM-FS import/export problem.
  • Testing/learning Solaris 10's firewall, IP Filter.
  • Reading up on Globus 4's web services framework (WSRF).

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT:

(Keith)

  • Continuing to monitor spam filter - feedback is positive
  • Troubleshooting campus network routing problem showing up with at least two ip addresses in our subnet
  • Spec'd and ordered thinkpad for new postdoc
  • Clearing off space on main gc fileserver

Livingston:

(Dwayne)

Replacement of disk in Harry's laptop not successful, as image creation on external USB drive failed.  Waiting on additional memory for this laptop.  Will try to create image again after memory arrives.  Hopefully can start it Friday afternoon since it will take several hours.

Hanford:

(Christine)

  • Network usage can be seen at http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~christin/mrtg/198.129.208.1_198.129.77.10.html
  • The contract for the 10 meg backup network connection was signed and delivered on 9/12.  The circuits have been ordered in the Westin building in Seattle.  The circuit from LHO to PNNL has been tested.  The only hold up is two media converters which have been lost in transit.  They are somewhere in the Tri-Cities, but the shipping company is unable to find them.  The tentative date for completion of the backup network connection is now Monday, 9/19.
  • One of our color laser printers recently died.  I've spent many hours on the phone with the repair technician trying to troubleshoot the problem.  The technician thinks the problem is either firmware of the formatter board.  She will be out Friday to install the new parts.
  • Lots of user support for printing problems and e-mail problems.
  • Created a couple new user accounts and added some e-mail aliases.

CIT:

(Veronica)

LIGO:  Finished the website for the NSF review, moved over the pages for past reviews.  Updated the Advanced LIGO website.  Updates of the LIGO website and the MIT mirror page.  Installed patches and upgraded NAV on Windows servers, with some troubleshooting in the process.

LSC:  Working on the website for the November LSC meeting.  Updates of the LSC publications database.

(Christian)

  • Synchrotron: A workstation was infected with a virus this week. I was able to remove the virus and installed Norton Anti virus 10 and Zone Alarm.
  • Wilson House: I called Dell to have Benjamin Abbot's CD-Rom replaced.
  • 1 Floor E/B: I upgraded Julie Hiroto and Stan Whitcomb to Adobe Acrobat 7.
  • 3 Floor W/B: I replaced Helena Armandula's old CRT monitor with a new LCD monitor.
  • Surf Student - Two surf students needed Math lab R14 and Ansys 9 loaded on their workstation.
  • Configured two new laptops with the standard Ligo image to go into the loaner pull.
  • Other misc.: I continued to provide onsite software/phone support.

 

(Mike)

  • Worked with Ares Corporation on the PRISM/PRIMAVERA Server. I finally have the server up and running with the licensing issues that I was having. This also required some adjustments to the VPN server and on the client side to resolve a DNS issue.
  • Synchrotron: IO computer name picked up a virus. Discovered by ITS security, I pulled this unit off the Network and turned it over to Christian.
  • Finished up some work on Rich Abbott's laptop.
  • Worked more on the Ghost backup server. I have the server loaded, but I am having problems with the SATA drives recognizing the size of these disks. I have some more research to do on this.
  • Other misc. user support.

(Larry)

  • With the end of the fiscal year coming, there has been a lot of purchase related activity. Mostly misc. items for the end users.  Working on SUN contract renewals. They should be wrapped up by the first of next week, all of the changes have been sent in.  Still have a few s/w contract renewals to work on.  A number of new equipment items have been received and delivered. Items will continue to trickle in over the next couple of months.  Still have a number of laptops and a couple of desktop computer left to order this week.
  • Working on a number of logistical issues in getting things moved over to the new computer room. Because of recent changes to the building, electrical power and air-conditioning have become an issue with the additional space. We should be able to make things work.
  • Worked out some logistically issues for the network in the Synchrotron. It now appears the network will be down for a few short periods and not for a full month.
  • Repaired a number of E2E computers. All just minor items dealing with configuration files.
  • Moved a number of computer items around. We now have a few locations that will need new computer installations once the old units are removed.
  • Continual work on cleaning up accounts and adding new accounts. Still a lot of e-mail alias cleanup work to do.
  • Spent time monitoring a number of systems as well as cleaning up rogue processes.
  • E-mail has been a big issue this past week. People are complaining about spam getting through, so we have been adding more filters.  Spent a couple of hours going through the log files for one user receiving random duplicate messages. So far, no indication of the mail server generating duplicate messages.

Mail Statistics Sept. 8-14, 05

Mail Statistics

September 14, 2005

Rejected Messages

14,552

Virus Messages

1,160

False Positives

167

Accepted Messages

17,465

Total Messages

32,017

 

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Project Management

from Carol Wilkinson

Progress Updates

Progress updates for Advanced LIGO subsystem development for the period from July 1 through August 31 are complete and will be posted on-line by Monday, Sept. 19.

Meetings & Reviews

Future near term planned meetings & reviews are indicated in the table below.  Report from the 40M DC Readout Review held July 19, 2005 is available: LIGO-T050168-00-R.  Changes since last report are listed in blue.

 

Date

Sub sys.

Review

Topic(s)

Enabling event(s)

Schedule motivation

Status

Jul 11-13

SYS

SYS Mtg

CDS infrastructure & HAM Isolation Req’s

 

 

Report in progress

12-Jul
8-11 PT

SUS

PDR, Review 2

Electronics req & design; Focus is on the front end electronics (UK) -- limited Digital controls/electronics (US) review

 

 

Report in progress

Oct 19

SUS

SUS PDR

Review 8

Ribbon/Fiber/Ear/ Bonding PDR

Completion of the ribbon, fiber, and ear and fabrication and bonding design and processes

 

Panel and date selection under way.

~Oct

SEI

HAM Critical Design Review

Recommendations w.r.t. HAM prototype development based on ETF results

Completion of SEI/BSC critical design reviews; LSC review of ASI HAM configuration design

Delay until requirements are revised. timely decision on proceeding with SEI/HAM prototype

 Delayed from Aug.

~Oct 12

SEI

HAM SAS  PDR

Review modeling, analysis, design for HAM soft system

Revised HAM SEI requirements.

Timely decision for proceeding with HAM SEI prototype.

 

~Oct

SYS

PDR, Review 1

Engineering & Implementation ('generic') Requirements;
Interfaces
Revised Optical Layout
Optomechanical Layout

completion of generic requirements definition; completion of first draft of ICD; revision to optical layout; establish integrated opto-mechanical equipment layout

timely system level definition enables/helps define subsystem reqmnts & design

 

~Dec 8

SUS

PDR, Review 3

Quad design

Completion of the quad controls prototype assembly; shipping to LASTI

timely transfer, to RAL & UB efforts, of lessons learned from the controls prototype

 Delayed until shipping to LASTI.

~Dec

SYS

PDR, Review 2

CDS Infrastructure
Stable Recycling Cavities
Lock Acquisition
Modulation Scheme
Power Induced Instability

Sufficient CDS requirements & concept work (also 7/11-13 mtg)
E2E Modeling for AL
40m Progress on Acq. & Mod.

CDS Infrastructure is key to subsystem electronics req.
Stable cavity is key to IO MMT design

 

~Jan

IO

PDR Review 1

PDD, Faraday Isolator, modulators, mode cleaners, mode matching design, Mach-Zender

SYS PDR?

 

 Work delayed on

FI, allows more

systems to be

reviewed

~Jan

SUS

PDR, Review 5

Triple design

Available SUS/US staff

Enable SUS/US final design phase

 Quad controls PT takes preced.

~Jan 25

AOS

AOS DRR/CD

Review 1

Stray light control, PO mirror and telescope, optical lever, initial alignment system

SYS PDR?

Delay stray light control review until other systems can be reviewed at the same time.

Delayed from Oct. to allow review of

add. systems.

~Feb

SUS

PDR, Review 4

Quad Installation

Completion of installation at LASTI

Inform the UK final design & noise prototype design effort ASAP

 Delayed shipping schedule

~Feb

SUS

PDR, Review 6

quad controls prototype test results
ribbon process/design

completion of LASTI testing

timely incorporation into final design effort on the noise prototype

 

~Feb

COC

PDR

Review 1

 Metrology, handling fixtures

 Review and select  vender and in-house metrology

Need handling fixtures for UK substrates arriving in Dec and Jan 05

Work delayed

~Mar

IO

PDR Review 2

Adaptive mode matching, Mode Matching Telescope

Determination of whether a stable recycling cavity will become part of the AL baseline; SYS PDR 2

 

 Waiting for stable

RC decision

TBD

AOS

AOS DRR/CD Review 2

 Thermal Comp., Photon drive

SYS PDR?

 

 Moved forward

 for timely finish

of AOS CDR’s

TBD

SUS

PDR, Review 7

BS, FM/ITM SUS design
RM design
non-cavity SUS

design work completion (has yet to start on FM/ITM, not mature for RM)

 

 

~May

COC

PDR

Review 2

 Cleaning Process, Optics prelim. design

SYS PDR?

 

 

 

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

AdvLigo:

Computer for quad suspension controls is due to ship by the end of this week.

Requested a quote for a PCI-X expander chassis. Such a unit would allow us to remote the ADC/DAC I/O cards from the computer chassis. The multi-AMD64 processor computers we plan to use are rather loud (due to the cooling requirements), so it may be desirable to place them somewhere other than in the main equipment racks.

Performing some more testing on the Miranet network cards as a possible replacement for reflected memory (RFM) in future systems. These are 2GHz, full duplex, realtime networking boards. They would have advantages in cost (about 1/3 the price of RFM) and are configured in a switched fabric rather than the ring architecture of RFM. The primary test we want to run is to determine whether or not the Framebuilder could handle the network packets from all of the front ends in a timely manner. The RFM has the advantage of a 64MByte buffer that is filled in by all of the front ends and then simply DMA transferred by the Framebuilders.

Waiting on more info from Dave Ottoway on the Lasti installation plan. We need this so we can better plan the CDS infrastructure required to support the quad suspensions, ISI, etc. As part of this, we are also waiting on the write up from Nergis on the system she wants implemented at Lasti.

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

AdL SUS

  • System drawings for the quad controls tests at LASTI using PCI based LIGO controls have been started and are 75% complete. They will be completed once the testing of the new PCI-X based ADC and DAC modules has been completed. ADC and DAC boards are due by 9/20.
  • Preparations for my Oct 1-7 visit to Birmingham are in progress.

AdL SEI

  • Prototype amplifiers for the in-vacuum GS-13 have been shipped to the ETF for test. Initial tests show improved noise performance for the GS-13.
  • System drawings for the LASTI installation of the ISI are 75% complete.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure Procurement Status

Bid packages have been sent to machine shops and fabricators for all stage 0, stage1, and stage 2 parts. Quotes are expected to be in by 9/30/2005.

The actuator tooling design has been completed. A Request for Quote has been put together for the actuator subassembly machined parts and tooling.

A meeting was held this week with Joe Hanson (LLO) and Southern Enterprises to go over drawings, inspection, and shipment of the LASTI test stand. They expect to meet the delivery date of 10/14/2005 as long as there are no unexpected delays from subcontractors hit by the hurricane.

ASI has confirmed that they will be finished with the blade modification redesign next week on schedule.

From: "Joseph A. Giaime" jgiaime@ligo.phys.lsu.edu

Suspension

From: ctorrie <ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>

Advanced LIGO Suspensions

CONTROLS PROTOTYPE QUAD SUSPENSION

The workshop should be finished the re-works by early next week. Mark, Jay, Mohana and I managed to control the single chain (quick fix)  Quad with its 6 local control osems, more to follow. We also worked on a couple of single pendulum bench tests to aid with the understanding of the "flexure theory".

MODE CLEANER SUSPENSION

Laurent and Rich have assembled most of the 2nd mode cleaner.

SECOND STRUCTURE

The second quad structure should be finished and ready to ship to Stanford by the end of the month. Tim Hayler is visiting from RAL at the start of October to help us carry out some resonance tests prior to the shipment to Stanford.

INSTALLATION FIXTURES

We received a quote for the installation fixtures and I am now working with Ken Mailand and Oddvar (remotely from Norway) on finalising a few drawings and updating a couple of parts before work begins on the parts.

From: Ken mailand kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu

I finished looking over the HAM SAS drawings, for fits and dimensions/tolerances etc.

Core Optics

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

For Advanced LIGO this week; we're working on budgets.

Ed Jasnow has drafted a letter to the NSF informing them of the upcoming transfer of blanks, purchased using the UK AdL funds,  from the UK.  The four ITM blanks have been ordered and are scheduled to arrive in December.

From: Helena Armandula ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu

 

 

From: Bill Kells <kells@ligo.caltech.edu>

We have had further meetings on the issues of PI, and closely related TCS strategies. One result is that I am explicitly looking into the relative numbers for attainable instability thresholds for various candidate ifos (particularly Gin-Gin, and 40m..... they are comparable !). I is taking some refined effort to fairly portray the comparision. Soon (e.g next Gin-Gin advisory mtg.)

Pre-Stabilized Laser

From: Peter King pking@ligo.caltech.edu

The frequency response of one of the high power photodetectors was measured and had an unexpected feature of a peak at 1.6 MHz.  This did not show up in the PSpice model and I have been trying to track down its origin.  Whilst the noise performance was as expected, the bandwidth was lower than expected.  I have not sorted out why this is so.

The Innolight NPRO power supply control signals to the laser were examined to see which one would be appropriate for attaching an hour meter to.  I could not find any that were applicable without attaching the laser that also made sense.  Connections to the ON/OFF switch were not possible.

LZH made some progress in resolving the issue of the spatial mode of the 200-W laser.  It is possible that previous reports/measurements of the spatial profile were optimistic.  After further modeling of the resonator, they feel they have a better understanding of the resonator behavior.  Currently the laser produces 150 W with a good spatial profile in the full configuration.

I have also been looking into clean room assemblies for use inside the laser area room, as the plan is to have a low-dust environment around the laser.  Especially after various mishaps that have occurred at LZH with spots being burned onto mirrors.

Auxiliary Optics

From: Michael Smith smith@ligo.caltech.edu

SLC

Gave Hiro a list of interferometer parameters so that he can model the scattered light noise for ADLIGO.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Riccardo DeSalvo desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu

Alberto

We spent the last week trying to improve the measurement of the GAS filter TF. The transfer function is quite noisy at high frequencies. We expect to observe a plateau in that region due to the saturation of the percussion point compensation. We have to look at the phase to confirm whether we cross the critical threshold between overcompensation and undercompensation. A dip should appear in the plot when we are overcompensating, but it is not easy to distinguish it in the saw-like transfer function we have now above 20 Hz. Facing all the measurement we got till now, we had the confirmation that it is not just noise. At the highest frequencies the accelerometers are more sensitive to the acoustic noise coming from the speaker through the air, but most of the peaks and dips are due to mechanical resonances of the whole complex excitation system. We made many efforts to damp at least the biggest ones. We used some bungee cords to fasten the rods between the speaker shaker and the frame of the filter and we killed a couple of big resonances. We also attached some masses through Velcro stripes to the rods and it worked very well. Some resonances we can move around but not kill completely. Thanks to these kinds of modifications we got a much better transfer function. We probably can't do anymore improivement because of the non-negligible mechanical complexity of the system.

Anyway we are hovering below 80 dB, if we extend the 1/f^2 line to the frequency at which the phase flips we infer as much as 90 dB. At this attenuation level, we see appearing the resonances due to the spring effect on the wire which hold the payload and the internal blade resonances that we can't remove without adding other mechanical parts.

What we can do now is try to shift the transfer function’s plot to the low frequencies by introducing Maddalena’s electromagnetic anti-spring circuitry and tuning the resonant frequencies of the blades towards 30 mHz. To this end we have fixed some problems in the old circuit board and it should now work again. We are going to start to test it today.

Ilaria

I assembled the four legs of the pendulum between two tables: one below the main flex joint base and the other on the the small flex joint base with the program Solid Works. I imported it in Ansys where I meshed the assembly, applied the Standard Earth Gravity, I choose the boundary conditions and I controlled the contacts. I studied the "load bend": for this test I changed the density of the form at the top of the pendulum, varying the mass between 370 Kg and 1100 Kg. The results show that the frequency is inversely proportional to the mass, according to the theory and the experimental results; moreover with a mass of 1100 Kg, the frequency is about 0 Hz. This means that a mass of 1100 Kg on the real pendulum let it fall to the ground. I’ve studied the higher frequency leg resonances which are qualitatively in agreement with the measurements. Extending their study to different conditions. I`ve just started the same simulation with a small flex joint of diameter 1.5 mm. I`m also studying a way to obtain the transfer function with Ansys to set up the IP counterweights.

Juri

I calculated the sensitivity of the nearly concentric Mexican Hat cavity to cavity-length offset or background curvature offset for the MHC mirror. The results show that the beam shape is greatly affected by these issues and put tight constraints on the mirror manufacturing and on the precision on the cavity length measurement (the cavity length and the nominal radius of curvature must agree to 0.3% or less).

I worked with Francesca on the data analysis on the hysteresis measurements for the GAS blades.

Francesca:

I'm continuing the analysis of the hysteresis data.

John

I am working on quantifying the influence of mirror tilts on the mesa beam profile. Numerous data sets have been taken and analysis is underway. Stability and repeatability are causing concern when trying to compare small angular displacements. Some backlash has also been found in the system’s piezo. To compare experimental work to the calculations of D’Ambrosio, Thorne et al. I must have an accurate calibration of the PZT actuators, this is underway. I have also started thinking about my final report.

Maria Paola

I got 30 V pk pk winding a new transformer with 200 coils on the primary winding and 1200 coils on the secondary one with the new bigger core, but I achieved this result at a very low frequency (about 600 Hz). I also replaced the diode bridge with another rectifier, made of two diodes and two capacitors, since the diode bridge gives a continuous voltage which is only a half of the pk pk value. Nevertheless, the maximum voltage obtained is only 10 volts at the end of the rectifier, and this is probably a matter of loads, since the 10 MOhm resistance of the probe I use to see the signal on the oscilloscope is still too high, and I need to have a bigger resistance, so as to avoid losing voltage.

Chiara

I put the first load (624 Kg) on the four 40m prototype Inverted Pendula and I tested the flatness of this top plate. I mounted under this table three DC motors with parasitic springs, the position of the top plate could be centered using the parasitic springs tuning.

Waiting for the accelerometers to become free.

I’m studying some details about the HAM SAS project.

Akiteru

The first TAMA SAS tower installed in TAMA, proceeding with tests until next tower installation.

Maddalena

30 mHz GAS filter paper final review preprint received from NIM.

Valerio

I'm trying to correct some inconsistencies found in the transfer function matrix of my SimMechanics model of the HAM-SAS.

In the same time I'm trying to translate the SolidWorks model of the HAM-SAS inverted pendulum section, developed by Ilaria, to SimMechanics. This will allow us to improve significantly the quality of the complete model.

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