Weekly Report for Week Ending January 26, 2006

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday, January 30, 2006 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
    • 40 Meter (Weinstein)
    • TNI ( Libbrecht)
    • LASTI  (Shoemaker)
  • Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

5.      R&D and Advanced LIGO (Shoemaker)

6.      CHANGE CONTROL BOARD/TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD SESSION AS NEEDED

  • Change Request CR-060002, Augment the recent order for the CIT LDAS cluster to add another 77 nodes plus miscellaneous accessories (e.g.,racks, cabling).

Special Items:

Advanced LIGO Review Preparations

  • Personnel Plan
  • Project Execution Plan
  • Advanced LIGO Operations Plan
  • Proposal Update

Special Announcements:

 

Weekly Report Highlights

LSC Issues (Saulson)

Another meeting of the ad hoc committee on the SciMon system was held on Wednesday 25 Jan. A consensus recommendation was drawn up by Rai Weiss, and submitted to the Directorate, who will announce a new policy next week.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

  • Southern, Trinity, Loyola, LSU and GEO MOUs were completed and submitted to Saulson for review and signature.
  • Carleton, Hobart, IAP, UWashington and UTA require additional documentation before their MOUs will be complete and submitted to Saulson for final review and signature.

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Jasnow)

  • A site teleconference was held Thursday, January 26, 2006.  The following issues were discussed:
  • There was a discussion of the items purchased from JDSU, the successor company to Lightwave.  The discussion centered on whether the items purchased under a separate purchase order met the requirements to be classified as equipment.  After several opinions were expressed, it was concluded that these items did, indeed, meet the requirements for equipment.
  • Also discussed was the purchase of tooling and other items from JDSU so that LIGO staff will be able to maintain the lasers, since JDSU wants to leave the business.  It was agreed that we will try to purchase these items under the original contract now with JDSU.
  • The construction of the LLO Science Education Center has recovered its original schedule with the completion of the steel structure.
  • With the arrival of the second representative from the University of Florida at LLO, the question arose as to whether or not these staff members required visitor appointments.  After some discussion, it was agreed that they do not.
  • There was a discussion of the status of docents at the site. It was reported that they are considered "authorized volunteers" and are covered by at least workmen's compensation.  It was agreed to distribute the forms that they have to sign, see if there is additional coverages, and determine whether this category could also apply to student volunteers in lieu of visitor appointments.
  • A revised FY06 budget model is being prepared and will be reviewed by LIGO management to determine available funding for FY07 and FY08.
  • The list of assigned actions updated through December 01, 2005 (the last update) will be found Here.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)

>From: Rod Luna <rluna@ligo.caltech.edu>

  • Nothing significant to report.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

Scanning

  • The last box of Asiri documents was finished -- we now have more than 30 boxes ready to destroy once CD's have been burned.
  • Scanning began on all the contractual close-out files as this set of documents will reduce two full file cabinets of paper.  Additionally, this group is fairly organized and easy to scan, name, and bookmark, and will require little supervision.

Synergy Software

  • Work continued on reviewing the tables of our current system, and doing any housekeeping necessary to make clean carry over into the new system.  The table identifying the various types of media was matched to the corresponding documents for each type.
  • Another table worked on, and the bulk of effort for the week, was the keyword table.  After identifying duplicate or similar entries and cleaning that up, a master list of documents linked to each keyword was created.  This list involved nearly 150,000 records.  The number of documents associated with each keyword was determined.  From this analysis, we will be able to make better design use of the historical data as well as design the use and user's process for keywords in the new system.
  • Tomorrow I will be receiving from Ian at FileHold the first rough cut of conversion and installation requirements.  Together we will work on a solid draft that will be distributed for review and comment.  Distribution to the committee is anticipated by the third week of February.

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

  • Processed a large set of seismic drawings recently submitted by Ken Mason.
  • Editing/renaming a large batch of scanned files.
  • Scanning Project--Progress continues on scanning of miscellaneous boxes/files of documents.
  • Activity:

Week Ending

01/26/2006

In

Out

Packages

20

8

Faxes

20

26

 

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Cronin, Brambila, Kaufman)

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

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

  • Placed orders on pcard as requested.  Made arrangements for exchange of the assembly sent in error by the vendor. Ordered additional replacement parts for the equipment.
  • Coordinating the renewal for Year 2 of the computer maintenance agreement for hardware. The requisition will soon be submited.
  • Completed change order #15 to Praxair and submitted it to the vendor.
  • Completed the order for the compressor rebuilt for LLO.
  • The order for the oscillators was submitted for approval and the purchase order has been submitted to the vendor.
  • Submitted the new consultant order to Squid. It is pending their signature.
  • Provided additional training to requisitioners on TechMart.  Responded to inquiries pertaining to TechMart invoices, authorization limits, and order workflow.
  • Working on the change order to add an additional 77 units to the large ASA order. Working on several no-cost extensions submitted for the subcontracts.
  • Submitted the fully signed consulting agreement to Eric Myers.

>From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman>

  • Completed and sent out reports for DIA, Hanford and Livingston Discretionary accounts, US India Award, MIT Grid Award, Low Noise Award, and the Hanford Conference Account for activity through December 2005.
  • Attempting to resolve an issue where the 40-Meter account was charged for health insurance payments for a visitor beyond the period of the visit.
  • Working with P. Lindquist to adjust the FY06 budgets to reflect the latest information such as current labor rates, change requests, and modifications requested to original budgets.
  • 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 consultant contract for Eric Myers to perform outreach work under the subaward from Fermi Laboratories has been issued.
  • A teleconference was held with Carol Wilkinson, Rod Luna, and import broker Roger Bichard to discuss ways of minimizing import duties on silica substrate blanks imported from Germany and paid for by the U.K.  The substrates are currently here on a temporary import bond, which avoids customs duties, but requires that the items be exported within three years.  Further research would be performed by the broker to determine the best course of action.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Hiroto, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

  • Worked on the usual new trips, expense reports, reconciling, calendar reservations, and itinerary entries.

>Julie Hiroto jhiroto@ligo.caltech.edu

  • No report.

>Dorothy Lloyd

  • Processed the usual requisitions for POs and payment request, and approved and submitted the weekly incoming invoices to accounts payable for payment.
  • Jim continued with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

  • Change Request CR-050010, Prototype Seismic Attenuation System for the HAM Chamber (HAM-SAS) was submitted by Dennis Coyne.  If approved, the change request will add the fabrication and test of a predominantly passive, seismic isolation system prototype for the HAM chamber, to the Advanced LIGO R&D program.  This request is being held pending a written report and recommendations.
  • Change Request CR-060002, Augment the recent order for the CIT LDAS cluster to add another 77 nodes plus miscellaneous accessories (e.g.,racks, cabling).  The request was submitted by A. Lazzarini.  I have it on the agenda for discussion January 30, 2005 during the Executive Committee meeting.  A .pdf version of the request has been distributed electronically.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

  • A Staffing Committee meeting was held on Monday, January 23, 2006.  All files for the Staffing Committee are up-to-date and posted on the SC web page.  The minutes and action items from the Staffing Committee meeting have been posted on the SC web page.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

  • We have started the LIGO campus lab safety audits.  One general observation regarding the labs audited so far is the need to improve "house-keeping" and disposal of boxes/containers.

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

Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (compiled by M. Landry)

Science run and commissioning highlights from LHO are bulleted below:

  • Not since Boucher's streak of 04 has there been so many consecutive saves: the demod phase in ASPD5 was adjusted to minimize junk, now transitions from ASPD1-4 to 5 have a smaller DC jump, producing more lock saves and fewer lock losses. More here. The save rate is thought to have quadrupuled.
  • excess low frequency noise since S4 will hurt the continuous wave search (crab spindown) and the stochastic search (bbn upper limit)
  • burst and inspiral injections resumed on both machines
  • the UPS system that supplies power to many cpus failed on Thursday, taking out hanford1, fb0 and fb1, and both IFOs

4K IFO

  • an H1 spectrogram from S5 was posted
  • noise trending down from 18 to 17 Hz over several-minute timescales was seen in both seismometers and AS_Q

2K IFO

  • Glitching, initially attributed (erroneously) to TCS parameter modifications were in fact due to a glitching MMT3 optical lever laser, which was swapped out. We continue to run with those new TCS parameters and 2k ranges have been improved
  • the H2 duty cycle took a significant hit on Wednesday when the machine was offline for the day due to a harddrive failure on h2susepics

DAQ

  • H2 received new code, include the whitening filter module for DARM_CTRL output.

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

L1 Interferometer in S5 (Franzen)

The duty cycle was around 55% with an inspiral range between 9-10.5 Mpc.  Late Friday January 20:th an LVEA HEPI Streckeisen STS-2 seismomter failed. The instrument was therefore off-line until Saturday afternoon when we received a spare unit from MIT. Since then the interferometer has been running smoothly except for some periods when the ASQ software trigger went off without any apparent reason.  The problems we observed in the WFS4 chain some time ago has not reappeared.  The construction of the outreach center is rapidly proceeding and has reached a state where we can keep lock during some periods of the day if the seismic noise from other sources is low.

Commissioning highlights:

  • The atomic clock was swapped.
  • There was an LSC code drop.
  • The HEPA blower to the ISCT4 table was turned off in order to reduce the coherence between the accelerometers and DARM observed at 235 Hz.
  • The modulation index at 25 MHz was increased by 1 dB in order to get some more sideband power. This seems to have increased the inspiral range by something like 0.5 Mpc.
  • The ASQ trigger threshold was increased a little in order to reduce the frequent science mode drop which have been observed.
  • It was observed that the harmonics of the bounce mode are mostly gone thanks to the change of the beamsplitter dewhitening electronics last week.

L1 CDS (Bogue)

  • Our atomic clock came back from being repaired.  Swapped that in and reset the timing distribution system.
  • Began working on the new 3511 disk array for fb0 with the help of Dan Kozak.  Right now we are verifying that the firmware is completely updated before beginning the data transfer.
  • Worked on a boot problem with the LSC front end.
  • Had a meeting with Shannon and Dave to work out a time line for when new security measures would be implemented in cds.

LLO Outreach (Thacker)

  • Assisted teacher Professional Development onsite, Saturday, Jan 21st; Math/Science Partnership, SELU and Tangipahoa Schools
  • Conducted educational outreach for Sacred Heart Homeschool Group on-site, Friday, Jan 20th.
  • Prepared for Teacher Professional Development workshop upcoming Friday/Saturday, Jan 27th & 28th.
  • Conducted educational outreach off-site at Louis Vincent Elementary School (Young Astronaut Club) on Thursday, Jan. 26th.

LIGO SEC Construction (Zucker)

The foundation slab was poured and finished Tuesday; structural steel was delivered concurrently and is now being erected. The building envelope is taking shape quickly.  So far the steelwork is much less vibration-intensive than excavation and concrete work, so we're actually grabbing some science hours during the day. Hope this lasts.

Computing and Network Security (Roddy)

  • Last week was spent at LHO installing an IDS and discussing security with Dave and Albert.  It was a productive week and several issues were solved.
  • Had a laptop die here and I am working on migrating the user's data to a new one.  This is proving to be a bit difficult due to some quirks in the backup software.
  • The backup software died on Tuesday due to running out of inodes on the file system it was installed on.  I have worked with Arkeia tech support and have things up and running again.
  • Ordered various bits of hardware.
  • Working out some storage space for drawings, etc. on site.  This will need to be shared storage between a few people here.
  • Had a telecon today to discuss DMT account & gateway issues.
  • Working with Dwayne on setting up our LLO spam filter.
  • Reviewing much of the NIST FISMA guiding documents.  We will likely need to revise many of the LIGO security policies/documents to reflect requirements that are contained in these documents.  The NSF references these documents in their draft guidelines.

General Computing (Giardina)

  • applied more windows updates to kantech security server
  • CanIt appliance server install wouldn't work on the new Sun Fire x2100 server with only USB keyboard and mouse.  Tried with serial console redirect, still didn't work.  Started installing it on another server. not yet completed.
  • going to rebuild a spare PC for Janeen, started earlier this week, but disk needs to be replaced.
  • reset whawkins email and desktop passwords.
  • Norton would not update on mfyffe's PC.  Ran online scan that found one bug.  Removed it, then Norton updated successfully.

LDAS Admin (Giardina)

  • tapes ejected and shipped to CIT:  LL0856, LL0865, LL0867, LL0869, LL1710, LL1712, LL1715
  • LL1700 - LL1706 imported into L700 library
  • restarted samd when import would not start

Data Analysis (Yakushin)

Storage/Condor/LDAS admin:

1) Moved ldas-gridmon functionality from node2 to the old VPN machine;

2) Sprayed S4 L3 RDS, h(t), some burst MDC sets and GEO data on the nodes to speed up S4 LIGO-GEO burst analysis and the remaining tasks for S4 LIGO only burst analysis;

3) Upgraded firmware on the two new 3511 units; built RAID5 logical drive on each unit with two global spares.

Data analysis:

1) Still testing the modified version of waveburst in which whitening procedure is improved and linear predictor filter is used. Production triggers look good. Studying the sensitivity and event property reconstruction on burst MDC frames.

2) Optimizing the procedure for generating waveburst scalograms of interesting triggers. Currently triggers are processed sequentially which is too slow.

E2E (Jamal, Yoshida)

Considered the effect of pitch misalignment of MC1 (the input flat mirror in LIGO I Input Mode Cleaner) on the MC transmitted lightþfs beam shift.  Analytical investigation with the actual parameters (the mirror curvature, MC length etc) indicates that if MC1 pitches up/down by a pitch angle (theta_pitch) and if the MCþfs LSC (Length Sensing Control) on MC2 works ideally, the MC transmitted beam pitches up/down by 0.99 times theta_pitch, and, at the same time, the MC transmitted light shifts vertically (if theta_pitch is upward/downward, the transmitted light shifts upward/downward) by 5.2 times theta_pitch (for example, if theta_pitch = 1e-6 rad, the transmitted lightþfs vertical shift = 5.2e-6 m where the MC beam diameter at the waist is 1.6 mm). If the MCþfs Angular Sensing Control is engaged in addition to LSC, the vertical shift of the transmitted light becomes zero while the beam pointing is the same as the case where the LSC only is engaged.  Similar analysis on MC1þfs yaw and position misalignment is in progress.

Initial LIGO Detector Science & Engineering (Coyne)

Nothing significant to report for IL DET/TEC.

40-Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

IFO commissioning

  • Rob and Rana made some progress in deterministic locking (lock acquisition by slowly bringing mirrors into alignment without needing to wait for them to swing through resonance in an uncontrolled way; and using normalized DC signals which are insensitive to changes in other degrees of freedom). They can deterministically lock the PRFPMI, with either a CARM offset or a DARM offset. Re-aligning the SRM didn't work, but they got lots of ideas for things to try next.
  • Dan and Monica are making some progress in understanding the noise budget code and adapting it to the 40m.
  • Osamu and Ben are at LHO for shifts. Rana is on vacation. Not much activity this week.

IFO modeling

  • Monica continues to work on her e2e simulation of the 40m optical configuration. She and Hiro found a 2pi bug in her pendulum filter; now, the optical spring peak is in the right place. She continues to work on her control system. She is measuring transfer functions with varying demod phases.

DC detection development

  • Rob is assembling all the in-vac hardware for the DC readout beamline.
  • Rob is drawing up a complete list of channels, cabling, etc for the DC readout control and monitoring. Looks like we might need another Pentek ADC. And, we need a PZT driver for the output mode cleaner, and PZT drivers for the steering mirrors. The PZT steering mirror on th BS chamber has no available in-vac caling. We might have to drape a cable over from the Input Optic chamber.
  • Dan and Sam continue their measurements of the PZT steering mirror performance. There appear to be so many resonances, as low as 150 Hz, that it may prove impossible to get an alignment servo UGF much higher than ~ 20 Hz. They are experimenting with changing the mirror or the DLC mounts.
  • Steve is purchasing various items needed for the DC readout: in-vac beamsplitter with 3degree wedge; SR 830 digital lockin amplifier, etc.

Lab Infrastructure

  • Bob, Steve and Alan are getting the 40m ready for the safety audit that will take place this Friday the 27th.
  • Bob bought a load of booties and gloves for the 40m and South Annex labs.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

Akira has been measuring Q's by ringdown of various mechanical modes in the TNI's output mirrors, in preparation for the ring-damper experiment.  We had tried, at first, to measure and catalog the Q's from passive observations of the intrinsic excitation, presumably thermal.  However, our mirror Q's are relatively high, and measuring and fitting the extremely narrow peaks proved impractical.  The ringdown measurements are going much better and are producing cleaner results.

LASTI (Ottaway)

Quad Controls Prototype Tests

The solid stack assembly for the quad is now more or less complete. Some of the screws for the stiffening I-beams had to be shortened and are now waiting to be re-baked. They will not be ready until next week but they were not crucial to the rest of the assembly.

MC Double Triple Test

Installation into the vacuum will begin next Monday.

Ponderomotive Tests

Installation into the vacuum will begin on Friday.

LASTI Electronics

Jay, Rolf, Rich A and Mohanna visited MIT to plan the electronics for upcoming LASTI installations. It was decided that the initial installation and commissioning of the Quad Controls prototype would be done with Dspace and would then be converted to LIGO style controls in time for interfacing with the internal seismic stage.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Yamamoto)

QuadFP  (Hiro)

The QuadFP made by Matt was modified to study a high power adv.LIGO arm cavity with alignment DOF.  A basic study is under way, and, this will be handed off to Osamu and Rana to design the alignment control of a high power system.

40m model (Osamu, Monica)

Osamu is building a 40m simulation setup. He asked from Hiro several new features and changes of functionalities of e2e. Hiro will address some of the requests.

Monica keeps working to validate the locking loop of her setup of 40m model.  The dependence of the optical response of the 40m from the demodulation phase is under investigation.  After Bruce fixed the ALFI bug the extraction of the signals from bundlers is fine and the feedback signals can be sent from the LSC to suspensions. The previous configuration with the lock of the central part of the interferometer has been confirmed; the control of the others degrre of freedom is in progress.

MC dynamics and noise [Sany Yoshida]

Considered the effect of pitch misalignment of MC1 (the input flat mirror in LIGO I Input Mode Cleaner) on the MC transmitted light™fs beam shift.  Analytical investigation with the actual parameters (the mirror curvature, MC length etc) indicates that if MC1 pitches up/down by a pitch angle (theta_pitch) and if the MC fs LSC (Length Sensing Control) on MC2 works ideally, the MC transmitted beam pitches up/down by 0.99 times theta_pitch, and, at the same time, the MC transmitted light shifts vertically (if theta_pitch is upward/downward, the transmitted light shifts upward/ downward) by 5.2 times theta_pitch (for example, if theta_pitch = 1e-6 rad, the transmitted light™fs vertical shift = 5.2e-6 m where the MC beam diameter at the waist is 1.6 mm). If the MC fs Angular Sensing Control is engaged in addition to LSC, the vertical shift of the transmitted light becomes zero while the beam pointing is the same as the case where the LSC only is engaged.  Similar analysis on MC1 fs yaw and position misalignment is in progress.

Alfi [ Bruce, Melody ]

Almost all the issues in PR have been addressed.

Main work in this week is the refinement and bug fixes of alfi bundle. This is a very useful function to clean up the code and to make the maintenance very easy.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

Brown

  • Attended inspiral f2f in Milwaukee last week.
  • Continued theoretical work on LIGO EMRI project.
  • Met with Diego to try and track down problem using LAL spinning waveform injection code to generate 1.4-100 M_sun inspirals.
  • Helped Lisa debug problems with the ringdown search software injections.
  • Went through the steps necessary with Lisa to complete the coincidence part of the ringdown analysis.
  • Fixed some bugs in the new data quality flag tool for Keith; he is now testing it.
  • Started looking at S5 hardware injections.

Chatterji

  • Investigating LHO and LLO data quality and detector glitches from Jan 19 through Jan 22.
  • Installed QScan on the LHO computing cluster.  It is now possible to launch QScan jobs on the cluster using the Condor scheduler.  Working on improved documentation and a simple interface for remotely launching QScans.
  • Working on methods paper describing Q transform tools for gravitational-wave data analysis.
  • Verifying the performance of null stream based coherent network analysis methods when both H1 and H2 are included.  Collaborating on paper describing a consistency test based on a modified null stream approach.

Dupuis

  • Investigated noise sources near Crab and other pulsars in S5 TDS analysis

Mandic

I finished the all-sky stochastic reanalysis of the S4 H1L1 and H2L1 data, with the new version of the calibrations. I have also recalculated the H1L1 and H2L1 DARMERR coherence, both at 1 mHz and 0.1 Hz, and recovered all stochastic hardware injections performed during S4. No surprizes were found - we still have to notch 1 Hz harmonics, the sign of the hardware injections is correct etc.

With Sam W., I calculated the S5 H1L1 coherence over the whole run (so far). We observed the structure at 60 Hz and 100 Hz, that was already found in the previous calculation by Nick F., but we found that the structure comes from two particular intervals during the run. More study should follow.

I am also working on several changes to stochastic.m - in particular, I am moving the post-processing steps (including the definition of badGPSTimes cut) into stochastic.m, so that the post-processing time is minimized. This is becoming important in the online analysis, where there are already many jobs to post-process. I am also making modifications to make time-shifting easier.

Shawhan

  • Diagnosed S5 science-mode segment numbering anomalies due to computer reboots.
  • Worked with Vuk on fixing bugs / improving log files for hardware injections.
  • Tracked down problem with ringdown software injections in LAL.
  • Reviewed S4 Hough pulsar search code.

Sutton

I've been working on my paper analyzing and quantifying burst search sensitivity to the waveform space detectable by LIGO, mainly estimating the variation of the sensitivity of excess power searches over the cheese.  I've also done a little editing of the network analysis / null stream consistency test paper (GWDAW proceedings).

Yakushin

1) Still testing the modified version of waveburst in which whitening procedure is improved and linear predictor filter is used. Production triggers look good. Studying the sensitivity and event property reconstruction on burst MDC frames.

2) Optimizing the procedure for generating waveburst scalograms of interesting triggers. Currently triggers are processed sequentially which is too slow.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

LDAS

As part of the effort to resolve the 64-bit run time issues, tcl was upgraded to 8.4.12 on tandem-ii. This has caused several other problems to present themselves. The corruption of list variables was solved by insuring that the list was always initialized. Other issues that remain deal with TCL panics. These are currently under investigation.

To reduce the kernel time when doing I/O within the frameAPI at the sites, a work around was presented to the administrators which allows them to set values for individual devices. The full solution of supporting file system types and ensuring the proper setting of the DEVICE_IO_CONFIGURATION variable via the resource file paradigm is well under way.

Work has also started on using service certificates in place of host certificates. This work is being done on a tandem system and should soon find its way to ldas-dev.

System testing was performed on LDAS 1.8.65.

TCLGLOBUS

Data transmission lockup when using the TCL Channel interface have been resolved (PR#44). This was accomplished with the introduction of a 4-byte prefix which contains the message length to every message.  This new version of tclglobus (0.4.42) is currently running on ldas-dev.

GRID COMPUTING

Attempts to generate DAGs with 2000 - 4000 DAG nodes that represent production using gencdag have failed apparently due to resource limitations on a  submission engine running on FC4 with Java 1.4. The problem has been reported to vds-support and VDS engineers are examining the problem.

Developed a DRAFT proposal for an SRM test bed with Alex Sim, Senior member of the SDM staff.

Both Kent and David attended the OSG Consortium Meeting this past week.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

  • Helped Lisa work on getting the new LLO 3511 (fb0_frames) configured.
  • Worked on archiving problems at LHO and tuning for all 3 SAM-QFS instances.
  • Swapped failed 3510 disk here at CIT.
  • Generated list of old tapes to eject at LHO (twice).
  • Worked on LDR problem caused by h(t) files from LHO being md5sum'd while they were being written.
  • Counted up CACR tapes in our silo.
  • The usual ingesting of S5 data.

(Phil Ehrens)

  • Working with Mary Lei and Michael Samidi to get LDAS-TEST up and running LDAS. All necessary configuration and setup information is linked from the sys-admin wiki at LDAS_Machine_Configuration.
  • Replaced bad disk drive in node129.
  • Investigated strange NFS dropouts on ldasbox3 and ldasbox5, both of which were losing their mounts every 20 minutes.
  • Made up 20 bundles of 6 network cables each for new cluster nodes.  (There are sufficient cables for ~150 nodes bundled as of today.)
  • The usual various grid certificate related activities.

(Erik Espinoza)

  • Deployed 42 new nodes from ASA.
  • Reconfigured IPMI IP addresses.
  • Submitted bugzilla for 3ware calltrace.
  • Rewrote kickstart file to use rsync for file changes.
  • Troubleshooted node116 and node125.
  • Updated wiki docs for:
  • Using "ldas-kickstart".
  • Properly shutting down condor on nodes.
  • Gateway mail configuration.
  • Assisted in rack mounting of new nodes.

(Stuart Anderson)

  • Helped bring up the first 42 Opteron nodes in the LDAS-CIT cluster.
  • Placed an order for an additional 77 Opteron nodes.
  • Working on various Condor configuration issues.
  • Helped tune the LHO system to increase 2-3x the tape archiving performance.
  • Obtained permission and moved another Sun rack over to Powell-Booth for use by LIGO.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

  • Moved ldas-gridmon functionality from node2 to the old VPN machine;
  • Sprayed S4 L3 RDS, h(t), some burst MDC sets and GEO data on the nodes to speed up S4 LIGO-GEO burst analysis and the remaining tasks for S4 LIGO only burst analysis;
  • Upgraded firmware on the two new 3511 units; built RAID5 logical drive on each unit with two global spares.

(Dwayne Giardina)

  • Tapes ejected and shipped to CIT:  LL0856, LL0865, LL0867, LL0869, LL1710, LL1712, LL1715
  • LL1700 - LL1706 imported into L700 library.
  • Restarted samd when import would not start.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

  • Last week it was reported that the primary framebuilder filesystem froze. The backup framebuilder took over providing data.  However, the backup framebuilder also had problem that produced a 192 s gap in the raw data, producing the missing GPS interval [821756544 821756736) = Jan 19 2006 17:42:10 PST, Jan 19 2006 17:45:22 PST. Both framebuilders have been down at other times during maintenance or due to other hardware failures. This gap is of note since it occurred when the IFOs where locked and may be the first gap in science mode data. However, since the segment database gets its segments from the frames, LSCsegFind will not return science mode for the times of this gap.

(Ben Johnson)

  • A lot of time was devoted to the slow metadata disk, and slow data archiving problem(s). The resulted in the reduction of nfs daemons on dataserver, (intentional) slowing of diskcacheAPI, 3511 optimizations, and SAM-FS optimizations.
  • I have grabbed two GEO frames from charlie@Hannover. I'm currently working on a segment extraction utility, and publisher, for the GEO data files.
  • Inserted 61 new tapes last night, which should carry us for a couple of weeks. In general, I think we need to start ejecting all L0 S3 and S4 data.
  • Setting up FC4-based web server for Eric Meyers using a cluster node.
  • Replicated S3 L3 data to datagateway2 IDE-RAID. I have not yet edited the LSCdataFindServer's config to point to the new units, yet.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT:

(Keith)

Livingston:

(Dwayne)

  • Applied more windows updates to kantech security server
  • CanIt appliance server install wouldn't work on the new Sun Fire x2100 server with only USB keyboard and mouse.  Tried with serial console redirect, still didn't work.  Started installing it on another server. not yet completed.
  • Going to rebuild a spare PC for Janeen, started earlier this week, but disk needs to be replaced.
  • Reset whawkins email and desktop passwords.
  • Norton would not update on mfyffe's PC.  Ran online scan that found one bug.  Removed it, then Norton updated successfully.

(Shannon)

  • Last week was spent at LHO installing an IDS and discussing security with Dave and Albert.  It was a productive week and several issues were resolved.
  • Had a laptop die here and I am working on migrating the user's data to a new one.  This is proving to be a bit difficult due to some quirks in the backup software.
  • The backup software died on Tuesday due to running out of inodes on the file system it was installed on.  I have worked with Arkeia tech support and have things up and running again.
  • Ordered various bits of hardware.
  • Working out some storage space for drawings, etc. on site.  This will need to be shared storage between a few people here.
  • Had a telecon today to discuss DMT account & gateway issues.
  • Working with Dwayne on setting up our LLO spam filter.
  • Reviewing much of the NIST FISMA guiding documents.  We will likely need to revise many of the LIGO security policies/documents to reflect requirements that are contained in these documents.  The NSF references these documents in their draft guidelines.

Hanford:

(Christine)

Nothing to report

CIT:

(Mike)

  • Continued work searching for false positives on the Spam Filters.
  • Ghosted the new DCC servers.
  • Worked more on the DCC Synergy web-server, by enabling SMTP and SSL services.
  • Started documenting the installation of new DCC servers.
  • Called in two IBM laptops one with a motherboard issue and the other had a bad battery that is still under warrantee. One of these laptops needed to be reloaded before I sent it back to IBM.
  • Tried to backup a users laptop but drive had bad sectors, all backups attempts failed. I have called this into the manufacturer to get the hard disk replaced. This is on back order.
  • Other misc. support that included restoring users e-mail, printing and a few software/hardware issues.

(Christian)

  • Created a backup of Dorothy Lloyd's workstation.
  • Installed new local printer for Phil Lindquist.
  • Replaced toner cartridge on HP 4000 LaserJet.
  • Re-imaged 3 laptops that were returned to the loaner pull this week.
  • Working on configuring a Windows XP 64 bit system for Peter King.
  • Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Veronica)

  • LIGO:  Working on possible changes in the layout of the website.  Trying different approaches in regrouping and presenting the information in a more efficient way.  Continued loading the test linux box, configured a firewall.  Updates to various webpages.  Updates to the roster database and several mailing lists.
  • LSC:  Worked on a database of LSC presentations.  Updates to the database of talks under review.  Working on a website for the upcoming March LSC meeting.

(Larry)

  • Worked a number of procurement issues for different groups.  We were able to overnight a new MAC to Livingston to replace a broken unit there.  Delivered a number of newly procured items.  Ordered a couple of workstations and will be ordering a few more for the engineering group.
  • Went through another IDEAS account setup. The default configuration file doesn't work with the new accounts. The error message deals with the graphics resolution but changing the memory allocation appears to resolve the problem.
  • Spent a great deal of time trying to discover why one of the home accounts will not work correctly on the web server. We've got a work around but the actual cause of the problem still has not been worked out.
  • Assisted the LDAS group with a number of small items.
  • Cleaned off a few accounts and removed a couple of accounts of people that have recently left the project.
  • Still working the new DCC issues with Mike and Linda. There are still a number of logistical items to take care of.
  • Continual work on the spam filters.

Mail Statistics for January 19-25, 2006:

Mail Statistics

January 26, 2006

Rejected Messages

36,239

Virus Messages

521

Accepted Messages

16,834

Total Messages

53,073

 

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Systems, Management

Working on the baseline review and the evaluation of HAM-SAS.

Systems

from Dennis Coyne

See also:

AL Systems web page

AL Systems email archives

Records of Decision or Agreement (RODA)

See also the RODA status web page

  • Plan to issue a RODA for discussion/review to allow for a clear path for a Suspension Point Interferometer (SPI) beam just below the penultimate mass in the ITM/ETM suspensions (see comments below).

Requirements/Design

  • Discussed means to accommodate a Suspension Point Interferometer (SPI) in the Optomechanical meeting. Mike Smith prepared a 3D layout for the arm cavity with an SPI added. Seems that the only practical approach is to hang a mirror (~125 mm dia.) from the reaction chain penultimate mass. Currently there is an opening in the quad suspension structure which would allow this SPI beam. However, the SUS group is considering approaches to increase the structure stiffness, which include possibly closing this aperture, or reducing it.
  • Held a Systems meeting to discuss (1) quad actuator strength & magnet size and (2) violin mode damping for the quad.

Interface Issues

See the "Interfaces" section of the AL Systems web page

  • Nothing significant to report

Vacuum Compatibility

Residual Gas Assay (RGA)

See also the Vacuum Bake Lab

Bob Taylor

  • I have been spending most of my time helping Calum and Mark with the Quad SUS this week.
  • I helped Steve get the 40m ready for the safety audit that will take place this Friday the 27th.
  • I have started a bake job on some tooling and a couple of small spacers that will be used on the Quad SUS for Calum.
  • In my spare time I continue to do maintenance on ovens.

Scatter/Absorption Test Measurement System

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang, Bill Kells

We are waiting on the right parts from Laser Quantronix for the 30 watt laser.  We have removed the pumping housing and found the cover screws are completely loose from its original setting.  We are changing new housing and we'll replace new "o" rings. We also found the laser jacket flow tube broken. All these parts are being ordered and ASA received we'll replace.

High-Irradiance, Contamination-Exposure Cavities

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

Changes indicated in yellow highlight.

Cavity

(Location)

Material/Item

Start

End

Comments

Cavity #1

(OTF Lab, Bridge)

“Cable wire” (material type?)

~11/17

TBD

The cavity is once again aligned & locked. Taking measurements daily.

Cavity #2

(OTF Lab, Lauritsen)

NA

NA

NA

Cavity not ready. It needs some other optics(such as: polarizing cube, 1/4 wave plate and some curve mirrors and lens) and the electronics. We have used/borrowed some of the optics from this system to accomplish
the completion of the other two cavities. Recently the 700 mw NPRO laser was used for Garilynn’s experiment and it needs to be realigned to the cavity.

Cavity #3

(OTF Lab, Lauritsen)

OSEM Flexi-circuit cable, qty ~ 45

(Helena Armandula, SUS)

supplied by Univ. Birmingham (Stuart Aston)

~9/30

TBD

taking daily absorption & ring down measurements

DuPont Flexible Circuits. The whole part to be constructed of 'flexi' i.e. no 'rigid' sections. (Stuart Aston,Univ. of Birmingham, SUS/UK subsystem)
- Start Laminate: Kapton (LF8515)

(document link: http://www.dupont.com/fcm/products/H-73244.pdf

Coverlay (x2): Kapton (LF0110)

(document link: http://www.dupont.com/fcm/products/H-73245.pdf

DuPont Pyralux Series - Kapton / Acrylic Adhesive system.

(document link: http://www.dupont.com/fcm/products/H-73246.pdf

Queue

Priority 1

2 Cleaned 50ppm transmission mirrors, 1 in dia., REO coated --

TBD

TBD

witness samples for the LHO vertex volume (added in 6/29/2005 vent)

Queue

Priority 2

Stepper Motor (Riccardo DeSalvo, possible SUS or ISC use)

TBD

TBD

Stepper Motor sample had been placed into Cavity #1: Power dropped from 175 mW to ~25 mW after introducing the stepper motor sample, and continues to decrease. It is very hard to keep cavity locked. The stepper motor may have contaminated the mirrors. Will re-test when a cvity becomes available again.

To be rebaked soon using the self-heating capability of the stepper motor (not just the oven heater controls)

Seismic Isolation

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

  • 5 of 9 of the large machined parts are complete at Arland Machine. The remaining parts are scheduled for a 2/15 completion.
  • We have received 32 machined parts this week from Limerick Machine.
  • The last of the maraging steel needed for the blade springs has been sent directly to Lavallee Machine. Material has been rough cut and blanchard ground.
  • Racks have been set up for kitting of screws, hardware, and other miscellaneous small parts.
  • Meetings were held this week at MIT with Jay Heefner, Rich Abbott, Rolf Bork, and Mohanna Mageswaren to review seismic cabling, electronics, and controls

Suspension

From: "Mark Barton" <mbarton@ligo.caltech.edu>

This week, as well as a lot of work in the lab with Calum Torrie and Ian Wilmut on the controls prototype, I did a study for Daniel Sigg on the mechanical effect of the light in the cavity on the pendulum. There are two components to the force, a symmetrical restoring force that tends to bring a misalignment like // back to ||, and an antisymmetrical destabilizing force that amplifies a misalignment like /\. The result appears to be that the stabilizing component almost rigidifies the joint symmetrical mode for 1 MW (pitch and yaw frequencies go from around 0.4 Hz to 5 Hz), whereas the asymmetric mode is unstable above about 300 kW in pitch and 600 kW in yaw.

Calum and I worked with Ian Wilmut to develop an alignment procedure for getting all four levels of the double chain properly aligned, and to identify DOFs where extra adjustment was needed and DOFs where it was a nuisance.  We eventually got all DOFs aligned with the only big surprise being that the chains were initially off by about 2-3 mm in transverse at all levels. This was not a possibility that we had allowed for but we worked around it by slotting the holes for the screws holding the upper blade cartridges.

From: Calum Torrie ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu

Quad suspensions

Tomorrow, Friday we start preparing the quad for shipping to LASTI!

From: Ken Mailand kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu

I’ve completed shop drawings for the SUS installation, plate style fixture, for Calum, and working on an assembly, the majority of  purchase parts have been ordered.

I’m working with Mike Smith on the Adv. Ligo Layout.

From: Jay Heefner jay@ligo.caltech.edu

AdL Quad Controls Prototype

  • We have been at MIT this week discussing the installation of the quad prototype at LASTI.
  • Rack locations have been determined. AC power will be need for the 4 new racks to be installed along the Xarm. These racks will be used for the quad controls, and future suspension and ISC controls.
  • Installation of the electronics is scheduled to begin the week of Feb 13.
  • The new AA filter interface  boards have been received and are being assembled. They will be installed in the chassis and tested starting next week.

AdL SEI

  • I have been finalizing the design of the internal pod cables for the STS2, L4C and GS13. Fabrication should begin next week. The Fischer connectors for the STS2 have been recieved. All other connectors are due later this week.
  • Rich Abbott has started the design of the fine and course actuator driver.

Ponderomotive Experiment

  • We had discussions with Thomas Corbitt, Edith Innerhofer and Dave Ottaway concerning the required electronics and controls required for the experiment. These discussions will continue.
  • The racks for the experiment will most likely be installed near the Ymid HAM.

Core Optics

From: Helena Armandula ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu

LMA

Jean-Marie Mackowski is working on improving mechanical loss on the Ti doped Ta coatings.  He is confident that the optical absorption on these coatings can be brought down from the 0.8 .ppm level we have now to the 0.5 ppm Adv. LIGO coating requirement.  He is planning on tweaking the coating design, specifically the last coating layer to accomplish that.  He is also exploring materials with negative dn/dt.

CSIRO

Roger Netterfield will deliver one thick coated Lu doped Ta sample and a coating witness piece to Caltech next Monday.

Here is part of a report on the Lu doped Ta from Mark Gross, until now just a thick substrate got coated:

"... we have not been able to confidently work out how much Lu is in the film. According to XPS there is certainly an Lu peak there, but quantification has proven to be problematic. Using the full area of the Lu sheet that we bought (32 mm x 32 mm x 1mm - hung by a Ta wire at the center of the Ta target), we consistently get ~3 at% Lu, 37at% Ta and 60at% O from the XPS measurements on different runs. The trouble is this doesn't make sense. Pure Ta2O5 would be 28% Ta and 72% O. Pure Lu2O3 (the standard oxide of Lu) would be 40% Lu and 60% O. A mixture of the two should therefore have 60 %< O <72 % and closer to 72% for the small quantities of Lu2O3 which we certainly expect.  The films are not under-oxygenated since they are not absorbing and the amount of oxygen that is 'missing' would make the film almost black.  We can only assume at this stage that the sensitivity values in our XPS database aren't accurate - there isn't a lot of info on Lu out there - in fact the XPS analyser that comes with the XPS system we have doesn't even have entries for Lu - we have had to use other data.  On the basis of the area of the Lu target and comparison with the results we got from the Silica-doped Titania, which we did in basically the same way, we should have expected ~5-10% of Lu in the film if the sputter yields were roughly the same (that is also data which isn't readily available for Lu) - so 3% Lu in the film isn't too surprising - it's just the oxygen is so low.

Anyway, the refractive index of the lutetia doped tantala is only a little bit higher than TaO (2.16 against 2.14 at 633 nm) and even these values are probably the same within error. Certainly, the 30 layer growth times are basically the same for doped or undoped TaO. I guess Lu2O3 is much the same optically as Ta2O5, or else it means we really do have so little of it in there that it makes no serious optical difference.

Apart from that everything we did was the same as for a TaO-based mirror. All the coatings are annealed at 450C for >12 hours.

We'll discuss more details during Roger's visit to Caltech next Monday.

SPIE - San Diego meeting

Gathered some interesting information while visiting the exhibits:

John Tardif and Jim Lapp that worked for Wave Precision and were involved with most of the LIGO I polishing, are not longer there.  John is now working for Mindrum Precision, Jim is at another outfit.

Talked with Scot Mittl, from Insaco, they used to cut to size and shape our sapphire substrates, they would like to do the same with Adv. LIGO fused silica substrates.

Talked with Len Mott from MLD, they have a large chamber now that could handle Adv. LIGO Optics. They are still interested in LIGO but, only for production type runs.

Visited the Advanced Thin Films (Ramin) exhibit, talked with Rob Patterson they are steadily growing, they have now 16 people working. They also started a polishing group.

Stopped by CVI - CVI bought Optical Components,  a small polishing and coating house that we use often for non-critical work.  Now, with CVI's backing they expect to grow more.

Visited REO exhibit, talked with Mark Damery and got an up-date on the polishing schedule for the TNI substrates.

Stopped by many of the other exhibits, every company in optics was represented there.

Pre-Stabilized Laser

From: Peter King pking@ligo.caltech.edu

(On scimon shifts)

Auxiliary Optics

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

VERTEX LAYOUT

In process of adding the IO optical train to the ZEMAX vertex optical layout. Added some more baffles. Added a tube section between HAM1 and HAM2 the size of the manifold beyond the ITM chambers with optical viewports for possible optical lever beams. The spool pieces that will connect to HAM1 and HAM2 restrict the IO beams, so the IO beams will have to be moved closer to the axis of the tube.

SLC

Hiro is still working on obtaining transfer functions for scattered light noise in ADLIGO.

TCS

Looked into incandescent IR sources as an alternative to the CO2 laser. Commercially available small blackbody sources seem to be limited to approx.10W total emitted power, which would provide approx 2 W in the absorption band of the fused silica ITM. Updated the drawing of the ring heater mounted to the ITM suspension and put into the PDM Works vault.

SUSPENSION POINT IFO (SPI)

I Created a SW layout showing possible ray paths for a SPI. The minimum spot size on the confocal cavity mirrors with 4000m separation is 21 mm with a 670nm wavelength. The 100ppm diameter is 125 mm. This beam appears to fit on a mirror located at the edge of the penultimate reaction mass. There is also a free space between the penultimate mass and the ultimate test mass that could be used to place a mirror attached to the penultimate reaction mass.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Riccardo DeSalvo desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu

Yumei

  • measuring the quality factor versus frequency of the HAM SAS IP and compare the results with those  in  ANSYS
  • implementing HAM SAS in Solid works.

Valerio

  • working on modelling and feedback o HAM SAS

Alberto

  • still working on the magic wand paper

Justin, Sean

  • working on final report on silicon flex joints

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