Weekly Report for Week Ending February 16, 2006

Due to the holiday we will not schedule the LIGO Executive Committee meeting February 20, 2006.

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights

LSC Issues (Saulson)

No report.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

LSC MOUs and Research Plans and Progress Reports

  • No report this week.

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

A site teleconference was conducted Thursday, February 16, 2006.  The following were among the issues discussed:

  • Budgets—Reviewed under run for first four months due to positions that have not been filled yet.  The under run mounts to on the order of $100K distributed over several accounts.  We therefore proposed to defer a change request; to be reviewed again at the halfway point (end of March).
  • EXCEL Subcontract—have tried to do our best to get all the pieces together so that we can pay invoices; did experience issues with communication.  EXCEL may have to reissue invoice.
  • Plan for LDAS Equipment in Livingston—tentative plan is to build structure inside storage bay area, but this plan is still being "annealed."  $12K costs for moving HVAC and for new ductwork.  Livingston on a crash program to get the computers moved by the end of March from the area to be used for the Group B Exploratorium exhibits.
  • Property—request for a new van for Livingston has been submitted.  Reportedly GSA is short on vehicles in Louisiana.
  • Inventory at Hanford—An inventory is scheduled at Hanford the first week in March, 123 items, list to be provided.
  • Volunteer Docents at Sites—All will be covered by Caltech insurance policy for Workman's Compensation.  Docents will have to sign forms that have been provided by Caltech to the site heads.
  • There are no open assigned actions.  The list of assigned actions updated through December 1, 2005 (the last time that it was updated) will be found Here.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)

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

  • Assisted Livingston (A. Sibley) in requesting a Vehicle upgrade from GSA.
  • Coordinated the disposal of old computers, monitors and Lab equipment.  Account Number LIGO.OPT-5.4-NSFLIGO.FY02ON.
  • Provided assistance to the LDAS Group  (S. Anderson) with coordinating the shipping of 3 computer racks to MIT (K. Bayer) Account Number LIGO.DAT - 1.5.1- NSFLIGO.FY02ON.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

Document Management System

Ran several reports of sub-menus in our current to determine the number of documents associated with each and determine whether or not certain fields will be carried over to the new system and used for historical documents only or integrated into the new system.

Discussed the idea of further dividing each category into sub-types. The benefits of this would be to further define the appropriate profile input for that document and make searches more tailored at the front end.  With this in mind, most categories were divided into 3-6 sub-types.  Additionally, a couple of new categories were identified:  forms, and budgets/financial.

Began to identify "groups" within a group, ie. Detector Group represents subgroups of Suspension, Seismic Isolation, etc. . .  This is to support the group collaboration environment as well as further define document uploads.

Purchased and installed OmniPage Pro 15.  This newest version provides a batch process that will OCR all PDF formatted documents into text searchable documents.  The only thing that needs to be thoroughly investigated before setting up the batch runs is to ensure that the program recognizes those .pdf files distilled from native files that are already text recognizable since the accuracy of that is superior to overriding with an OCR program.   I spoke with the company's technician and supposedly the program can tell the difference between .pdf flies that are image versus text, so we'll set up a test environment in some way to confirm this before handling our actual electronic library.

Interviewed several staff members from different areas of the project to determine if there are any unique fields in their sections that would make searches effective, ie., serial numbers in the electronics group, etc.  These are being combined with fields already standardized for all the categories and will be treated as not-required fields in the appropriate categories of documents on upload.

Continued to refine the conversion requirements document as the information gathering continues.  Hopefully this will be ready for distribution to the committee for review by the end of February.

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

Week Ending

February 16, 2006

In

Out

Packages

25

7

Faxes

18

15
  • Processed/distributed 5 DCN's.
  • Began processing of 2005 Travel Expense Report files.
  • Scanning Project – continue to scan contract closeout files.

COST SCHEDULE CONTROL SYSTEMS (Cunningham, Brambila, Kaufman)

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

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

  • Completed the change order to Ares for the two subtasks for the LIGO Hanford Observatory. The change order has been completed.
  • Followed up on the status of deliveries and long-standing orders. I am still waiting for a definite ship date on the custom actuators which we are hoping to ship within the next week.
  • The website address for Procurement was changed this week, so I've made the changes on the terms and conditions forms which are sent to the vendors so that the correct web address is referenced.
  • After several follow-up phone calls, received the long awaited credit for the sales tax billed for Hanford on the Sun invoice. The payment for the invoice was processed yesterday and paid.
  • Working on correcting the registration for the trailer purchased for Livingston and adjusting the associated costs.
  • Completed the close out of the Planning Systems subcontract. Received the signed Release of Claims and closed the file.
  • Working on completing the change order to LSU to reflect the time period of the MOU.

>From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman>

  • Completed and sent out reports for DIA, Site Discretionary Accounts and Visitor Award.
  • Prepared and submitted 3 Cost Transfers to transfer expenses to the recently created fabrication accounts for DAQ and ISCCA.
  • Prepared and submitted Cost Transfer to relieve small overspent amount in the US India Award so that the Award could be closed.
  • Spent some time trying to understand and resolve issues related to some recent Excel invoices to ascertain whether the procedures that had been set up regarding submittal of Work Orders had been followed.  Determined that the Work Orders had been prepared and submitted correctly, however the problem was that 2 of the Excel invoices did not show the contract amount correctly.  Allen Sibley is to request revised invoices so that payment can be made.
  • 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>

  • Construction of the LLO Science Education Center is on schedule, with completion of the steel structure.  Opening ceremonies remained scheduled for sometime in November.
  • A Request for Quotation is being prepared for the design of the kinetic facade for the LLO SEC.  This design was originally going to be done in-house, but the departure of the staff member assigned to this task has made it necessary to contract out this effort.
  • Plans are still in development for the movement of the LDAS equipment at LLO to its permanent space.  Currently, the plan calls for construction of a framed facility inside the storage bay.  This re-plan was caused by the determination of a structural engineer that the second floor of the staging building would not support the load of the racks of computers planned to be housed there.
  • An agreement with Human Resources has determined that authorized or approved volunteers who are used as docents at both sites will be covered under Caltech's umbrella insurance policy.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Hiroto, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

Worked on the usual new trips, expense reports, reconciling, calendar reservations, and itinerary entries, as well as pulling the last of the 2005 trip files for permanent storage with DCC and setting up 2006.

>Julie Hiroto

No report.

>Dorothy Lloyd

  • Processed the usual requisitions, payment requests and invoices. Reviewed and recorded invoice payments processed during the period December 5 through February 10.
  • Jim continued with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

See Advanced LIGO below.

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 was discussed during the normally scheduled meeting of the LIGO Executive Committee scheduled on February 6, 2006.  Held pending additional information..

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

  • No special activities to report.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

No report.

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

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

We're now into our second and final week of our commissioning break, with efforts to increase IFO range and stability in days/eves, and science-mode running at night, before returning to the S5 run proper on Monday Feb 20.  The weekend of the 18-19 will be run in science mode to assess stability after the many mods, and to obtain and update calibration.

There has been an awful lot of really good commissioning work in the last two weeks, and some of those entries are point out below.  Early Thursday morning, the 4k was running at a binary inspiral range of 13Mpc for many hours, grazing 13.6Mpc briefly (integrating the 4k design goal, one gets 13.9Mpc).  At the same time, the 2k had run for most of the evening at 7Mpc (integrating it's informal goal, you get 8.8Mpc).  4k efforts were concentrated on improving stability by i) increasing the bandwidth of the WFS angular control, ii) reducing AS_I saturations, and iii) minimizing scattered light in the QPDs.  A major find was that reducing the flow rate in the HVAC system improved the noise in both IFOs at the sweet spot near 100Hz. Work on the 2k is summarized here, and including improved frequency noise with more power on the REFL port, modifications to the pick-off electronics, a new TCS mask, and a balancing of the ASPD snr's.

4K IFO

  • TCSY intensity noise was found to impact the 120Hz line on H1 AS_Q.  The TCS photodiodes reported sensitivity to jostling of the laser cooling tubes
  • Coherence between AS port accelerometers on ISCT4 and WFS1 suggests that the ouput table should be floated, as is ISCT10 on the 2k.  There, this coherence is minimal.
  • Shutting down the HVAC system improved the binary inspiral range of both machines by a Mpc.  Later in the week it was noted that simply reducing the air flow rates in the HVAC still gave significant gains in inspiral range.  We settled on half the nominal flow rate, for the latter part of the week, yielding our 13 and 7 Mpc run of early Thursday morning.
  • FSS and common mode bandwidths were increased
  • scattered light in the QPD boxes in the end stations was dumped properly, reducing pitch and yaw coupling into the error point
  • WFS2A's unity gain was brought to 5Hz
  • a filter was added to minimize a 47Hz peak in AS_Q induced by optical levers
  • two geophones per endstation were mounted on crossbeams, part of new PEPI

2K IFO

  • PRC->DARM coupling appears to be reducing the H2 binary inspiral range in the first half hour of lock.  Servo filters were modified to add phase margin at 100Hz.  Modifications to the POB/POY whitening path brought the calibrated noise spectrum to the 2k informal design goal around 90Hz.  The 2k displacement noise now cleanly surpasses the 4k interferometers, due to it's larger cavity pole and the recent commissioning efforts.  Later, PRC and MICH gains were boosted.
  • old problems and old solutions: a mobile broad peak at several kHz is pushed higher by leaving a rack door open
  • gold star masks were installed on the TCSY laser, and later the power was optimized, increased, out of the table
  • a swap of the 2k PSL MOPA power supply indeed eliminated a 71.75Hz line in AS_Q

Outreach

About 350 people attended our LHO open house on Sat Feb 11; Dale Ingram will report next week on this very successful event.

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

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

LLO S5 Report (Brian O'Reilly)

We had a duty factor of 47.5% for the week with the major impacts being commissioning activities and construction. We took advantage of the commissioning break at LHO to work on our own detector. The main focus was work on the HEPI system.

The Guralp seismometer at the X-end was found to be in the wrong orientation. This was fixed on Monday.

The annulus ion pumps were found to not be responsible for our 60 Hz noise.  Excitation of the ETMX BSC end cap showed that scattering from this source is not important at our current sensitivity.

Several measurements of the WFS2 loop show a significant change in its shape since November. This may explain some of our lock losses.

The 10th harmonic of 60 Hz seems to have become a lot stronger since Feb. 10th, no explanation for this yet.

On February 10th the L1 NoiseBudget reported a range of 11.2 Mpc. We are eagerly awaiting the ice-cream truck.

Vibrations (Giaime)

  • The HEPI sensor correction STS-2 that failed or was thought to be damaged on February 20, with the main symptom 240 Hz oscillation, is now known to be the same one that exhibited the same symptoms in prototype tests last year.  Our seismic team will be more careful in the future.
  • The Streckeisen vender has been contacted to discuss repair procedures.
  • The engineer who has been carrying out seismic tests near LLO has been contacted.  The tests are complete, and data exchange may be possible.
  • Steel work for the Science Education Center appears to be largely done.  We expect material deliveries to periodically interrupt running in the near future.

Storage/Condor/LDAS admin (Igor Yakushin)

  • on Duncan's request made it possible for users to run cron jobs on ldas-jobs;
  • created user directories on ldas-pcdev1:/usr1 on Duncan's request;
  • downloading S4 Burst-MDC that were redone at PSU with the final calibration version V4; copying these MDC frames on the nodes; these MDC frames will be used in S4 burst APS and LSC presentations and the paper;
  • installed ImageMagick on the nodes on Shourov's request; 5) requested a quote for extending our service contract for SUN equipment (expires on 03/31) for another year.

Data analysis (Yakushin)

  • Rerunning S4 waveburst simulations on the new S4_V4 Burst-MDC frames in preparation for LSC and APS meetings and for the paper; 2) Preparing the material for the reviewers (Feb 19 deadline) for my APS presentation about the burst search results from the first few months of S5.

LDAS (Dwayne Giardina)

  • tapes ejected to be shipped to CIT: LL0514, LL0588, LL0611, LL0870, LL1693, LL1694
  • tapes imported into L700 library: LL1360-LL1365
  • tape drive 44 needed cleaning
  • implemented Ben's userprio script in cron :  0 1 * * * /root/ maintain_userprios.py > /root/userprios.out 2>&1
  • email configuration changes on:  beowulf, node1-210, datacon, metaserver, dataserver, ldas(gateway)
  • yum config changes and install sendmail-cf on:  datacon, metaserver, beowulf (required for mail config changes)
  • failed disk u1d7 in T3-6, replacement received from Sun
  • Node131 crashed during mail config changes, rebooted, required fsck.  will monitor closely

General Computing (Giardina)

  • still working on script to change NIS group ids, it works fine, just tweaking it and adding additional features
  • other usual user requests and support
  • mostly tied up with LDAS this week

Network and computing (Shannon Roddy)

  • Wrapping up the router software install for Dave.  Will fedex this evening.
  • Worked on some LDAS email issues.  Tried to find a suitable alternative to a domain wildcard.
  • Worked on the color-front printer.  Thought I had it fixed, it broke again and I have given up on it.  The printer is => 7 years old and gets heavy use, so I have ordered a replacement.  If it is at all repairable, I will likely place it in the outreach area once repaired.
  • Fixed a couple of configuration issues on the spam filter over the weekend.  We really need to get it wrapped up, completed, and filtering.
  • Working on getting a support contract purchased from Sun to support the LDAP/Mail server install.  Have the quote, have called several times, and haven't gotten the right person on the phone yet for a credit card order.
  • Installed a couple of software packages by request on the general computing /apps share.  An old version of matlab was specifically requested, along with some toolboxes, etc.

CDS Computing (Lisa Bogue)

  • Installed a dozen new monitors in the control room.
  • Working with hanford to get our channel list fixed up.
  • Still working on the 3511 for fb0.  At this point I'm waiting for assistance from caltech.

Initial LIGO Detector Science & Engineering (Coyne)

CDS

see the CDS weekly meeting minutes in the commissioning archives

DMT

No report

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

IFO Commissioning

  • Our replacement MOPA pulls more current and runs much hotter than the old one. The chiller is in the control room, and the air conditioning in the control room is broken. So the chiller is working too hard, and can't keep the MOPA cold enough. The PID servo loop has no headroom, and the MOPA temperature (and power) is fluctuating daily. This causes the interferometer control loop optical gain to vary, making it hard to acquire and keep lock. Attempts by Steve and Peter King to turn down the MOPA current have not been successful. We're scrambling to get the air conditioning working in the control room, to give the chiller some help. Meanwhile, we're worried that we do not have a spare MOPA....
  • Dan and Monica are making lots of progress on getting the noise budget code working at the 40m. The program now runs, but does not yet produce meaningful predictions. They will consult with Rana when he gets back next week.
  • Osamu and Noriyasu are reviewing the digital controls infrastructure and code; Noriyasu plans to build a similar system for TAMA. They have measured the ADC noise and DAC noise; they look pretty reasonable. the Pentek ADC has a broad peak (the Pentek "hum") and large 60 Hz / harmonics peaks. The LSC whitening board DC gain is too low to see detector noise; we need to implement a low-noise "detection mode" electronics chain as is done at the sites.
  • Rob, Osamu and Noriyasu have been working on acquiring full lock, but found a bunch of new problems, preventing long locks. Part of the problem might be the instability of the PSL due to the chiller problems mentioned above. It looks like each of the servos need careful retuning to be able to once again acheive robust lock. Osamu will work on this while Rob is away visiting Seiji in Japan next week.
  • Once robust lock is again acheived, Osamu plans to measure a calibrated noise spectrum, including high frequencies (MHz). He will also explore the RF and HOM content of the AP beam, in preparation for DC readout studies.
  • Mike Smith has a prototype optical lever telescope. We will bring it to the 40m and test it soon.

IFO Modeling

  • Monica continues work on her e2e control model for the 40m. The DARM loop won't hold lock for more than a fraction of a second; she and Osamu believe that this is because the other degrees of freedom also need to be controlled well, so she's now implementing all of them. She cannot take a meaningful transfer function without the servos working well for all five length degrees of freedom.

DC Detection Development

  • Rob has drawn up a fairly detailed layout for the DC readout controls, including all cables, electronics modules, front-end and EPICS channels. He's got two stages: in the first, the oputput mode cleaner servo will be an analog system using an SR830 lockin. In stage 2, the servo will be all digital, using a prototype new PCI-X computer. He's working with Ben to design and/or acquire the electronics that we don't already have in hand, including the DCPD satellite box and the OMC PZT driver / summing box.
  • Sam Waldman continues the development of the tip-tilt PZT driver boards.
  • Ben reports that the DCPD boards are functioning well. The last rev of that board will be sent out next week for fab.
  • Ben got the in-vac photodiode mount for the DCPD back from the machine shop, and it looks great. He has delivered the PEEK for some of the remaining parts, and they are being manufactured currently. There are four small parts that remain, and he will machine those next week.
  • Rob and Dan moved the QPD and camera for the SP beamline to another place on the SP ISC table, to make room for staging and pre-aligning the DC readout beamline.

Electronics, Controls, Computers

  • Bryan Barr continues to work on a publication describing the Mach-Zehnder solution to the "sidebands-on-sidebands" problem, and the resulting noise analysis.

Lab Infrastructure

  • Steve bought a new maglev turbopump to replace the old and failing one. The new one requires cooling water. Steve is looking into quiet cooling water supplies, such as the system used to cool our MOPA, or the system used to cool the TCS at the sites.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

This week, Akira finished the last of the Q measurements, and we opened the chamber in preparation for installing the ring dampers.

LASTI (Ottaway)

No report.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Yamamoto)

e2e meeting on February 16th (S.Yoshida, V.Boschi, V.Sannivale, O.Miyakawa, H.Yamamoto)

Sany summarized the current status of the SEI/SUS simulation modules for adv.LIGO.  There are simple BSC and HAM modules based on typical table top spectrum of adv.LIGO.  In addition to these toy modules, there are two modules available, one from the active isolation group and the other from the SAS group.

A BSC statespace module provided by Brian Lantz is being tested, with some known issues to be resolved.

One is an anomalous peak in a low frequency region.

Valerio explained the current status of the HAM-SAS modeling, with a comparison with the requirements.

There are some idealizations, like perfect symmetries which suppress the coupling of translational to rotational modes.  Valerio and Virginio will provide a statespace module of HAM-SAS (in a month or two) which can be used in e2e.

The optics table top yaw motion is important to study the angular instability. The principal source of the yaw motion, either group rotation or stack translation to rotation coupling needs to be identified.  Some strategies are discussed how to identify using the LIGO I data.

Their viewgraphs are available in e2e home page (http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/%20~e2e/ME2ET/060216/)

SEI/SUS for adv.LIGO simulation (Sany Yoshida)

Continued the analysis of AdvLIGO HAM table-top and suspended optic motion using the e2e box made recently. Created different ground motions as input to the HAM box and computed the table-top and suspended optic motion using a LIGO 1 small optic suspension box. The results are being compared with the case when LIGO 1 HAM stack was used.

40m simulation with LSC (Monica Varvella)

The feedback system for the 40m model has been investigated for the DARM and the MICH degrees of freedom: an instability has been observed around 0.3s and it doesn't depends on the optical spring; probably is due to the influence of the other degrees of freedom like CARM. Under investigation.

The DARM open loop transfer function has been simulated again with the servo loop on (as the previous time) and adding a seismic noise; under this condition the transfer function failed because of the instability of the control.

The 40m optical response has been simulated again using the transfer function from the mirror displacement to the dark port: it gave an optical spring peak around 30Hz with the demod phase at 90° and it failed just before simulating the peak with the demod phase of 0°.

Modeler (Hiro Yamamoto)

A new version of e2e simulation package, e2e-3.1.3, has been released.  It has two major additions.

(1) It is easier to include c++ code file in FUNC_X.  Each FUNC_X help text has a short description about the syntax. With this modification, you can create a legitimate C++ file (thus you can fully utilize language sensitive editor, like emacs) and it can be included in FUNC_X by @@INCLUDE filename syntax.

(2) modeler_freq can have frequency dependent amplitudes.  This makes it easier to analyze the frequency dependence when a gain is strongly frequency dependent.

There are several minor changes and bug fixes, including the compatibility with gcc 4.

SIS - Static (or Stationary) IFO Simulation (Hiro Yamamoto, Melody Araya)

Basic tool developments are going on tfor the static IFO simulation.

There was a discussion at the last COC modeling meeting how optical spring effect should or need not be included in SIS.  Hiro talked with Yi Pan about this issue and Yi will provide a formulation to include the optical spring effect in the Stationary IFO simulation.  Yi will talk about this at the next COC modeling meeting.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

Brown:

  • Worked on Fisher matrix formalism for LIGO EMRI problem.
  • Looked at problems in LAL spinning waveform code with Diego.
  • Fixed problems with the ringdown code that was causing Lisa to see corrupted waveforms in software injections.
  • Documented set up of online BNS search and helping transition the BBH search to the new code.
  • Diagnosed and fixed problem with data quality publication caused by a combination of clock skew error at CIT and an accidental double insert at CIT and LHO.
  • Helped Stuart figure out a work around for users to run LSCdataFind and LSCsegFind until the 64 bit version of Globus is installed on the new CIT cluster.
  • Working on a chapter on LIGO workflows for a book on grid computing.
  • Wrote a web interface to the segment database that allows Keith and segwizard to get a daily text dump of the data: http://ldas-cit.ligo.caltech.edu/segments/S5/
  • Interviewed by Ray George from the Globus consortium for their newsletter. Provided use information by LIGO of the globus tools.

Chatterji:

Here are a few items for the weekly report:

  • Upgraded installations of QScan on LHO, LLO, and CIT computing clusters.  Installed QScan on LHO, LLO, CIT, and MIT general computing machines as well as the PSU computing cluster.  UWM installation is in progress.  http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~shourov/q/qscan/
  • Introduced the LSC Channel Wiki with the help of Phil Ehrens and John Zweizig.  It is meant to be a central repository for information on the large number of auxiliary interferometer and environmental channels that are available in the full frame files.  Everyone is encouraged to contribute.  http://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/chanwiki
  • Contributed new figure explaining null stream construction to coherent analysis paper.  Validating probability distributions of coherent and incoherent energies.
  • Modified frgetvect mex file to be more robust against errors in reading frame data.  At the same time, the resulting binaries are more portable across varios Linux platforms.  I am working on incorporating the new versions into LIGOTools
  • Continued Q Pipeline analysis of S5 data for the March LSC and April APS meetings.

Dupuis:

Mendell:

I have run more tests of the S4 StackSlide pipeline and am working to finalize the configuration scripts, instrument line files, and get the final set of S4 SFTs generated. I am also working with Mike Landry to analyze the pulsar hardware injections in the S4 data. I will present results to the pulsar group and the reviewers before the March LSC meeting.

Shawhan:

  • Finished my set of SciMon shifts at Livingston
  • Did a number of data quality studies (influence of trains on glitches at LLO; light dips)
  • Restored GEO to GWIstat display
  • Fixed some things in the conlog software

Sutton:

I spent most of the past week working out the statistics of our coherent network analysis sky maps, and editing the paper.

Yakushin:

  • Rerunning S4 waveburst simulations on the new S4_V4 Burst-MDC frames in preparation for LSC and APS meetings and for the paper;
  • Preparing the material for the reviewers (Feb 19 deadline) for my APS presentation about the burst search results from the first few months of S5.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

LDAS

Support for non-GSI Globus sockets has been added to LDAS for testing the overhead of GSI sockets verses TCL sockets. This is being done to better understand the drop of 200 jobs an hour that has been experienced since using GSI sockets for the nightly testing.

TCL code to support having the md5sums in a different directory than the generated frame files of a createRDS command (PR2953) is being tested. The new option is -md5sumregexp and takes a sed like substitution command to manipulate the output directory.

A memory leak in the manager was discovered this week when using globus based testing scripts. Investigations so far indicated that it is an issue within the TCLGlobus package.

Testing of LDAS using GCC 4.0.2 suite of tools has begun on tandem- ii. This is necessary for large file support (PR#2135). At this point all code does compile with the compiler.

System tests were performed using ldas version 1.8.86.

TCLGlobus

A new option to fconfigure allows the caller to obtain the X.509 subject name on the server side. This allows an application to gain information about the individual who established the connection.

A memory leak has been discovered in the open/close operation for xio. It is under investigation.

GRID COMPUTING

The site Texas Advacned Computing Centern (UT Austin, TACC) has agreed to support the LIGO VO for prototype testing of the LIGO application (inspirals). As this may be the first LSF jobmanager the LIGO app has run on, TACC will demonstrate the robustness of the Condor DAGMan to Globus/GRAM interface. Previous tests employed PBS and Condor job managers.

The OSG-ITB test bed nodes have been yum updated.

Alex Sim, the LBNL SRM/DRM development lead, delivered examples of srmcp commands and additional configuration information required for interoperability when using the srmcp (client) code from FNAL with the SRM/DRM server.

Karan Vahi, a VDS development engineer, announced support for an SRM Java Class library integrated in VDS 1.4.4.

The VDT integration team has agreed to integrate VDS 1.4.4 into VDT release 0.3.10 for support of OSG release 0.3.5

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

  • Helped plan and execute a major CIT upgrade involving hardware movement in Booth, Sol10 U1 upgrades, 3510/11 firmware and configuration upgrades, splitting out the user home directories to their own filesystem and upgrading SAM-QFS.
  • Hooked up fibre connection for dataserver-cit's 10.9 interface.
  • Added GEO to LDR time lag plot.
  • Helped retrieve 30A extension cords we'd used in Booth.
  • Called in and received hardware replacement 3510 disks, T3 disks and a 3510 controller.
  • Worked on recovery/upgrade at LHO similar to the CIT one (ongoing).
  • Did the weekly receiving/ingesting of tapes from the sites (ongoing).

(Phil Ehrens)

  • Patched the configuration files for the FC4 desktop kickstart install rpm and tested it by upgrading the machine "couch".
  • Assisted transfer of computing hardware to MIT.
  • Diagnosed IDE controller failure of machine metaserver.ldas-test, which has now been removed from use.  The machine beowulf.ldas-test will be renamed metaserver and will run the mpi API as well as the usual metaserver machine tasks.
  • Numerous grid certificate related tasks including adding inspiral task users and making them usable by Duncan Brown and Eirini Messaritaki on the ldas-cit computing resources.
  • Discussed various LDAS related issues with the LDAS development team.
  • Installed and configured a wiki expressly for the purpose of maintaining IFO channel descriptions and information.
  • Various documentation updates on the sysadmin wiki related to machine configuration and grid tasks.

(Erik Espinoza)

  • Diagnosed the following (new) nodes:

-         node192 - memory swap, returned to service.

-         ldas-pcdev1 - memory swap, returned to service.

-         node288 - running memtest, still out of service.

-         node297 - possible mobo, still out of service.

-         node323 - possible mobo, still out of service.

-         node106 - crashed at the time of writing, out of service.

  • Worked with Phil to fix the FC4 Desktop kickstart:

-         Removed partitioning info, it now prompts.

-         Disabled auto reboot.

  • Updated wiki for mail configuration.
  • Worked with LLO to get mail working appropriately.
  • Re-racked the IDE raid rack for shipment.
  • Spent time researching monitoring systems.
  • Writing docs to replicate/explain ldas-kickstart.
  • Looked into proposed disk change (WD2500YD) from ASA.

(Stuart Anderson)

  • Shipped out 2 racks of 80 computers to MIT.
  • Helped with major software/hardware upgrade of the archive filesystems at CIT and LHO.
  • Continuing to work on LSC application issues in 64-bit mode on the new CIT cluster.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

  • On Duncan's request made it possible for users to run cron jobs on ldas-jobs;
  • Created user directories on ldas-pcdev1:/usr1 on Duncan's request;
  • Downloading S4 Burst-MDC that were redone at PSU with the final calibration version V4; copying these MDC frames on the nodes; these MDC frames will be used in S4 burst APS and LSC presentations and the 
  • paper;
  • Installed ImageMagick on the nodes on Shourov's request;
  • Requested a quote for extending our service contract for SUN equipment (expires on 03/31) for another year.

(Dwayne Giardina)

  • Tapes ejected to be shipped to CIT: LL0514, LL0588, LL0611, LL0870, LL1693, LL1694
  • Tapes imported into L700 library: LL1360-LL1365
  • Tape drive 44 needed cleaning
  • Implemented Ben's userprio script in cron :  0 1 * * * /root/maintain_userprios.py > /root/userprios.out 2>&1
  • Email configuration changes on:  beowulf, node1-210, datacon, metaserver, dataserver, ldas(gateway)
  • Yum config changes and install sendmail-cf on:  datacon, metaserver, beowulf (required for mail config changes)
  • Failed disk u1d7 in T3-6, replacement received from Sun
  • node131 crashed during mail config changes, rebooted, required fsck.  will monitor closely

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

  • I am assisting Ben Johnson to get LDAS services running again at LHO, during downtime this week. During this down time I also assisted Robert Schofield in obtaining PEM data for times when our 10 ton and 22 ton air conditioner in the on and off states. Liebert, also took advantage of the downtime to replace on our 22 ton unit the plenum grill with a much heavier and stiffer version, a variable speed pulley with a fixed speed pulley, and the default belts with a smoother variety that run with less noise.

(Ben Johnson)

  • Accidentally deleted a /archive LUN. Recovery is still under way.
  • Continuing to debug the GEO segment publishing. I can manually publish segments, but still no automatic publication from within LDR's local storage module.
  • Had to perform two S5/L0 ejections this past week due to low tape space in the silo.
  • Working on a way to have the publishing scripts read from a single diskcacheAPI query script. Lessening the load on diskcacheAPI and reducing the number of frame.cache files / day.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT:

(Keith)

Livingston:

(Dwayne)

  • Still working on script to change NIS group ids, it works fine, just tweaking it and adding additional features - Other usual user requests and support
  • Mostly tied up with LDAS this week

(Shannon)

  • Wrapping up the router software install for Dave.  Will FedEx this evening.
  • Worked on some LDAS e-mail issues.  Tried to find a suitable alternative to a domain wildcard.
  • Worked on the color-front printer.  Thought I had it fixed, it broke again and I have given up on it.  The printer is => 7 years old and gets heavy use, so I have ordered a replacement.  If it is at all repairable, I will likely place it in the outreach area once repaired.
  • Fixed a couple of configuration issues on the spam filter over the weekend.  We really need to get it wrapped up, completed, and filtering.
  • Working on getting a support contract purchased from Sun to support the LDAP/Mail server install.  Have the quote, have called several times, and haven't gotten the right person on the phone yet for a credit card order.
  • Installed a couple of software packages by request on the general computing /apps share.  An old version of matlab was specifically requested, along with some toolboxes, etc.

Hanford:

(Christine)

  • Created a couple of new user accounts for students of LSC members and for long term visitors to the site.
  • Finally was able to renew my Cisco service contract.  In order to just renew the contract instead of buying a new contract from a Cisco partner, I had to be put back on Larry's contract.
  • I have also finally been able to find a Cisco sales rep in Washington.  He is coming to visit Thurs. afternoon.  He is a Federal Government sales rep as there are no education sales reps in WA.  I'm hoping because we are NSF funded he will agree to work with me or find me someone else who will.  I have been trying for 5 years to get a Cisco rep on site!
  • Both upgraded and degraded Matlab.  Installed the latest version 7 service pack 3 on the application server.  Then installed the compiler toolbox for version 6.5 and used the license file for 7sp3 so that users can compile with 6.5.  I also purchased another compiler license for a total of two.
  • Started setting up two new laptops.  Still working on getting the older loaner laptops up to date.  Had to buy new batteries for all of them.

CIT

(Christian)

  • Installed and configured Webcam XP software for Carol Wilkinson and Phil Lindquist.
  • Millikan - Replaced toner cartridges on HP 5500 printer.
  • Irene Baldon - Recovered lost data from Irene's workstation after she deleted the files from the recycle bin.
  • Configured new system with the engineering Ligo image.
  • Ed Jasnow- Recovered lost emails from Ed's system after his computer crashed. I also created a backup of his system and I'm working on transferring all of his settings and data to a new system.
  • Upgraded my workstation and transferred all of my settings and data. I'm also creating virtual machine images for testing purposes.
  • Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Mike)

  • Continued work on the Spam Filters, searching for false positives.
  • Setup an Engineering workstation for Mike Smith to test Solid Works on.
  • Loading a laptop with all GC software for Rod Luna.
  • Program a new access point for W/B 3rd floor due to poor wireless connection with our current access points. We have put this in place to see if this helps. Christian gave me a hand running multiple tests on this unit.
  • Added additional wireless mac addresses to access points, and removed old mac addresses that are no longer being.
  • Worked on loading a Sun Blade 1500 with Solaris 9.
  • Ghosted two workstations.
  • Swapped out my workstation with a newer workstation that was not being used. This is a big job, due to all the data I needed to move to the new workstation. I should have this finished up today.
  • Other misc. work that included e-mail, and printing issues.

(Veronica)

  • LSC:  Finished the setup of the March meeting website.  Configured/tested an account with authorizenet.com to accept online credit card transactions for the meeting.  Installed a script to generate a list of MAC addresses of participants, per a request from Christine.  The website and its apps are up and running.  Updates of the website of LSC papers under review.
  • LIGO:  Installed a new website for Advanced LIGO, assisted Dwight Carter with its setup.  Installed PowerDVD and upgraded Windows Media Player to Cindy's desktop.  Prepared high-resolution images for various publications.  Posted updates to the LIGO website.

(Larry)

  • Worked on a number of purchases. Mostly small misc. items for different people.  Getting quotes for the CISCO maintenance contract.  Delivered a number of procured items.  Reconciliation took some time because of the number of items. Still missing a couple of invoices.
  • Started on a Solaris10 setup. The upgrade from Solaris 8 did not work well and went to a fresh install. Still some playing around to do to get a good configuration going on the box.  Installed Solaris 9 on another box and assisted Mike in troubleshooting a installation he was working on.
  • Worked on the calendar tool. The reminder tool needed to be restarted by hand.  Also, setup a few more calendars for different people.
  • Spent time with Christian and Mike going over the Webcam XP s/w. It looks to be a good temporary solution but it still has its limitations. However, it does perform better than using VNC for most of our applications of the pkg..
  • Worked a number of account issues. Along the same lines we were able to clean off a few of the old accounts. Still a lot of work to do in this area.
  • Worked the spam filters. Some more changes need to be made, we are trying to make it to where we don't have to check as often for false positives but not let too much get through. Having the spam filters on the individual mailtool has been of some help.

Mail Statistics for Feb. 09-15, 06

Mail Statistics

February 16, 2006

Rejected Messages

29,443

Virus Messages

1,349

Accepted Messages

33,406

Total Messages

62,849

 

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

From: David Shoemaker dhs@ligo.mit.edu

The NSF will perform a Baseline Review of Advanced LIGO at MIT, May 31-June 2. This milestone will allow the NSF to supply the National Science Board with the information they need to judge Advanced LIGO’s readiness for funding in Fiscal Year 2008.

Advanced LIGO Systems, Management

From: Phil Lindquist <lindquist_p@ligo.caltech.edu>

Advanced LIGO Review Preparations (Lindquist)

The following documents have been prepared and distributed:

Positions Summary List - The first step in preparing for the Advanced LIGO Review is to review the Positions Summary List to check whether the projected positions are consistent with expectations and needs.  We also need to know what positions will be required to support continuing Operations activities through the Advanced LIGO Construction effort and what positions will be available to help with Advanced LIGO.  Task managers have been requested to review and respond by February 17.

LIGO Operations Budget Model (FY 2006 - FY 2008) - This file is a full detailed budget projected through FY 2008.  It assumes that funding will be level at $33 million in FY 2007 and FY 2008.  Operations Task Managers will be requested to review and update as needed.

Projection of Advanced LIGO Operations Costs - This model projects budgets through 2014 (steady state Advanced LIGO Operations) including a summary of increments that were provided by task managers for the June 2003 NSF Review.  These estimates have been escalated to FY 2014 dollars.  We will request a review and update by the Operations Task Managers.

Project Execution Plan - A strawman draft Advanced LIGO PEP was distributed last week for review and update.  I am requesting responses by March 3, 2006.  An update of the Organization and Staffing sections was distributed this week.

From: Dennis Coyne coyne@ligo.caltech.edu

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

  • Nothing new

Requirements/Design

  • The HAM_SAS review committee expressed a concern that the cabling for might act as an acoustic path which could compromise the isolation performance. I performed an analysis that shows under reasonable assumptions and parameters, the isolation performance should not be compromised. A technical memo will be written.
  • At the weekly Optomechanical meeting, Mike Smith reported on a new Zemax optical layout incorporated into the SolidWorks 3D layout which corrects cavity lengths and mirror positions
  • Provided guidance to the SUS/UK group on welding for in-vacuum structures, in particular procedures to maintain cleanliness.

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

  • No report (vacation)

Scatter/Absorption Test Measurement System

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang, Bill Kells

We have re-assembled the housing for the Quantronix Laser.  All the water leaks checked and the laser is back in operation.  Now we are recovering the last test for the 1" mirror absorption and after few trials we were able to recover ~ 50% of the previous measurement. (We are aiming on ~400ppm signal, so far only 200ppm)  We are continuing working to get the max absorption from the test mirror.  So far we have used a 200 um pinhole which it made a difference to improve the signal.  It may need to improve the mode match, which is  the next step to try it and see the results.

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

Taking measurements daily.

Cavity #2

(OTF Lab, Lauritsen)

NA

NA

NA

We continue working on setting up the optical path. We have received the optics needed to recover the whole optical path and be able to mount all the required optics in place.

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)

 

From: Carol Wilkinson <wilkinson@ligo-wa.caltech.edu>

Kickoff of subsystem leaders charged to prepare materials for AdL Baseline Review.

Seismic Isolation

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

Agenda for the weekly SEI telecom, Friday, Feb. 10, 2pm Eastern, 1pm Central, 11am Pacific time

Announcements

  • Gas or oil prospecting near LLO should finish in a few days.  Now they are blasting and running thumpers.  Contact has been made with the engineer.  Perhaps we can get access to his data and learn something we don't already know about surface wave propagation near LLO.

Single Stage HAM - Joe, Brian (no progress on models)

  • Corwin preparing solid model of new version of bolted structure, to be shown next week.
  • Carol wants to consider change to baseline on or about April 1, so we would want to have a fairly complete conceptual design in mid March.

BSC SEI status, Ken/ Dennis

  • Pods didn't ship to LLO last week, but are now expected to ship 2/20.  Ken to send us info regarding flexible bag glove box.
  • Jay has prototype of the seismo cables and will show Ken next week, then replicate them and send to LLO.
  • L4-C and GS-13 preamps prototyped.
  • Arland stage 0 parts to be delivered 2/20, stage 1 on 3/1, and stage 2 before 3/16.
  • Lavallee has machined the blades.  One of the 1-2 blades got nicked near the narrow end near where the rod attaches.
  • Ken will rev his heat treatment technical note to reflect the actual treatment we do the the blades.
  • Blade calibration fixture design finished.  Ken will lead a discussion on the design and cal process during next week's meeting.

BSC work, adaptive modeling and FIR (Rich M)

  • Rich's latest adaptive feedforward results, posted in LASTI log demonstrate better than a factor of ten improvement around the peak between 10 and 20 Hz.  There is still some unintended feedback to the feedforward sensor on the tank, as well as motion measured by the floor-mounted STS-2.
  • When run with sensor correction (following log entry), the feedback to the STS-2 causes some problem.

LLO HEPI (O'Reilly & Wen)

  • Plan to improve HAM performance above 1 Hz: (1) Engage tilt removal filter to remove tilt signal in HAM HEPI actuator to geophone TF. (2) This will allow us to blend at 0.5Hz. (3) Add RG at least at 1st (1.5Hz) and 2nd (2.3Hz) stack modes in X and Y. (4) Add 12Hz bounce mode RG in HAM3 Z.  Shyang is finalizing the filter design for (1) - (3).
  • GS-13s installed on one of the HAM tanks to allow for better calibration of the HAM platform motion.
  • HAMs: blended controllers and tilt correction cross term designed in order to add resonant gain.

ETF platform work, thermal testing, frame testing -  Brian

  • SUS frame resonance tests on ETF tech. demo. optics table with 'lower' SUS frame structure replaced by equivalent SS weights, as requested by Calum.  The 'U' channel is probably not stiff enough to really simulate point mass.  The lowest rx mode moved from 61 -> 76 Hz, which is not as much as would have been expected.  We don't plan to continue this study.
  • Thermal testing: Can't casually see any temperature change on actuator sensor at more than millidegree level as a result of actuator function during normal platform running.  The stage-0 Al table sensor was changing, probably due to contact with room through feedthrough. More careful quantitative measurements to be done next week.
  • Frame damping (Tarm): Drawings of end blocks for damping strut posted on SEI log.  The plan is to use dyad 601 as damping sheet, with glue to be determined.
  • Matt has set up control desk panel to allow easy direction probe pulses for his tickle tester.

Suspension

From: Janeen Romie romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu

At MIT for Quad depacking and installation.

From: Calum Torrie ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu

Quad at LASTI

As already mentioned in previous weeks the quad has arrived at LASTI.

Installation fixtures

Ken Mailand and I continue to work on the installation fixtures. One time we have added to our effort at LASTI next week is some "pushers and "movers" to allow us to better align the quad on the solid stack. It is hoped these parts will be ready for Saturday.

Quad to PDMWorks

I am arranging all of the files to the CAD data management vault. In particular to create a controls specific assembly.

Release to DCC

Once the previous item is complete I will work with the other SUS folks to complete the release of the drawings and assemblies to the DCC.

Pick Off Mirror

Mike Smith and I have started discussion on the design of the pick off mirror suspension.

FEA of Quad Structure

I am working with RAL to look at the interface between the upper and lower structure.

From: Ken Mailand kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu

I've completed a preliminary assembly of the installation plate style fixture, in the CES in the shop. I will be able to do a complete assembly and a load test early next week,  I will get the steel plates plated asap after the test.

Also for Calum, I'm working on a layout option, to use the lift table inside the LASTI BSC chamber, minus the bridge and circular track assembly.

From: Jay Heefner jay@ligo.caltech.edu

AdL SUS Quad Prototype

  • Installation and test of the DSpace controls and electronics is 90% complete. All that remains is to checkout the ESD driver. The system should be ready for support of the controls prototype testing on the test stand by Friday.

AdL SEI ISI

  • More L4C preamp boards have been ordered for Brian Lantz. They are due next week. Once they are stuffed and tested the will be shipped to the ETF.
  • Prototypes of the pod cables for the L4C and the GS13 have been delvered to Ken Mason for a fit check. The STS2 cables are on hold for the delivery of the proper connector collet from Fischer.

Core Optics

No report this week.

Pre-Stabilized Laser

From: Peter King pking@ligo.caltech.edu

The communication issue with the Xilinx DSP board has not really been resolved with Xilinx nor their software partners.  The end result looks like they will not support 64-bit operating systems, now or any time in the near future.  In the meanwhile I have been familiarising myself with the software tools provided for interfacing and programming the DSP board.  Suffices to say that the documentation could only have been written by a programmer

Auxiliary Optics

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

VERTEX LAYOUT

A functioning Brewster's angle Faraday isolator was added to the IO optical train in ZEMAX, in order to indicate the direction of the Refl port beam. A word of caution if a Brewster's angle Faraday isolator is used--the reflected beam will have approx 20% elliptical beam shape that may need to be corrected, with either a Brewster's angle turning mirror, as was done in the 40M, or with an external anamorphic telescope.

The errant beams resulting from mis-aligned suspended optics in the IO train were identified in ZEMAX and appropriate baffles were added to the layout.

The PRM and BS wedge angles were adjusted to force the beam height at ITMX to be -80 mm global.  The ITMY height is -88.7 mm.

All the APS beams and ITMXPO were routed to HAM6. The BSPO beam was routed to HAM1. There are no optics on HAM2, so the HAM2 SEI may be eliminated.

OPTLEV

Luke at FLA is in the process of adding optical lever beams to all of the IO suspended optics.

SLC

Hiro is still working on obtaining transfer functions for scattered light noise in the ADLIGO RSE configuration with the optical spring effect.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Riccardo DeSalvo desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu

Virginio, Valerio

developing Maple model of HAM SAS

Yumei

studying various aspects of HAM SAS

Nicky

resuming writing some of the creep paper during spring break

Riccardo, Anamaria

GM measurements

For additional information about this report, contact S. Whitcomb or P. Lindquist