Weekly Report for Week Ending May 25, 2006

Due to the Memorial Day holiday, there will be no LIGO Executive Committee meeting May 29, 2006.

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights:

LSC Issues (Saulson)

No report.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

  • Received the MOU between the Advanced LIGO United Kingdom (ALUK) Group complete with signatures. This will be submitted to the DCC and posted..

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

  • A site teleconference was held Thursday, May 25, 2006.  The following items were among those discussed:
  • Budget Adjustments--Hanford has expressed an interest in realigning budget for FY2006.  It is our understanding that the adjustments do not increase the total and individually are less than $50K.  If this is the case, no change request is required although the Business Office should be kept in the loop.
  • Livingston Science Education Center--still on schedule and going well.
  • Science Education Center Kinetic Facade--Mike and Janeen visited the vendor responsible for the design task.  Some beneficial modifications have been made to resolve corrosion of the bearings, etc.  The vendor is touring potential fabrication facilities and checking on permits.  All design works appears first rate and ahead of schedule.  The FDR is scheduled June 22, 2006.
  • Property Issues--The trip tentatively planned to Livingston has been cancelled.  Property will attempt to address all open issues from Pasadena.
  • Site Volunteers--Caltech Legal seems to be leaning towards security background checks for all site volunteers.  Caltech has a company that will do this, but it could be too expensive.
  • Next Meeting--There will be no site teleconference Thursday, June 1, 2006 since most participants will be in the Advanced LIGO Review at MIT.
  • There are currently no open action items.  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>

  • Provided assistance to the General Computing Group with the packing and shipping of 1 Laptop for the LSC meeting @ MIT. Account Number LIGO.DIR-1.1.1-NSFLIGO.FY02ON.
  • Provided documentation to justify tax exemptions for purchases on LHO and LLO accounts. (Finance Tax Audit)
  • Prepared property records for 7 pieces of equipment located at LLO.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

  • Last week attended the AIIM (Association for Information and Imaging Management) Conference in Philadelphia.  Attended about 20 sessions covering various aspects of document management, legal issues, best practices, and trends to be aware of and planning for.
  • As guest editor, provided oversight on the June issue of Document Magazine.  Submitted Guest Editor Viewpoint article for that same issue.
  • While in Philly, met with fellow Editorial Advisory Board Members for /Document Magazine/ to plan content, contributors, and assignments for the next six issues of the magazine.
  • Finished a final draft of the file hierarchy upon which all files will be located in the new Synergy Document Management system.  In Synergy, the hierarchy consists of up to four levels of indentured filing.
  • Spent two full days finalizing the Requirements Definition document with FileHold.   This document is expected to be signed and released by Caltech for Synergy to begin the required development work, and submit a schedule to us of milestones.  With a signed off Requirements Document back to FileHold tomorrow, we are on target for a rollout at the August LSC meeting in Louisiana.
  • With the file hierarchy set, all profiles were reviewed to ensure that all metadata was requested necessary for automatic file of document uploads into the correct file location.  This involved 14 unique document profiles (a profile is the system form containing all the metadata needed for the specific document description).  Some of the unique profiles are:  Financial/Budgets, Contractual, MOU's, Presentations, Multi-Media, Human Resources, Change Requests, Management, etc.  In most cases, substantial work was required.  Fields were added/deleted, editing rules applied, and order and flow of requested data entry sequenced.
  • A total of 27 drop-down menus were designed to support each profile, minimizing amount of typing required by author at upload.  Most of the metadata required at upload uses a "point & click" from these drop-down menus.
  • George Stokes is working with me to create "rules" for migration of data on the DCC side over to the correct file locations within Synergy.  These rules will be written in SQL and will be conversion ready for Synergy with all testing and validation being done against our records prior to the migration.  Once migrated, Synergy will enact their own validation and testing and the results of both sides will be compared for accuracy -- if done right, each should reflect the other's count of documents, etc.
  • George began building the required tables, logs, forms, and testing queries needed to support the sanitizing of our current database so that there is clean data going over to Synergy.  This is a huge effort but will allow FileHold the time needed to complete their development and testing in a timely way to support our August rollout.
  • Set up a list of queries to address large blocks of documents that are straightforward in their content.  These will be the first documents for George to handle on our side, testing his tables, etc. for correct logical processing.
  • Worked on a data input flow sheet for each document profile.  This will show which fields are seen first, and based on menu item selection, which further fields are required prior to upload.  This also will verify that I have accurately covered through the fields both the data required and the necessary information for the system to file the document to the right location.
  • Began planning for SURF orientation and am in the process of distributing last year's presentation to each of the speakers who were involved in the orientation, so they can edit and update for this year's SURF orientation on June 13.
  • At Jay's request, began planning various options for a staff/SURF social.  Beaches, parks, and other summer activities are options under consideration.
  • Started preparing the various forms and paperwork for the upcoming LSC in Boston next week.

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

  • Fulfilled numerous document number and posting requests.
  • Processed/distributed 3 DCN's.
  • *Update on Scanning* - Progress continues on scanning of contract closeout files.
  • Additional Activity:

Week Ending

05/25/2006

In

Out

Packages

32

10

Faxes

26

15

 

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Cronin, Brambila, Kaufman)

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

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

  • Followed up on the status of an out of print book which the publisher has just recently shipped from the United Kingdom.
  • Routed change order 4 for the Exploratorium and submitted it to the vendor. Working on change order 5 for the Exploratorium.
  • Working on the Sun Microsystems order for LIGO Livingston Observatory for which the matching grant expires next week.
  • Placed orders with vendors for the sites and for Caltech. Followed up on pending orders that have long lead times.
  • Received the pending invoice for the May 2006 report and submitted it to P-card Administration.
  • Obtained information on Raytheon's pending charges through JPL associated with services provided two years ago.
  • Working on closing out p.o.'s and preparing the monthly report for submission next week.

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

  • Worked on updating monthly reports.
  • Submitted a Cost Transfer to move travel expenditures from LIGO.STO to the fabrication account LIGO.HSAS.  Expenditures had been charged to the LIGO.STO account because of delays in setting up the LIGO.HSAS account.
  • Discussed issues related to addition to the Exploratorium contract with Mike Zucker, Ed Jasnow, and Gina Salone.
  • 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>

  • A Request for Quotation (RFQ) is being prepared for the manufacture and installation of the kinetic facade for the LLO SEC.  Proposals will be scheduled to be received around July 21.
  • The LLO SEC remains on schedule, with beneficial occupancy scheduled for early September.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

  • The GPRA estimates for LIGO Operations have been submitted on FastLane.  GPRA stands for Government Performance & Results Act, which requires us to identify goals relevant to LIGO operation for the fiscal year.  FastLane is the NSF system for submitting reports, proposals, etc., electronically.  LIGO performance for this fiscal year will be based on the integrated number of days of operation in Hanford-Livingston coincidence.
  • Requests for material for the LIGO Operations Annual Report have been distributed.  Contributions are due Friday, June 23, 2006.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

  • No open change requests.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

  • The minutes and action items from the SC meeting are posted on the SC web page.
  • Preparing for the arrival of the REU students.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

No report.

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

Summary of S5 Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (compiled by K. Kawabe)

Rough week starting with high wind, followed by thunder storm and subsequent power glitch, various computer problems and loud construction activities. Both of the IFOs failed to meet S5 goal. The H1 duty cycle was 60.9% with the inspiral range varying from 12- to 13+ Mpc. H2 duty cycle was 73.3% with the inspiral range varying between 6 and 7- Mpc.

Highlights from the elog

 

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

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

·        LLO Science Education Center Kinetic Art Project  - Yesterday, we went to HPD to see and review the prototype. A number of issues were agreed upon. The prototype was exciting, especially since Boulder, CO was experiencing gusts of about 30mph yesterday morning. Charlie Danaher from HPD will be visiting LLO tomorrow for the day.

Initial LIGO Detector Science & Engineering (Coyne)

Working Advanced LIGO (reported below)

CDS

See weekly commissioning minutes in the commissioning archives

DMT

No report.

 

40-Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

IFO Commissioning

  • Rob and Rana continue to improve lock acquisition. Following more and more tweaking, signal quality improvements and lock acquisition code and script work, we are now firmly in a region where it is easy to acquire DRMI+2arms lock, and do a bunch of signal handoffs. Work on reducing the CARM offset to zero and returning to full arm resonance continues.
  • Dan continues to work on getting the MC WFS system back up after the move to the AP table (greatly shortening the beam path), 45 degree reorientation of the WFS heads, guoy phase recalculation, and power optimization to ensure WFS head safety without the need for fast shutters. He awaits the appropriate beamsplitters, on order; meanwhile, he'll get it working with imperfect beamsplitters, modify the matrix to handle the 45degree rotation, diagonalize the servo and get it recommissioned.

IFO Modeling

  • Monica is in Europe, preparing a talk on her e2e simulation efforts for the Elba meeting.

DC Detection and Vacuum Squeezing Development

  • Rob and Sam have more-or-less completed the DC readout in-vac beamline alignment, on the bench, using an NPRO. All components are in place, including the PZT steering mirrors (not yet powered). The OMC dither-locks at 20 kHz, "like butter". They are working on improving the mode matching. The output mode matching telescope has a variety of problems, making the mode matching difficult, but not impossible. They have a plan for aligning and mode matching after installation in vacuum. They are now checking out the DC photodiodes, and will soon be ready to dismantle the entire thing for vacuum cleaning and baking. The system will then be reassembled and pre-aligned on a clean flow-bench in preparation for installation, currently scheduled for mid-July.
  • Rob, Sam, Ben, Rolf, Rich and Jay had a summit on the DC readout controls. Most of the required controls should be ready in time for installation.
  • Ben reports that the DCPD Satellite box's front and back panels will be here any day now.
  • Ben is finalizing the QPD whitening board design.
  • Bob tested some resistors for vacuum compatibility, and found that the gold-bodied power resistors failed the RGA scan. We'll have to go with the ceramic bodied ones.
  • Jay built and tested a prototype for the tip-tilt PZT mirror driver needed for both the LASTI Ponderomotive and 40m DC readout controls.
  • Bob baked the conflats for the DC readout beamline ports (OMC reflected and transmitted, to QPDs) and gave them to Steve.
  • Go has been working on the stability of the SHG cavity. It's still susceptible to seismic and acoustic noise, but its stability is better than before. Work continues.

PSL

  • Steve and Dan, in the process of rewiring the PSL enclosure interlock, discovered that the interlock cable was flaky, causing some of the spurious interlock trips we've been experiencing lately. With help from Ben and Rich, they rewired the interlock so that it shutters the power amplifier rather than tripping the NPRO; much more gentle for the laser! As a bonus, the EPICS control of the power amplifier shutter now works.
  • The PSL head temperature is still observed to be fluctuating, but less than before. There have been no sharp spikes in HTEMP in the last few days. Steve continues to watch this closely.
  • Steve covered the PSL trip switch with a guard to prevent it from accidentally being pushed.
  • Rana noticed that reflection from the squeezer back to the PSL NPRO makes it much noisier, despite the presence of two Faraday isolators in the MOPA box. He blocked the light path and the noise went away. Go installed a Faraday isolator in his squeezer path, but it had little effect. He traced it to reflection from the OPO, not the SHG.
  • Steve noticed that the PSL FSS can lose lock (overnight) when IFO is left in LA mode; could this be due to the fast CM servo? Under investigation.

Lab Infrastructure

  • We had approximately 60 visitors to the lab on Saturday, as part of Caltech Alumni / Seminar day.
  • Steve reports that after the rains, the particle count is now back down to normal in the lab (it follows the outside particle count very well, unfortunately).

 

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

No report.

LASTI (Ottaway)

No report.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Yamamoto)

Effective this week, Hiro's report will appear under the Advanced LIGO section.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

Chatterji:

             http://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~shourov/qscans/lockloss/

Dupuis:

 

  • working on S5 frequency/spindown searches for interesting pulsars.
  • worked through S3/S4 time domain pulsar paper.

 

Mandic:

 

  • I have finalized the first draft of the paper discussing the results of the all-sky stochastic search using S4 data, and I sent the paper for review by the LSC and Peter Saulson.
  • I worked with Xavi Siemens on the accessibility of the cosmic string models of stochastic GW background to LIGO.

 

Mendell:

 

  • All StackSlide jobs have finished with what I hope are the final results. Work continues on incorporating these into the S4 PowerFlux StackSlide, and Hough paper for presentation at the June LSC meeting at MIT.

 

Shawhan:

 

  • Worked on writing the paper describing the LIGO S4 all-sky burst search.
  • Revised the set of burst hardware injections.
  • Tracked down a Epics/conlog problem noticed by Myungkee Sung.

 

 

Yakushin:

 

  • Continue working on LIGO-GEO simulations
  • Generated waveburst triggers on SG1C_S5 burst MDC frames that cover a period between Feb 15 and May 2.

 

 

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

LDAS

 

Testing of Tcl/Tk 8.4.12 has moved to ldas-dev. Most of the failures are due to tasks taking too long in an API. This issue is being investigated.

64-bit Solaris LDAS has been tested using username/password authentication. There remains issues with building globus on Solaris. This too is being investigated.

There has been a drop in the nightly job rates on the ldas-dev system. There is some speculations of some network issues.  There was a dramatic drop in the job rate when globus 4.0.2 was used. This issue is not yet understood and attempts to characterize the issue are under way.

System testing was done using 1.8.186. As mentioned above, we are seeing a significant reduction in throughput with the new globus 4.0.2 which is resulting in higher failure rates (up to about 3%).

 

TCLGLOBUS

The Workflow GUI's preference dialog has been extended to use a notebook layout so all preferences are on one screen and can be quickly manipulated by the user. Also, GSIFTP monitoring has been added with a progress bar.

The guild package is being certificate enabled via the tclglobus package. This allows it to use authenticate with the LDAS manager using user certificates. The LJrun package still needs to be modified.

This week we began the process of adding TclGlobus to the VDT software package set. We have had several email communications with the VDT lead, Alain Roy at Univ of Wisc Madison. The new software questionnaire for inclusion into VDT has been submitted.  At this week's VDT office hours, the TclGlobus team was asked to provide a summary of the package and how we distribute and test. The meeting was very useful and cleared up several of the open questions on both sides. The TclGlobus team also raised community awareness of a GSI authentication issue recently found in Globus 4.0.2 to this community.

GRID COMPUTING

Upgraded the GUMS server to latest release from OSG 0.4.1 cache. Configured the GUMS server with latest list of OSG VO sites. Preliminary testing of the GUMS server to begin with the test bed cluster.

Determined that the VOMS web admin interface precluded adding new LIGO accounts to the LIGO VOMS from Caltech. This problem was resolved by Murali at PSU.

Work continued with the Michael and Mary on the LIGO work flow planner specification. GSIFTP monitoring and work flow planning, execution, and restart functions are complete. Preference Menu items and Tabs are not yet implemented. A number of bugs have been discovered, and reported. These bugs have not yet been resolved.

Obtained from Shourov, a simple Burst analysis in MatLab for testing execution of MatLab applications on the OSG. Also with help from Kent, identified a second simple Matlab test program for reading frame files that is posted on the DASWG Matlab web site.

Attended an ITB telecom with agenda items on SRM/DRM testing and privilege components.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech


(Dan Kozak)

 

  • Installed 11 T3 power supplies, all are working fine.
  • Expanded the size of CIT's /home metadata.
  • Worked with Sun on the problems with (now) 3510-12.  Got them to swap 6 of the 12 drives so we can try to determine which drive(s) are causing the issue.
  • Provided a small amount of followup support for the LLO fb0 upgrade.
  • Figured out which LHO tapes to eject for shelf storage.
  • Moved some misplaced h(t) files to their correct location at CIT and re-registered them in RLS.

 

(Phil Ehrens)

 

  • Worked with Stuart Anderson and Dan Kozak to prepare racks for shipment to LLO and LHO. Racks will be moved to loading area Friday morning and will be shipped out Tuesday.
  • Wrote certcheck.tcl script for creating syslog entries warning of imminent expiration of grid certs.
  • Worked on documentation of log_mon.tcl on Wiki.
  • Various cluster maintenance and support tasks.
  • Assisted LDAS developers with a number of issues related to the move to the current Tcl branch.

 

(Erik Espinoza)

 

  • node7 has been returned to service, bad memory.
  • frog has been fixed, running Condor tests with David Meyers.
  • Communicating with AMD & ASA regarding Machine Check Exceptions.
  • Handling RMA of memory.
  • Assisted Phil in wrapping racks for observatories.
  • Looking into Condor Quill issues.
  • Catching up after being out sick.

 

MIT


(Keith Bayer)

 

  • Installed wall brace for condensation tank.
  • Facilities fixed liebert humidifier sensor.

 

Livingston


(Igor Yakushin)

 

  • Studying Q-replication and WebSphere documentation (Q-replication and WebShpere are used to keep segment databases at sites in sync).
  • After last week reboot of dataserver and gateway I have not noticed any more network interruptions inside LDAS network and decided not to reboot the network switch for now.
  • LDR'ed SG1C_S5 burst MDC frames from PSU to LLO and CIT.

 

(Dwayne Giardina)

 

  • Ejected tapes for shipment to CIT. imported and labeled new tapes problems arose with a drive during labeling. restart samd fixed and labeling was successful on second try.
  • QFS upgrade on FB0 with Lisa.
  • Ordered replacement motherboard for node99.
  • RMAd three failed node disks that had been sitting in LDAS room.
  • Replaced failed power supply in node115.
  • Continued working on a ganglia replacement to monitor our cluster statistics, I like what I have so far, but much work is needed.
  • I will be visiting LHO the first week of June.

 

Hanford


(Greg Mendell)

 

  • Now 60 second SFTs, as well as 1800 s SFTs, generated from h(t) for the pulsar group have been published at LHO and LLO between Dec. 17, 2005 and Jan. 31, 2006, and have been transferred to CIT via LDR. The types are 1_H1_1800SFT_hoft, 1_H2_1800SFT_hoft, 1_L1_1800SFT_hoft, 1_H1_60SFT_hoft, 1_H2_60SFT_hoft, and 1_L1_60SFT_hoft, for use with LSCdataFind with the –type option. Work on generating and publishing SFTs for the other S5 times, and a proposal to concatenate the 60 s SFTs, with 30 of these per file for better transfer efficiency, is under way.

 

(Ben Johnson)

 

  • Have perl script to remove non-statable entries from user environments. Need to find a way to incorporate it into the user setups on the lab clusters.
  • Finished analysis of May 11-12 CRC mismatches at Livingston. No actual data mismatches, looks like an EPICS issue.
  • Ejected a batch of 55 tapes (S5 L0 data) to give us more breathing room for data archiving.
  • Solaris 10: Reading up on ZFS. Still researching a good dtrace-based NFS-server diagnostic. Most folks on dtrace-discuss apparently use OpenSolaris and have more useful kernel symbols at their disposal.
  • Added ssh public key to cluster (most nodes anyway). Still need to make sure all nodes got the key.

 

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT


(Keith)

 

  • Ordered two AMD desktops to support incoming UROPs.
  • Setup for adv ligo review: configured hp2600 semi-portable laserjet printer; tested wireless connectivity; tested projectors working on backup for Caltech adv ligo website.
  • Troubleshot laptop for scientist.
  • Rebuilt windows desktop after MIT security found  an anon ftp service running on it

Livingston

(Dwayne)

 

  • User was having email attachment issues.  Reconfiguring e-mail client solved problem.
  • Ordered PCI - USB adapter for high-power laser lab computer - Installed Autocad 2006 on a user PC.
  • Continued investigating possible workaround for ~{user} websites as we are receiving several complaints that they are no longer available on www.ligo-la.caltech.edu and links are broken.
  • Other usual user requests and support.

 

Hanford

(Christine)

 

  • Started setting up the new Sun computers.  I am also cleaning and rearranging the server room to accommodate another rack for 4 more servers, the new disk system and the new tape backup library.
  • Finally got around to removing the old, dead, black and white printer from the printer room.  The color printer is now on a base with wheels and I've ordered two more paper drawers.
  • I heard from PNNL that they have transitioned their circuit to ESnet from 1GigE to 10GigE effective 5/16/06.  The LHO circuit is still 1GigE over a 10GigE circuit.
  • Updated the software available for install from our PC Standard sys area.
  • Ordered a backup GigE NIC for the Cisco router.  Also ordered a different FastEthernet NIC, only one connector as opposed to two.  The card I have has two connectors which causes it to use more bandwidth across the router backplane, even though I only use one connector.

 

CIT

(Mike)

 

  • Spent a lot time this week trying to keep the DCC servers running.  I am still trying to figure out what the deal is on these servers.  Larry had to give me a hand with some of these issues.
  • DCC's nightly process workstation had a hardware issue. This turned out to be a dead power supply. I had an identical non-working computer in our storage area which I used for parts, to swap out the power supply. This workstation is up and running.
  • Continued work on the spam filters searching for false positives.
  • Installed a rack mount server that came back from Monarch computer.
  • Worked on swapping out Hiro's monitors from a CRT to a LCD on his LINUX workstation. This gave me some issues trying to get the dell drivers to work with the LCD monitor.
  • Cleaned up many old surf students/visitor home accounts. I removed these accounts to get ready for this summer. This is still an on going project.
  • Recovered data for a few users.
  • Trouble shot a users laptop with a wireless connection issue. This turned out to be a dead internal card. I have loan him a Orinoco card until he receives his replacement from IBM.
  • Other misc. support.

 

(Bruce Sears)

 

  • iLog Maintenance:  (0.5 days)  Writing iLog admin documentation. General iLog maintenance (user adds, keyword adds, etc.)

 

(Christian)

 

  • Phil Willems - Called Dell support to have Phil's motherboard and CD- Rom checked and replaced on laptop.
  • William Kells - Configured new laptop with the standard Ligo image for Bill.
  • Cindy Akutagawa - Installed and configured Dreamweaver 8 on Cindy's  workstation and laptop.
  • Mike Smith - Configured loaner laptop for Mike to use on travel.
  • Millikan - Replaced toner cartridges on HP 5500 printer.
  • Worked on the Spam Filters with Mike and Larry.
  • Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

 

(Veronica)

 

  • LIGO:  Ongoing work on the Advanced LIGO NSF review website.   Updates of the PAC meeting website.  Helped Julie with the posting of Jay's presentation for the All-Hands meeting.
  • LSC:  Website updates.  June meeting website updates.  Worked with Larry on the password issue for the Closed Talks section of the past LSC meetings presentations.  LSC-related mailing lists issues.

 

(Larry)

 

  • Still working procurement issues. Distribution of past ordered items continues. The USB drives have been the hot item and it is good to see people using them. Received the computer back from Monarch and it is not working correctly. No word back from them yet. Placed orders for different supply items. Still working on maint. contracts.
  • Worked on a number of DCC issues. Assisted Mike on some problems that he was addressing as well as a couple of other requests that I had received. Presently, we are trying to keep the current system running until the new DCC system is implemented. I don't want to have to do a rebuild and then a month later do another one.
  • Working on cleaning up accounts. Still have over 100 accounts to go through and clean off of the system. We've made a dent. Along the same lines, a home account system was repaired over the weekend. We are purchasing a replacement disk system since the one we are using is rather old and doesn't allow for hot swaps.
  • Worked a number of web issues for different people. Most were file link issues.
  • Helping Keith with some of the logistics for the upcoming mtgs. at MIT.
  • Assisted the E2E group with a couple of computer issues. Both h/w and environment problems were resolved.
  • Worked a number of e-mail issues for different people, setting up vacation messages, restoring lost e-mail and cleaning up of e-mail issues on client boxes. We've a number of people with large mail boxes (over 500MB) which do need to be cleaned out. Worked the spam filters and related issues.

Mail Statistics for May 18 - 24, 2006

Mail Statistics

May 25, 2006

Rejected Messages

25,267

Virus Messages

1,805

Accepted Messages

26,728

Total Messages

51,995

 

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Systems, Management

Systems

from Dennis Coyne

See also:

AdL Systems web page

AdL Systems email archives

Records Of Decisions or Agreements (RODA) status web page

Working on preparation for the upcoming NSF review of AdL costs, schedule & planning.

See comments from Mike Smith & Chris Echols regarding optomechanical layout work under AOS/layout.

Modeling and Simulation

Hiro Yamamoto

Static (Stationary) IFO Simulation (Hiro, Melody)

The framework and basic objects are getting ready.  By the middle of June, a FP cavity simulation will be available.  About the adaptive grid size technique. The concentric cavity has a very small waist size. To use FFT for that kind of case, i.e., the beam size changes substantially as it propagates, it was argued that the grid size needs to be changed. It was not clear if this treatment is necessary if the intermediate state is not observed, i.e., starting from ITM with beam size of 6cm and observing on ETM with same beam size. An explicit calculation showed that the adaptive grid size technique is important. With 70cm window size, and 128 grids, the error propagating from ITM to ETM is completely negligible if the calculation is split into two, ITM -> center, center -> ETM, and the adaptive grid size technique is applied for each. If the calculation is done in one step without using adaptive grid, larger error is observed. The error becomes larger as the beam spreads more to outer side. E.g., LaguerreGauss(3,3) mode, the error is ~0.1% per trip without using adaptive method. Using adaptive method, the error is essentially the numerical accuracy.  Higher order modes which tends to spread wider are more problematic for PI, so the use of adaptive technique is important.

QuadFP (Osamu, Hiro, Mark)

A setup simulating an Adv.LIGO arm cavity, consisted of two double chain quadruple pendulums sitting on a BSC chamber with a design performance, has been tuned up to be ready to study the ISC design, especial the transient stability and other effects from the low power lock to the full power operation. A use of different coordinate systems between e2e and that used for the quad pendulum statespace introduced an inconsistency problem, which is fixed now.  After Elba, we will look into the details about the requirements.

One issue is that ITM pitch tilt is induced by the radiation pressure force by the amount of several micro radian, and this needs to be corrected without actuating the test mass itself. Another issue is how serious the yaw instability is with descent LSC is working.

quantum noise in e2e (Hiro)

e2e implements the radiation pressure noise and shot noise separately using the photon counting. Discussions with Somuya and others motivated to study the more explicit implementation of the quantum noise  in e2e so that the readout scheme can be simulated.  The idea is the injection of vacuum field from the dark port.

The first trial shows reasonable magnitude of radiation pressure noise is observed, while the shot noise is 1000 times smaller. But this is a promising start.

alfi : GUI of e2e (Melody, Bruce)

Visual graphical comment is being added in alfi, which corresponds to text comments in text oriented programming.

And alfi is being updated to make it more robust and to fix bugs.

Vacuum Compatibility

Vacuum Preparation & Residual Gas Assay (RGA)

See also the Vacuum Bake Lab

Bob Taylor

  • I have baked the Stepper motor and will scan it on Friday. It began cooling this afternoon.
  • I finished the bake job for Ken Mason and shipped the view ports to MIT.

High-Irradiance, Contamination-Exposure Cavities

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

Cavity # 1: OTF Lab. at W. Bridge: No Change.

The new sample wire used for in-vacuum cabling is still in the chamber.  The cavity is locked and we were taking absorption and total loss (ring down) measurements every day. Total test hours >1728. Can be replaced when another sample is available.  Electronic noise is coupling to the laser signal.  The laser signal is not stable and it goes out of lock often.  We are checking the noise background from the electronic equipment that are attached to the laser signal to discriminate the source.

Cavity #2: Design for the laser enclosure is under way for both locations, the OTF and Lauritsen Labs.

Cavity #3: OTF Lab at Lauritsen Room 38: No Change.

The flex circuit material is in the cavity.  The cavity is locked and we were taking absorption and total loss (ring down) measurements every day. Total test hours >2136. Can be replaced when another sample is available.

Scatter/Absorption Test Measurement prototype   In standby mode.

Advanced LIGO Review

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

Finishing up for the review.

Seismic Isolation

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

BSC Seismic Isolation Construction

We have recieved 22 of  31 parts from Limerick Machine. 5 are scheduled to be delivered today and the remaining four are scheduled to be delivered 5/31. Limerick is driving parts to us as soon as they are off the machine.

Finite element analysis of the blades verify the deflection results Rich Mittleman is getting with the spring test fixture. Both the test fixture and FEA show the blades 15% softer than the solid model. We are designing various shims to compensate for this.

Plates have been designed to hold geophones without pods on the seismic structure for testing and to simulate the mass of the pods.

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

Agenda for the weekly SEI telecom Friday, May 19, 2:00 pm Eastern, 1:00 pm Central, 11:00 am Pacific time

BSC SEI status

  • Parts for stages 0, 1 and 2 received and assembled on LASTI test stand.  See today's LASTI ilog entry.
  • See SEI log entry 621 for list of all parts, including the ones still expected.
  • Soft Aluminum sensor target: vender will meet 0.0002" flatness, but we will allow best effort on the mirror finish we specified.
  • May needs more Fluorel cable clamp inserts.
  • Will send pod components for one GS-13 to Dave at LASTI.
  • LLO now has one of each kind of pod harness, and will test assemble.
  • Stanford will send high-current coil driver to Rich for modal testing.

Stanford: seismometer, platform

  • Matt installed four vertical witness L-4Cs on optics table of platform.
  • All stage 1 loops, plus stage 2 damping loops closed.  Pitch and roll loops designed and will be tested.  These new loops will take advantage of the higher moment of inertia and retune the notches.
  • Stanford platform witness seismometer to be swapped out so that all low-power STS-2's will go into pods for the prototype.
  • Tarm continues to work on his seismometer experiment.
  • William is building a second dSpace machine for seismometer work.

From: Ben Abbott <abbott_b@ligo.caltech.edu>

SEI:

Virginio and I finalized the plan for the LVDT Driver.

I am still gathering ISI coil driver information.

Suspension

From: Janeen Romie romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu

Working on the SUS cost and schedule back-up information for the NSF Review. Worked with Norna, Dave Ottaway and Calum this morning on sdchedule information

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

This week I brought up to date the damping and thermal noise code in my model of the AdvLIGO quad noise prototype, incorporating all the noise sources and parameter values from Bench v4.1. I was then able to confirm independently a result that Geppo Cagnoli had derived from a somewhat simpler model.

For default values of loss as in Bench v4.1, the thermal noise is not quite 10^-19 m/rtHz at 10 Hz but it asymptotes very quickly to the f^-2 line through that point. (The excess noise in this case is from sidebands of the vertical resonance at 9 Hz, via an assumed vertical-horizontal coupling factor of 10^-3.)

However if the loss at the metal wires in the stage above the fibres is 10 or 30 times greater, as from the use of machined maraging wires (with drum heads for easy clamping) rather than drawn carbon steel, then sidebands of a horizontal mode at 3.4 Hz become visible and asymptote rather slower. It's not a huge effect but together with some other difficulties with the maraging proposal it makes it not worth pursuing for the moment.

From: Ken Mailand kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu

I sent to LASTI quad fixture drawings to the DCC.  I'm  working on a lower quad installation arm concept, and a simpler part that may be used at the LASTI site, will send out an email for comments and input.

Core Optics

From Gregg Harry (gharry@ligo.mit.edu)

We got preliminary results from a nanoindenter measurement on a 4.65 micron CSIRO pure tantala coating.  The peak Young's modulus was 161 GPa, compared to the canonical value of 140 GPa we typically use.  This causes a 2 Mpc drop in BNS range, with all other values held constant.  I have yet to talk at length with the lab that made these measurements, and am not sure this is the final number.  It does illustrate, as always, how sensitive advLIGO reach is to many of these mechanical parameters that are not as well known as they should be.

I also have a report from Steve McGuire and Ed Doomes on the X-ray fluorescence measurements on titania doped tantala samples.  The titania concentrations are in good agreement with the other two measurments except for Formula 3.  The Southern group is looking into this discrepancy.  There is also evidence of Fe and Cr, which may be coming from the substrate.

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

Input Optics

From: David Reitze reitze@phys.ufl.edu

AdvLIGO EOMs (Wan Wu, Charles Perry)

We are still working on an analog intensity stabilization servo. A single pole FIR digital compensation filter has been designed; looking into the Labview programming details. Also, we continue the work to nail down the appropriate way to characterize the noise in the demodulated PD signal.

LIGO upgrade EOMs (Guido Mueller)

Analyzed the distortions in a phase modulator with split electrodes. Conclusion is that the distortion is a quadratic effect (very small) and only affects the spatial phase modulation distribution; something we believe we can tolerate. Ordered a 4x4x40mm RTP crystal w/o electrodes to test different geometries.

LLO HPTF (Simon Stepuk and Ken Franzen)

  • Thermal lensing effects were measured in new DKDP and TGG crystals in prototype Faraday. The results reveal that the FI itself produces f=18.7 +/- 2 m thermal lens at 70 W. The DKDP overcompensate it by 2.5 times; need to thin the DKDP.
  • Also discovered that DKDP is very fragile; it chipped during a very gentle mounting procedure.
  • An experiment to determine how the thermal lens depends on the angle between light polarization axis and the DKDP axis revealed no strong dependence.

IO Mechanical (Luke Williams)

  • Posted the AdvLIGO IO nonfolded IFO layout to the pdmworks vault.  This layout shows all of the in-vacuum IO components, the main beam, the heating beams, the FI pickoff beams, the MC pickoff beams, and optical levers on many of the suspended optics.   I will continue to add optical lever beams to the remaining suspended optics.
  • Designing a new breadboard for the Mach-Zehnder interferometer experiment for high power operation.
  • Designing vacuum compatible case for the IAP Faraday rotator.

Pre-Stabilized Laser

From: Peter King pking@ligo.caltech.edu

The full version of Xilinx's software arrived.  I am waiting for the licence number in order to activate it.  Hopefully their customer service will be somewhat quicker than their technical support.

Some of AEI's labour hours and costings were clarified to me by Benno.  I'm glad that that's sorted out now.  My viewgraphs for the NSF review were modified accordingly.

Auxiliary Optics

From: Chris Echols <cechols@ligo.caltech.edu>

LAYOUT

New HAM and BSC models (SolidWorks native) were created from original prints, including flange and bracket details: D060142 for the BSC and D060157 for the HAM.  A new pick-off mirror bezel and related conceptual assembly were created (D060131), as well as a conceptual configuration showing the ETM Telescope.  A new top level Advanced LIGO layout was created (D060169) that includes the vacuum equipment layout and the optics layout.

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

LAYOUT

Data from Zemax was extracted to create an Excel table summarizing the positions and normals of the COC mirrors and ray vectors for the principal ray paths--for inclusion into Coyne's T010076-01 specification.

NSF Presentation

Final preparations for Cost/Schedule presentation are underway.

Controls, Data Systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

  • Finished installation of PCI-X based controls for Hepi at Lasti last week. We also incorporated a couple of change requests:
  • Added a watchdog to the quad suspension controls, similar to that done for suspension systems in Ligo. This state of this watchdog is also transmitted to the BSC Hepi controls as part of its watchdog system.
  • To allow Mittleman to use his DSpace system for adaptive filtering tests on Hepi, the Hepi code was modified:
  • Two spare inputs are setup to receive analog signals from DSpace and insert these signals into the BSC control chain.
  • The BSC geophone signals are routed through the HAM X Hepi outputs to provide these signals to DSpace (HAM X Hepi is not presently being used). Jay is putting together an adapter module to convert these signals from the normal 50 pin D connector to BNC jacks (ready next week).
  • We fixed the problem with AWG signals noted after the installation of the Quad controls (one cycle drop out every 2.5 sec). This turned out to be a problem with the AWG timing algorithm.
  • Work has begun to upgrade the CDS infrastructure (Framebuilder, AWG, etc) to run at higher sample rates than the present system max of 16KHz (adding capability for 32KHz, 64KHz and 128KHz). Higher rep rate requirements are coming from the Ponderomotive Experiment and the Output Mode Cleaner tests.
  • Starting to assemble a by chamber and by subsystem channel count.  We need at least a ballpark figure in order to help us determine CDS equipment locations, module densities and other infrastructure issues. I hope to have a spread sheet put together in about 2 weeks.

From: Jay Heefner jay@ligo.caltech.edu

LASTI

  • Beginning production of Anti-Alias and anti-image chassis for Ponderomotive, AdL SEI ISI and HAM SAS systems.
  • Gathering coil drivers and satellite amps needed for Ponderomotive experiment.
  • Beginning system layout drawings for Ponderomotive experiment.

LASTI and 40M

  • Built and tested a prototype for the tip-tilt PZT mirror driver needed for both the Ponderomotive and and OMC controls.

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