Weekly Report for Week Ending June 15, 2006

 

Due to the scheduled LISA Symposium, there will be no LIGO Executive Committee meeting Monday, June 19th.

 

Special Announcements:

>From: Jay Marx <marx_j@ligo.caltech.edu>     Subject: Appointment of Stan Whitcomb as Scientific Lead of LIGO Laboratory

Colleagues,

 

As you know, Stan Whitcomb has recently asked to step down as Deputy Director so he can focus his efforts on LIGO science. Stan has done a terrific job at guiding LIGO Laboratory through its recent difficult transitions to the point where we are now performing a long science run at better than design sensitivity, ready to begin enhancing LIGO in preparation for another science run with increased sensitivity, and well-positioned to begin construction of Advanced LIGO in FY08. I know we all are very appreciative of Stan’s leadership and management contributions, and understand his desire to focus his efforts and talents on LIGO science.

 

I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Stan as the Science Lead of LIGO Laboratory. In this role Stan will help the Laboratory define its scientific focus and direction. He will be working with laboratory scientists to assure that our scientific activities have the potential for real impact, that they receive enough support to succeed, that our students and post docs have the benefit of quality mentoring, and that our hiring decisions take account of the needs of our science activities.

 

I am personally very grateful to Stan for his patient mentoring of me as I have worked my way up the learning curve, and for his willingness and enthusiasm for leading the Laboratory’s scientific efforts. Stan—thanks from all of us……Jay

Weekly Report Highlights

LSC Issues (Saulson)

No report.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

  • No report this week.

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

A site teleconference was held Thursday, June 15, 2006.  The following were among items discussed:

  • Budgets - Two-thirds through fiscal year 2006, Project Controls is still predicting a total expenditure of $32 million (versus budget of $31.68 million).
  • Livingston Science Education Center (SEC) - The contractor has adjusted the schedule to reflect an end of August Beneficial Occupancy date.  Work is on track.  We are moving forward on a November 13 date for the opening ceremony.  A working group has been established and will be meeting for the first time today (June 15).
  • Science Education Center Kinetic Façade – (Reported by Ed Jasnow <jasnow@ligo.caltech.edu>)  The production of the kinetic facade is scheduled for the last week in October.  This calls for completion of all specifications and drawings at the Final Design Review scheduled for June 19.
  • Advanced LIGO Staffing at Sites - Planning conversations have been held by D. Shoemaker, C. Wilkinson, F. Raab, M. Zucker, etc., although plans have not been finalized concerning what additional staffing will be required at the sites to support advanced LIGO.  At this time no need is anticipated for significant increases in permanent staff.  There will be additional temporary, contractor, and visitor presence to support installation, but this will be handled just as it has in the past.
  • 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>

  • Coordinated the disposal of old monitors, computers and printers. Account Number LIGO.BUS-1.2-NSFLIGO.FY02ON.
  • Presented property policies for the "SURF" students.
  • Coordinated the relocation for Eirini Messaritakaki  and her husband from Milwaukee to Pasadena, CA.
  • Assisted Mike Pedraza in shipping two packages.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

  • No report.

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

  • Processed documents from Elba 2006 GWADW - VESF Meeting.
  • Continued to assist in the process of conversion of current data to the new database.
  • *Update on Scanning* - Progress continues on scanning of contract closeout files.
  • Additional activity:

Week Ending

06/15/2006

In

Out

Packages

10

13

Faxes

21

29

 

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Cronin, Brambila, Kaufman)

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

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

  • The subcontract, High Precision Devices PO# 1033140, which has been closed since 2004, is being audited by PWC. I have requested for the file that was sent to Record Retention to be pulled for the auditors.
  • A new PWC team will soon be starting their audit on A-133's.
  • Air Products has placed Caltech on credit hold. It is anticipated that Caltech will soon be released from this hold.
  • Orders have been placed for various computer systems for the Observatories.
  • Completed the export to Galli and Morelli to be shipped directly from McMaster Carr.
  • Change order 174 to Triad has been completed and sent to the vendor. 
  • Working on completing change order 175 to Triad.
  • Working on change order 5 to Aztec.

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

  • The reports for the Ops Award and the Outreach Award were completed and put on the network last week.
  • Provided Albert Lazzarini with a schedule of remaining unspent budget for each of the Data Group accounts, and a summary of cumulative amounts budgeted and spent for the LDAS fabrications for FY05 and FY06.
  • Completed and sent to Fred Raab a report for the I2U2 Award.
  • 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>

  • Nothing significant to report.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

  • We are preparing the end of May Monthly Report for the NSF. [I hope to be able to say by tomorrow that "we have submitted the end of May Monthly Report to the NSF."]
  • 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>

  • No special activities to report.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

  • Provided safety briefing for the LIGO SURF students orientation meeting.
  • Scheduled and coordinated Baseline Eye Exams and laser safety training class for LIGO (campus) summer students working with and/or in laser labs.

 

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

 

Summary of S5 Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory  (compiled by M. Landry)

 

Some impact on LHO duty cycles this week was due to new IFO-based maintenance tasks.  See the entry (also linked off of the S5 homepage) in the Initial LIGO wiki for up-to-date information on proposed and active projects, and an accounting of science time used for these tasks.

 

We would like to welcome our five SURF students to LHO: Matthew Sieth,  Ellery Ames, Grant Webb, Jeff Parker and Rachel Reddick.

 

Some S5 highlights from the LHO elog are bulleted below:

 

  • AS ports on both IFOs show significant 1Hz (and other) modes, attributable to small optics resonances.
  • Tuesday maintenance work was bulleted here .
  • the weekly range and duty cycle report was posted .
  • angle-to-length decoupling was performed on both IFOs when a chance presented itself.

 

4K IFO

 

  • PEPI investigations drove the ETMX off in yaw, causing a nervous 2h downtime last Friday afternoon.  Hardware filtering, a PEPI switch in the Watchdogs and tighter software limits will eliminate this failure mode in any future tests.
  • H0:PEM-RADIO_LVEA_H1 and associated hardware was set up and tested .
  • one of the greatest ever: figures of merit for the new DMT monitor Strainband Mon were updated... more Strainband Mon templates were created .
  • The MC WFS were found to have too low a gain... this was increased by a factor of thirty, and 60Hz comb filters added.
  • a low-frequency photon calibrator line at 112.9Hz was briefly injected into non-science mode data.
  • side damping gains on the ETMs were modified.

 

2K IFO

 

  • the 2k was down for several hours on the weekend due to a bad ADC channel on the Pentek used by an ETMX optical lever.  The Pentek was swapped .

 

DAQ

 

 

OUTREACH

>From: Dale Ingram <ingram_d@ligo-wa.caltech.edu>

Mike Landry delivered the keynote at the annual Expanding Your Horizons middle school conference for young women on 5/20.  Richard McCarthy spoke to students at Christ the King School the following week.  Greg Mendell spoke as part of the 2006 Mid-Columbia Literary Festival on 6/7.  Thanks to Mike and to Carol Wilkinson for hosting 50 members of the Project Management Institute on 6/14.  LHO hosted 30 new University of Washington faculty on 6/14 as part of their four-day tour of the state.

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

S5 Run Coordination:  (I Yakushin)

  • Due to the Tropical Storm Alberto we had high microseismic noise for several days and the inspiral range dropped to about 11 Mpc. After the storm was over the inspiral range did not return back to 14-15Mpc range but stays at about 13Mpc. The reason is not clear yet. The duty cycle for a week is 76%.
  • A new scheme for offloading the MC2 drive to HEPI to avoid saturation was implemented by Valera.
  • [J Giaime: Alberto's main 'contribution' was 0.2 -0.3 micron/s (rms) noise in the 0.03-0.1 Hz band, below the microseism, but the tidal servos were able to keep up with it.  Let's hope we don't end up in the greek alphabet storms again this year.]

LLO Outreach: (J Thacker)

  • Sponsoring MSP project PRISM=HQT at LLO; this teacher training group will meet at LLO for 3 weeks in June.
  • Training of new outreach staff; activity development for Giant Slinky.
  • Guiding two new RET teachers for the summer.
  • Conducted SEC Opening Event working group kick-off meeting (telecon).
  • Discussed preliminary data results from teacher surveys with Evaluator, IRA.

LLO Science Education Center Kinetic Art Project: (J Romie)

  • Attended the regular meeting with HPD last Thursday. They are scheduled to have their final design review next Thursday. Documents are due early next week. A tight procurement plan is in place to meet the building opening date.

Storage/Condor/LDAS Admin: (I Yakushin, D Giardina)

  • On Albert's request looked into details of financial transactions on LLO LDAS 3.12 account to better understand the charges related to LDAS room construction and whether some of them can be covered from the previous fiscal year budget.
  • node93 hanged with I/O error messages on hda. After rebooting it worked but most likely hda would have to be replaced soon.
  • node208 hanged with kernel panic. It came back after reboot.
  • Received a rack from CIT.
  • Tape eject, import and label
  • Assisted Ben with h(t) C01 to C02 file rename at LHO
  • Verified sam-fsd in /etc/inittab on fb0 and fb1, and that all systems (fb0, fb1, dataserver, lloscript) were running same version of sccli
  • Received equipment from CIT.  started installing in our LDAS room.
  • Made some additions to my cluster_mon app, not yet ready for production though

Networking & General Computing: (S Roddy, D Giardina)

  • Working with Albert yesterday and today on security related documentation.
  • Installed Fedora on a PC and then handed it off to Igor for his student.
  • Installed a UPS in the rack in the computer lab.
  • Ordered several bits of hardware, laptop, etc.
  • Changed a couple of firewall rules for CDS
  • Reading through more NIST docs related to security.
  • Obtained an account on a machine at CIT to facilitate nessus scans.
  • Looking into tripwire site licensing again at CIT.
  • Still reading more info about Windows domains.
  • Continued to work on contract issues with Charter Communications. Forwarded the contract on to be reviewed. LIGO may not be able to sign it; it may have to be signed by someone at CIT.  Spoke to Ed Jasnow about it yesterday.
  • Reviewing the Nessus scans from CIT and LLO.
  • Changed NIS+ group for all former "staff" group members. Currently they are all set to "llostaff". Probably should be investigated for non-LLO users and group membership should be set accordingly. This included changing group ownership of all user files that were group owned by "staff" to "llostaff" (took MANY (at least 10) hours to complete this step).
  • Set up GC and email accounts for 2 new SURF students
  • Fixed incomplete Office 2003 installs on the RETs' computers. Also added printers to their PCs
  • User account alterations on mechanical lab PC.
  • Two of John's Outreach participants were unable to connect to wireless network.  Investigated and fixed settings on their laptops.
  • Assisted a SURF student who experienced problems running X apps remotely, and assisted another with env settings.
  • Acrobat reader install on new hire PC.
  • Minor  html assist for Bonnie.
  • Other usual user requests and support.

CDS Computing: (L Bogue)

  • Continued working on the weather stations. The corner station has been stable since 5/30.  Now Doug and I are trying to find out what the trouble is with the x-end.
  • Started building a replacement for london. The latest sol.9 patch cluster contains an error that prevents ssh from working on some systems. The work around is to disable all GSSAPI authentication options in both sshd_config and ssh_config.
  • Working with John Z. on disk space issues with DMT monitors.

Data Analysis: (I Yakushin)

  • Trying to use the generated up to now V2 h(t) for S5 LIGO waveburst coherent analysis. Discovered that a few seconds are typically missing at the end of each science segment. According to Xavi, this is due to the length of FIR filters used in the TD calibration filtering. There were also a few H2 h(t) frames missing due to a data transfer failure. Generation of H1 h(t) is not complete yet.
  • Helping my SURF student, Lisa Mauger, to learn the tools used in waveburst online pipeline.

Safety/Security: (R Riesen)

[J.Giaime for Riesen]

  • Standard operating procedure finalized for CEO laser amplifier head experiment in optics lab. Safety shield being assembled.
  • A fire drill is being planned for (possibly) next Tuesday.

Facilities: (A Sibley)

[J.Giaime for Sibley]

  • Fire alarm system serviced on Tuesday and appears to be in working order now.
  • We anticipate connection of the Science Education Center's AC power to the site power soon, possibly next Tuesday; this will entail taking precautions to protect the detector.
  • [J.Giaime: The fire drill and connection of the SEC AC power will not take place on the same day.]

 

Initial LIGO Detector Science & Engineering (Coyne)

 

Nothing significant to report.  Working Advanced LIGO (reported below).

 

40-Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

 

  • Four new summer SURF students arrived On Monday: Jenne Driggers of U Washington, Darcy Barron of U Illinois, David Malling of Syracuse U, and Royal Reinecke of Caltech. They got SURF safety training, laser safety training, laser entrance eye exams, and a full safety walkthough of the 40m lab from Steve.

IFO commissioning

  • Dan continues to develop the WFS diagonalization script.
  • Dan and Osamu are working with SURF student Dave Malling on developing the noise budget model (and eventually, hunting and reducing the noise sources).

IFO modeling

  • Monica is back from Europe and back to developing her e2e model. Time to start applying it to issues in lock acquisition and DC readout.

DC detection and vacuum squeezing development

  • When Ben and Rob were unplugging cables on the DCPD head, a photodiode element blew. Ben swapped out the element, and the DCPD works fine. There was a small problem with the voltage regulators, which will be fixed tomorrow. Once it is fixed, We'll do an extensive reliability check, and protect the diodes wherever possible.
  • Ben is in the final stages of the QPD Whitening board PCB layout. It will go to PCB Express sometime soon.
  • Rich and Rob noted that the tip-tit PZTs from PiezoJena had different wiring than the ones we installed long ago. It might be that they were damaged when Rob and Sam powered them up. Ben and Rob worked with the existing (not new under-design) PZT driver board so we could test the PZTs to see if they were damaged. After much effort and testing, driving the mirrors with appropriate sinusoidal voltages, Rob determined the correct pinouts and safe voltage ranges, and determined that the PZTs were not damaged. Whew!
  • Ben's DC PD satellite box being is debugged by Rob and Ben.
  • Rob looked at the resonances in the mounted TT PZT mirror; they all appear to be above 550 Hz.
  • Bob and Ben are working on specifying and building the in-vac "pigtail" cabling for the DC readout beamline.
  • Go returned from the World Cup to discover his OPO temp controller was turned off. We have no idea why, it might have been an interaction with the janitor's mop. He fears the LiNbO3 crystal was damaged and replaced it with a spare (he and Evgueny plans to move to a newly developed PP-KTP crystal).

PSL

  • After turning down the temperature in the control room (where the laser chiller is), the laser head temperature and chiller temperature have been rock-solid stable. However, Steve still thinks the chiller water level is rising mysteriously. Under careful watch.
  • Steve covered the Mach Zehnder on the PSL table to reduce the airflow and thus acoustic noise and drift. So far, he has covered only the top, will do the sides next.

Electronics, Controls, Computers

  • Christian brought over a new windows PC for use by the students and lab personnel.
  • Bob is working on heliax strain relief on LSC rack and ISC tables, and labeling all the RF cables.

Lab Infrastructure

  • Steve hooked up accelerometers at 4 places around the lab. Still need to change the channel names in the DAQ to make them meaningful.
  • The RGA filament current is zero. Steve will replace the head or the filament.

 

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

 

  • This week we welcome our new surf students, Matt Seaberg, Michael  Goldman, and Cacey Stevens. They have now completed their orientation, eye exams, and safety training, and they have their first assignments.
  • Greg has developed a simple dynamical model for thermal self locking and is comparing its predictions to Royal's data from last summer.

 

LASTI (Ottaway)

>Reported by Richard Mittleman <richard@ligo.mit.edu>

ISI assembly

  • The last of the ISI parts are supposed to be here on Friday. We are currently working on suspending the second stage. We also expect to have the spring tester configured for the large blades on Friday.

Quadruple Pendulum Controls Prototype

  • Brett has compiled the initial testing data into a report (T060134-00-0), and sent it off to the Birmingham group for use in their review. Overall the data agrees well with the model with a couple of exceptions which are being investigated. We are planning a vent of Lasti some time next week to install the eddy current dampers.

Lasti Vacuum

  • John Schechter  (a summer UROP student) is designing a fixture so that we can leak test the electrical feed-thrus on the 16 inch vacuum flanges. After testing we will install one (or both) on the BSC and remove the 12 inch flange with the leaky feed-thrus.

 

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Yamamoto)

Hiro's report now appears under the Advanced LIGO section.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

Brown:

 

  • Helped Drew get started analyzing the second epoch of S5 for BNS.
  • Spend time cleaning up the ringdown search code.
  • Met with Tapir Numerical Relativity group to discuss collaboration and use of their binary black hole waveforms.
  • Worked on LISA SMBH project.
  • Met with SURF Alex Zaliznyak to get him started on his project.
  • Helped David and Kent get started with the S5 inspiral pipeline for running the OSG.

 

Mandic:

 

  • I have made several modifications to the stochastic.m code. In particular, we can now perform time-shifts on both detectors, average over time-intervals within stochastic.m (in the past, this was done in post-processing, so it could take a long time), perform bad-GPS-times cut directly on the data etc. These changes are meant to speed-up the postprocessing of the S5 data, but also to make possible analysis with very short time-intervals (such as 1-sec).

 

Mendell:

 

  • I am helping two SURF students get started on their data analysis projects, for which I am a co-mentor. One is working on producing fake high-frequency burst sources for Monte Carlo studies, and the other on creating periodic signals with proper motion, for study of SNR loss in searches for nearby neutron stars. I will soon be back to work on the S4 PowerFlux, StackSlide, and Hough paper.

 

Shawhan:

 

  • Provided comments on the S3/S4 time-domain known pulsar search and S4 incoherent pulsar search paper drafts.
  • Investigated the status of GEO S5 science-mode segments in the segment database.
  • Worked with my newly-arrived summer student, Chris Pointon.
  • Burst Group administrative work, including producing a revised draft of the LSC Burst Analysis Group Charter.

 

Yakushin:

 

  • Trying to use the generated up to now V2 h(t) for S5 LIGO waveburst coherent analysis. Discovered that a few seconds are typically missing at the end of each science segment. According to Xavi, this is due to the length of FIR filters used in the TD calibration filtering. There were also a few H2 h(t) frames missing due to a data transfer failure. Generation of H1 h(t) is not complete yet.
  • Helping my SURF student, Lisa Mauger, to learn the tools used in waveburst online pipeline.

 

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

LDAS

 

  • Efforts continue with using Tcl/Tk 8.4.x within LDAS. The latest version of Tcl/Tk has been installed (v. 8.4.13). Many of the callbacks in the metadataAPI, ligolwAPI and eventmonAPI have been modified not to use global variables.
  • The use of trace variables is used to allow asynchronous execution. It has been seen that some of the traces are unset. Code has been added to the C++ layer to help identify where these traces are being unset.
  • System testing of LDAS was done using version 1.8.207.

 

TCLGLOBUS

 

  • A new release candidate for TclGlobus has been generated to address an infrequent core dump. This code is being tested on ldas-dev to verify the corrections.

 

GRID COMPUTING

 

  • The dependencies for the LIGOWorkFlowPlanner utility are being documented. As part of this effort, all 3rd party tools required by the LIGOWorkFlowPlanner are being installed on a workstation. Once this is completed, the LIGOWorkFlowPlanner will be run to verify the completeness of the 3rd party tools installed.
  • Created new production sites catalog for the OSG 0.4.1 production sites. Requested Pegasus engineers update vds-get-sites utility to incorporate architectural modifications of the OSG releases 0.4.x to support automation of sites catalog creation.
  • Working with Duncan Brown, successfully compiled and linked hipe versions of lal and glue code needed to support DAX generation for the hierarchical inspiral pipeline analysis. Remaining lalapps code will not link even on the kitalpha platform recommended by Duncan. Currently under investigation by Duncan.
  • Working with Michael Samidi, provided guidance on URLs for VDT components used by the LIGO work flow planner.
  • Attended OSG ITB telecom on Storage Management.
  • Working with Kent Blackburn, provided the OSG with a chart detailing the LIGO VO experience running the inspiral pipeline work flow on OSG production sites with OSG release 0.4.0 installed.
  • Provided a report to Ilya Narsky on the present and near term plans LIGO has for utilizing the OSG grid.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech


(Dan Kozak)

 

  • Added to CIT tape space by relabeling 45 of the tapes we got from CACR.
  • Normal ingesting stuff.
  • Configured Ben's TestLDRdataFindServer to run in place of the standard one at CIT.
  • Experimented with different 3510 logical disk stripe-sizes for QFS metadata devices.
  • Rebuilt and restored CIT's /archive to move the metadata and incorporate two more data bricks.
  • Gave LHO a list of tapes for shelf storage.

 

(Phil Ehrens)

 

  • General cluster maintenance tasks during Erik Espinoza's absence.
  • Update, shutdown, and restart of Millikan computer resources related to Fire Department inspection of building.
  • Configured 4 desktop machines for SURF student use.
  • Developing robust startup procedure for log_mon.tcl and documenting the installation of log_mon.tcl and related utilities in wiki.
  • Unusual amount of grid certificate related activity during this week, including discovery (thanks to Duncan Brown) of fallback behavior of gsissh which caused gratuitous failed login attempts by unknown local users from non-gc laptop accounts when laptop users made legitimate certificate authenticated connections to CIT grid computing resources.
  • Began implementation of a single-point cluster user configuration control method for bootstrapping and maintaining cluster node user resources in synch with ldas-grid head and development node resources.

 

(Erik Espinoza)

 

  • Assisting Dwayne on NIS+ w/ FC4.
  • Updated frog for powerdown.
  • Working with Ken Yu @SuperMicro.
  • Installed compat rpms on the cluster.
  • Updated the kickstart to include more of the compat rpms.
  • Worked with Phil on password synchronization.
  • Restored node327 to running condor.
  • Installed updated glibc on osg w/ David Meyers.
  • RMA'd 2 machines to ASA (one will not power on, the other has bad nic).
  • RMA'd 3 HD's & 14 sticks of Kingston memory. 4 sticks of Viking memory.
  • Node Crashes

-         Wed 6/14 (node1-12) rebooted due to nfs server failures

-         Thu 6/8 node45, node241, node249, node252

-         Fri 6/9 node50

-         Sun 6/11 node57, node159 node325

-         Mon 6/12 node67, node165, node190, node228

 

(Stuart Anderson)

 

  • Ordered another 20TB of FC disk for frame file storage at the observatories.
  • Helped with the Millikan Library annual high rise inspection power shutdown.
  • Helped with the /archive filesystem upgrade at CIT.
  • Deleted several million files and unused directories from the cluster home directory.

 

MIT


(Keith Bayer)

 

  • Two sets of 6 nodes tripped the 20amp service while under heavy load. Will need to keep an eye on this and perhaps slim down to 5 nodes per 20amp service in the future.

 

Livingston

 

 (Igor Yakushin)

 

  • On Albert's request looked into details of financial transactions on LLO LDAS 3.12 account to better understand the charges related to LDAS room construction and whether some of them can be covered from the previous fiscal year budget.
  • node93 hanged with I/O error messages on hda. After rebooting it worked but most likely hda would have to be replaced soon.
  • node208 hanged with kernel panic. It came back after reboot.
  • Received a rack from CIT.

 

(Dwayne Giardina)

 

  • Tape eject, import and label.
  • Assisted Ben with h(t) C01 to C02 file rename at LHO.
  • Verified sam-fsd in /etc/inittab on fb0 and fb1, and that all systems (fb0, fb1, dataserver, lloscript) were running same version of sccli.
  • Received equipment from CIT.  Started installing in our LDAS room.
  • Made some additions to my cluster_mon app, not yet ready for production though.

 

Hanford

 

(Greg Mendell)

 

  • As requested by Robert Schofield for the Glitch Group, and after approval by the run coordinators, these channels, which are already in the raw frames, have been added to the S5 Level 1 RDS frames:

-         L0:PEM-RADIO_ROOF was added to the LLO Level 1 RDS frames at GPS 834433152 seconds = Jun 15 2006 13:58:58 CDT = Jun 15 2006 18:58:58 UTC

-         H0:PEM-RADIO_LVEA_H1 was added to the LHO Level 1 RDS frames at GPS 834432960 seconds = Jun 15 2006 11:55:46 PDT = Jun 15 2006 18:55:46 UTC

  • The changes are transparent to users and have no effect on the IFOs or science-mode. The change has been entered into the elogs at LHO and LLO.

 

(Ben Johnson)

 

  • Added support for --show-types and --show-observatories to LSCdataFindServer dE (diskcacheAPI Edition).
  • Kickstarted nodes 141-210 when bringing them up after the AC outage. I still need follow up on 2-3 stragglers.
  • Gathering final list of LDAS API ports from Kent and the rest of the LDAS developers.
  • Replaced 81 S5 L0 tapes and placed them in the tape cabinet. Placed 4 A4 L0 tapes back into library (temporarily) for closer examination of the Montana earthquake that lodged one of our mirrors. These will be exported today.
  • The 10-Ton AC had a sensor malfunction (temperature + humidity readings varying wildly, and falsely). Greg reseated some ribbon cables and turned the AC off for this past weekend. Since the unit's restart on Monday, the unit has been working fine.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT


(Keith)

 

  • UROP support work.

Livingston

(Shannon)

 

  • Working with Albert yesterday and today on security related documentation.
  • Installed Fedora on a PC and then handed it off to Igor for his student.
  • Installed a UPS in the rack in the computer lab.
  • Ordered several bits of hardware, laptop, etc.
  • Changed a couple of firewall rules for CDS.
  • Reading through more NIST docs related to security.
  • Obtained an account on a machine at CIT to facilitate nessus scans.
  • Looking into tripwire site licensing again at CIT.
  • Still reading more info about Windows domains.
  • Continued to work on contract issues with Charter Communications. Forwarded the contract on to be reviewed.  LIGO may not be able to sign it, it may have to be signed by someone at CIT.  Spoke to Ed Jasnow about it yesterday.
  • Reviewing the Nessus scans from CIT and LLO.

 

(Dwayne)

 

  • Changed NIS+ group for all former "staff" group members. Currently they are all set to "llostaff".  probably should be investigated for non-LLO users and group membership should be set accordingly. This included changing group ownership of all user files that were group owned by "staff" to "llostaff" (took MANY(at least 10) hours to complete this step).
  • Set up GC and e-mail accounts for 2 new SURF students.
  • Fixed incomplete Office 2003 installs on the RETs' computers.  Also added printers to their PCs.
  • User account alterations on mechanical lab PC.
  • Two of John's Outreach participants were unable to connect to wireless network.  Investigated and fixed settings on their laptops.
  • Assisted a SURF student that experienced problems running X apps remotely, and assisted another with env settings.
  • Acrobat reader install on new hire PC.
  • Minor html assist for Bonnie.
  • Other usual user requests and support.

Hanford

(Christine)

 

  • More new computers have arrived.  I'm replacing all of the old Sun Ultra 10s some with Ultra 45s and some with Ultra 25s.  This means we will be running mostly Solaris 10 on our Sun computers.
  • Also received some more Windows desktops.  I'm replacing the three "community" PCs which are out in the common areas and have special software and peripherals installed like; scanners, memory card readers, photo processing software and etc.
  • Researched the options for a new computer for one of the scientist.
  • Spent quite a bit of time learning about Q Scan software and getting it running on the GC Solaris computers.
  • Still setting up more computers.

CIT

(Mike)

 

  • Worked with Larry Wallace in the B/A server room setting up new Uninterruptible Power Supplies.
  • Trouble shot a Sata Raid array server; labeling drives and sata cables making this unit easier to identify bad drives. I found out there is an additional hardware issue. Larry has suggested that we used this server for parts to maintain an identical unit that was given to us.
  • Continued work on Spam filters, searching for false positives.
  • Looked into a problem with our pdmworks server. This turned out to be a problem with the backup scheduler. I ended up having to reschedule all the backups for the month. This is a complicated backup due to services for Vault has to be stopped and restarted in order to get a reliable backup.
  • Ghosted a lab computer for Peter King.
  • Went through all laptops in loaner pool to replace a bad laptop with a hardware issue. I found that most of our loaner pool laptops are too old to run XP and current GC/Engineering software, due to lack of memory and processing power. These computers are worn out! Larry Wallace has ordered new laptops for the loaner pool.
  • Larry and I have been looking into a problem with DCC. We are still trouble shooting this issue.
  • Loading a SUN workstation for Wilson House. This is an on going project.
  • Additional misc. user support.

 

(Veronica)

 

  • Working on the LSC website of educational resources. Updates of the database of technical papers.  LSC website updates.
  • Working on various updates of the LIGO website. Updates of the roster database and mailing lists. Elba website updates, posted the transparencies.
  • Finished loading my machine for video editing. Filmed and compressed a CaJAGWR talk.Updates of the CaJAGWR website.

 

(Christian)

 

  • Dorothy Lloyd- Created a backup of Dot's workstation.
  • 40 Meter - Configured new system with the standard LIGO image.
  • Rich Abbott - Created a backup of Rich's old laptop.
  • Third-floor W/B - Replaced toner cartridges on HP 5500 printer.
  • Worked on the Spam Filters with Mike and Larry.
  • Reloaded laptops that were returned from MIT to the loaner pull this week.
  • Created and dual boot with XP and CF4 for a surf student this week.
  • Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

 

(Larry)

 

  • Still working the procurement side of the house. Placed orders for a new set of notebook computers for travel and checkout. The existing units are just not reliable enough. Work with getting Monarch to fix the server we purchased from them continues. They informed they will be sending out a tech. to replace all of the memory in the machine. Received a number of orders and misc. computer items which have been distributed.
  • A good portion of the week has been troubleshooting the old DCC system. Spent time tracking down different issues with Mike, Cleveland, George and Veronica. So far we've been able to improve the performance of some of the functions but still have not been able to find the cause of the existing problem, which is the automation of the moving of documents to their correct locations. Fortunately, it can still be done manually.
  • Assisting Mike on a new installation of a Solaris10 workstation.
  • Setup a number of SURF student accounts and have been assisting them with their different issues. This will probably continue for another week.
  • Setup a couple of new systems for different people.
  • Modified a number of accounts. Still working on cleaning off the old ones.
  • Went through the backup server and got it working again. Don't know why it quit working but it took quite a bit to get it functional again. Full reboot of the server and the juke boxes as well as reindexing the tapes had to be done.
  • We've had a number of spam storms and the filter work has increased. People have found new ways of getting around the filters and more spam is making it through. I've also changed some of the settings allowing more spam through but it gives us fewer false positives. Still need to have people give us locations to whitelist, that would also help eliminate some of the false positives.

Mail Statistics for June 08 - 14, 2006

Mail Statistics

June 15, 2006

Rejected Messages

41,606

Virus Messages

1,837

Accepted Messages

34,552

Total Messages

76,158

 

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

 

  • Provided background information on FTIR testing, including some sample reports, to Galli & Morelli for their contractor, Tec-EuroLab.
  • Transferred the I-Deas dynamic model of the HAM-SAS system to David Ottaway and his summer student. The plan is to improve on the fidelity by fixing some of the modeling assumptions, incorporate some triple suspension models to enable investigation of back-reaction coupling, and have a model to compare against test results. Also gave some I-Deas training & tips.
  • Transferred Matlab code for acoustic mode import (from I-Deas) and calculation of optical/acoustic mode overlap to Bill Kell’s summer student (Hans Bantilan). Created a right circular cylinder approximation model of the AdL test mass (to compliment the more accurate wedged test mass with side flats). Used this cylinder model to calculate some the first few modes for Hans use in developing the optical/acoustic mode overlap cose in Matlab. Also gave some I-Deas training & tips.
  • Calculated the modal damping loss for the TNI optic with the addition of two copper bands (1 mm thick x 10 mm wide). The addition of lossy material bands on the optic barrel is a potential method to squelch parametric oscillations. A calculation of the effect on thermal noise is next. (Previous calculations of the effect of two ¼” diameter o-rings matched the TNI noise measurements well.)
  • Clarified center of mass vertical position limits for the BSC ISI for Ken Mason and his student. These limits and the associated estimates of payload mass properties need to be re-visited as they are quite dated (before many items had significant design work).
  • Organizing the review committee for the ITM/ETM quadruple suspension preliminary design review.
  • Revised the HAM-SAS schedule based on recent progress at Galli & Morelli. Electronics effort in support of HAM-SAS has been estimated by Ben Abbott, but not yet iterated with other electronics demands and incorporated into the schedule.
  • Working with Szabi Marka and Vern Sandberg to clarify calibrations for ground motion records for the Dillon, Montana earthquake (7/26/2005). This event is being used as a test case for the suspension earthquake stop design. The event caused the Hanford interferometers to loose lock and caused the end-X and mid-Y end test mass optics to get stuck (requiring a vacuum system “burb” to get them free). Working with Justin Greenhalgh to provide sensible input to, & review of, his nonlinear, impact dynamics model of the response of the suspension stops to earthquake events.
  • Working on the optical layout. Met to discuss progress on the layout with Mike Smith, Chris Echols, et. al.

Modeling and Simulation

>From: Hiroaki Yamamoto <hiro@ligo.caltech.edu>

Simulation milestones (DHS, PF, Lazz, Dennis, Hiro)

There was a meeting held on June 13th to discuss the role and timing of the simulation development and usage for AdvLIGO. The major topics are:

 

  • Modulation scheme for LSC/ASC sensing.
  • Angular instability and control.
  • Lock acquisition.
  • Recycling Cavity geometry.
  • COC : ROC, tolerance of ROC, surface roughness.
  • Thermal behavior and compensation.
  • Parametric instability.

The ongoing activities with high priority are:

  • New FFT style simulation code development to evaluate the ROC tolerance of core optics. (Hiro)
  • LIGO FP arm simulation using e2e to design and test LSC/ASC. This study will address issues related to (1) the angular instability and (2) requirements on actuation of each masses. (Osamu,Hiro)

 

To study the feasibility and requirements of the stationary Michelson cavity, some resource will be allocated to study this issue using Melody (Modal Model based static IFO simulation tool).

 

Some issues, like the study of the full AdvLIGO locking study, need a long time for the setting up of tools and for the actual analysis to develop and test the algorithm. Hopefully, the lock acquisition development goes in parallel with the research in 40m.

 

Dennis is going to identify due dates of each issue.

 

Static IFO Simulation (Hiro)

 

The release of the FP version of SIS slipped by one week. Based on the discussion with Bill Kells, I believe this is a good tool for the study of PI, because of the code's flexibility to specify the mirror surface and to define the run condition.

 

AdvLIGO Arm Simulation (Osamu)

 

We are investigating a single FP cavity response on E2E using AdvLIGO configuration (Quad suspension, 700kW power inside cavity and radiation pressure). We have seen an alignment instability by optical spring, and the instability has been controlled by feedback to penetration mass with100Hz bandwidth.

 

AdvLIGO Mechanics Simulation (SLU team lead by Sany, Virginio)

 

Constructed an e2e box file to simulate Advanced LIGO HAM table. Since a physical model for the Advanced LIGO HAM seismic isolation is not available, a toy model was used. This toy model takes the standard ground X and Y motions (the ground motion we usually use for e2e modeling) as inputs and outputs HAM table top X and Y motions that just meet the Advance LIGO requirement. HAM table top Yaw motion was created as differential table top X and Y motions in the same way as we modeled LIGO I HAM table (i.e., table Yaw is proportional to dV/dx-dU/dy where U, V are table top translational displacements in X and Y). The resultant box files are currently tested with our e2e triple suspension model on it.

 

Resumed the previous e2e modeling of the LIGO I mode cleaner. Previous Mode Cleaner box files have been modified so that they simulation can be made under various conditions more efficiently. The modified box files are being tested for consistency with the previous results.

 

Virginio is preparing a statespace model of HAM-SAS in the form that e2e can easily use it. Formulation is explained in T060133-00.pdf.

 

Advanced Virgo Simulation (Monica)

 

Trying to lock one arm in the Advanced Virgo configuration (dual recycled interferometer with high power) in order to see the optical spring effect and to investigate the suitable parameters for this configuration.

 

Simulation Code (Hiro, Bruce, Melody)

 

To speed up the simulation of the AdvLIGO arm with double chain quad pendulums, a module simulating a FP optical system using a linear approximation is used. It was found that, to study the yaw torque, a pick off on ETM is needed in addition to the existing pick off on ITM. The code of the fast simulation mode was modified to support it. To support more complex systems, special modules are needed to be added. In order to minimize this addition of new modules, a new algorithm is being discussed to use a temple for the interface specification for those modules which have only different number of inputs and outputs. Both the simulation engine and GUI code need to recognize this template.

 

Compiler/Linker Problem of FC and Speed of MBP (Hiro, Stuart)

 

It was found last year that some code using high precision complex number screws up the executable built/linked on FC4. Stuart installed a new library to see if this is solved and, unfortunately not. LIGO GC has a dual core quad CPU machine, but this cannot be used right now because of this problem. HOMAM (AMD single core, quad CPU, 2.2GHz) vs SAIPH ( AMD dual core, quad CPU, 2.2GHz) vs MacBookPro (Intell, dual core, single CPU, 2.13GHz) runs the same code with the ratio of 1 : 3.8 : 2.2 (smaller the better, no threads used). When an executable is built statically on HOMAM or SAIPH, it runs at the same speed on both machines.

Vacuum Compatibility

Vacuum Preparation & Residual Gas Assay (RGA)

See also the Vacuum Bake Lab

>From Bob Taylor

  • I have received the repaired Varian roughing pump from Varian and will install it today. I will begin a High temperature bake out of the oven "E" tomorrow.
  • I am continuing to work on file storage and cataloging of old bake job files from the bake lab web site. When I am done I will remove the old files from the web and they will be on CD. They may be accessed by requesting files by e-mail.
  • I have been working with the suspension team on wiring and OSEM issues.

High-Irradiance, Contamination-Exposure Cavities

.>From Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

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

 

Cavity #2: No change

 

Cavity #3: OTF Lab at Lauritsen Room 38:

(a) The flexi-circuit was removed from the cavity. It has passed vacuum qualification testing (<0.1ppm/yr absorption, <0.6ppm/yr scattering).

(b) A new sample, a HAM-SAS stepper motor is in the cavity. The stepper motor was vacuum baked using not only the chamber heaters, but also self-heating using the coil within the motor. The RGA scan looked clean (although the calibrated sum-of-hydrocarbon-flag-AMUs was higher than a previous failed attempt to qualify this unit).

The cavity is locked. We were taking measurements every day for absorption and ring down. It will take few more days before I can tell what it is doing to the cavity, so far, it looks as it is clean unit. (This stepper motor had previously failed.)

 

Scatter/Absorption Test Measurement: The 60 watt laser is off from now on due to the aperture cooling unit leak.

I have contacted Quantronix and talk to the Engineer in charge of the design of this unit. I have suggested to have the holes 2b threaded and plug it, then have it soldered around the plug. He claims that the unit design is fine but the fabrication has some problems as he just find out from the manufacture.  This is the second time that this unit leaks. I found out this cooling unit should have plugs on all the holes as well as soldering to seal. The Engineer told me that he will do everything to have this unit properly fixed as it should be, But it will take up to 2 weeks. I told him, go ahead and have it fixed and send it to us ASAP. We have an extra cooling unit and I have decided to fix this unit as it should be. Therefore, I have this extra cooling unit the holes be threaded and put a set screw plug and solder around it. It should be ready by this Friday and we'll be able to install it next week. Hopefully at the end, we will have one extra cooling unit fixed for good.

Seismic Isolation

BSC Seismic Isolation Assembly and Test

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

 

We have received and installed the stage 0-1 locators. We are installing mass simulators in place of the actuators until we are sure both stages float properly. This is  to prevent damage to the actuators.

 

After installing the stage 1-2 blades we found the tip of the spring (rod end) to be tilted 1 degree in angle and offset .060" in height. Rich Mittleman is comparing ASI's calculations, the solid model, and actual piece part dimensions to recommend how to resolve this discrepancy.

 

We are still waiting for the stage 0-1 spring posts and a flexure test fixture plate to assemble stage 0-1. Both pieces are expected on Friday.

Seismic

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

 

I made a schedule of electronics deliverables for the HAM-SAS system.  I'll post it soon.

 

I talked to Szabi about the stepper motor drivers and he will be in touch with me soon to recommend a driver for us to order.

Suspension

Advanced LIGO Suspensions

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

 

Working with SUS team members at Caltech this week. Norna Robertson came down from Stanford on Monday to work with us on the OMC and other suspension issues. She and other SUS members reviewed Brett's quad experimental data paper. 

 

Worked with Mike Smith and Chris Echols on the optical layout, the pick off mirror suspension, the ETM telescope suspension and the differences in the optical layout between the unstable recycling cavity and the stable recycling cavity.

 

Working with Ken Mailand and Calum Torrie on installation fixture status and future plans. Mike Gerfen from CES has some time and may take over some development work on the articulated arm.

 

Working with Helena on the plans for ear positioning by measuring the faces and barrel of the optic. Talked with Phil Willems on the ETM ring heaters, on the thermal compensator's heater's effect on the suspension structure and what to do about that.

 

Preparing for a SUS schedule update meeting with Carol & Dwight on Friday.

 

Will meet with Mark Barton on silica tipped earthquake stop prototypes and have them sent to MIT before he leaves.

 

>From: Ken Mailand <kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu>

I met with Calum and Janeen today re. the installation tooling.

 

I'm using the latest information from Ian and working on a lower quad installation arm concept, and a simpler part that may be used at the LASTI site. I spoke with Jay Heefner re. the control work required to use the linear drive lift mechanism we have from Oddvars table design.

Core Optics

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

 

Just returned at beginning of this week from Europe.

 

I am starting up the project of calculating the PI thresholds in a new way, which is not referenced to specific arm cavity mode [sums]. This will be a SURF project  with newly arrived Hans Bantilah. Much work this week launching all this.

 

I gave a talk at GAWDW on the the LIGO I optics experience, in particular describing our understanding of mirror losses. There was a lot of interest in this, and I got good feedback on the similar situation at VIRGO. This is being pursued.

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

We will have a demo of the new FFT model (Fabry perot arms only at this point) next Friday, the 23rd of June, 10:00 am at the regular modeling meeting.  Contact GariLynn if you would like to participate.

 

>From: Gregg Harry <gharry@ligo.mit.edu>

Received final results from a nanoindenter measurement of a 4.65 micron pure Ta2O5 sample from CSIRO.  The Young's modulus is 120 GPa, less than the 140 GPa that is nominal.

 

>From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>

 

AdvLIGO Coatings - CSIRO: CSIRO shipped an up-graded TiSiO/SiO coating. The coating went through a higher annealing without apparent problems. The coatings are 30 layers of alternating TiSiO and SiO. The titania-silica mixture has a refractive index (at 550 nm) of 1.9 and consists of 65% silica and 35% titania. The coatings have been annealed at 500C for 24 hours. The total film thickness is 4.8 microns. About and extra 2-3 microns of coating would be required to achieve the same reflectance as a pure tantala/silica mirror.

 

For the next trial run they'll sputter a TaO-SiO2 mixture

Pre-Stabilized Laser

>From: Peter King <pking@ligo.caltech.edu>

At long last the Xilinx software works!  The Simulink model compiles using hardware co-simulation under both Matlab R14.3 and R2006a.  Although there is a bug in the serial port library in Matlab R2006a.  Now I am just awaiting the JTAG interface cable and everything should be set for a round of basic experiments.

 

A high power photodetector was repaired.  During the assembly stage I had forgotten to install an insulating washer.  As a result a -15V regulator shorted out.  The photodetector works again.

Auxiliary Optics

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

 

LAYOUT

The IO layout has been modeled in ZEMAX and converted to a SW model. Optical lever beams and heating beams for the suspended optics have been modeled in Zemax and converted to SW models.

 

PO MIRROR & TEL

A preliminary SW layout of the BS PO mirror indicates an interference with the ITMy. Calum will produce a preliminary footprint of the PO mirror suspension mounting surface, and Chris will establish the allowed mounting space on the BSC optical table so that the BS PO mirror can be realistically located on BSC1 for the non-folded IFO. The ITMy may have to be moved away from the BS to accomodate the mounting of the BS PO mirror, and this may affect the Schnoop assymetry.

 

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

ADLIGO

 

LAYOUT

The top level AdvLIGO layout was modified so that all BSC's are oriented correctly.  Optical table clearance zones were added to Mike's old top-level layout for conceptual design purposes; these were seen and discussed by everyone at the weekly Optomechanical Layout meeting.

 

PO MIRROR & TEL

The ETM Telescope has been converted to a viable SolidWorks model with LIGO part numbers.  Material properties were assigned for mass properties calculation.  Conceptual design of the PO Mirror suspension was discussed with C. Torrie.  A new conceptual SolidWorks reference model will be completed.  A SolidWorks model will also be completed for BSC 1, complete with optical table, so that the 3D layout can proceed.

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