Weekly Report for Week Ending August 24, 2006

Past Weekly Reports

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday, August 28, 2006 will be:

(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

1.      Announcements

2.      Comments on weekly report

3.      LSC Issures (Saulson)

4.      LIGO Lab Operations

  • Administration (Lindquist)
  • Sites (Raab, Zucker, Shoemaker)
  • Commissioning (Fritschel)
  • Optics and Mechanics (Coyne)
  • Control and Data Systems (Bork)
  • 40m (Weinstein)
  • TNI (Libbrecht)
  • LASTI (Ottaway)
  • Lab computing (Anderson)
  • CIT Science Group (Lazzarini)

5.      Enhancements (Adhakari)

6.      Advanced LIGO (Shoemaker)

7.      Change Control Board/Technical Review Board Session as needed

  • No open change requests

Special Items:

Special Announcements

 

Weekly Report Highlights

LSC Issues (Saulson)

PI's are now receiving feedback from the MOU Review Panel.  Most cases were straightforward.  A few have involved discussions involving not only the PI's Liaison from the MOU Review Panel but also the Spokesperson.  Most of those discussions have now taken place; they have been very fruitful.

The next steps are to sign those MOU's that are ready for signature, and to collect and process the ones that need revision.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

  • No report.

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

  • A teleconference was scheduled Thursday, August 24, 2006.  The following were among the issues discussed:
  • Livingstion Science Education Center – SEC basically finished three weeks ahead of schedule.  Punch list to be prepared.
  • Property Issues - Enforcement of screening requirements – Government contractors are supposed to go to excess property lists before buying major equipment.  We should be screening for property availability before procuring.  This can be done on the web and Rod Luna has access.  All site procurements normally go through Rod.  P-Card purchases have no checks and balances.  May require a LIGO policy that requires approval before anyone buys equipment over $5000 on a P-Card.  The number of people who even have this authority is very limited (E. Jasnow to identify list).  An email notification will be prepared.  Will request an email acknowledgement that need is understand and intend to comply.
  • Safety Audit at Hanford – Went very well.  See below.
  • NSF requirement to report mileage on the two new government-owned Vans that we are buying.  Need to project mileage.
  • There are currently no open action items.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)

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

  • Provided assistance to the Detector Group  (H. Armandula) with packing and shipping of  two Silica Blanks to Hobart and William Smith Colleges (S. Penn) Account Number LIGO.OPT - 5.4 - NSFLIGO.FY02ON.
  • Coordinated the disposal of old monitors and printers. Account Number LIGO.DAT-1.5.3-NSFLIGO.FY2ON.
  • Tagged and created records for three File Servers (2 Hiro and 1 DCC).
  • Provided documentation to justify tax exemptions for purchases on LHO and LLO accounts. (Finance Tax Audit)

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

  • No report.

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

  • Completed processing all presentations that have been submitted to date from last week's LSC Meeting.
  • Made preparations and provided training for mail/fedex handling during my vacation next week.
  • Began the process of printing the 150 PSI As-Built drawings that are not in the database.  As simple as it may sound, the steps taken to print these documents is not.  It will be a very time consuming process as all the files are on a disc containing hundreds of drawings divided into several sub-folders and the file names are not the DCC drawing numbers.  I also have to stamp the DCC numbers onto the drawings and merge any drawings with multiple pages before printing them as well.
  • Scanning - Progress continues on scanning of contract closeout files.  We are getting close to completion with the scanning of these particular types of files.  There are approximately three remaining boxes to be scanned.
  • Activity:

Week Ending

08/24/2006

In

Out

Packages

25

3

Faxes

25

20

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Funaro, Brambila, Kaufman)

>From: "Funaro, Catherine" <Catherine.Funaro@caltech.edu>

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

  • No report (vacation)

>From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman>

SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Jasnow, Salone)

>From: Gina Salone <gsalone@ligo.caltech.edu>

  • Nothing significant to report.

>From: Ed Jasnow <jasnow@ligo.caltech.edu>

  • The punch list for the LLO SEC will be developed by Tuesday, August 29, and the beneficial occupancy date will be established then.  The construction contractor, Cangelosi-Ward, has de-mobilized and moved off the site.
  • The LLO SEC architect, E+D+R, is developing a new drawing for the lettering to go on the front of the building.  The current lettering was from a drawing that was not approved by LIGO.  The new drawing is expected early next week, and the contractor will be issued change order to make the revision.  The costs for this change are expected to be between $4,000 and $6,000.
  • The revised estimate for the exterior wall exhibit is $198,000, as opposed to the budgetary figure of $150,000.  Expenditures under the Outreach Award are being reviewed to assure that sufficient funds are available.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

The time has come to work on the budgets for next year.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

  • There are no open change requests.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

  • The next Staffing Committee meeting is scheduled for October.
  • A Staffing Committee meeting was held on Monday and the minutes and action items are in progress and when completed will be posted on the SC web page.
  • Prepared numerous appointment and reappointment memos for various Visitors, Post Docs, and Term Staff.
  • Processed time sheets and submitted to payroll.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

During this reporting period, a LIGO audit team completed a safety audit of the Hanford Observatory.  The audit team found that the staff at LHO had completed closure of all of the 2005 safety audit action items assigned to them.  The audit team noted that LHO staff has achieved significant improvement in their "housekeeping" and the overall "appearance" of the site is quite good and should make a good impression on visitors.  The challenge to the LHO staff will be to maintain and/or improve on this achievement.  The LHO staff continues to maintain good safety practices and is already starting to "think-ahead" about safety issues/concerns involved with both Enhanced and Advanced LIGO.  Overall, the results of the LHO safety audit were very positive, there were only two new action items assigned to LHO involving some incomplete Incident Reports.

The list of action items and recommendations will be distributed next week.

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

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

Duty cycle of H1 this week (Thu Aug/17 to Wed Aug/23) was 83.3 percent.  Despite the problem of REFL/CM/MC path (see below); H2's duty cycle was respectable 90.9 percent.

Out of the down time of H1 of 28.1 hr (i.e. 16.7 percent), 8.9 hr (or 5.3 percent) was attributed to the IFO-centric commissioning/measurement activities.  These activities were done in coincidence with Livingston downtime while H2 was kept in Science Mode whenever possible.  No triple coincidence time was lost, and a good coverage was maintained.

The binary range was 13 - 14+ Mpc for H1, and 6.5 - 7+ for H2.

S5 highlights from the LHO elog are bulleted below:

Other things: This week we had a safety audit.

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

LIGO SEC Kinetic Art Project

All of the major procurement is in process.  Allen and I have met with the company doing the machine shop work last week and are meeting with the welding shop this morning.  We will meet with HPD this afternoon to tie up any loose ends and continue work on assembly and installation procedures.  Parts are already coming in so space allocation is becoming important.  Working on a spreadsheet of costs and delivery information this morning

CIT Optics & Mechanics (Coyne)

from Dennis Coyne

  • Most of the group’s efforts are reported under the Advanced LIGO project.
  • Several engineering staff members (Dennis Coyne, Rich Abbott, Todd Etzel) have been helping to evaluate the new DCC FileHold application customized for Caltech.  A preliminary evaluation (T060206-00) of a means to adapt LIGO version control to the FileHold system appears promising, but not without some compromises and concerns.  Next we are working on the definition of work flow processes to help QA the data input for engineering documents.

Controls and Data Systems (Bork)

No report.

40-Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

Last week was the last for 40m SURF students Jenne Driggers, Darcy Barron, David Malling and Royal Reinecke. They all did terrific jobs and will have impressive final papers. It was a pleasure having them all and we wish them the best. Also, this is Shally's last week before returning to Rochester, but he'll come back when the squeezing experiments start.

Rob presented the status of work at the 40m at the LSC meeting.

IFO Commissioning, Electronics, Controls, Computers

  • Osamu and David measured the noise spectrum in the full configuration except for carm offset, low power, with common mode servo fast path on. The noise floor remains the same, but many big peaks are gone; 60 Hz harmonics all still there, due to AP166. The unchanged noise floor points to electronics noise problems.
  • Jenne used her AM laser test setup to take swept-sine measurements of ALL RF PDs in the interferometer (!) (except for the IO WFS sensors). They all seem to behave as desired / designed.
  • The MC spot has been wobbling ("blowing in the wind") ever since the new MC servo board went in. Rob found several problems associated with the reboot that failed to restore proper settings for gain, input matrix, etc. After fixing several things, the "wind" got calmer, but still needs some attention.
  • Steve and Dan found a bad board channel reading out the IPPOS QPD-ICS Interface board. We need this, before vent, as a reference for initial pointing! They replaced the board with a spare and centered the spot. Ben looked at the board, saw evidence of a damaged op amp, and gave it to Todd for repair.
  • We had several problems with the front end network in the last couple of weeks, requiring Alex's help. Last week, the RFM card in the IOWFS control computer (c1iovme) failed, bringing down the entire RFM network. Alex borrowed a card from the ASC system, and recovered the system. Several days later, he brought a replacement RFM card for the ASC system, and he and Rob brought that system back up, so that we could once again control the input steering mirrors and align the interferometer.
  • At Sam's behest, Ben looked at the database for the new MC Servo, and found that the database didn't match the wiring by one channel. This shifted all of the 3113 channels down by one, and made no signal flow to the third channel. Ben fixed the database, and Rob modified the saverestore file and rebooted the processor. Seems to be ok.
  • Monica and Dan are implementing a WFS matrix diagnostic and ran into problems. They consulted Matt Evans about this, who gave them a Perl script which can form a basis to work around the problems. Monica is writing a technical note about WFS diagonalization.
  • Rana implemented a new modified elliptic low pass filter called ELP35 for the ETMX oplev servo, which reduces the self-inflicted noise considerably above 40 Hz. Royal implemented this new filter in all the other TM oplev servos, and measured/calculated calibrated noise spectra for all test masses, before / after the change.
  • Sam measured the MC length using two different methods and got more-or-less consistent results: 13.547003(4) m. He set the RF frequency to 33,194,700 Hz for maximum transmission.
  • Rob added the new MC servo board channels to the conlog. While he was at it, he ran update_chanlist (hadn't been run in quite a while) and added 920 channels to conlog.
  • Rana, Rob and Sam worked on DRMI locking and made progress, but were hampered by lots of RFAM on the double-demod signals. The source appeared to be from the Mach Zehnder, which they tweaked to minimize the 29.5, 33, & 166 MHz RFAM peaks. They brought the system into lock with CARM offset, handed off to DD signals and CM servo, but had trouble with the CM AO path. Work in progress.
  • Rana hooked up a frequency counter with a GPS-based external reference, setting up a BASOLUTE frequency standard. He used it to check the absolute value and stability of our Marconi RF signal generators.
  • Steve reports that the laser chiller still appears to manufacture ~10cc of water per day; Steve has to drain it periodically. A complete mystery!

IFO Modeling

  • Rana used Optickle to study the expected DRMI signals. He made PRC/MICH/SRC sweeps, and got some insights into what signals work best for each loop.
  • Patrice Hello and Fabien Cavalier from LAL Orsay / Virgo will be visiting to talk about collaborative work on AdLIGO / AdVirgo optical configuration & control. We'll meet on Monday 2-4pm in the SCR; all interested parties are welcome to attend.

DC Detection and Vacuum Squeezing Development

  • Rob (with Darcy, before she left) is re-assembling the in-vac DC readout beamline on the clean bench, and preparing for pre-alignment. Hope to be done and ready for installation in a week. We will vent on September 5.
  • Rich presented his design of the TT and OMC PZT driver board. Getting the go-ahead, he has started the layout of the unit.
  • We received a spare TT PZT stack from LLO, and Sam is talking with Ken to make sure we know how to wire it up. We have two more TT PZT stacks coming from Piezo Jena (a repaired one and a spare), so that we will be able to return the borrowed PZT to LLO in good time.
  • All the other CDS hardware and software are almost all ready. Anti-aliasing chassis is fully assembled and under test. Anti-image chassis board has been assembled; it needs to be put into a chassis and tested. IO chassis rebuild is mostly done. QPD Whitening chassis, latest version of the board in; figure at least the rest of the week for assembly. DC readout Satellite box is in hand and in use. ADC and DAC interface boards are all assembled in the IO Chassis. Jay and Rolf have tested the controls software and screens, and the RFM link to our existing framebuilder. Anticipate being finished with work in the back shop next week. Computer and AA/AI chassis for OMC should be ready to install in the next few days.
  • Ben is drawing a schematic for Bob so he can make the in-vacuum wiring for the DCPD from the vac. nipple to the PDs. Bob has prepared and vac-prepped almost all the remaining in-vac cabling.
  • Go and Shally tweaked the PPKTP OPO temperature and got a parametric gain as high as 21.4. They got up to ~ 2dB of vacuum squeezing at 800 kHz.
  • Go was at the SPIE conference last week. He and Shally are now designing a single frequency (800 kHz) power monitor to be used for noise locking.
  • Go and Shally tested the squeezed vacuum mirror picomotor translation stage. It works fine but is slow: it takes ~ 45 minutes to move 1.5". Bob is now preparing it for vacuum, including the in-vac wiring.
  • Riccardo Ciolfi has his schematics ready for a balanced PD for the squeezed vacuum experiment, and is finalizing the PCB layout design, with help from Ben. All components are in hand. He is testing single PD circuit on a breadboard.

Lab Infrastructure, Bake lab

  • Dan continues to add the content of the racks to the wiki. This is just a preliminary survey of the components in each rack, with the intent of leaving a framework that can be flushed out with more information later.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

Since our last report, Akira, Matt, and Cacey finished installing the SAC output mirror, aligned the interferometer, locked the instrument, and took data.

Preliminary indications are that Q reduction is as good as with buna.  There are no mechanical modes that we can excite with the OSEMS. All of the Qs are now smaller than we can measure by excitation. We have not yet looked at the width of the thermally-excited modes.

Unfortunately, the noise floor has been disturbed. Our calculated lowest mechanical mode for copper rings was in excess of 100kHz, but we see at least three clear modes around 1-2kHz, and we observe some broadband noise above coating thermal noise below a few kilohertz.  Neither of these effects is, as yet, understood, but we are working with Dennis Coyne on modeling two possible scenarios.

One hypothesis is that the spring is not providing enough tension for the rings to make good contact all around the barrel of the optic, leading to a "bending" mode where the ring is free. Greg is moving ahead with the heater for the monolithic rings, and he is now in the process of winding the induction coil.

Attached is a plot of the total noise in SAC with the copper ring dampers installed (blue curve) and without any ring dampers (red curve).

LASTI (Ottaway)

BSC Seismic Isolation Assembly and Test

The locator / lock subassemblies have been installed, properly gapped, and work in both the locked and unlocked position.  We have installed two sets of course and fine actuators on the seismic structure. We are waiting for electronics and sensors from the CDS group to install the final set. This completes the "dirty assembly."  Modal testing will begin next week using the installed actuators to shake the structure!

We have aligned all of the stage lockers with a maximum error of <= 3/1000 inches.  We have now transferred the reference from the pins to the locators.  This lets us account for the small horizontal motion that we get when the system is released.  One set of actuators (two fine and two coarse) have been installed, with the position sensors zeroed.  We do not yet have the electronics to run the other 2 corners so we will hold of on those.

A procurement plan with new specifications has been written for the single stage HAM project. Brian Lantz is checking the specifications and providing additional input.

QUAD

We have brought Lasti up to air so that the Quad can be worked on. There was an interference in the reaction chain that was attributed to the newly installed eddy current damper. It turns out that the problem was not in the ECD so we are now hunting for the cause. We will also install the power resistors (which passed the RGA test) for the thermal load test of the structure.

HAM SAS

Next week we will start to install the scissor tables and clean room over the Y-end HAM. The LASTI test plan is currently being written and should be ready for comment by SEI and SUS groups by the start of next week. Cassie continues to troubleshoot her ideas model of the triple.

CIT Science Group (Lazzarini)

Data Analysis

Brown (2 weeks' worth):

  • Mostly working on numerical relativity simulations this week. The Caltech/Cornell code is working well on the LIGO cluster and is busy evolving binary black holes.
  • Checked an issue related to online DQ flags for Gaby.
  • Cataloged the open segment database issues.
  • Attended the SciPy conference at Caltech on using python for scientific computing.

Chatterji:

  • Presented the status of the S5 Q Pipeline analysis at the August LSC and burst group meetings.
  • Presented an instroduction to the QSCan tool to at the post LSC SciMon camp.
  • Reorganized Q Pipeline and QScan to have a common code base.  Modified build scripts to distribute required Matlab libraries with the resulting compiled executables.
  • Provided a number of updates the QScan tool including
    • Reporting of the peak absolute amplitude
    • Quantitative summary output in ASCII text and XML
    • GEO detector status and data quality information
    • More robust handling of the X display
    • More informative log file and error messages
    • Adding H1/H2 null stream consistency test
  • Updated Matlab READFRAMEDATA package to handle a prioritized list of frame file locations so that data is first read from the cluster nodes if available, then the tape archive, etc.

Mendell:

Work continues towards producing a final draft of the S4 PowerFlux, StackSlide, and Hough paper. An updated draft was presented at the August LSC meeting at LSU and my presentation has been submitted to the DCC as LIGO-G060388-00-W.

Sutton (2 weeks' worth):

Last week I attended SciMon Camp at LLO, where I gave a brief presentation on RayleighMonitor.  This week I've been studying Bayesian approaches to GWB detection, writing a paper with Stephen Poprocki comparing various coherent statistics for black-hole merger detection, and helping Stephen draft a proposal for his B.Sc. thesis project.

I've spent the past week at the bursts face-to-face meeting and the LSC meeting.  I presented the results of Stephen Poprocki's SURF project, comparing different coherent statistics for detecting black- hole mergers.  I also took a scimon shift at LLO.

Grid research (Blackburn)

GRID COMPUTING

Resolved Globus socket (Tcl channel) memory segmentation issue on 64-bit platform:

Calling timestamp() is the cause of memory segmentation.  The solution is to remove the timestamp() and put the functionality inside macro.

Fixed type mismatch when reading the data from Globus buffer and pass it to Tcl layer. Globus is using globus_size_t * which is long * to store the number of bytes read and Tcl is using int to store and pass the value to the application.

Still working on the following 64-bit issue:

TclGlobus asynchronous unit tests failed on 64-bit platform. The problem is the callback script never gets evaluated inside Tcl interpreter and this causes the program to get stuck.

Working on cleaning up N-2 data partition manually using small partition DAX. Modifying the workflow code to handle this new functionality.

Working on the following PR:

New functionality needed for specifying the Stage-out Host & Directory

Fixed the following PR:

GUI needs to support both partition and non-partition workflow

Attended a meeting with Kent Blackburn at the OSG consortium meeting regarding potential reorganization of the ITB activity. Agreed to chair the ITB meeting to provided relief for OSG staff during vacation or travel of current chairs.

Discussed proposal on a Virtual Testbed (VTB) which would require reorganizing hardware from the single ITB cluster to a smaller ITB cluster and a new VTB cluster with its own CE and 4 worker nodes.  Possibly one new PC would be needed for a VTB GUMS server.  A new 100-Base-T ethernet switch would  be needed for interconnecting the VTB nodes.

One new IP address would be needed for the VTB CE node.

Working with Michael Samidi, completed rudimentary support for partitioned DAX workflow planning and execution in the LIGO Workflow planner.  Demonstrated the Workflow planner running the partitioned DAX of the Inspiral HIPE analysis at the Consortium meeting.  Workflow executed at Brookhaven National Labs OSG production site.

Attended three days of meetings at the OSG Consortium meeting related to storage management, OSG release planning, documentation and information services. Fermi Labs manager Keith Chadwick offered to assist with analysis of suspected GUMS memory error that appears to be related to 15,000 DAG node jobs causing GUMS failures.

Previous week

TCLGLOBUS

We discovered 64-bit issue with TclGlobus. This issue was discovered when using Globus socket. When passing data from Tcl layer down to C layer, the function call uses the information about the size of the buffer. Then, this information will be sent over to the other side before sending the actual data. However, the information becomes incorrect causing segmentation fault. I'm working with Ed Maros to solve this issue

Added partitioning functionality into LIGO Workflow Planner GUI.

Discovered a problem when aborting partitioning DAG from submit host,  osg-itb-se. Removing top level Condor job doesn't remove the sub-  partition Condor jobs. Discussed this with Karan Vahi from ISI and he suggested to upgrade Condor to the latest version, 6.8.0

OPEN SCIENCE GRID

Successfully partitioned the full S5 HIPE DAX into six partitions.  Java had to be upgraded to Java 5 to prevent heap memory errors when running the VDS utility partitiondax.

Created a small set of six partitions for testing and integration with the LIGO workflow planner.  Tested execution of the full six partitions on the OSG site PSU.  Completed 16000 DAG nodes before exception threw a rescue DAG.  Analysis indicates that four gravity wave files apparently having bad data, were the cause of the  lalapps_tmpltbank code failing.  A science analysis of these bad data segments by the appropriate experts will be required. Correct execution of partitions 2-6 depends on cleanup of these partition one failures.

Determined that the GUMS server at PSU [and probably at all other OSG sites due to a memory leak that occurs on a per job basis - JKB] is not robust when running the 16000 DAG nodes in HIPE partition number one.  Two execution runs of the partition number one of HIPE both failed at around 15000 - 16000 DAG nodes. PSU has installed a grid mapfile to improve reliability.

Configured a laptop PC with fedora 5 and TclGlobus for the OSG consortium meeting.

Kent Blackburn was confirmed by the OSG Council as the new Co-Resource Manager and member of the OSG Executive Board. Warren Anderson of UWM will replace Kent as the LIGO representative on the OSG Council.

Laboratory Computing (Stuart)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

Currently 64bit LDAS cannot accept certificates due to limitations with TclGlobus. The issue is being addressed by the TclGlobus team.

Compiling 3rd party software needed by LDAS for Solaris 10 running on an Opteron box continues. Tcl/Tk is the only package not yet ported. On linuxopteron, porting of the LDAS software has started. The first issue that has been discovered is the 32 compilation of ObjectSpace. This error will be corrected by the end of the day

The cmonClient had several problem reports closed. The first affects the cancellation of the "All User Test". It now reenables all other test tabs upon cancellation (PR#3020). Also, the user's preference of showing info and warning dialogs is now saved (PR#3049).

System tests for LDAS were done using version 1.8.277. All test passed as before except for lsync which is still unable to see RDSVerify and some /scratch directories in the lsync cache and dataStandAlone grid due to no /ldas/bin/wrapperAPI on sun box.

A communication error when renewing or adding user accounts to ldas-dev has been discovered. This critical problem will be corrected by next week.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

  • Generated 'du -k' style listings of /home disk usage and filecounts from recent samfsdumps for viewing with xdiskusage.
  • Generated plots showing disk and file usage of the biggest disk space users in /home.
  • Eject tapes for shelf storage at LHO, repacked old tapes at LLO.
  • Tape storage cabinet arrived at CIT, am computing which tapes to store in it first.
  • Rearchiving all the files on LL0618, which arrived at CIT with most of the files unreadable.
  • Worked on the SAM nightly check script.  It's now reporting tape space available, disk space in /var/sam and recent releaser activity.
  • Wrote a script for Xavi to check the provenance of all the h(t) data in CIT's /archive/frames.  Currently it's a little more than half way thru the data set.
  • Applied the FC patch on gateway-dev.
  • Implemented /archive/meta at CIT and modified the ingestion script to use it.
  • Fixed rare bug in /var/sam/ingest which would cause files to be moved into /archive/frames if both the file and it's corresponding .md5 file could not be staged.

(Phil Ehrens)

  • Upgraded ldas-dev, ldas-suntest2, and ldas-suntest5 to Solaris 10U2.  Also installed Solaris 10U2 onto dataserver-dev after a disk failure during an upgrade attempt.  The wiki page detailing the Solaris 10U2 upgrade path is now a debugged "cookbook" guide to the upgrade process.
  • Switched apache on ldas-dev from ldcg installed apache to Solaris shipped apache. Wiki page on Solaris/Apache is now a debugged "cookbook" for making this change.
  • Ongoing efforts to determine required set of certificates and to expunge unused certificates. Our standard linux install includes the "dovecot" package, and the maintainers of that package have failed to address the expiration of the cert shipped with that package. Since we do not use dovecot for anything, I am removing the package from our systems.

(Erik Espinoza)

  • Deployed Einstein@Home as Condor backfill jobs on all nodes:
    • Contacted Bruce about E@H Config.
    • Tested Config on frog.
    • Added boinc config/binaries to kickstart.
  • Reconfigured sendmail on ldas-cit to handle aliases locally:
    • Found e-mail address for all (but 4) users on the cluster.
    • Tested on Frog.
    • Will do write up and assist Observatories in deployment.
  • Resolved Quill PostgreSQL db size issue w/ Condor-admin.
  • Deployed "iommu=off" kernel option to all nodes, reboot.
  • Ran benchmarks of "iommu=off" kernel option vs base:
    • Kernel Compile: iommu=off was faster
    • High IO: tie
    • Medium Job (Duncan's Ring Code): "iommu=off" marginally faster
    • Long Job (Duncan's Ring Code): base marginally faster
  • Ship node143 to Supermicro for diagnostic evaluation.
  • Node Crash: 8/22 node143.

(Stuart Anderson)

  • Worked with Benoit Mours on updating the Frame Specification.
  • Devised a plan with Xavi to validate the current set of version 2 S5 h(t) frames based on metadata contained in the files.
  • Helped evaluate the improving MCE situation with regards to iommu=off and replacing memory on particularly egregious nodes.
  • Coordinated with SRL the co-location of 2 racks of SRL computer equipment in 215 Synchrotron.

Livingston

(Dwayne Giardina)

  • Ejected tapes for shipment to CIT, imported and labeled new tapes.
  • Packaged T3-19 and T3-20 for shipment to LHO as spares.
  • During air conditioner maintenance the other morning, one unit quit cooling.  We powered down 150 nodes until the situation was resolved.  Pressing reset buttons on both compressors in the unit fixed it.
  • Re-arranged disks in T3-13 trying to find a way to create a small volume on the few disks that aren't failed.
  • Placed as many recently received blank tapes in the storage cabinet as possible.
  • Moved Temp Alarm probes to different locations in the room, measuring temp and humidity over tape robot and disk arrays.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

  • A status report on S5 Reduced Data Set (RDS) generation was given during the Thursday morning Detector Characterization session at the August LSC meeting at LSU. The report has been submitted to the DCC with the number LIGO-G060484-00-W. RDS generation has been running smoothly since the beginning of the run, with minor problems being fixed as they occur without loss of data.

(Ben Johnson)

  • Started copying Level 1 RDS (LHO only) to the cluster at LHO. I am placing the same file on two nodes for redundancy. The is already being used by a cluster user (having set up autofs and MOUNT_PT).
  • /dmt mounts fixed on GC machines.
  • h(t) metadata issues appear to have been smoothed out.
  • Discussing details of the diskCacheDataFindServer. Gave him a sample frame_cache_dump file from CIT to test with.
  • Working on firewall at LLO. Need to see if IPF works with the skge0 NIC.
  • Examining CRC mismatch frames due to this Tuesday's test of the new test-point manager's code. Hopefully this will help diagnose the reason for the data corruption.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Larry)

  • Assisting Junwei who is doing some of the GC support until the new sysadmin arrives.

Livingston

(Dwayne)

  • continued training our spam filter
  • one WAP required power cycle, again
  • went with Shannon to LSU to meet with the network admins to discuss our new setup.
  • attended SciMon camp
  • setting up a new Intel Mac with parallels and XP for a user - kantech security server lost communication with X-Loop once again after a nearby lightning strike.  Power cycle of the fiber controller resolved.
  • other usual user requests and support

(Shannon)

  • Working on setting up a ZFS server for GC home directories.  Finally think I have a solution that will work.  Sol 10 6.06 on x86_64 with some supermicro SATA cards.
  • Getting together some hardware for Dwayne for a MySQL server.
  • Working with Charter on BGP.  First light on the backup connection was yesterday.  Tested and was able to get full 10 mbit as advertised.
  • Yet more network planning, hardware selection, etc.  Evaluating Cisco vs. Foundry vs. Linux/quagga.
  • Working with Foundry on switch configurations - investigating whether a few things are possible (BGP, MAC ACLs, etc.)

Hanford

(Christine)

  • After running all weekend over the backup network, ESnet and I manually swapped our routes back to the primary GigE network.  PNNL was successful in upgrading their cooling and power systems.
  • The only complaints about running on the backup network were that elog was too slow to access remotely and LDAS was unable to transfer LDR files.  Even though the backup network hardware is 100 Mb/s hardware all the way, it seems some one along the way may still be scaling it down to 10 Mb/s.  I've contacted Amerion, the backup network provider to check in to this.
  • Still working on getting NIS+ client working on the Fedora Core 4 computer.
  • Still setting up new computers.
  • Helping to set up a new web URL for outreach.
  • Still working on the cybersecurity vulnerability report.
  • Created two new accounts for LSC members.  One a long term visitor to the site, the other a remote user.
  • Provided phone support to a SURF student to set up his computer to log in to our computers and run dataviewer.

CIT

(Veronica)

  • LIGO:  Website updates.  Burned a DVD of a LIGO talk for Vladimir Braginsky, compressed it for streaming.  Working on the online update application for the LAAC website.  High-resolution images for the NSF.
  • LSC:  Posting the talks of the last meeting.  Updates of LSC-related mailing lists.  Roster database updates.

(Mike)

  • Worked on DCC servers most of this week configuring SSL. I now have SSL working, the problem was enabling certificates on the SQL server.  Once I figured out how to do this with in SQL server, and point this server to the Certificate of Authority, "DCC1 FileHold database webserver" to import and install DCC's certificate, everything fell into place, SSL started working.
  • Loading a new backup server to replace our current SQL server. So far I have had many problems trying to load Server 2003. This server came pre-loaded with Fedora 5, and was not tested with Server 2003 as we requested upon ordering this server. This turned out to be a Firmware update on the raid controller card.
  • Continued Sysadmin tasks on mail servers and other server issues.
  • Other misc. user support.

(Christian)

  • Created a backup of Cindy Akutagawa and Julie Hiroto workstation.
  • Phil Lindquist- Called Dell support to have Phil's laptop battery replaced.
  • Xavi Siemens-Configured new laptop with the standard Ligo image for Xavi.
  • Ben Abbott -Configured new laptop with the standard Ligo image and transferred all of Ben's files and settings.
  • I did an inventory on printing supplies.
  • Continue working on testing out different os configurations for the system going into the display case.
  • Worked on the Spam Filters with Mike and Larry.
  • Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Bruce Sears)

  • iLog Maintenance:                    (0.5 days)

General iLog maintenance (user adds, keyword adds, systems work, etc.)

(Larry)

  • Still working procurement issues.  Finalized the maint. contract for the Foundry equipment.  Purchased a couple more laptops for new users.  Made a number of misc. supply purchases for different groups.  Working on purchases for a few more laptops, s/w for the DCC, update of licenses for the anti-spyware program, backup disk space, and going over the SUN maint. contract.  Delivered or had delivered a number of different computer items.
  • Working with a number of people on the display case(Christian C, John Z, and JoAnn H). The new window to the display case has been installed.  We have a couple of options on computers to be used but presently we plan on going with the MAC system. It produces the least amount of heat and we have a couple of options to work with on this.  John Z. is presently looking at moving his code over to OSX which will facilitate things.  The next problem will be network performance. Hopefully the wireless will be fast enough to handle things. If not we will have more work to do on the display case in-order to get a cable into it.
  • Spending time going over the new s/w to be used for the DCC. Presently, playing with the demo s/w we've installed locally and going over the checklist with the group that is reviewing the s/w before it gets signed-off.
  • Working with the students. Mostly, helping them with their checkout. A number of them are getting their accounts extended as they plan on continuing their work after they leave.
  • Tested a couple more of the OS installations under VMware. It does take a little work but we do have Linux, Windows, and Solaris all running under the pkg. now.
  • Went through a number of items with the property manager.
  • The continual user support. Modification of accounts, alias lists, file restoration.
  • The mail server is still getting hit pretty hard with large mail messages. This will continue until we have the new DCC system in place which will give users another mechanism for transferring large files.  The spam filter checking also continues.

Mail Statistics for Aug 17-23, 06

Mail Statistics

08/27/2006

Rejected Messages

41,228

Virus Messages

1,615

Accepted Messages

22,144

Total Messages

63,372

 

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Systems, Management

Systems

from Dennis Coyne

See also:

AdL Systems wiki web page

AdL Systems email archives

Records Of Decisions or Agreements (RODA) status web page

  • For the quad structure, I defined the maximum allowed weld flaw size and number, based on virtual leak size. This corresponds to a quality level of Class A, MIL-STD-2219A. (This guidance on non-destructive evaluation of aluminum welds for UHV use will be included as an update to the Generic Requirements and Standards for Detector Systems, E010613-01).
  • Held an Optomechanical Layout meeting at LSU immediately after the LSC meeting, Thu 8/17 late afternoon through Fri 8/18 morning. Minutes and action items from the meeting are being written up for distribution.
  • Finalized the ETM wedge angle (with Mike Smith) at 10 arc minutes.
  • Raised the question of whether the ETM quad reaction mass should be AR coated or whether the reflectance from the gold ESD coating is acceptable. Further calculations are needed to resolve the question.

Vacuum Compatibility

Vacuum Preparation & Residual Gas Assay (RGA)

See also the Vacuum Bake Lab

Bob Taylor

  • I have shipped all the cables and parts to Ken Mason.
  • I have received the samples of UV glue from Edith & Nergis and will begin baking this week.
  • Betsy will be sending me some SOS parts as soon as they get through cleaning them. Probably next week.
  • I am building some OSEMs for Conner at Gin Gin.
  • I have baked the PZTs for Betsy/ LHO for use in the PMC.
  • Janeen has requested 8 long InL OSEMs , which I will begin to work on today. These are for the quad noise prototype suspension for Advanced LIGO

High-Irradiance, Coamination-Exposure Cavities

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

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

[Still measuring absorption & total loss on wire sample daily. Ready for new sample.]

Cavity #2: No change

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

Still measuring absorption & total loss on stepper motor sample daily. We will continue taking measurements until the test is completed.

Scatter/Absorption Test Measurement:

We started the scanning of a ITM04 mirror for the scatter measurement. In the setting of the RTS, we found some noise coming from one of the photodiode. We have built a new mount and re-mounted the photodiode in a xyz mount and be able to find a position which will decrease the noise. The noise measurements on new He-Ne (one watt of power ) has been completed and Dr. Zhang is working on the analysis of the data.

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

Modeling and Simulation (Hiro Yamamoto)

Weekly e2e meeting was stopped because I (Hiro) was too busy to organize.  Now, Sany and Osamu volunteered to organize the meeting and start the meeting again.  Thank you very much.

AdvLIGO LSC/ASC design using FP arm model with quad suspension (Osamu, Hiro)

Osamu gave a talk about his work at the LSC meeting at LSU (G060396)

We implemented electronic noise at the photodetector, and control signal was over the dynamic range of OSEM of penultimate mass when lock is acquired with very low power. There are several ideas to avoid the problem, and we put 30Hz 2-pole into the filter, which is the simplest way, then control signal has been enough small.

Static IFO Simulation (Hiro)

Gave a talk at the LSC meeting about this model and the implication of the surface roughness on the loss (G060386).  Finished v1 of FP simulation setup.

Many changes needed for the full Advanced LIGO simulation.  Michelson cavity setup being constructed.

Modeler (Hiro, Bruce, Keiko)

Keiko Kokeyama has joined the e2e team. She is going to stay at Caltech until the end of this year. Her task is to formulate an approximate calculate of the dual recycled Michelson cavity (DRM) to accelerate the simulation of the DRM using modal model. The formulation is an extension of the work done by Hiro to implement the fast simulation of DRM using plane wave approximation.

(Keiko)

I read and followed the calculations of the scalar model approximation which is already solved, in an attempt to understand and start to develop the modal model approximation for the e2e fast module.  I also started the calculation of the very first part of the modal model formulae. For the modal model calculation, we have to take into account matrix values as the reflectivities, propagators, etc. because of their multiple modes.

(Bruce, Melody, Hiro)

FUNC_XX work started. See below section of Afli.

Mechanical Simulation for Advanced LIGO (Sany and SLU team)

(1) E2e modeling

With a great help by Laurent Ruet, started e2e modeling of Modal Damping for Advanced LIGO MC triple suspension. By running a matlab code written by Laurent for one DOF model, created a state space matrix for Yaw DOF and converted it to the e2e format. This SS model (the plant model) takes suspension point yaw motion and actuation forces (torques) to three masses as input and computes yaw motions of all three masses as output. The plant SS matrix in the e2e format is currently being tested with a simple e2e code using white noise input to the suspension point (without actuation forces). The estimator loop model, associated filters and control loop will be constructed after the test.

Jameson Quave continued working on modeling the SAS HAM seismic isolation based on a state space matrix created by Virginio S. It seems that the SS matrix has a syntax error and the original matlab binary file does not run properly on our machine (possibly caused by the difference in version of the matlab or processor architecture). The problems are currently being investigated.

Andrew Kinchen (Southeastern Undergrad Physics major) joined our e2e team.  Previously he helped us installing a Linux OS into our on-campus computer. He will work on e2e modeling of Advanced LIGO Input Mode Cleaner, mostly on the campus.

(2) Outreach

We completed reviewing the lab manual that Naomi Sutton and Shahla Anderson drafted for several LIGO SEC exhibits (Giant Slinky, Standing Wave, Variable Length Pendulum, Pipes of Pan, Hot Light Exhibit and Soap Bubble Interference).  Naomi is now editing the final version. The manual will be tested in a physics course offered by Southeastern Louisiana University for education majors (instructor: David Norwood) in the coming fall semester. Naomi also completed experimenting two new snacks (toy-version exhibits) of salt water battery and relationship between magnetism and electricity. These were part of the activities under the LIGO Science Planning Grant that we were awarded recently.

Kay Gersch (A Holden High School science teacher) and Scott Perez (a Holden High School student) joined our group. Kay is currently getting equipment together to videotape the ping-pong ball launched by the Gravity’s Rainbow exhibit. Scott experimented the Gravity’s Rainbow exhibit and wrote a lab report.

e2e Simulation of 40m (Monica)

The control system of the 40mInLockstate model has been tested running a simulation of 6s: the seismic noise has been injected at 1s and the DARM and CARM loops have been opened at 1.5s and closed at 1.505s. Under these conditions the lock is stable and it becomes stable again after opening and closing the loops. Nevertheless there is a kind of instability simulating the optical response at dark port with modeler_freq: the lock is not broken but there is some frequency disturbing the correct answer of the transfer function.  Under investigation.

ALFI : e2e Front End (Bruce, Melody, Hiro)

Melody finished implementing new features, grouping and GUI commenting.  Bruce worked on the modeler code to implement primitives based on primitive templates.  The architecture of his work using primitive template is the foundation of the new primitive FUNC_XX.

Bruce, Melody and Hiro discussed about the implementation of a generic FUNC_X, called FUNC_XX.  This is a primitive that can have arbitrary data type inputs and outputs.  Both modeler and Alfi need to be modified. Once this is implemented, essentially all other primitives can be replaced by modules based on FUNC_XX.  Bruce and Melody will focus on this task. It is estimated to take about 6 months to complete, including validations.

Seismic Isolation

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

BSC Seismic Isolation Assembly and Test

The locator / lock subassemblies have been installed, properly gapped, and work in both the locked and unlocked position.  We have installed two sets of course and fine actuators on the seismic structure. We are waiting for electronics and sensors from the CDS group to install the final set. This completes the "dirty assembly", Modal testing will begin next week using the installed actuators to shake the structure!

A procurement plan with new specifications has been written for the single stage HAM project. Brian Lantz is checking the specifications and providing additional input.

From: Dennis Coyne <coyne@ligo.caltech.edu>

Mechanics

G&M are now back from the summer break

A-frame design done will start oven welding beginning of the Sept-- delivery end of month

Acquisition of the still for evaporating the isopropyl alcohol is in process

FTIR cell received -- all FTIR parts are in hand, except computer

G&M to buy computer for FTIR in Europe

Dennis visually inspected cleaned sample welds that Ric brought back -- all look good

received clean test items (not baked) -- will be FTIR & vacuum tested

Alberto Stochino will help on HAM-SAS at LASTI (must come to CIT first as condition of his fellowship) -- available end of September

Planning to get Yoichi Aso's support at LASTI from Columbia U.

Electronics

LVDT card was shipped to Pasadena, Maryland

card did not work -- short circuit on one of 8 channels

some other manufacturing issues noticed as well (e.g. poor registration of parts to the through holes)

Ben laid out the following in Protel (to be sent to PCB Express this week):

coil driver interface bd

stepper motor interface bd

ADCs & DACs cabling into 25-pin connectors

Ben will work on ceramic boards for 8 15-pin connectors to 3 25-pin connectors for in-vacuum use

Modeling

Valerio: Maple Dynaflex toolbox for simulation can't seem to handle our application (works OK on simple models, but seemed to fail when the number or complexity increase)

Cassy: has been working on I-Deas modeling of triple pendulum -- some modes are wrong -- will export to Dennis to have a look
plan is to join to the HAM-SAS model

From: Ben Abbott abbott_b@ligo.caltech.edu

Seismic

I have made the schematics for, and layed-out the PCBs of 5 boards for the HAM-SAS and ISI systems.  They will go to PCB Express in the next week.

I'm currently working on the last board for HAM-SAS, the in-vacuum breakout board.  The schematic is done, and the PCB will be finished in the next week, or so.  Some research on in-vacuum circuit boards is still needed.

The last two modules that ISI needs to be designed are the ISI Interface board, and the Coil Driver.  I plan on doing the ISI Interface Board in the near future, and Mohana will continue to work on the Coil Driver when she gets back.

Suspension

From: Mark Barton <m.barton@physics.gla.ac.uk>

This week I moved my collection of suspension modeling software and models to a hopefully more permanent home under the E2E umbrella.  It's now at http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~e2e/SUSmodels/ .

I also added a number of new triple models. Ian Wilmut has floated the idea of an AdvLIGO beamsplitter and/or FM that would be a triple with two blades in the upper mass instead of four as in GEO, so as to enable recycling of bits of the quad design. To support this I did a triple model with dual blades. For good measure I also did a variant with blade lateral compliance, in case this was relevant for the heavier design. It turns out that:

(i) As might be expected, leaving all parameters the same gives much the same mode frequencies except for the highest pitch mode involving antiphase motion of the top and middle masses. Because this involves stretching of the relatively stiff wires rather than the more compliant blades, the frequency of the mode goes way up, from 1.2 Hz to 6.7 Hz.

(ii) The effect on the pitch mode can be almost exactly cancelled by the same trick that was used in the quad: simply reducing the intermediate wire half-spacing, i.e., the lever arm to pitch, from 15 mm to 2.3 mm. As in the quad, this is awkward because it puts the intermediate wires inside the fibres, but there might still be some net advantage. This will be argued out with Ian, Norna et al. over the next few weeks.

(iii) The blade lateral compliance doesn't appear to produce a significant effect, at least for the beamsplitter.

I generated symbolic state-space matrices for all these variants and created a new master "ssmake" file for the GEO-derived Matlab software that loads the appropriate set according to flags in the data structure that describes the pendulum. It also includes other features originally developed for the quad including automatic wire- flexure correction and support for ribbons. Hopefully this will be the last word on triple models for some time.

From: Janeen Romie romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu

Attended the LSC last week, along with the auxilliary meetings of the OMC group on Monday, the Opto-Mechanical Layout group on Thursday afternoon and the Scimon Camp on Friday. The meetings were all fruitful and timely.

Provided updates to the schedule and milestones to Dwight last week. Working on various scheduling issues with SUS & COC group members and Dwight.

Provided rev C of the ETM test mass drawing and the associated DCN to Gari Billingsley.

Coordinating with Bob Taylor for the initial LIGO osems needed by UK group for noise prototype.

Worked up OMC requirements that are needed for ongoing work; sent to Norna, then Dennis.

Planning a trip to Caltech Sept 10-14 to coordinate with a Caltech visit by Calum Torrie and Alastair Grant.

From: Ken Mailand kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu

I'm using the latest information from Ian and working on a lower quad installation arm shop drawings, also a 'conveyor' version to be used at the LASTI site. The majority of the installation arm parts are in the CES shop.

I'm working on the DLC mounts, the PO Telescope, and cavity beam dumps for Mike Smith.

Core Optics

From: GariLynn Billingsley Billingsley_G@ligo.caltech.edu

The LASTI TM blank has been sent to General Optics for polishing.  This is occurring much later than we had planned.  We were urged to go for a competitive bid, and it turned out the way we expected, one company being quite a bit less expensive than another, yet with acceptable performance.  The estimated delivery date is no later than December 18, 2006.  Allowing for 2 months of coating we will still be able to supply the TM to LASTI without causing schedule delay.

Our absorption test stand has been changed into the scatter configuration.  We are pursuing an understanding of the relationship between scatter observed at the observatories and scatter measured in the lab.

FYI

Heraeus has introduced a new material, available in sizes up to 150mm diameter that is comprable to good Corning glass and costs ~$100/kg.  Quite inexpensive.  It is available in some standard sizes with a one or two day lead time.

Heraeus has now offered as a standard product that which we used to call Suprasil 311SV and 312SV (very low OH absorption). The new product designations are Suprasil 3001 and 3002.  The 3001 is the high homogeneity version.  e-mail billingsley_g at ligo if you are interested in data sheets.

From: Helena Armandula ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu

Research on First Contact

I talked with Ashot Markosyan from Stanford University; we'll repeat the tests done previously on optical absorption.  Even when the initial results did not show an increase on the coating absorption after the film was applied and removed from a coated substrate, there were some minor discrepancies mainly, because the time elapsed between before and after measurements, and, the replacement of the person taking the measurements. At the same time, we'll conduct some tests at Caltech.  I think that applying the solution on a large substrate, and being able to peel it off without the film breaking, will require some investigation; I am in the process of placing an order for the solution to start these tests.

Auxiliary Optics

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

LAYOUT

Hartmann Probe Beam - Back to the drawing board! The recent optomechanical design meeting at the LSC conference uncovered the fact the the Hartman beam cannot be injected through the MMT2 mirror, because of the intentional and unintentional thermal lensing that will occur in the IMMT beam path. Therefore, the Hartmann X beam will be injected with a beam splitter through the same off-axis parabolic telescope that receives the ITMX PO beam along the BS AR ghost beam path.  The Hartmann Y beam will be injected through the OMMT2 mirror.  By doing this, we still require only one off-axis PO telescope per IFO.

PO TELESCOPE

Ken Mailand completed a SW model of the PO telescope.

ERRANT BEAM BAFFLES

Luke Williams completed a SW design concept for the SOS errant beam baffle. Phil Willems is investigating the possible heating damage to the oxidized stainless steel baffle material from a 1mm dia 125 W beam; it may be necessary to use oxidized copper, or highly reflective stainless steel.

ELLIPTICAL BAFFLE

The SUS group has a conceptual design for attaching the elliptical baffle to the quad-suspension.

FOLDED-IFO ZEMAX LAYOUT

The wedge angles of the COCs for the folded IFO are being investigated using Zemax. At the moment, it appears that most of the folded IFO COC wedge angles will be different from the non-folded COC wedges.

Input Optics

From: David Reitze <reitze@phys.ufl.edu>

Input Optics PDR planning (All) - UF is in the initial stages of planning for the AdL IO PDR slated for sometime in October.  This will cover the MZ design, the mode cleaner, the aMMT, and ancillary IO subsystems

Faraday isolator characterization (Questschke, Franzen) - been characterizing the AdvLIGO (and eLIGO) FI alignment and position tolerances for purposes of designing a better rotator housing.  In the process, we learned that calcite polarizer performance is limited by scatter (either from the surface or intrinsic), but have essentially flat and very good extinction ratios ( > 3 x 10^5) over the 0 - 100 W power range.

EOM noise characterization (Wan Wu) - The intensity stablization servo for the YAG laser was built and proven to be working properly. We still have 10^-6/sqrt(Hz) relative intensity noise due to the dark current noise and other electronic noise of the photodetector; working on the phase noise - amplitude noise coupling problem.

Adaptive IO MMT (Arain) - One phase of experiments regarding adaptive optics for Ad. LIGO had been completed. A tunable positive lens with a range from infinity to 4 m has been demonstrated. We have submitted a paper titled "Adaptive beam shaping by controlled thermal lensing in optical elements" for LSC review. The idea is to have an adaptive telescope built into input optics for in-situ mode matching into the arm cavities of the interferometer. Further experiments are being planned for thermal compensation in Advanced LIGO.

Controls, Data systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

ASC Photodiodes

  • Ordered more of the ASC prototype diodes for the down-select process.  A new prototype board is being prepared so that the laser evaluation can be performed.
  • Evaluating vacuum components for the ASC diode housing.
  • Working with diode manufacturers to understand the customization process if that's needed in the future for the ASC and LSC sensing diodes.

PSL

Met with B. Wilke and M. Hewitson at Hannover. We met to discuss control requirements for the PSL diagnostic system, as well as the enhanced and advanced Ligo PSL control scheme.

LASTI Squeezing Experiment

  • System and rack drawings are 90% complete for the suspension controls.
  • Replacement rails for the rack have been ordered and are due for delivery in two weeks.  Once these rails have been received the rack can be assembled.
  • SUS receiver, AA and AI chassis are assembled and awaiting manpower/priority for test.

LASTI ISI

  • Components and boards for two additional capacitive position sensor chassis are in-house and awaiting manpower/priority for board stuffing and test.

General CDS

Preliminary measurements of the General Standards DAC being used for the LASTI and 40M OMC controls show that the output  noise is slightly less than 10uV/rtHz on a 10Vp-p output.  Measurements were done using 32768 SPS. Further measurements and a report will be concluded in the next several weeks.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Riccardo DeSalvo desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu

Livia and John

We have been working on calibrating mirror tilts using an optical lever. Using our new calibration previous results appear closer to those from FFT simulation.

This week we completed a new analysis of previous data. Currently designing an experiment to simultaneously measure the angular position of our Mexican Hat mirror whilst recording the intensity profile of the resonating beam. We hope this experiment will bring this investigation to completion.

Valerio

Testing the new LVDT card, found a problem, but it seem to have better sensitivity than the previous version.

Marie, Mike K amd Mike F

More measurements on glassy metal Q factor.

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