Weekly Report for Week Ending September 7, 2006

Past Weekly Reports

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday, September 11, 2006 will be:

(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

1.      Announcements

The Advanced LIGO organization...David Shoemaker

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)
  • Science Group (Lazzarini)

1.      Enhancements (Adhakari)

2.      Advanced LIGO (Shoemaker)

3.      Programmatic (Marx)

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

  • No open change requests

Special Items:

  • FY 2007 Budgets (to be reviewed 9/18/2006)

Special Announcements:

 

Weekly Report Highlights

LSC Issues (Saulson)

The new LSC Elections and Membership Committee has now been appointed.  It will be chaired by Norna Robertson. Other members are: Sam Finn, Gabriela Gonzalez, Szabi Marka, and Fred Raab. The Committee will hold a kickoff meeting soon.

In other LSC committee news, Stuart Anderson has agreed to chair the LSC Computing Committee, replacing Albert Lazzarini. In turn, Stuart is giving up the Chair of the Stochastic Review Committee; Warren Anderson will now serve in that capacity.

Thanks to everyone for being willing to serve.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

  • No report.

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

  • A site teleconference was scheduled for Thursday, September 7, 2006.  The following issues were discussed:
  • Financial Reports – The reports for the end of August have been posted.  Draft Budgets for FY 2007 have also been distributed to task managers.  We will be discussing the close of FY 2006 and the budgets for FY 2007 during the executive committee meeting scheduled for September 18, 2006.
  • Livingston Science Education Center Outdoor Wall Exhibit – everything is on order, waiting for parts.
  • Advanced LIGO – Requested a procurement plan for materials planned to be imported for Advanced LIGO.  C. Wilkinson indicated that one could be provided mid-October.
  • There are currently no open action items.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)

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

  • Provided assistance to Peter King with shipping and the preparation of a Commercial Invoice for US Customs Clearance of two Viewports w/ AR Coating and one Silicone Rubber Jacket to the Max Plank Institute for Gravitational Waves in Germany (B. Willke).  Account Number LIGO.LASER-5.3-NSFLIGO.FY02ON.
  • Assisted Gina Salone with the receiving of two copier machines (W. Bridge and Wilson House).
  • Working with Bill Tyler and the Wilson House People to surplus old equipment.
  • Created property records for a Server at LLO.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

  • Continued to work with the issues arising from the functionality sign-off.  Have participated in several meetings and teleconferences to address issues arising that need resolution prior to a formal sign-off.
  • Continued to read and learn new software that will aid in creating training videos as follow-up materials to formal training at roll-out of the new system.
  • Worked with George on further conversion issues..

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

  • Nothing significant to report.....just returned from vacation/holiday.
  • Scanning - The scanning of contract closeout files is complete.  Next on the list is scanning of all non-electronic "T" category documents currently on file.

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Cronin, Brambila, Kaufman)

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

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

  • Working on the order to Superior Steel.
  • Completed change order #178 to Triad and submitted it to the vendor.
  • Completed change order #26 to REO and submitted to the vendor for booking.
  • Assisted requisitioners with training in TechMart.
  • Placed the order for the additional pulse generator from Agilent Technologies.  It is scheduled to be received by 10/5/06.
  • Completed change order #3 to Thomas Nash for a no-cost extension and submitted to the vendor.  Received the signed copy.
  • Completed change order #11 to George Stokes and submitted to the vendor.  Received the signed copy.
  • Issued the order to Custom Metal Works. The quantity and amount need to be increased to reflect the additional unit that will be needed.

>From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman>

  • Completed and posted the monthly report for fiscal year 2006 Operations as of the end of August.
  • Completed the monthly report for the Outreach Award as of the end of August.
  • Completed the monthly report for the Visitor Award as of the end of August.
  • Attended a meeting with the representative from Northrup with Ed Jasnow and Gina Salone to try to resolve issues related to the invoicing from Northrup.
  • Prepared a summary of expenditures for FY's 2003, 2004, 2005 and projected expenditures for FY2006 for comparison with FY2007 budgeted amounts.
  • Prepared a schedule of expenditures of Government Equipment Purchases for fiscal year to date, to identify purchases of Government equipment by P-card.
  • 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>

  • Met with Dan Zormeier of Northrop Grumman to discuss problems related to invoicing and to discuss modifications to the contract to extend the period of performance for the various contractors by one year.  As a result of the meeting, Dan Zormeier has agreed to address several actions.
  • After a significant disruption to its production capability, Norcal has shipped some of its seismic BSC parts to MIT and expects to send another shipment on September 15.

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

  • A plan is being developed to accept contributions from overseas partners for Advanced LIGO.  This will involve the generation of a list of such items, and having the list submitted by the NSF to the Department of Commerce.  This is essentially getting advance approval for the items as scientific equipment so there will be no customs charges.
  • The form to process volunteers at the sites is still being revised to remove all elements of credit reporting.  A meeting on this subject was held last Friday with Dlorah Gonzalez of HR, Alan Rice of PMA, and Bill Tyler and Ed Jasnow.  The revised form is being presented to OGC for approval tomorrow.
  • Parts for the outdoor wall exhibit for the LLO SEC are being received and prepared for assembly.  The contract for the assembly and installation of the exhibit is being sent to Superior Steel today.  They are the steel erector subcontractor to Cangelosi-Ward, and are still on-site.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

We have received the supplemental funds to provide materials to use for Outreach with the LIGO Video.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

  • There are no open change requests.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

  • No report (vacation).

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

No report.

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

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

The IFOs logged decent data despite two novel problems this past week (PZTs and 180Hz noise, linked below).  Duty cycles and ranges were: H1 – 88 percent at ~14Mpc, H2 – 90 percent at ~7+Mpc.

We had a heinous 180Hz line to contend with for a about half a day; reminiscent of recent events at LLO, a nearby power line was shut off during this interval.  Once the local power company BPA swapped out a capacitor bank and restored voltage, the 180Hz line fell back to normal and 120Hz nearly disappeared. 

S5 highlights from the LHO elog are bulleted below:

  • multiple copies of the h1 injection process were found to be running Aug 31-Sep 5, but this is the second time this has happened and it is thought not to cause a problem (a software workaround being investigated by the injection team)
  • The H1 PZT amp board that was replaced last week did not solve the problem of MC input pointing glitches; the additional swap of the PZT-2 did however
  • an AM laser was employed to check the 4k IOO WFS gain (good) and phase (bad)
  • standard summaries: Tuesday maintenance, CDS maintenance, range and duty cycle (n.b. some days missing), IFO maintenance

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

LIGO SEC Kinetic Art Project

From: Janeen Romie romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu

Placed orders for more McMaster Carr parts and assembly tools.  Visited Custom Metal Works to check on schedules and approve first truss weldment.  Statusing all other orders for updated delivery information.  There is a telecon with Jonas Waterman from HPD tomorrow to discuss his visit to SAPA and oversee the production of the pendulums.

Mechanical and Optical Systems (Coyne)

See Advanced LIGO.

Controls and Data Systems (Bork)

(Jay) It has been discovered that the polycarbonate capacitors that we have been using in the AA and AI boards can not be wave soldered.  This info is nowhere in the data sheets for the components and so when we sent the boards out for stuffing, we did not specify hand soldering of the several hundred caps per board.  As such, all of the boards that were stuffed now have to have the capacitors removed and replaced. When Electronic Concepts was contacted about the problem they told us that they knew about the problems associated with wave soldering, but did not put it in the data sheet and instead wait for people to call when a problem is discovered.  Needless to say, we are now searching for a different capacitor vendor. The rework of the boards will cause a several week slip in the production schedule for the boards.  The systems most heavily impacted by this slip are the 40M DC detection experiment and the LASTI squeezing experiment.

40-Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

IFO Commissioning, Electronics, Controls, Computers

  • A campus-wide power glitch on Friday 2pm brought us down for the rest of the day. Alex came by to help bring up the martian network. We got some good experience doing a cold-start. And we learned about critical systems that should be on UPS backup, but weren't. Now they are!
  • Rana did a new sweep of the NPRO temperature and found that the SLOW temp was not at the right place; we were in a multimode region where the NPRO is oscillating. He moved the setting to a place where the NPRO power is maximized and multimode oscillations are absent.
  • Rana realigned the PSL beam into the MC, and also realigned the MC refl and trans paths. He turned the boost back on the MC up script, and did some more optimization.
  • Ran began working on lock acquisition again, but discovered that the testpoints were not working so none of the lock acquisition scripts could be exercised. Alex came by on Tuesday and fixed it.
  • Rana and Sam checked out all the length sensing RFPDs. The double-demod PDs (PD7 and PD8) were not working; they found that the RF amps weren't plugged in, and also found a bad cable on PD7. Work is still in progress.

IFO Modeling

  • Monica is returning to Orsay, where she will work more closely with her AdLirgo colleagues on modeling. Bon voyage!

DC Detection and Vacuum Squeezing Development

  • The focus this week is last preparations for vent to install DC readout optics. We plan to vent on Monday, and begin work on Tuesday.
  • Steve will check the initial pointing of the PSL beam, and establish baseline readings on all the QPDs, on Friday.
  • Osamu and Rana will work on adjusting the OSEMs on the noisiest suspensions: MC2, BS, SRM, PRM, and maybe also MC1 and MC3.
  • Rob and Sam are progressing on pre-alignment of the clean DC readout beamline on the flow bench. They are assembling the controls that they will use to lock the OMC and bias the TT mirrors. They are readying the fiber-fed laser for alignment. Rich has the HV PSs for the PZTs. They are working towards being ready to install into the vacuum chamber by mid-week next week.
  • Ben ordered and received a wide assortment of resistor values for the in-vac DCPD electronics. Rob chose two 250 ohm resistors; Bob cleaned them and wired them to the DC PD mount. He wired these to the in-vac pre-amp nipple, and from there to the 25-pin mounting bracket.
  • Rich received the repaired tip-tilt PZT from PiezoJena for the 2nd TT steering mirror. Bob cleaned it and is making the in-vac wiring. Rob is preparing the two TT mirrors in their mounts.
  • Bob has built all the required in-vac wiring: for the DC PD, the OMC PZT, the two tip-tilt PZTs, the OMMT picomotor, and the squeezed vacuum mirror picomotor.
  • Ben has the new rev of the QPD Whitening board all stuffed, has developed a test procedure, and will begin testing shortly. This board will go in one of the new style chassis which will be ordered soon.
  • Rich and Riccardo are preparing to assemble the new DC readout control electronics and cabling at the 40m. We hope to have the computer, IO chassis (including ADCs and DACs), AA and AI chasses, and timing master & slave in place by next week. We hope to also have a RFM card and connection to our DAQ system. (That leaves the QPD whitening board and PZT driver boards, which will come later).

Lab Infrastructure, Bake Lab

  • In preparation for venting, Steve has done some work on the vacuum system, installing a larger drypump to have more maglev backing pump power. He's also tested the cranes. He will mop up with ant poison at the end of the day on Friday.
  • Dan is back from Burning Man. Rana asked him to move the 40m Wiki to make it separate from the AdLIGO wiki.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

No report.

LASTI (Ottaway)

HAM SAS

The HAM SAS test plan is available for comment at http://emvogil-3.mit.edu/~ottaway/LASTI/HAM_SAS/ .  This is the plan that will be used to test  the HAM SAS suitability for use in Advanced LIGO. Please send any comments on this to Dave Ottaway soon so that the equipment required for these tests can be finalized. The results of these tests will be reported in time for the HAM Seismic Isolation down select review currently scheduled for April 2007.

Quad Report

Brett has taken some transfer functions on the reaction chain with the eddy current damping installed. There is an entry on the Lasti ilog (Tuesday September 5th). According to Norna these measurements match the model predictions fairly well.

We have also done a first test of the thermal loading of the structure, results to appear on an Lasti ilog entry in the near future.

ET Report

Myron has been able to repair the damaged small actuator. The leads now need to be repotted and it can then be installed. The two damaged large actuators have shorts, Ken is currently in the process of ordering replacements.  We have so preliminary transfer functions from the small actuators to the temporary array of L4C-Geophones and some position sensors. There is an entry on the Lasti ilog (Friday September8).

CIT Science Group (Lazzarini)

Data Analysis

Brown:

  • Worked on numerical relativity projects
  • Worked on LIGO-ERMI project
  • Worked on LISA SMBH search
  • Continued with inspiral review duties
  • Did some online BNS search cleanup

Dupuis:

  • Worked on issues for Crab S5 analysis
  • Worked on code to calculate F-stat with TDS data

Mendell:

I am currently focused on understanding the shift in the S4 L1 noise spectrum as one crosses the second harmonic of the violin modes. This is one of the tasks that needs to be completed before we can finish a final draft of the S4 PowerFlux, StackSlide, and Hough paper. I will have a report on this for the pulsar group by our next telecon.

Sutton:

This week, since returning from vacation, I've been working on applying the xpipeline coherent analysis package to the triggered search for a GRB from S5.  I've also been reviewing the LIGO-Virgo joint burst search methods paper.

Yakushin:

Testing the newest version of the coherent waveburst.

Grid research (Blackburn)

OPEN SCIENCE GRID

Worked with David Meyers to try running the binary inspiral  hipe workflow on a friendly OSG site, OSG_LIGO_PSU. The hipe  workflow still fails on the 1st partition even after removing  several bad segments. Will investigate more and try to get past  the 1st partition.

Fixed GUI planner functionality related to stage-out and host  directory preference item. (PR #36)

Working on the abort implementation when running partitioning  workflow.

Communicating with OSG operational group to check whether or  not LIGO can run applications at ATLAS T2 sites per site policy.

INTEGRATION TESTBED

Applied security patch to Globus 4.0.2 released by the VDT to LIGO-CIT-ITB.

Worked on issues related to loss of chilled water and resulted  emergency shutdown and later restart of LIGO-CIT-ITB on Friday  September 1.

Tested vds-get-sites with information aggregated in the OSG  VORS server and successfully created tc.data and sites.xml  information required by the VDS planner for ITB sites.

OSG DEVELOPMENT

Determined that the NFS-Lite component changes the initial  directory where jobs are specified to run in the Condor-G  scripts produced by the VDS planner. Under NFS-Lite jobs are  started in some dynamically chosen sub directory of /tmp  which breaks interoperability with assumption that has been  used for the last six months - that jobs can be specified to  have an initial directory chosen by the workflow planner.

Worked with Michael Samidi on the following topics:

  • Removal of segments with defective gwfs.
  • Partitioning HIPE analysis
  • Versions of VDS and Java required for partitioning of jobs.
  • Configuration of site catalog and transformation catalog for production sites.

Attended VDT, ITB and VDS telecoms.

Attended an OSG telecom on issues related to NFS-Lite and OSG  interoperability.

Laboratory Computing (Stuart)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

The system ldas-test is being set up to test the latest proposed set of development tools. This includes gcc 4.1.1. This version of the compiler is required for Solaris 10 on the opteron hardware platform. The LDAS software has been compiled on linuxopteron. Several unit tests have failed. These are being investigated.

When canceling the "All Users Test", the status message reported back to the user contains only the text stripped of the html tags.

Fixed the user_commands.tcl script to first load tclglobus. This prevents a segmentation fault when using the 64bit version of tclglobus.

The managerAPI no longer logs EOF conditions on tclglobus sockets as red balls.

As of Tuesday September 5, 2006, the nightly loop scripts were submitted using certificate based authentication.

System testing of LDAS was done using version 1.8.291 of the software.  There were two areas of failure:

1) The lsync is unable to see RDSVerify and some /scratch directories.

2) Some regression tests failed. They reported either corruption detected in FrHeader or an end-tag as not being valid ILWD.

Have applied for the IBM DB2 Scholar's program. This will allow us to obtain versions of DB2 for all platforms they support.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

  • Worked with Dwayne to fix the "lost" & duplicate tapes problems at LLO (this triggered the stagerd memory leak).
  • Worked on tape ingestion oddities, including re-ingesting all files that had been on LL0618, which had problems.
  • Put new certs for RLS and LDR at LLO (this makes it sound simple :-).
  • Restarted RLS at CIT with proper debug level and output redirected to file.
  • Collect stats about disk usage in /home at CIT and talked some users into releasing and rm'ing files.

(Phil Ehrens)

  • Provided updated certificates for LHO and LLO to allow them to replace imminently expiring certs. The state of certs at all sites was surveyed using certcheck.tcl so that certs issued by any and all sources could be surveyed.
  • Assisted Stuart in the shutdown associated with the loss of chilled water refrigeration on September 1.
  • Moved desktop computer and monitors around the Millikan 6th floor, and installed a dual-head video card in m28 for Dan Kozak.
  • Installed certcheck.tcl on the ldas gateway, ldas-grid, and ldas-pcdev1 machines at LLO, LHO, and MIT. Attempted to install it on the ldas-jobs machines as well but found that the ldas-jobs machines each has a unique configuration which requires more study.
  • Installed surge-protecting power strips in the graduate student cubicles in order to take advantage of unused circuits and to reduce the load on the single circuit to which most equipment was attached. Also added a 5 port switch to the cubicles most often used by visitors to support visitor laptop use.
  • Updated and wrote new documentation on the wiki for various system-administration tasks and issues, including a copy of the "Austrian Grid Glossary", a webpage formerly publicly accessible but no longer so, which explains the many GRID acronyms and contains many useful links. Some deregionalisation of this document is still required, since it refers to several Austrian resources for which more apt analogues are known.

(Erik Espinoza)

  • Responded after powerdown to build usb sticks with current BIOS config.
  • Upgraded Condor to 6.8.1 prerelease.
  • Configured kickstart at CIT to perform rescue installs to preserve /usr1.
  • Handled multiple Condor crashes during the weekend:
    • Terminated repeat dags
    • Notified users of status
    • Monitored usage
  • Contacted Condor team about 6.8.1 RH9 build (vs RHEL3 build).
  • Recieved node from SuperMicro, rebuilt as node327, restored data.
  • Replaced mobo on node, requested RMA for CPU as well.
  • Contacted Kingston/ASA about Micron Dual Rank mem.

(Stuart Anderson)

  • Picked up the pieces after  the Caltech power outage at Central Plant with resultant loss of the majority of chilled water capacity on campus:
    • Replace 20A slow blow fuse.
    • Re-installed FC4 on 11 nodes that had the operating system corrupted from the abrubpt shutdown--no user data was lost.
    • Reconfigured the motherboard BIOS on 90 nodes during the cluster downtime.
  • Requested a copy of the latest Matlab release (R2006b) from campus IT group.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

  • Almost finished configuring the test segment database server. In the process discovered that several instructions in the documentation are not correct:

a) host certificate request cannot be done the way it is described: symbolic links to *.conf* files has to be created first;

b) the documentation does not describe the step that maps between statevector numbers and human readable definitions of segments like "Science";

c) found some bugs in bulkpublishstate script.

What remains is to configure a second interface so that the test segment database server would have access to the internal LDAS network and one can publish segments based on L3 data on the nodes. Publishing segments based on data from /archive is incredibly slow and not practical since it is on the tape robot.

  • Set up continuous distribution of L3, h(t) S5 data to the nodes. First pass over L3 is finished, first pass over h(t) is far from being over yet. The current scheme should automatically take care of restoring data on nodes after disk failure. It is also very easy to add new data sets (e.g. burst MDC frames).
  • Configured automount of nodeN:/usr1 on dataserver for LSCdataFind to be able to find the data on nodes.
  • Published to LDR@CIT 579 WNB2_S5_A files that were originally missing. They have successfully propagated from CIT to LLO.
  • Published to LDR@CIT new h(t) burst MDC files that cover S5 up to Nov 2006 and can be used for online analysis. The transfer of these files from CIT to LLO is in progress.
  • We survived a brief (~1 second) power outage this Tuesday without any downtime to the servers and storage. The cluster was, of course, rebooted.
  • While spraying L3 and h(t) frames to the nodes, ran into sam-stagerd memory leak which was tracked down by Dan and Stuart to duplicate entries in the tape robot catalog.

(Dwayne Giardina)

  • Ejected tapes for shipment to CIT.
  • Worked with Dan to resolve duplicate tapes being reported by SAM-QFS.
  • SFT publishing restart Wednesday morning.
  • Brief power outage Tuesday afternoon, one power panel in LDAS room needed to be reset.  some nodes were down for a few minutes.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

  • The sys admin work for the past week, other than routine tasks, was to update certificates used during data publishing. LDAS services continue to run smoothly at LHO.

(Ben Johnson)

  • Reading up on XML. Having a better understanding will help me with the XML-ification of configuration files; e.g., SMF manifests, grid stuff, zones, etc.
  • Copy of /archive/cluster h(t) to nodes complete. The copied files have been released from disk, freeing about 4.5TB of space on /archive.
  • Ironed out a few firewall omissions at LLO.
  • New cabinet is now in place in the LDAS room. Unpacked remaining 720 new blank tapes for storage in that cabinet.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

Nothing to report

Livingston

(Dwayne)

(Week of Aug 27)

  • FC5 install with Quagga for BGP testing, to be taken over by Shannon.
  • housekeeping, organizing GC parts, manuals, etc.
  • finished parallels and XP install on Intel Mac for user
  • new external HD and backup software for a user
  • continued training our spam filter
  • other usual user requests and support

(Week of Sept 3)

  • ordered printer ink, fixed a paper jam
  • troubleshooting hardware problems in our new MySQL server
  • continued training our spam filter
  • more housekeeping, roundup of old PCs and various parts
  • other usual user requests and support

(Shannon)

  • Did some further testing on the charter network connection.  The way the connection was initially set up, Charter was advertising our IPs via the Charter ASN, which is not what we intended.  I have had the tech change that and now I am at the point of testing the BGP peering.
  • Spent some more time troubleshooting on of the new servers.  Intel CPU/motherboard issues.
  • Quite a bit of time on the phone with LSU again continuing to plan the new network transition and issues with supporting the old IPs over the new connection.  Will have to do some creative VLANs, etc.
  • Troubleshooting a mathematica license issue.  May be the Caltech license server.  Not sure yet.
  • Shuffled quite a few old files around deleting/archiving/reorganizing.
  • Updated some visio drawings of the network topology including the changes discussed with LSU/Charter this week.
  • Reset the tape library on the backup server.
  • Ordered a laptop for Doug.
  • Still making final hardware evaluations for the new 'net connection.

Hanford

(Christine)

  • Still trying to get the Fedora C4 NIS+ client to work.  I need a newer version of glibc and can't get the rpm update to work.  Stuart and Erik have been helping.
  • Finishing the cybersecurity vulnerability report.  I wanted to have it done last week, but I will definitely finish it this week.
  • Had to install the latest versions of all the standard Windows software on the reception office computer.  Everything was out of date.
  • Contacted ESnet to make sure they don't have a problem with LIGO sharing their network with other science groups.
  • Other misc. user support.

CIT

(Mike)

  • Trouble shot DCC servers. Found that SSL is not fully working. I have tried to edit many configuration files to correct this issue, but failed to fix this problem.  I have put in a call to FileHold to see if they know how to resolve this issue.  They mentioned that there is an update that may correct the problem.
  • Continued work on searching for false positives on spam filters.
  • Other misc. sysadmin tasks.

(Veronica)

  • LSC:  Updates of the database of technical papers, and the Observational Results page.  Captured and compressed for streaming 15 videotapes from the SciMon bootcamp of the last meeting; this required some s/w troubleshooting. Reloaded CleanerXL and installed upgrades/SP.  A couple of tapes had to be combined into a single clip from separate footages.
  • LIGO: Working on the updates of the LAAC website.  Updates of the roster database and mailing lists.
  • Project Science: Website updates/ user support.

(Christian)

  • Eirini Messaritaki - Installed new 24 inch LCD monitor and configured new laptop with the standard Ligo image.
  • Finished setting up the laptop with the 30 inch monitor in the display case located on the 1st floor E/B.
  • Continue working with HP support to configure new printer/scanner. The printer/copier services are running but there are some logistical issues to workout on the scanner part of the unit.
  • Worked on the Spam Filters with Mike and Larry.
  • Helped Larry out with the computers when the central plant was having problems with the air-conditioning.
  • Assisted Veronica in debugging a streaming video application.
  • 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)

  • Continuing the work with the procurement items. Ordered, received and delivered a number of s/w items.  Picked up a number of misc. computer support items.  Still working on getting a order placed for another disk farm and server.  Resolved a problem with the Foundry maint. contract. I should receive confirmation of the corrections next week.  In the process of renewing the s/w licenses for Ansys.  The quad dual core cpu unit is boxed up and ready to be shipped back to Monarch for repair.
  • Took care of the computer room during the problem period central plant was having with the air-conditioning. We were able to keep the core servers up and running.
  • Still working with the DCC group and others on the migration to the new system. There are still a lot of logistical issues to work out and items to test.  Helping Mike work on some of the problems he has encountered with the new DCC s/w.
  • Minor support for the E2E group.
  • Assisted a number of students with various problems. Everything from file restoration to getting their applications to work properly.
  • Made a number of changes to the host and DNS tables. Most were changes for different groups and some clean up.
  • Wrapped up the monthly backups for the home accounts. Still need net to do the backups of different systems.
  • Upgrade a couple of application programs and installed a few patches on the servers.
  • Started work on some changes for the 40M.
  • Setup new accounts for a group of people that have arrived the past week. Also, resolved issues for a couple of people that have just left.
  • Worked a number of e-mail issues.

Mail Statistics for Aug. 31- Sept 6, 06

Mail Statistics

09/07/2006

Rejected Messages

37,065

Virus Messages

1,311

Accepted Messages

22,752

Total Messages

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Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Systems, Management

From: Dennis Coyne coyne@ligo.caltech.edu

Systems

See also:

AdL Systems wiki web page

AdL Systems email archives

Records Of Decisions or Agreements (RODA) status web page

Nothing significant to report

Vacuum Compatibility

Vacuum Preparation & Residual Gas Assay (RGA)

See also the Vacuum Bake Lab

Bob Taylor

  • I have finished the bake and scans on the UV glue for Nergis. I have given the samples to Lee for optical contamination cavity testing.

High-Irradiance, Contamination-Exposure Cavities

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

Cavity # 1: OTF Lab. at W. Bridge: No Change.  The WHITE FLEX CABLE it is completed.  We have new samples of UV Glue (NOA 76) to tests on

for absorption and ring down.  These samples are from Nergis from MIT.  We'll introduce them into the chamber this week.

Cavity #2: No change

Cavity #3: OTF Lab at Lauritsen Room 38:

The new sample, stepper motor is in the cavity.  The cavity is locked. We were taking measurements  and we'll continue taking every day for absorption and ring down.

Scatter/Absorption Test Measurement:

New scatter test started on the one 1.00” mirror, which was covered with a film (Helena's liquid) and we'll take a new measurements and compare with the one without coating.

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

Modeling and Simulation (Hiro Yamamoto)

e2e weekly meeting

The modeling of the back reaction from the suspension to HAM-SAS was discussed.  Mark has provided us a new statespace model of the triple suspension with the force pushing the suspension cage, and Virginio and Valerio have provided us a statespace model simulating the HAM-SAS stack which has the ground motion and force acting on the table top as inputs.  Sany and his students setup an e2e simulation setup to use these models to simulate a triple suspension motion on top of a HAM-SAS stack. By feeding back the force of the triple pendulum pushing the case as the actuation force of HAM-SAS, the back reaction will be simulation.  An updated (improved) version of the triple suspension with back reaction was released soon after the meeting.  Materials presented at the meeting are available in www.ligo.caltech.edu/~e2e/inbasket.

Static IFO simulation (Hiro)

The development schedule is adjusted so that a coupled cavity will be simulated first to calculate the effect of the BS size.

Fast simulation of Dual Recycled Michelson Cavity  (Hiro, Keiko)

The matrix values which describe the light fields or the mirror reflectivities  were written as approximation formulae using Taylor expansion. Now the expression has been validated numerically to see how many higher order are necessary by comparing with the formulae without any approximations. In parallel, another approximation formulae have been considered. This way is to diagonalize the matrices by operating their unitary matrices.  Possibly the diagonalized values can be calculated more easily.

Mechanical Simulation for advanced LIGO (Sany and SLU team)

(1) E2e modeling

(Yoshida)

Mark Barton modified his mathematica model of Mode Cleaner Triple suspension so hat it may output the reaction force from the suspension to the seismic platform (through the suspension point of the suspension cage). We made an e2e model by including Mark?s State Space matrix.

(Kinchen)

This week I assisted Dr. Yoshida in the adjustment of Mark Barton's force reaction statespace matrix from Mathematica to E2E format.  After his extensive collaboration with others, I inserted this to the existing Triple Pendulum Suspension Alfi model and added outputs for the forces on, and torques about the x,y and z axes. These outputs were then attached to power spectral density outputs through which data was generated, under influence of white noise to the x axis, using the modeler program.  I then plotted the psd data using Matlab, and presented one of the graphs at our weekly teleconference. The graphic data was of immediate benefit as those present noticed opportunities to improve our current model.  As those modifications are in progress I am continuing analysis on the current version to gain further insights into the dynamic nature of the Triple Pendulum Suspension apparatus.

(2) Outreach

(Gersch/Perez, Holden High School Science Teacher/Senior)

Heather Wagner, another senior from Holden, has joined Scott in working on the experiments.  Today Heather is taking the preliminary test.  We are working on setting up the experiment with photogates(Vernier sensors that attach to the labpro and work with the Logger Pro software) to determine the speed the ball leaves the ramp.  The students will predict the distance from the speed and compare to the distance to the cup.  We are going to work toward  coordinating the  video with the sensor experiment.  Hopefully we will have a preliminary run by Thursday.

(Anderson, St. Thomas Aquinas High School Science Teacher)

I've just completed the assembly of the "snake pendulum" (idea from the LIGO sample) along with simple pendulum and used it to demonstrate and explain to my physics students the chapter about periodic and harmonic motion, relationship between period, frequency, mass, amplitude, length, gravity etc.

Generic primitive based on FUNC_X (Bruce, Melody, hiro)

Development of a new module is going on which is based on FUNC_X  (very flexible modules which accepts C++ code without worrying how to compile and link) and can have arbitrary types and numbers of inputs and output. The architecture supporting this flexible in-out structure and the design of the user interface were discussed.

Melody is working on the front-end, and Bruce is digging into the modeler code on the back-end.

Seismic Isolation

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

Agenda for the weekly SEI telecom

Friday, Sept 1, 2:00 pm Eastern, 1:00 pm Central, 11:00 am Pacific time

HAM status (Joe summarizing)

  • Corwin told to write up the design work as is by mid next week.  Then we can discuss the issue of improvements to the GS-13 mount.

BSC SEI status

  • New STS-2 can received from Nor-Cal, will be used to test fit.
  • Two corners of actuators installed (i.e., 8 actuators).  Tooling not setting the distance very well in the gap direction, but very well in the other two directions.  0.03 gap (minimum) remains, which is OK.
  • Stage 2 released; on of its locators now jammed for unknown reason.
  • Three damaged actuators (two large, one small).  The potting material is used to strain relieve the wire, and this material does not stick to teflon.  We are in touch with the vender to  make a new batch with in a lug to relieve strain.
  • Also, one of the damaged actuators has a short between the coil and bobbin.
  • Some of the damage resulted from rough shipping/handling between two LIGO labs, and some was due to poor design.
  • Pod assembly underway; some fasteners were the wrong size and new ones are ordered.
  • We need to line up the cleaning company well in advance of shipping to them.

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

Minutes of the 6 Sep 2006 HAM-SAS Teleconference

Mechanics (Ric)

Torsional bi-stability behavior observed on the loaded HAM-SAS assembly.  Thought to be due to lack of load balance of the IP legs.  Ric tuned the 1st elastic mode frequency of the legs, but 2 legs have counterweights and two do not. Consequently it is likely that the loads are not well balanced. Some calculations (pending) are required to guide the tuning process.

Alberto Stochino (and many others at G&M) has been helping with the assembly. ALl of the paperwork for Alberto's master thesis work in the US (at LASTI) has been completed.

G&M subcontractor will make a crate for the cart today.  G&M will then disassemble & clean the cart, re-assemble (mostly) & then ship to LASTI

The clean room has nearly been completed.  Ric will send info on alternative clean room garb for suggestions on what to use.

Ric found that some of the mounting brackets were welded in a non-vacuum compatible fashion (could trap contaminants).  These brackets will be re-made.

Electronics (Ben)

Working on the system block diagram with the recently added out-of-loop instrumentation -- will send out to the group for comment/review today

LVDT coils were shipped Monday from G&M to Caltech for testing with the coil driver

Ben says that we need more coil drivers from Italy (has 3 on hand, need 6 plus spares) -- Ric says Virginio has more

need another ADC

Ben will have a copy of the L4C and STS2 interface bd (used in the ISI system) made for HAM-SAS (though very unlikely that we'll use the STS2 -- if we do, it will be sealed in a vacuum pod and placed on the optics table -- we can borrow from the ISI project)

Dave O. will distribute his draft test plan for wider review/comment

From: Ben Abbott abbott_b@ligo.caltech.edu

I've spent a fair amount of time changing the schematics for the HAM-SAS system to accommodate the test electronics.  It's coming together, but I still need to add the Guralp witnesses.  I'm hoping that it can go out today for review.

Suspension

From: Janeen Romie romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu

Working through bonding and wire standoff issues. Involved in OMC, Pick off mirror, CP and BS e-mail discussions.

From: Ken Mailand kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu

I'm using information from Ian, and working on a lower quad installation arm shop drawings. The CES shop has completed approx. half the parts for the basic arm.

I'm working on the and cavity beam dumps and other parts for Mike Smith. The fixture lift table for LASTI is out for chrome plate, and that task should be complete 9-8.

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

In response to a query from Sany Yoshida and his students, I worked out how to incorporate the force exerted on the support structure by the pendulum into the state space matrices exported from my Mathematica models to E2E. This will be required for integrating the SUS and SEI models, each of which acts on the other. It turns out out that the recipe is (i) add 6 outputs representing the forces and torques on the structure, (ii) add a block to the C matrix which gives the component of force generated when the structure is stationary, but the pendulum moves, and (iii) add a block to the D matrix which gives the component of force generated when the pendulum is stationary but the structure moves. I implemented this in Mathematica and sent it to Sany for testing in E2E.

Core Optics

From: Bill Kells kells@ligo.caltech.edu

Finished up the SURF project, with interesting "shotgun" results on PI (at least my student has now left). We have an almost complete draft write up (deadline this month, so out soon). Of course this has generated more questions that we will be pursuing. Have been in contact with the Perth groups on details,  resolving some issues.  I am working to resolve a potentially important "open question" which I discussed with Vyatchanin when he was here this summer: Do the instabilities from distinct TMs (despite being significantly distinct in Freq.) survive? And related: do PIs survive under inevitable parameter (e.g. temperature) drift?

Also: doing my own corroborative review of the Advd LIGO final polish specifications.  Then, Liyuan is back and I am working on new scatter (loss) measurements with him.

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

A Draft specification for polishing of the Advanced LIGO ITMs is being circulated.  This is intended to serve as the basis for the pathfinder polishing process.

Auxiliary Optics

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

TCS-

The ETM Hartmann probe beam is injected with a dichroic mirror through the back of the ETM telescope.

ERRANT BEAM BAFFLES

Phil Willems has determined that heating damage will occur to the oxidized stainless steel baffle material from a 1mm dia 125 W beam.  We are considering using diffuse copper or aluminum to avoid directing a hot errant beam to the chamber walls. Luke has completed SW models for all IO baffles except for MC baffles.

FOLDED-IFO ZEMAX LAYOUT

The wedge angles of the COCs for the folded IFO are being investigated using Zemax.

PO TEL

Chris has a conceptual design for the ETM PO TEL suspension assembly, including a suspended output detection bench. Callum and Janeen will meet at CIT next week to finalize the conceptual design.

A variable attenuator concept for the ETM TRANSMON beam, using a filter wheel turned by an invac stepper motor, was incorporated into the SW layout. This will allow  the TRANSMON to operate with a range of input laser power levels. At 125 W power level, it is estimated that the ETM output beam must be attenuated by a factor 10.

Controls, Data Systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

  • (Jay)A new prototype coil driver and power supply board has been designed and sent out for manufacture.  These boards will fit in the new rack mount chassis and can be used for the LASTI triple installed for the HAM SAS system. It can also be used for the LASTI squeezing experiment.
  • (Jay) Most of the components for the additional capacitive position sensor chassis have been received and the boards are being stuffed. If the remaining chassis parts come in soon the chassis should be ready for shipment to LASTI late next week.
  • (Mohana) I received the prototype board with the LM12 for the Adl SEI Coil Driver.  I will begin testing the board today.
  • (Ben) I've spent a fair amount of time changing the schematics for the HAM-SAS system to accommodate the test electronics.  It's coming together, but I still need to add the Guralp witnesses.  I'm hoping that it can go out today for review.

Input Optics (Dave Reitze, UF)

MMT3/PRM RODA (Dave Reitze) - A RODA specifying the dimensions of the MMT3 and PRM mirrors has been written and is being circulated to the relevant parties.  Also looking at effects of beam vignetting by the MMT3 and PRM as the beams are shifted off center; looks not to be a problem for AdvLIGO for reasonable amounts of decentering.

Layout (Luke Williams) - Working on finishing up baffle design and placement on HAM2,3.

Adaptive MMT design (Muzammil Arain) - a static design (mirror ROC and placement) for the marginally stable recycling cavity has been made that will mode match to the interferometer.  To increase the available focal power change, MMT2 and MM3 use reversed mirrors in which the beam transmits through the substrate before reflecting. For adaptive mode matching assuming *no* thermal compensation of the ITM/ETM ROC in the arm cavities (absolute worst case scenario), the required optical phase shift for MMT2/MMT3 is in the order of 200/500 nm as the interferometer goes from cold to full power.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: John Miller miller_j@ligo.caltech.edu

John and Livia

Work continues on the optical lever.  We are currently having problems with technical noise.

Yumei

Continue writing the report and do some new simulations about the leg.

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