Weekly Report for Week Ending September 14, 2006

Past Weekly Reports

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday, September 18, 2006 will be:

(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

1.      Announcements

2.      Programmatic (Marx)

  • Executive Committee Meeting Format and Schedule
  • Site Teleconference Format and Schedule
  • Weekly Status Report

3.      Comments on weekly report

4.      LSC Issures (Saulson)

5.      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)

6.      Enhancements (Adhakari)

7.      Advanced LIGO (Shoemaker)

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

  • No open change requests

Special Items:

  • FY 2007 Budget Review

Special Announcements:

 

Weekly Report Highlights

LSC Issues (Saulson)

No report.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

  • No report.

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

  • A site teleconference was scheduled for Thursday, September 14, 2006.  The following issues were among those discussed:
  • FY 2007 Budgets – draft budgets have been distributed for FY 2007, and Florence has issued a set of reports comparing the proposed budget model with actual costs through August FY 2006.  These budgets will be the subject of discussion during the meeting of the executive committee on Monday (September 18, 2006).  The current projection for FY 2006 actual costs is $32.2 million.
  • Livingston Science Education Center – As far as the contractor is concerned, LIGO has beneficial occupancy of the building.  There is a continuing deficiency regarding the water supply for the fire suppression system and we may need to request a temporary permit to proceed pending final resolution.
  • There are currently no open action items.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)

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

  • No report.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

  • Received the LIGO-customized version of the FDA.  Though it had the functions, it was a scrubbed program.  So, created all the schemas, drop-down menus, and file structure.  These were needed to begin testing the functionality of the program.
  • After conferring with FileHold, had about 3,000 records that did not have sufficient destination information for the migration.  These are in the process of being addressed.
  • Identified four large pockets of records that will be isolated and allocated to their new destinations in FileHold.
  • Continued to work with G. Stokes in responding to issues and questions raised by FileHold as they create scripts for migrating metadata from our system into the new.
  • Continued to plan the training aspects necessary upon rollout of the new system.

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

  • Processed another two sets of revised/new HAM drawings from Promec.
  • Finally completed printing out all the necessary PSI as-built drawings from the cd rom.
  • Assisted in the process of conversion/allocation of current data to the new database.
  • Scanning - Progress continues on scanning of non-electronic "T" category documents.
  • Activity:

Week Ending

09/14/2006

In

Out

Packages

26

7

Faxes

22

20

 

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Cronin, Brambila, Kaufman)

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

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

  • Working on the change orders for Raytheon and Northrop.
  • Prepared the draft of the Triad agreement for support services.
  • Completed change order #15 to U.S. Civilian R & D and submitted to the vendor.
  • Completed change order #2 to Filehold and submitted to the vendor.
  • Placed the order for the spare parts for the equipment at LLO.
  • Completed change order 1 to Custom Metal Works and submitted to the vendor.
  • Submitted the list of the soon to be expired subcontracts and blankets for the extensions to be generated so that they can be renewed.  There are  44 subcontracts and 7 blankets up for renewal by October 11, 2006.
  • Fiscal year 2006 is coming to an end.  The deadline for submitting requisitions to be entered for FY2006 is 9/15/06.  The deadline for submitting FY2006 purchase requisitions is 9/15/06. Refer to the attached link for other FY2006 deadlines.

>From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman>

  • Worked on spreadsheets showing the FY07 budget amounts alongside the FY06 expenditures and commitments through August 06.
  • Met with Tom Currier, Ruth Brambila, Gina Salone and Ed Jasnow to work out a process for adding funds to purchase orders for subcontracted labor services.  The meeting was to discuss the appropriate way to handle unexpended balances in the contract when the contract was being modified for the new period of performance.
  • Met with the representative from Northrup along with Ed Jasnow and Gina Salone to try to resolve issues related to invoicing and to discuss the proposals for for extension of services for various contractors provided by Northrup.
  • Completed and sent out reports for the Visitor Award, Outreach Award, the Conference account at Hanford, the Hanford and Livingston discretionary accounts, the Director's discretionary account, the I2U2 Award, the Low Noise Award and the MIT Grid Award.
  • Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport. (For passwords contact Florence)

SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Jasnow, Salone)

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

  • A modification in the amount of $25,000 was issued to HPD to cover additional support required because the responsibility for the exterior wall exhibit for the LLO SEC was moved in-house.
  • Change orders are being initiated to assure the renewal of appropriate contractor personnel.

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

  • Beneficial occupancy of the LLO SEC is now awaiting resolution of the fire marshal's issues regarding water connections.  The original architect's drawings showed LLO as being hooked to Livingston city water, which is not the case.  The revision is being made, and the correction will be presented to the fire marshal shortly.  Meanwhile, the exhibits will be moved into the new building on schedule.
  • Ed Jasnow is working with Ann Bussone, of the Office of General Counsel, to resolve ITAR issues in two separate areas.  ITAR is the set of regulations governing the import and export of sensitive technology.  The first area concerns the laser control system being procure for Germany, and the second concerns the international collaborators on Advanced LIGO.
  • The new form for the processing of volunteers has been agreed upon between LIGO and PMA, and is now awaiting approval by OGC.

Administration (Hiroto)

  • Travel for Jay, Barry and Albert.
  • Arrangements for GDE-ILC meeting (Oct 9-10).
  • Arrangements for NSF Review- LHO (Oct. 23-25).
  • Moving arrangements for offices of Deputy Director and Director.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

  • Completed the monthly report for the NSF.  It should be more or less ready to send.
  • Draft budgets are being prepared for FY 2007 for review during the meeting of the of the executive committee on Monday (September 18, 2006).
  • Have received notification from the NSF concerning due date for submittal of “GPRA” reports (annual measurement of accomplishment).
  • Have received notification from the NSF that they want us to submit a final report for the 1996 Visitor’s Program.

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

Nothing significant to report this week.

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

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

The week was a relatively quiet one, with good science mode running, typical ranges, and duty cycles for the week just at our S5 single-IFO goal: H1 - 86%, H2 - 85%, despite a 7h calibration run on Sunday.

S5 highlights from the LHO elog are bulleted below:

  • current problem spectral lines were listed in the elog; one of the main commissioning tasks for our next break will be to try and mitigate some of the offensive lines in our pulsar searches (see maintenance link below)
  • the Sunday a.m. calibration had very mixed results, so that we will have to request additional time to finish/redo these measurements.  We had some structure in simple michelson/AS_Q transfer functions that had not been observed in previous runs, plus there were some delays owing to a misbehaving awg processor on h1
  • our standard suite of weekly summaries: range & duty cycle, IFO maintenance, including plans for an upcoming commissioning run, expected some time between Oct 25 and Thanksgiving, possibly lasting two weeks, and lastly, CDS work summarized for the maintenance period last Tuesday
  • the Tuesday maintenance itself went long (8h instead of 4h), as roofers continued working
  • the TCS laser failed on the 4k; later, followup and a prescription for running was posted to the elog
  • mis-centering of the photon calibrator and IFO beam was better understood; this does not however significantly impact the offset obsesrved between the two calibration methods, official and photon
  • a comparison of 4k and 2k spectra show the 6Hz peak in the 4k could use attention
  • long spectra on the 2k allow for the investigation of low frequency resonances
  • DMT glitches showed up steadily late last week

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

L1 in S5 (MZ for O'Reilly)

Mostly a quiet week.

We are still impaired in daytime by some nearby logging activity, apparently inside the acute angle of the arms.  Scout teams are scouring the logging roads but have not yet made definitive contact.

The microseism has come up above the 50th historical percentile due to Atlantic storms.  This made operation at high power prone to glitching and poor statistics.  For several nights this week we stayed at our lower "daytime" laser power to maintain higher dynamic reserve (at a slight loss of peak inspiral range).

LLO Outreach (Thacker)

Subtantial efforts on Opening Event work list: invitations copy work reviewed & edited, media kit contents organized; late additions to guest list; Scheduled Exhibit pickup from Southern University on Sept 26th; Arranged Group C exhibit delivery details for Oct 11th.  Met w/ Reps from LSU physics department to discuss partnering in teacher Professional Development.  Discussed procedure for developing the by-laws and work mechanisms/procedures for potential partners to join the SEC Partnership.  Significant progress made on developing outreach material to be posted on our SEC website.

Comments from Partnership w/ Southeastern Louisiana University (SLU).  This partnership, not yet formalized with an MOA, is proceeding with grant funding from LA GEAR UP.  These agreed upon outreach items consist of:  (1) High School student research, mentored by former LLO RET and (2) an SLU Elementary Physics course for Education Majors that uses LIGO exhibits and derivative tabletop demonstrators ("snacks") to uncover basic physical science themes.

(Gersch/Perez/Wagner, Holden High School Science Teacher/HS Senior/HS Senior)  This week we used Scott's JVC camcorder and inserted the movie into LoggerPro 3.3.  The camera was able to record 30 fps; this allowed ten to eleven points to be clearly visible in the projection.   With additional points the slope of the line for y velocity plotted against time was close to gravity.  It appeared that terminal velocity may have been reached  as it entered the trough (a distance of about .5 m), but we need to do more analysis and experimentation to be sure.  The x velocity was fairly constant throughout the trajectory slowing slightly at the end.  (They continued their analysis on the projectile motion using the Gravity rainbow exhibit. Added by Yoshida)

(Norwood, SLU Physics)  Snacks related to the first LIGO visit of PHYS 142 students were constructed and introduced to students.  All site visit reports (from students) for the first LIGO site visit have been received.  One student has been recruited to help Naomi with snack construction, as well as prepare a short guide to the construction of the snacks (parts list with estimated costs, guide to the construction).

LLO Mech Engineering (Romie)

LIGO SEC Kinetic Art Project Continuing to status orders to assure delivery. Received a call from the bearing distributor on Thursday saying bearings were still 7 weeks out.  Worked with HPD to find a replacement and placed a replacement order (after Allen cancelled the previous PO) today for bearings with a 3 week lead time.  Hope to receive them on Oct 3rd. Allen is statusing with SAPA on pendulum freight delivery.  Working with Bill Hollander, Mike and Ed Jasnow on contract extension while I'm here at Caltech.

Advanced LIGO Suspensions Working here at Caltech on AOS pick off suspension and ETM telescope suspension. Dennis, Calum & I had an extensive discussion about the OMC yesterday.  Dennis will be sending a long memo about this today.  We covered the labor available, the tasks, the best division of tasks, the schedule for the tasks and a few technical items. Calum talked to Norna this morning to fill her in. I will attend the OMC meeting tomorrow, if my flight permits, during my layover at DFW airport.  Working with Justin and Ian on blade material for them to use for a fabrication study. Working with them to determine what more information they need from the AOS group to finish up the ITM/CP and ETM suspensions.  We hope to schedule a meeting in the coming week to address these outstanding issues.  Working with Caroline Cantley and Helena on ear and bonding issues.

Misc Bob Taylor hopes to ship out short initial LIGO osems to Conor Mow-Lowry tomorrow.

L1 CDS (MZ for Bogue)

  • Ongoing support of S5.
  • All three LLO weather stations are *still* reporting to CDS
  • Worked with Alex on new ETM front end code install
  • Worked issue of communication loss with LDAS jamming certain control room FOM tools

LIGO Computing and Network Security (Roddy)

  • Tuesday we took the first steps in getting the WAN connection between LLO/LSU/LONI reconfigured.  We now have two logical pipes running over one physical pipe which will allow us to run with our legacy LSU allocated IPs and also our new ARIN allocated, multi-homed IPs.  The next step will be initiating a BGP session with LONI (or LSU, the details are still being worked out) and advertising the IPs over that link.
  • Made some progress in getting SoA for the ligo-la subdomain, in large part thanks to Larry speaking in person to folks on campus.  I need to get a server in place now to accommodate our having SoA.  After that, we will work to get control of the subdomain to make our transition to new IPs easier.
  • Working on ordering some fiber to install between the Communications room, computer users room, and the MSR.  This will provide us with the ability of installing a jumper rather than crawling under the floor anytime a change is made.  I am also installing 10 gig capable fiber so that when the time comes, we are ready.
  • More planning issues with LSU.  There was a meeting on site Wednesday to discuss the timing of our move off of LSU's IP addresses.  I think LSU understands the situation at this time and some of the pressure will ease up.  Lots of discussion over the last two weeks concerning this...
  • Working on more long term network planning with the new allocation.  Laying out the IP subnets, etc.  Have to start dividing up the space now that it is live and I need to start allocating it.
  • Received a catalog for fiber video equipment for the grand opening of the outreach center.  Evaluating and selecting the needed equipment.

General Computing and LDAS Admin (Giardina)

  • ordered a couple wireless mouse(s)/mice?? for laptop users
  • FC5 install with MySQL server for Shannon to use.  Finally sorted this out after numerous hardware issues.
  • user had video problems when trying to use monitor our projector with her laptop. still trying to straighten this out.
  • another email flood released by LDAS due to scripts started by cron being terminated before the cronjob itself on nodes.  I found a possible solution for this, but have not yet implemented it 100%.  Still looking at consequences and other possibilities.
  • installed printer for a couple users
  • continued training our spam filter
  • more housekeeping, roundup of old PCs and various parts, etc.
  • other usual user requests and support
  • rode shotgun with operator in search of logging activity in the woods between beam tubes.
  • ejected tapes for shipment to CIT, imported and labeled replacements
  • worked with Dan to resolve another duplicate tape being reported by sam
  • another email flood released by LDAS due to scripts started by cron being terminated before the cronjob itself on nodes.  I found a possible solution for this, but have not yet implemented it 100%.  Still looking at consequences and other possibilities.
  • changed symlink for ldg to complete the upgrade from 4.0 to 4.1.0
  • verified FQDN in /etc/hosts for ldas(gateway) with the internal IP on nodes.  node1 had different entry than nodes 2-210, I presume from someone's testing?, so I have not changed it back.
  • changes to cluster_mon app so that only one instance can run.
  • uninstall of dovecot on ldas-pcdev1 to eliminate a cert-check error email

Data Analysis (Yakushin)

Storage/Condor/LDAS admin

  • Configured automount of node's /usr1 and ntp on the test segment database server;
  • Using L3 frames on the nodes, published the corresponding segments on the test segment database;
  • Tracked down a problem with clearwater not being able to insert segments into ldas' segment database; quite unexpectedly to everybody it turned out that clearwater is visible on GC network with its CDS 10.100.0.155 address; the same problem prevented lloscript from accessing data in /archive/frames; firewall rules have been modified to fix that;
  • On Sunday segment replication to LLO (but not from LLO) stopped; restarting segment replication at LHO fixed LLO's problem; most likely replication was broken during Sunday's network outages (although typically it is robust against such events and restarts automatically);
  • The tape cabinet arrived.

Data analysis

  • Running the latest version of the coherent waveburst on LIGO and LIGO-GEO S4 data to generate the final set of triggers for the paper comparing incoherent and coherent waveburst pipelines on S4 LIGO-GEO and LIGO data.
  • Preparing a presentation about LDAS for tomorrow's visit of a group of CCT LSU students.

Mechanical and Optical Systems (Coyne)

See Advanced LIGO

Controls and Data Systems (Bork)

See Advanced LIGO

40-Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

IFO Commissioning, Electronics, Controls, Computers

  • Last week, Rana again noticed that the RFAM coming out of the Mach-Zender was very large, and very sensitive to poking with his finger. He found the EOM mounts to be less than stury, and thermally not stable. He tightened screws and did a few more tweaks. Osamu checked the alignment of all the EOMs and the input beam to the MC. We should plan on replacing the EOM mounts, re-laying out the MZ, and re-aligning the whole IO path, sometime after the vent.
  • Osamu and Rana will do a final round of IFO locking, taking baseline readings of all power levels and beam positions, in preparation for our upcoming vent.
  • Steve set up the MC2 oplev QPD to instead monitor the MC2 main laser transmitted light. However, we changed our mind, judging the oplev to be a more useful monitor during the vent. Rana will re-setup the MC2 oplev. Then we'll switch back to transmitted light, after the vent, since the MC2 oplev has never been very useful.
  • Steve noted that the beam path to the IOO POS and ANG QPDs was clipping, so he re-routed the path around the persicope. He then re-established good signals on all the reference QPDs (IOO POS and ANG, IP POS and ANG, all oplevs).
  • The lenses that mode match the PSL beam into the MC were not AR coated. Osamu and Steve replaced them with new AR coated lenses, and re-established the beam pointing into the MC. The visibility was measured to be 92% (somewhat lower than Osamu remembered from years ago). However, we now have 14% more light into the MC.
  • Rana plans to measure the offset of the beam spot on the ITMs. If ITMX is offset in x (horizontal, transverse to beam), we will move it a bit. Dan moved the ITMX horizontally by 6 mm last summer, and the beam spot as seen on the CCD monitor appeared better centered. This time, Rana is measuring more accurately by dithering the ITMs in pitch and yaw with the arms locked, and observing any angle-to-length coupling.
  • Osamu is writing up a detailed procedure for optimizing the OSEM positions on the suspensions, in preparation for adjustments to the OSEMs on the MC2, BS, PRM, SRM suspensions during the upcoming vent.
  • Rana has proposed that we replace our cheap, noisy oplev diodes with HeNe lasers. Dan measured the RIN of the HeNe laser, getting ~ 1e-6 V/rtHz baseline with some large spikes in the 100-500 Hz region.

DC Detection and Vacuum Squeezing Development

  • Bob has prepared all the in-vac cabling for the DC readout beamline.
  • Osamu checked that the DC response of the two TT PZT mirrors behaved as expected; all the axes moved as expected (pitch for pitch and yaw for yaw) with ~ few mrad/100V.
  • Rob has completed the assembly of the in-vac beamline, on the flow-bench. He's wired everything up and done lowest-order testing. He has dither-locked the OMC using analog electronics, using both forward-propagating laser light and backward-propagating (from the DC PD back towards the main IFO). Handles have been installed on the breadboard so that it can be lifted up and placed in the vacuum chamber. Rob has written down a fairly detailed installation procedure in the 40m Wiki. Aside from the DC PD problem (below), he's ready for installation.
  • Ben, Bob and Rob assembled the DC PDs and in-vac resistors, and wired it all up. Rob discovered that one of the DC PDs was broke (no signal). It turned out that one of the PDs had been damaged either in the de-canning, or the cleaning phase. Ben brought over replacements, de-canned them, they were cleaned by Bob and installed by Rob, who verified signals.
  • However, Rob and Rana measured the noise and found it to be very large (~ 5x Johnson noise), with lots of HF spikes. Rana and Ben are working on mods to the in-vac amplifier electronics to filter out the spikes. Because of this, the vent was delayed from this Thursday to next Monday.
  • Rob and Rana are compiling a list of "lessons learned" from the DC readout assembly (even before we commission it!) on the 40m Wiki. Alan is assembling lots of related info on the DC readout experiment, on the Wiki.
  • Rolf has begun installation of the DC readout digital controls in rack 1X5: the Sun computer, IO chassis containing ADCs and DACs, AA chassis, master and slave timing modules. We hope to get in enough equipment this week to start running the I/O and software. Once the computer is up, we need to start testing the new Framebuilder code to verify it can accept data from both the existing reflected memory network and the new Myrinet network.
  • Bob, Ben, Rolf, and Riccardo are working on the cabling, ethernet, and fiber optic runs required for the DC readout digital controls in rack 1X5.
  • Rich has made significant progress on the Piezo Driver unit for the DC readout experiment. He anticipates being mostly finished with the PCB layout by tomorrow. The bill of materials is complete, and all the parts can be obtained on short turn around (overnight) from Digikey.
  • Bob has been ordering and collecting the supplies that we need for venting.
  • Go used the video output of the existing spectrum analyzer HP8591E to noise-lock the squeeze angle. About 2.5dB - 3dB of squeezing was observed at 900kHz.
  • Go is working on realignment of his squeezer optics and optimizing the OPO temperature. He also replaced the PPKTP crystal with a new one coated by Tafelmaier. After some effort, he got back to a parametric gain of 3.

Lab Infrastructure, Bake Lab

  • Although the RGA display did not survive the power glitch of Sept 1st, both the RGA and its logger did survive. Thus we continue to have RGA spectra logged to disk. We'll continue in this way until after the vent, then decide on whether to replace the RGA with the SRS one.
  • Steve mopped the IFO hall with Dursban ant poison in preparation for the vent.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

Significant progress has been made on the ring-damping project. Greg has completed the circuit to drive the inductive heater, and with no mirror in place, it heats up the copper rings nicely.

Greg and Akira are opening the chamber to remove SAC's output mirror, in preparation for installing the monolithic rings on it.

LASTI (Ottaway)

No report.

CIT Science Group (Lazzarini)

Data Analysis

Mendell:

The final review of the StackSlide S4 results presented at the August 2006 LSC meeting is scheduled for tomorrow. One issue mentioned last week was the jog seen in the S4 L1 noise spectrum above the second harmonic of the violin modes. This was resolved by Mike Landry as a feature of V3 calibration curve, which does not occur in the final V4 calibration used by StackSlide. Also, a bi-weekly telecon with the Australian National University LSC members working with the pulsar group (during a time that is not the middle of the night in Australia) on searches targeted at isolated neutron stars seen only in x-rays was started this week.

Yakushin:

1) Running the latest version of the coherent waveburst on LIGO and LIGO-GEO S4 data to generate the final set of triggers for the paper comparing incoherent and coherent waveburst pipelines on S4 LIGO-GEO and LIGO data.

2) Preparing a presentation about LDAS for tomorrow's visit of a group of CCT LSU students.

Grid research (Blackburn)

TCLGLOBUS

Collaborating with Mary Lei to resolve the issue with LDAS  managerAPI using 45% CPU when using Globus socket. I've been  using GDB to step through each Globus call using TclGlobus  unit test. We're still comparing systems calls when using  Globus and non-Globus within LDAS managerAPI.

Creating matrix for running TclGlobus unit tests with the  following platforms:

  • GT-3.2.1, GT-4.0.1 and GT-4.0.2
  • 32-bit Linux and Solaris
  • 64-bit Linux and Solaris

OPENSCIENCEGRID:

Worked with David Meyers to try running hipe workflow on one OSG site, OSG_LIGO_PSU.

  • Completed the 1st partition after cleaning bad segments.
  • Still at the 2nd partition and it has been failing 3 times over the past few days because of data transfer error.  Switching to chain mode from bundle mode to isolate the problem.

Per Kent and David's suggestions, I'm breaking down the original  segment list into 8 sub-segments and will run 8 separate workflows  at OSG production sites in parallel mode to clean up bad segments  from HIPE workflow and to complete HIPE workflow

OSG - ITB Test bed maintenance: Applied revision to security patch  to Globus 4.0.2 released by the VDT to fix the restore script broken  in the intial release of the security patch which was applied to  LIGO-CIT-ITB.

Configured a validation test node for a validation test bed and  installed host certificate for use as an OSG resource.

Development: Worked with Terrence Martin at UCSD on a wrapper  script method to support NFS-Lite and the use of RemoteInitialDir  in Condor-G.

Determined that the security patch applied to LIGO-CIT-ITB damaged  the $OSG env vars.

Provided documtation to Michael Samidi on configuring chain  workflows in VDS and executing LIGO jobs on OSG ATLAS sites.

Attended VDT, ITB and VDS telecoms. Attended a first telecom of  the Validation Test Bed working group on scope, methodology and  resources for project.

xecuted 928 of 946 DAG nodes on NERSC production resource for  the first time.

Laboratory Computing (Stuart)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

All code has been compiled for both Solaris 10 and Fedora Core 4 running on the 64-bit Opteron platforms. Not all of the unit tests are passing.

Testing has revealed that it is the result of using gcc 4.1.1 instead of gcc 4.0.3. As part of getting the code compiled for Solaris 10 on the Opteron, DB2 was installed on the system. The documentation for installing DB2 has been extended to include installation instructions for both Solaris 10 and Fedora Core 4 running on Opteron hardware.

System testing of LDAS was done using version 1.8.298. Some of the regression tests continue to fail as well as lsync. The regression tests are being modified to use username/password authentication as the install user does not have a globus certificate.

Examination of excessive CPU utilization in the manager indicates the possibility that the change in behavior is the result of recent TCL changes. These changes are being reverted.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

  • Released some of Duncan's files in CIT /home.
  • Moved Vladmir's SFTs (sft-1800_v1_C02_Hann) to /archive/frames, freeing up ~700GB in /home.
  • Sent the test 3510 with 15k drives back to Sun.
  • Worked on eliminating the last "duplicate" tape at LLO, LL1163 (rearchived all it's files and relabeled it).
  • Got my dual monitor configuration set up.
  • Fixed stuck staging at LLO (was preventing LLO->LHO LDR transfers).
  • Assisted with ldas-cit NFS problem.
  • More work on /home disk usage plots...still not fully automated, but getting there.
  • Identified LHO tapes for shelf storage.
  • Restarted RLS after Murali's big query crashed it.

(Phil Ehrens)

  • Attempted to upgrade two SunBlade 1500 machines, deimos and sadan, from Solaris 9 to Solaris 10u2.  Upgrade path failed in both cases after disk partitioning step. I failed to ask whether there was local data on sadan and accidentally destroyed data on the local /usr1 partition.  Fortunately there was a backup copy of this data on another machine and Larry Wallace was able to restore the data.
  • Updated Solaris 10 Apache documentation to include perl one-liners for updating the log and config file locations, and for semi-automated addition of the required LoadModule lines. This was done as part of the preparation for switching to the Solaris bundled Apache on ldas-sw. The Apache setup on ldas-sw is now ready for testing and final debug.
  • Documented procedure for creating a cvs repository with local group access control and remote ssh access both simultaneously supported. The critical step in doing this is to understand that the login shell used to setup the cvs environment will not have the proper group permissions for testing the setup, so calls to cvs made locally from the setup login shell will need to be run under "sg" to set the primary group to cvs. This primary group requirement does not pertain to subsequent logins locally or via ssh.
  • Provided Larry Wallace with a copy of shasumcheck.tcl to be shown to campus ITS for review as a possible campus-wide  lightweight replacement/supplement for tripwire.  The version as provided is not highly secure, but is easy to understand. The script can be made highly secure via chroot, and can be hardened somewhat by running it as a daemon instead of via cron. The modifications required for hardening are trivial.
  • Extended view of log_mon server on ldas-kickstart to include all LDAS "tandem" development systems. This exposed a bug when a machine does not see the 3ware cli tool, which I have patched.
  • Decommissioned 4 unneeded crt type monitors.
  • Installed power strips in graduate student offices to make better use of available circuits. Formerly all cubicle load was on a single 20 amp circuit, and this was described by a campus electrician as a potential fire hazard.  The redistribution of load was done according to the instructions of the campus electrician.

(Erik Espinoza)

  • Enabled irqbalance on cluster.
  • Sent dagman logs from a duplicate dagman instance to condor team.
  • Assisted Eirini w/ ssh X forwarding issue on FC5.
  • Submitted RMA for CPU of node that was returned from SuperMicro.
  • Reported issue w/ 'condor_history -backwards' w/ quill.
  • Contacted Sean RE: 6 WD2500 HD's.
  • Fixed minor bug in sendmail config @ ldas-cit.
  • Showed Mike Pedraza our FC4 x86_64 configuration on Hiro's machine.
  • Made Condor Changes:

-         Started 2nd schedd on ldas-pcdev1 for Dedicated Scheduler Jobs

-         Configured nodes to use ldas-pcdev1 for Dedicated Scheduler jobs

-         Enabled D_FULLDEBUG on schedd for Condor troubleshooting

-         Raised PID Collision Retry to 1000

  • Replaced Memory w/ Dual Rank Kingston/Micron:

-         node38

-         node132

-         node181

-         node328

  • Moved non-MCE memory to diff nodes:

-         node38/CPU2 -> node10/CPU2

-         node132/CPU0 -> node232/CPU0

-         node181/CPU2 -> node256/CPU2

-         RMA Ram -> node293/CPU0

  • Moved Possible Good from high MCE nodes (prior to replacement w/ Single Rank Samsung install)

-         node159/CPU0 -> node299/CPU0

-         node53/CPU2 & node68/CPU2 -> node159 (removed Single Rank)

-         node133/CPU2 & node159/CPU0 -> node271 (removed Single Rank)

  • node128 crash on Sept 13, 2006.

(Stuart Anderson)

  • Re-installed LDG at CIT and mirrored to other clusters to pick up:

-         latest GT security patches.

-         LSC certificate script updates.

-         New UK e-Science Certificate Authority certificate so our UK colleagues can login to the clusters.

  • Working with Condor development team on several Condor stability issues.
  • Identified problem with user code crashing ldas-grid@CIT by using all available memory and the author fixed the code.
  • Tracked down problem with new user code saturating NFS services from ldas-cit and solved by increasing the number of NFSD threads.
  • Received evaluation temperature probes from ServerTechnologies to attach to rack PDU's.
  • Worked out a memory swap plan with Erik to further reduce the number of corrected ECC MCE events.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

  • Configured automount of node's /usr1 and ntp on the test segment database server;
  • Using L3 frames on the nodes, published the corresponding segments on the test segment database;
  • Tracked down a problem with clearwater not being able to insert segments into ldas' segment database; quite unexpectedly to everybody it turned out that clearwater is visible on GC network with its CDS 10.100.0.155 address; the same problem prevented lloscript from accessing data in /archive/frames; firewall rules have been modified to fix that;
  • On Sunday segment replication to LLO (but not from LLO) stopped; restarting segment replication at LHO fixed LLO's problem; most likely replication was broken during Sunday's network outages (although typically it is robust against such events and restarts automatically);
  • The tape cabinet arrived.

(Dwayne Giardina)

  • Ejected tapes for shipment to CIT, imported and labeled replacements.
  • Worked with Dan to resolve another duplicate tape being reported by SAM-QFS.
  • Another email flood released by LDAS due to scripts started by cron being terminated before the cronjob itself on nodes.  I found a possible solution for this, but have not yet implemented it 100%.  Still looking at consequences and other possibilities.
  • Changed symlink for ldg to complete the upgrade from 4.0 to 4.1.0.
  • Verified FQDN in /etc/hosts for ldas(gateway) with the internal IP on nodes.  node1 had different entry than nodes 2-210, I presume from someone's testing?, so I have not changed it back.
  • Changes to cluster mon app so that only one instance can run.
  • Uninstall of dovecot on ldas-pcdev1 to eliminate a cert-check error email.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

  • A local HVAC contractor performed routine maintenance on the LDAS Liebert air conditioners at LHO on Tuesday. This included changing the belts and filters, recharging refrigerant as needed, checking the electrical systems, and cleaning the coils. The 3-pole contractors for the humidifier were burned out on the 10 ton unit and looked ready to fail on the 22 ton unit, and were replaced on both.

(Ben Johnson)

  • Partial cluster shutdown, reboot on Tuesday due to periodic maintenance both AC units.
  • Copied vast majority of L3 and L4 data to the node disks. ~4TB freed on /archive when L3 data was released from disks (L4 was not marked release -n to begin with).
  • Get data flowing from LLO->LHO again. Problem was an acl entry in the RLS server's config file (due to LLO host cert update the previous week).
  • Created and pass on base IPF config to CIT admins.
  • Fixed /etc/hosts at LHO and MIT to map ldas.[GC domain] to gateway's internal IP address.
  • Republished more h(t) data due to bad md5sums.
  • Assisted Igor with IPF setup at LLO.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

  • Getting acquainted with environment, poking around.
  • Met with MIT Facilities etal. re: new LIGO offices. Some items: offices in NW22 on same subnet as basement ( cluster ) NW17? 1 Gb backbone & uplink for new offices ?Upgrade NW17 uplink to 1G?  Data transfer issues between NW22 and NW17; our IS&T provide vlan or circuit? Possible sign-off on plans next week.
  • Backups. Activated 2 cpu opteron with 1Tb ( 4 X500 ) sata ( 2 80GB raid 0 scsi for OS) as GC backup server (Fedora 4).
  • Looking at aoe (ata over Ethernet) as part of backup backing store for GC.  Tested using above box. Mounted from Fedora to a solaris 9 box. Speed seem very good so far.
  • GC AIT tape backups;  resurrected Ultra 10 for crash/burn.
  • Compiled Dovecot, testing on above crash/burn. Will be offering IMAP.
  • Met with Erik Katsavounidis & LDAS people here. Gravity & Lancelot disks full; one pc raid in cluster is offline. Need additional storage for L2 data; will provide 500GB until pc raid issue resolved. Backing up some ½ TB right now.
  • Some miscellaneous pc/linux tasks: additional ram, set up fedora, tweak xp laptop.

Livingston

(Dwayne)

  • ordered a couple wireless mouse(s)/mice?? for laptop users
  • FC5 install with MySQL server for Shannon to use.  Finally sorted this out after numerous hardware issues.
  • user had video problems when trying to use monitor our projector with her laptop. still trying to straighten this out.
  • another email flood released by LDAS due to scripts started by cron being terminated before the cronjob itself on nodes.  I found a possible solution for this, but have not yet implemented it 100%.  Still looking at consequences and other possibilities.
  • - installed printer for a couple users
  • continued training our spam filter
  • more housekeeping, roundup of old PCs and various parts, etc.
  • other usual user requests and support
  • rode shotgun with operator in search of logging activity in the woods between beam tubes.

(Shannon)

  • Tuesday we took the first steps in getting the WAN connection between LLO/LSU/LONI reconfigured.  We now have two logical pipes running over one physical pipe which will allow us to run with our legacy LSU allocated IPs and also our new ARIN allocated, multi-homed IPs.  The next step will be initiating a BGP session with LONI (or LSU, the details are still being worked out) and advertising the IPs over that link.
  • Made some progress in getting SoA for the ligo-la subdomain, in large part thanks to Larry speaking in person to folks on campus.  I need to get a server in place now to accommodate our having SoA.  After that, we will work to get control of the subdomain to make our transition to new IPs easier.
  • Working on ordering some fiber to install between the Communications room, computer users room, and the MSR.  This will provide us with the ability of installing a jumper rather than crawling under the floor anytime a change is made.  I am also installing 10 gig capable fiber so that when the time comes, we are ready.
  • More planning issues with LSU.  There was a meeting on site Wednesday to discuss the timing of our move off of LSU's IP addresses.  I think LSU understands the situation at this time and some of the pressure will ease up.  Lots of discussion over the last two weeks concerning this...
  • Working on more long term network planning with the new allocation.  Laying out the IP subnets, etc.  Have to start dividing up the space now that it is live and I need to start allocating it.
  • Received a catalog for fiber video equipment for the grand opening of the outreach center.  Evaluating and selecting the needed equipment.

Hanford

(Christine)

  • Finally was able to update glibc and nscd to the correct version to work with NIS+.  The Fedora C4 box is now a NIS+ client and has all the appropriate ldas and GC filesystems mounted.  The only thing that didn't work was the lscsoft update.  Ben is helping me with that.  I now have to work with Dave and the Operators to find a good location for the box in the Control Room.  This box will be used by the Operators and SciMon for Qscans, gridSSH and other data analysis tools.
  • I requested comments from PNNL, ESnet and Amerion on the requests Fred has received for LIGO to provide network access to two other science groups on Rattlesnake mountain.  ESnet and Amerion have no objections, except that LIGO will be solely responsible for all traffic and any problems that may occur.  PNNL is planning a node of the NorthWest GigaPop (NWGP) in Richland that would allow education, science, medical, etc. institutions in the Tri-Cities to peer over this node.  PNNL is going to write up a proposal detailing how LIGO and the Rattlesnake mountain groups would be able to use the NWGP node.  PNNL has asked that LIGO hold off for now on connecting these groups to our network.
  • Worked with the Cisco engineer to configure the new router I need to do BGP peering and GigE bandwidth.  I should have the first quotes by the end of next week.
  • Finished the LHO GC Cybersecurity Vulnerability report.  Sent encrypted to Larry.
  • I updated my PGP key as my old one didn't work anymore.
  • Set up a computer for a new hire.  Set up user/email accounts for her.
  • Purchased a new laptop for another full time Advanced LIGO contractor.

CIT

(Veronica)

  • LIGO:  Continued work on processing of the SciMon bootcamp videos.  This turned into a more involved project than appeared at the start; the compressing s/w timeline was off by 50% so that the playback was distorted.  I reloaded the s/w but it didn't fix the problem.  I then installed patches and the compression was back to normal.  There was also a server issue when the files would play back in situ but a connection call using a ram file and rtsp would be refused by the server.  The streaming of earlier files was not affected; still something to look into.  After some troubleshooting, I set it up without a ram file and over http, which resolved the issue.  Working on a page for the upcoming NSF review. This is now the high priority item. Work on the new LIGO web page will continue when this is done.  Continuing work on the LAAC website, installed/configured a hit counter, working on the database updates.  LIGO website updates.  User support (Julie, Jay).  Prepared a high-resolution image for an NSF publication.
  • LSC:  Updates of the database of the technical papers, website updates.
  • Project Science:  Website updates.

(Mike)

  • Working with File Hold engineers and tech support on finishing up the most recent revision of their software for the LIGO project. We are now testing this software on our servers here at Caltech. This is an on going project.
  • Did some research on upgrading Primavera software from 3.1 to 5.0. It looks like I will be able to run both versions of this software on the same server.
  • (node1) Loaded a new NIS+ fedora 32bit core 4 workstation for Hiro. The 32bit did not work for him. I'm re-loading this as a 64bit OS.
  • (node2) Tried loading Fedora core 5 64bit version but came up with multiple hard- ware errors. I ended up having to load core 4. This has been completed and I have swapped out Hiro with this unit. Eric Espinoza pointed me where the updated software is for these types of builds. Plus he took care of some configuration issues I was having.
  • Continued work on Spam Filters.
  • Other misc. user support, sysadmin tasks, plus additional work in B/A server room.

(Christian)

  • Setup HP printer/scanner on the 3flr W/B and Wilson House  with scan to email options.
  • Re-imaged two laptops that were returned to the loaner pull this week.
  • 3flr W/B - Replaced toner cartridges on HP 5500 printer.
  • Called Dell support to have my laptop replaced after the motherboard  died for the third time.
  • Worked on the Spam Filters with Mike and Larry.
  • Worked with Veronica a little on troubleshooting a problem with the video tape conversion.
  • Minor tweaks on the unit in the display case.
  • Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support

(Bruce)

-Ilog maintenance

(Larry)

  • Still working procurement items. Mostly a number of small items that need to be cleared up before the end of the fiscal year.  Made a number of quick purchases for different people needing things ASAP.  Resolving some of the P-card issues that have come up. Mostly, getting corrected documentation.
  • Spent a good deal of time restoring files for different people.  On one case the tape(s) will not restore on anything other than solaris8. Tried a number of workarounds some of which partially worked but finally wound up installing the tape drive on a solaris8 unit to get the files extracted.
  • Worked a lot with the DCC setting up the new DCC program. We are now in the preliminary testing of the s/w installation on the local servers.
  • Assisted Mike with a couple of setups for the E2E group.  Moved one of their servers, people kept shutting it off without checking first.  Also, spent time tracking down why one of their sandboxes had been shutdown. Discovered, it was accidentally shutdown.
  • Assisted in a number of equipment moves.
  • Made some changes in hardware and setup of the network in the backhouse at WH.
  • Tested the new projector. It does work well and ordered a couple more.  It is quieter and will work well for meetings.
  • Continual work with user requests.  Still doing the checkout for students and visitors.
  • Work with the mail services continue. Some of the services had to be restarted because of a spam storm and DOS attack on the unit over the weekend.  A number of misc. items such as tracking down messages for people also took place.  Worked the spam filters along with others in the group.

Mail Statistics for Sep 07-13, 06

Mail Statistics

09/14/2006

Rejected Messages

37,330

Virus Messages

1,269

Accepted Messages

24,423

Total Messages

61,753

 

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

Modeling and Simulation (Hiro Yamamoto)

e2e weekly meeting

On September 13, the discussion about the triple suspension model with reaction force output continued.  Mark explained the upgrade of his model and showed some results of the transfer function from suspension point motion to back reaction force.  Sany showed his result - Mark's model implemented in e2e - which is consistent with Mark's original calculation using Mathematica.  Sany also showed the transfer function of HAM-SAS model calculated using e2e setup, and it was confirmed to be correct by Valerio.  Valerio will send the latest version of HAS-SAS model (v5) to Sany, and Sany will be ready to simulate the compound system, HAM-SAS and triple suspension with back reaction effect.  After that, Sany and HAM-SAS team will develop control systems around the e2e setup to study the effect of the back reaction.  The materials discussed in this meeting are available in www.ligo.caltech.edu/~e2e/ME2ET/060913/.

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

AdLIGO will chose the g1 = g2 = -.926 (ROC = 2076m) configuration based on Daniel's (static) model, which showed that this was more stable than a positive g solution. We started investigating that it this really true when the dynamics are included? We changed the ITM/ETM ROCs to make the positive g solution (ROC = 54.4km). As a result of simulation positive g-factor seems less stable. Essentially, less stability with positive g-factor comes from less phase margin at UGF. Opt-mechanical (suspension) TF has changed into what has additional slope and additional phase delay because of a sign flipped spring constant. Therefore we recommend to use default negative g-factor.

Static IFO simulation (Hiro)

As per request / concern by Bill, more systematic study of the surface noise effect started.

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

For the FP field calculation, Ecav (intra cavity field leaving ITM) can be written as

Ecav( t_now  ) = R(t_now) * Ecav (t_now - 2 tau ) + t_ITM E0(t_now)

where R(t_now) is a round trip operator, including the mirror displacement and rotation, and t_ITM is the transmittance of ITM, and E0 is the input field coming into ITM, and tau is cavity length / speed of light.

Using this formula recursively, 

Ecav( t_now ) = Rprod( t_now, N ) * Ecav( t_now -2 N tau ) + t_ITM ( sum(n=1~n) Rpod(t_now, n) E0(t_now-2 n tau ) + Eo(t_now)

Ecav and E0 are vectors represented by modal model base and R and Rprod are matrxies.  This way, the field at t_now can be calculated using the field value at t_now - 2 tau N and summation of external inputs.  The calculation can be sped up by replacing N folder products and summations of matrixes by a simple form.  This can be done by assuming all field quantities are changing linear, like mirror motion = x0 + v0 * t or thetaX = thetaX0 + thetaV0 * t.

By expressing a mirror reflection matrix X as U^-1 X0 U where X0 is a diagonal matrix, it is shown that Rprod(t_now, n) can be expressed in an explicit form.

Next is the summation of Rprod(t_now -2 tau n) * E0(t_now - 2 tau n), which cannot be explicit carried out. This approximation formula is dependent of the linear and angular velocity.

Mechanical Simulation for advanced LIGO (Sany and SLU team)

(Yoshida)

Continued e2e modeling of AdvLIGO Input MC triple suspension and HAM-SAS seismic isolation. Using Mark Barton?s most recent version of the state space matrix, we recomputed the back reaction exerted by the triple pendulum on the structure. The resultant reaction force in the direction normal to the mirror surface (X direction) seems reasonable. (See below for more details.)  At this point, the triple pendulum is freely hanging. These reaction force/torque outputs will be fed back to our HAM-SAS model (based on Valerio Boshci’s Simlink model) to simulate the effect of back reaction to the HAM table by the triple suspension.

By including the state space matrix generated by Valerio Boschi, we made an e2e model of HAM-SAS horizontal dynamics (Inverted Pendulum model). By injecting white noise as ground X and Yaw inputs, we computed the ground to Optical table/Spring Box X/Yaw transmissibility. The resultant power spectra seem to agree with Valerio?s results based on his Simlink model. We are currently working on the vertical model of HAM-SAS.

(Kinchen)

I used the E2E modeler to simulate back reactions (by the triple suspension to HAM table) by injecting white noise to suspension point position inputs.  The white noise was used to create disturbance on and about each DOF one at a time.  Each disturbance generated a set of six force and torque reactions simultaneously.  The Fx (Force in x direction or normal to the mirror surface) reaction to disturbance to suspension x-axis was graphed and compared with a plot produced by Mark Barton.  The purpose of this comparison was to ensure accurate conversion of the Mark Barton's latest state space matrix from its native Mathematica format to that of E2E.  The comparisons verified that our conversion is correct

ALFI : e2e front end (Melody)

Started implementing the dialog for the new User Defined Primitive.

Refactoring ALFI code to replace deprecated java 1.4 methods.

Seismic Isolation

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

BSC Seismic Isolation Assembly and Test

While assembling the actuators we had two large actuators and 1 small actuator fail. We were able to use the large actuator prototype found at Caltech to replace one. The other large actuator we found a screw had contacted the winding and was easily repaired. The small actuator had a break in the connection to the winding. Myron removed the potting epoxy and resoldered the joint. We are now waiting for epoxy to fill back in.

Brian Lantz and I have been rewriting the HAM single stage design requirements. A package is being prepared to send to design firms to quote the completion of the design.

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: Ben Abbott abbott_b@ligo.caltech.edu

I just finished changing the schematics for the HAM-SAS system to accommodate the test electronics.  Jay is using the new drawings to order the cables that will be needed for installation.

I've started working on the Guralp Interface Chassis.

I've been tasked with re-doing the GS-13 cable for ISI.  I await a pinout drawing, and I will start.

From: Dennis Coyne coyne@ligo.caltech.edu

Minutes 13 Sep 2006 HAM-SAS Weekly Meeting

Virginio, Dave O., Ric, Dennis, Chiara, Valerio, Ben

Fabrication at G&M

starting to load temporary optical bench with 1 metric ton today (1042kg by adding vertical GAS filter loads) -- needs to be balanced -- this is the spring box without the IPs -- will pull sideways & let oscillate to measure the lateral GAS filter

Ric leaves in 2 days

Gianini & Ric reviewed drawings for LVDT monitor posts

tomorrow (a Lucca city holiday) will try vertical IP length adjustment mechanism & try horizontal LVDT assembly

vertical LVDT assembly to be completed next week by Chiara & Alberto

Ric needs to define horizontal springs from table to stepper motor -- need about 1 N at each of the 4 points to balance the IPs

At 125 mHz IPs seems to become unstable -- IP lengths were measured and found to be as much as ~0.5 mm different -- cause was improper machining (set tight tolerance on wrong dimension; revised drawing makes relevant/tight dimension clear) of the IP leg feet -- new parts machined -- with better IP length control, expect that instability will disappear

re-welded shelves on columns around IPs due to cleanliness (vacuum compatibility) concerns

estimate disassembly by end of next week & then into cleaning

almost all oven parts are here, except sheet metal expected this week -- should be completed next week

G&M plans to spend a lot of time watching and QA'ing Soldi's work on cleaning the parts

duration of the cleaning is a bit unknown -- hoping for a month, plus a month for re-assembly and shipping (or arrival at LASTI mid-Nov) -- there is some concern that cleaning/baking could take 2 months

Electronics

Valerio measures LVDT driver bds have 10x higher noise -- to be investigated further

Ben has sent out a system schematic for review

Ben concerned that we need more LVDT drivers and 4 + 1 spare actuator coil drivers and we may not have this quantity on hand - Virginio will contact Francesconi to obtain more actuator coil drivers

Simulation

Valerio is working with Sany & E2E group to create a coupled state-space model (Valerio's & Virginio's HAM-SAS Maple model exported as a state-space model coupled to Mark Barton's Mathematica model triple model exported as a state-space model)

Cassi has not yet succeeded in getting the finite element model of the triple to match experimental results -- Dennis has suggested a few corrections to parameters in her model which have not yet been tried (the intent is to couple this triple model to Dennis' HAM-SAS finite element model and then export as a state-space model for controls analysis in Matlab)

LASTI

good news: Laurent intends to stay at LASTI for another 6 months

long term stays at LASTI -- there may be an apartment available (~$1K/month)

should coordinate accommodation needs to Marie Woods -- Dave will ask Marie Woods to investigate options, such as committing to one apartment for Alberto for the duration of the HAM-SAS testing plus another for transient visitors

LASTI staff are attempting to install the scissors tables, but they are in 'tough shape' -- some spring cups have galled, difficult to adjust height -- not clear how to lock into a position -- will contact the InL SEI experts at LHO &/or LLO

Suspension

From: "Greenhalgh, RJS \(Justin\)" <J.Greenhalgh@rl.ac.uk>

 

From: Janeen Romie romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu

Working here at Caltech on AOS pick off suspension and ETM telescope suspension. Dennis, Calum & I had an extensive discussion about the OMC yesterday. Dennis will be sending a long memo about this today. We covered the labor available, the tasks, the best division of tasks, the schedule for the tasks and a few technical items. Calum talked to Norna this morning to fill her in. I will attend the OMC meeting tomorrow, if my flight permits, during my layover at DFW airport.

Working with Justin and Ian on blade material for them to use for a fabrication study. Working with them to determine what more information they need from the AOS group to finish up the ITM/CP and ETM suspensions. We hope to schedule a meeting in the coming week to address these outstanding issues. Working with Caroline Cantley and Helena on ear and bonding issues.

Bob Taylor hopes to ship out short initial LIGO osems to Conor Mow-Lowry tomorrow.

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 more than half the parts for the basic arm.

I'm have completed the cavity beam dumps and other parts for Mike Smith. The fixture lift table for LASTI has returned from chrome plate, and is at CES for re-assembly.

Core Optics

From: Bill Kells kells@ligo.caltech.edu

I've finished my full review and commentary on the AdL polishing specifications. Transmitted to Garilynn.

We have new OTF measurements of superpolished mirror scatter (loss).  These are some interesting new results on the same surface scanned with different dirameter probe beams. This is important for properly hunting for and interpreting sporatic "point" scattering defects. There seem now (preliminarily) to be some puzzling systematics (which may impact previous conclusions). More to come!

I continue to study the PI phenomenon. The basic existent theory has several imporant (and not obviously valid) approximations. I am trying to conclusively fathom these.  One Approx. is that the acoustic mode frequency is absolutely stable. Of course, this is hardly so (the reason it is so hard to measure a TM internal reso. Q by simple SA observation !). These resonances wander around (Thermal, stress, etc) by many line widths. How does this effect the PI ? Does it merely "follow" the wandering and continue to grow (at the ideal non-wandering) rate?

Another question: now "answered" is whether PI acousto resonances in different TMs (say ITM and ETM pairs) conspire to reduce the PI threshold (from what it would be for just one TM active: the original simple case analyzed)? The answer is no, unless the two mode frequencies are closer than ~the acousto line width (very unlikely !~).

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

 

From: Helena Armandula ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu

Advanced LIGO Coatings

I was contacted, at one time or another, by the coating vendors in reference to the RFI.  Received and evaluated their responses.

Ordered 3" dia x 0.100" thick substrates to support coating development.

First Contact test –

First Contact was applied to the surface of a 1"dia. mirror; the film was removed one week later. Scattering measurements were taken before and after the procedure.

From Liyuan Zhang's report:

The scattering test of First Contact on an 1" mirror is finished. The result is very promising, not only there was no evidence of scattering increase, but, some decrease was observed, probably due to less high scattering (saturated) points; the film could have removed some dust (or contamination) stuck on the surface. To make a solid conclusion, more tests will be needed.

Advanced LIGO SUS

Researched some bonding agents to have a second option to Vacseal, however, Vacseal, having been tested and deemed acceptable, remains the adhesive of choice for Advanced LIGO SUS.

As a second option, Norland Optical Adhesive 88 will be tested. Is a low outgassing, Collected Volatile Condensable Material (CVCM) <0.01% adhesive. It cures by UV light and it is used on parts destined for space exploration, bonding of high tech computer components and very sensitive instruments.

Pre-Stabilized Laser

From: Peter King pking@ligo.caltech.edu

A set of viewports and a heater jacket was shipped to AEI (thanks to Rod Luna for organising the packing and shipping) as they are assembling a reference cavity identical to that used at the observatories.  The vacuum chamber and ancillary equipment should be fabricated by the end of the month.

Controls, Data systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

AdvLigo/LASTI

  • Mohana and Rich have been working on the high current coil driver for the ISI system.  The prototype is able to supply the current requirements for the coarse and fine actuator.  We are working on noise issues now.
  • (Rich) Received prototype boards that I designed for evaluation of the ASC photo-diodes.  Need to put together the test laser system.  I am evaluating a prototype system for mounting the diodes in a vacuum environment.  The prototype was supplied by Accuglass Inc.
  • Seismic (Ben)

-         I just finished changing the schematics for the HAM-SAS system to accommodate the test electronics.  Jay is using the new drawings to order the cables that will be needed for installation.

-         I've started working on the Guralp Interface Chassis.

-         I've been tasked with re-doing the GS-13 cable for ISI.  I await a pinout drawing, and I will start.

  • Ponderomotive Experiment: We will begin the controls equipment installation the week of Sept. 25, with Alex and I installing the rack mount equipment and getting the computer system on line. Jay will follow up the next week to finish up and get the field cabling installed.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: John Miller <miller_j@ligo.caltech.edu>

John

Attempts to measure mirror tilts using an optical lever have been hampered by electronic noise and beam jitter. We hope that by setting up an experiment to measure tilts using lock in detection and triggered beam capture we can mitigate these effects.

Yumei

continue simulating the leg and finding the Modes we need.(flex joint s-shape and leg c-shape)

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