Weekly Report for Week Ending January 19, 2006

Due to the Staffing Meeting scheduled that morning we will not schedule a LIGO Executive Committee meeting for January 23, 2006.

Special Announcements:

 

Weekly Report Highlights

LSC Issues (Saulson)

An ad hoc committee, chaired by Rai Weiss, met to discuss whether there ought to be any changes in the way we organize scientific monitoring (SciMon) shifts, as we move forward with S5.  There was a lively discussion at an opening meeting on Wed 11 Jan, with continuing discussion by email.  A second telecon this past week had to be canceled when AccuConference service failed, but the email exchanges are ongoing.  Rai will be producing a document summarizing the various ideas under consideration, to guide the formation of a consensus recommendation to the Directorate.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

  • All MOUs approved by P. Saulson have now been signed and will be passed on to the DCC.  The Z attachments have been forwarded to Veronica to update the roster.

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

  • A site teleconference was held Thursday, January 19, 2006.  The following issues were discussed:
  • SURF—Hanford has forwarded five proposals; Livingston is a bit behind.  F. Raab again raised the issue of where SURF students are in the Hanford and Livingston budgets for FY 2006.  Budgets for 3.0 FTEs for SURF students will be found in each of the 2.1 and 3.1 accounts.
  • Accuconference—Problems have again been encountered with the Accuconference services.  Pending discussions with S. Whitcomb, we are considering reestablishing a contract with Raindance as a alternate.
  • Property—an inventory will be conducted January 30 and 31 at Livingston.  It will address only those assets in the Caltech system.  R. Luna and E. Jasnow will make the trip.  A construction review will be conducted at the same time.  Complete inventories will be conducted at both sites before the end of the year.  The surplus air handler at Hanford has been sold and will be picked up next week.  (Please send property tags and paperwork, if such exists, to R. Luna.)
  • Outreach—D. Ingram is trying to establish a group of volunteers to help with the outreach effort in Hanford.  F. Raab asked what actions are needed to address safety, insurance, etc. concerns.  Question to be directed to W. Tyler or Kaz.
  • The list of assigned actions updated through December 01, 2005 will be found Here.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)

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

  • Provided assistance to the Detector Group (H. Armandula) with packing and shipping of 3 pieces of glass to the University of Glasgow.  Account Number LIGO.OPT - 5.4 - NSFLIGO.FY02ON.
  • Coordinated the disposal of old computers and monitors.  Account Number LIGO.DAT-1.5.3-NSFLIGO.FY2ON.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (Synergy)

After several weeks, the new Synergy software has been installed and is now available for me to begin the architecture design and set up for conversion of our current system.  Ian Booth is our program manager from FileHold, Inc. and will be the primary contact for me as we set up the new document management system.  He is currently on vacation but will return to his office this next week.  While he is away, I will complete 3 tasks in preparation for drawing up a detailed requirements document which establishes schedule milestones:

   1.  Review, merge, and purge the keyword list -- currently there are close to 1400 keywords -- want to tailor down to a few hundred.  The entire list has been gone through twice to date -- first to find duplicates or similar entries, the second pass-through to identify those keywords where a list of associated documents needs to be listed to better determine whether the keyword can be deleted.

   2.  Create a spreadsheet with current metadata fields, whether to migrate or delete, and new fields needed that are not currently used in the old system.  This step will help determine the scope of conversion and any fields that need to be cleaned up prior to migration.  The design of the new system will mirror the current fields for the sake of moving historical data.  After the data has been migrated, the new design will be set up and data appropriated located within the Synergy architecture.

   3.  Meet with Rich Abbott and Todd Etzel to determine the new requirements for the electronics area -- data needed for capture, versioning,, etc. -- These will be capabilities that have not been available to date with the current system.  This will also help in determining the fields and processes needed in the requirements document for the system architecture.

When Ian returns to the office, he will do a first draft of requirements and I will have that for my review by January 27th.  He and I will then work it into a final draft for circulation to the DCC Steering Committee by February 15th.  We anticipate receiving any comments or revisions from the committee by March 1.

This requirements document will also set up general milestones for conversion of historical data, architecture design, etc.

SCANNING

About 30 more boxes have been scanned in the past 3 months and will be burned on CD and the boxes picked up for destruction.  Worked with Cleveland to determine the next files to be scanned.  It appears that, given my time constraints and the need to go through some of the boxes just to determine what the general contents are, the closed-out contracts would be scanned next.  These already have DCC numbers, are clearly organized and would free up about 12 shelves of bookcase space in the sub-basement.  That space will then be used for storage for the documents currently on the floors and table tops both in Cleveland's office and in mine.

Document Control

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

  • Nothing significant to report (3 days out of the office)
  • Scanning Project--Progress continues on scanning of miscellaneous boxes/files of documents.
  • Activity:

Week Ending

01/19/2006

In

Out

Packages

32 

 3

Faxes

21 

10 

 

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Cronin, Brambila, Kaufman)

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

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

  • Completed change order #12 to Southern Enterprises and submitted it to the vendor.
  • Received the Debarment Certificate from Eric Myers and working on completing the order so that payment can be generated.
  • Made arrangements for a return of the pulse generator which is not working properly so that the merchandise can be returned and a credit issued.
  • Followed up on several requests for pending credits to be issued so that payment of invoices can be made.
  • Completed the name change on the Lightwave Electronics subcontract to JDS Uniphase.
  • Working on the large oscillator order to JDS Uniphase.

>From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman>

  • Completed the report for the Visitor Award as of the end of December 2005.
  • Led a discussion about accounts management issues with the Site Administrators.  Material from that discussion has been provided to Cindy Akutagawa for distribution to the Site Administrators.
  • Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport. (For passwords contact Florence)

SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Jasnow, Salone)

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

  • Nothing significant to report.

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

  • A purchase order has been issued to JDS Unified, the successor company to Lightwave, for the purchase of laser oscillators.  The purchase order was in the amount of almost $120,000.
  • The current Lightwave contract has been novated over to JDS Unified as the successor company.  There is currently a $40,000 balance on that contract.  If all items are completed, the contract will be closed and the $40,000 returned to management reserve.
  • Rain has delayed the pour of the concrete slab for the LLO SEC, resulting in an additional four day slip in the schedule.  Although activities appear to be about three weeks behind schedule, the construction company has not changed the completion date.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Hiroto, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

  • Worked on catching up on e-mail and fires as a result of the holiday and one day sick leave.  Did some new trips, did final reconciling for P-Card and continued to manually input the old Calendar to the new Calendar.

>Julie Hiroto jhiroto@ligo.caltech.edu

  • Working on webpage for Jay.
  • Site Administrators' Visit: Excellent visit!  Lots of meetings with key people that will be very helpful.

>Dorothy Lloyd

  • No report.
  • Jim continued with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

DCC Steering Committee (Lindquist)

See above.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

  • Change Request CR-050010, Prototype Seismic Attenuation System for the HAM Chamber (HAM-SAS) was submitted by Dennis Coyne.  If approved, the change request will add the fabrication and test of a predominantly passive, seismic isolation system prototype for the HAM chamber, to the Advanced LIGO R&D program.  This request is being held pending a written report and recommendations.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

  • The next Staffing Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 23.  The DRAFT agenda has been posted on the SC web page. 
  • Prepared numerous appointment memos for various Visitors

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 Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (compiled by M. Landry)

Science run and quasi-commissioning highlights from LHO are bulleted below:

  • truck convoys on route 10 rumble past the site about every 2 or 3 hours, headed for the DOE 200E area; this is expected to continue for another ten days
  • in a study for advanced LIGO, magnetic transients in excess of 10-11T were recorded; the glitch rate based on a 2h sample was 5 events/h.  The events were mostly attributable to changes in 60Hz from turning equipment on and off
  • a list of frequencies coherent with the H2 DARM channel was posted
  • see the usual range and duty cycle update here
  • the 59.6Hz Crab pulsar region is louder than it was during S4 by a factor of about 2; suspicion has fallen on mobile peaks from chiller and water pump hardware.  Scimons are now monitoring this frequency band

4K IFO

  • DARM on H1 tends to be roughly and order of magnitude larger than its counterpart on H2; the more agressive filtering on the H1 fine actuator interface module may be responsible for this.  It is suggested that the 4k FAIM be replaced.  A gain study reduced the effect.
  • new code was installed to fix the ASPD shutter trigger mechanism that intends to save locks by switching from LSC photodiodes to the acquisition PD 5.  Also in this release: the new filter module to whiten DARM_CTRL (on output for writing to frames), so as to handle the large dynamic range of the signal.  This impacts the time-domain calibration for h(t)
  • a modification to the 4k demod board is proposed; a low-pass to the RF filter on input

2K IFO

  • Since the start of the run it has been noted that the H2 range trends downwards over the first tens of minutes of lock; the thermal compensation (TCS) is not optimal.  A slow walk in parameter space was begun in order to see if we could claw back the 1/2 Mpc or so, and perhaps do a little better.  Y-arm annulus heating was first modified, then X-arm center and annulus heating (the latter seemingly improving the range several hundred kpc).  The parameters have been frozen to assess whether or not the gains have held.  Occasional large glitches (broad band, centered at 150Hz and as large as an order of magnitude in AS_Q) are now seen in the instrument.  The investigation is ongoing.  Trends were later posted, some supporting the notion that the TCS was not responsible for recent glitching.

DAQ

  • hanford1 suffered a late night disk failure last week; the errant disk was replaced

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

L1 Interferometer (Franzen)

The duty cycle was around 54% with an inspiral range between 8-10 Mpc.  During Thursday January 12th the DARM, WFS4_I4 and WFS4_Q2 channels started to exhibit glitches clearly observable in SenseMon and BurstMon.  The WFS4 problem was rather intermittent, i.e. it was absent on Friday to Saturday and then reappeared on Sunday for a while. However, DARM glitching continued during the weekend and was probably caused by high winds with gusts up to 25 mph. During Tuesday through Wednesday evening locking was not possible due to very high seisimc noise (>5 um/s in the 0.1-0.2 Hz region). Late wednesday evening locking could resume with the inspiral range in the 8-9 Mpc region without serious glitching.

Commissioning highlights:

  • Beamsplitter dewhitening filter board was replaced.
  • Bounce Mode investigation continued.
  • Study of optical lever noise. There seems to be a bad laser causing a narrow-band line at 92 Hz.
  • Rework was done on the ITMX HEPI Z controller.
  • A system for excitation of normal modes of the ETMX dished head has been installed and tested. The purpose is to perform scattering studies.
  • An attempt was made to measure the RFAM noise at the dark port.
  • A direct measurement was performed of the current noise thorough the ETMX coils.

Safety (R.Riesen)

  • Readjusted site external doors on the staging bldg. and the main bldg.  Reset the alarm response times from .25 sec. to 2 sec.  These actions appear to have taken care of  the multiple  forced door alarms.
  • Emergency lighting units were tested and found functional in all areas.
  • The same goes for the site fire extinguishers.  All units are properly tagged and filled.
  • The new main gate delivery schedule is set for 1-24-06.
  • Working with Rod Luna (CIT-LIGO) property manager for our annual property audit starting 1-30-06.
  • Setting up Safety indoc. for Simon Stepuk of the U of F due to arrive on 1-23-06.
  • There are no open site nor laser safety concerns to report this period.

LLO Outreach (Thacker)

  • prepared materials for Feb. 1st LIGOSEC partnership meeting
  • conducted visit for Red Hat Society of Pontchatoula
  • prepared material for Jan 29th teacher PD workshop
  • prepared materials for school visit 1/20

Computing and Network Security (Roddy)

General Computing (Giardina)

  • with Tom, rebooted DHCP server this morning.  users were unable to obtain IP address.
  • removed some software from 'Start Up' on Janeen's laptop.
  • KVM switch cat 5 cable was uplugged from one of the dongles in the CUR, breaking the chain and thus not having connection to all servers.  now fixed.
  • carriage belt on large format plotter was replaced yesterday -  received complaints that color printer in front of office building is squealing loudly.  looked at it this morning, problem is not obvious, will look more later.

LDAS Admin (Giardina)

  • tapes ejected and shipped to CIT:  LL0811, LL0817, LL0819, LL0851, LL0853, LL0861, LL0863
  • LL1710-LL1719 imported into L700 library
  • received replacements for the 22 Maxtor disks that were RMA'd a few weeks ago

Data Analysis (Yakushin)

Storage/Condor/LDAS admin:

1) Working on moving ldas-gridmon from node2 to the old VPN computer.

2) Working on putting some of the data (S4 GEO, BurstMDC frames) onto nodes to speed up access to those and reduce the load on the tape robot.

Data Analysis:

1) Testing the modified version of waveburst in which whitening procedure is improved and linear predictor filter is used.

2) Continue studying the loud L1 waveburst triggers.

E2E (Jamal, Yoshida)

We confirmed that AdvLIGO BSC seismic box using the State Space matrix created by Brian Lantz had identical impulse responses to the results obtained by Brian Lantz with matlab.  We confirmed it both for ground x and y inputs.

Initial LIGO Detector Science & Engineering (Coyne)

CDS

see also the CDS weekly meeting minutes in the commissioning archives

Rolf Bork

New LSC software loaded onto LHO4k. This software includes fix for fast shutter triggering and a new DARM_CNTL_DAQ filter module to whiten the DARM signal for data acquisition.

DMT

John Zweizig

This week I worked on potential data quality flags. I characterized and tabulated calibration line dropouts and have written a script to perform this procedure in the future. I have also started to look at spontaneous increases in the violin lines and glitching in the TCS Lasers.

40-Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

Osamu's writeup on the status of AdvLIGO prototyping at the 40m was accepted for publication with no changes.

IFO Commissioning

  • Rob, Matt and Rana have developed a "deterministic" locking scheme that uses normalized DC signals to lock the power-recycled Faby-Perot Michelson in a slow, controlled, deterministic way, starting will all mirrors but the SRM aligned. The FPMI locks right up, and holds lock robustly while the PRM swings. The PRC loop is turned on and locks immediately. This procedure is very repeatable and easy. Its not yet on full resonance, but they'll do that soon. Their one attempt to blindly swing in the SRM did not work, but there's many things yet to try.
  • Rob passed his PhD candidacy exam, and now can get back to concentrating on deterministic locking, DC readout, and development of the OpTickle modeling tool.
  • Rob has released a new update of the fast LSC code, with further refinements of his flexible signal switching scheme.
  • Monica and Dan continue to work on the calibration of the 40m noise curve, and the noise budget. they are reviewing the noise budget code from the sites and are updating various parameters for the 40m.

IFO Modeling

  • Osamu, Monica, Matt and Hiro continue to work on various e2e models of AdLIGO / 40m optical configuration and controls. Some models include radiation pressure, multiple pendula, seismic motion and isolation, control plants of varying degrees of sophistication, etc. hey are working towards a model that merges the best features of each.
  • Monica's e2e model of the 40m still has a problem with the x arm not locking well. And it still has the optical spring peak in the wrong place, but it does scale correctly with input power. Under investigation.

DC Detection Development

  • Ben received the beamsplitter mount for the DC photodiode from the machine shop, and it looks good. He plans to submit the rest of the design for fabrication very soon.
  • Ben is reworking the electronics layout for the DC photodiode. He will send the PCB files to PCB Express shortly. In the meantime, he's going to begin to test the existing boards for functionality.
  • Ben, Rob and Rana are working on the detailed design of the DC readout controls, including the in-vac cable plant, DC PD electronics, satellite box, etc.
  • Dan and Sam continue to work on characterizing the PZT steering mirrors for the in-vac DC readout alignment control.

Electronics, Controls, Computers

  • Ben is continuing to experiment with the double-demod RFPDs for our LSC system. He knows component values that work, but some optimization is still in progress. He's tTrying out an active notch for tuning the RFPDs. Will measure the transimpedance.
  • Rana and Alan are searching for a scheme to synthesize a Mach-Zehnder (or two pairs of sidebands with no sidebands-on-sidebands) using one EOM.
  • Dan has finished the construction and testing of a low noise preamp box (design by Rai), gain of 100, input-referenced noise ~ 1.4 nV/rtHz, which will be useful for measuring the coil driver noise.

Lab Infrastructure

  • The sump pump under the sink in the entry room failed, stinking up the lab. It's been repaired, but we plant to remove that sink (good spot to put a drill press).
  • Steve is going over the fire alarms, emergency lights, etc, in preparation for a safety inspection next week. He found one emergency light with a dead battery, to be replaced.
  • Bob is inspecting the bake-oven lab in preparation for safety inspection next week.
  • Bob cleaned up the storage cage outside the lab. he's clearing the space right outside the clean room emergency exit. Currently, that emergency exit leads to the storage cage, which is locked on the outside. Bob will come up with a solution.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

No report.

LASTI (Ottaway)

No report.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Yamamoto)

AdvLIGO lock study  (Matt Evans)

Matt studied the lock acquisition of a FP arm of adv.LIGO focusing on the threshold velocity of acquiring lock using the actuation force specification of the test mass and masses above. He gave a talk about this in the Adv.LIGO meeting on Jan. 18th. (http:// www.ligo.caltech.edu/~mevans/QuadFP/)

The model is consisted of two sets of double chain quad pendulums, based on Mark Barton's quad pendulum model. Each suspension is sitting on a table whose spectrum is design spectrum on noisy day.

Several methods were tried.  The most sophisticated one uses a simple pendulum simulation (in the locking code for the algorithmic purpose, not the quad pendulum) to predict the mass position when the mass goes through the resonance and the error signal becomes too wiggling and useless. This way, the range of usable mirror positions is expanded (just like error signal / transmitted power made the range longer).

With this best algorithm and the actuation force of +- 20 micro N, the velocity limit was around 115 nm/s.

After Matt's talk, Ken talked about the force range larger than 20 micro N, and the actual limitation needs to be recalculated.

High Power operation and angular stability (Hiro, Rana)

Matt focused on the locking using a low input power, 0.3W, and the radiation pressure effect is not included and scalar field approximation was used.  Hiro has started to working to study the optical spring effect on lock and angular stability by adding radiation pressure and by extending to modal model version.  Optical spring effect is introduced by adding a constant offset to the error signal.  Rana is getting ready to use e2e to take over Matt's work.

40m modeling (Monica)

Found some error definitions and implementation in the e2e code for the 40m thanks to Hiro help. After setting the right parameters the peak of the optical spring effect is now at the expected frequency (around 30-40 Hz). Also the open loop transfer function can be simulated now that the channels are well implemented.

AdvLIGO seismic modeling (SLU:Jamal and Yoshida)

We confirmed that AdvLIGO BSC seismic box using the State Space matrix created by Brian Lentz had identical impulse responses to the results obtained by Brian Lantz with matlab. We confirmed it both for ground x and y inputs.

Alfi (GUI) ( Bruce, Melody )

Pretty much major PR's items have been addressed, and aiming to clean up all known bug fixes by the end of the month.

So far, alfi (GUI) was separated from modeler (simulation engine). 

Because of this, there were several issues which could not be handled by alfi. One notable example is macro. We are planning to go ahead to expand alfi to know about modeler and add functionalities to make the modeling work easier. (Actually, supporting bundle, added in alfi 6 release, is one bug issue along this line, and this was a BIG thing.)

Lazzarini:

Developed a technical note (T060013-02-E) for Advanced LIGO Light Scattering analysis, looking at all the input parameters needed for determining polishing surface roughness specs and  allowable de-centering.  Inputs provided to Kip, who agreed to repeat analysis he and Eanna Flanagan had performed for initial LIGO.  At the time, the analysis specified baffle performance requirements; now, the baffles are as-built and the same analysis can be used to determine mirror substrate properties.

Blackburn:

Worked with Bill Kells to resurrect the code from ten years ago used to calculate the testmass resonances and contributions to the thermal noise from each mode.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

Brown:

Worked on LIGO EMRI project with Diego and Tapir group.  Working with Lisa on the S4 ringdown search to track down missing loud injections in Monte Carlo run.  Did some book keeping with S5 online BNS analysis; there were some failed jobs are due to a dead disk at LHO.  Working on a client for Keith Riles to manage S5 data quality flags.  Fixed a minor problem with the segment database at LHO.  Attended inspiral face to face meeting in Milwaukee.

Chatterji:

I continued to work on the same topics of last week (which was too late to include in the weekly report).  I have updated it with a link to an example and some documentation:

  • Automate post-processing of triggers and scanning of interesting events identified by the online Q Pipeline analysis.  An example QScan and documentation is now available at http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~shourov/q/qscan/
  • Trigger production on simulated data for a planned PRD publication by the LIGO/Virgo joint data analysis working group.

Dupuis:

  • Finished compiling TDS highlights for second month of S5 using data from 22 Dec to 4 Jan.  Extracted pulsar injections with new parameters and looked at 7 of the most interesting radio and x-ray pulsars (http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~rejean/S5, email me for password).
  • Trying to understand the nature of noise in some frequency bands.
  • Writing code to characterize noise in bands of selected pulsars, especially the Crab, more carefully.

Shawhan:

  • Reviewed (and did some editing of) F-statistic pulsar search paper.
  • Created calibrated burst waveforms for S5 hardware signal injections.
  • Participated in discussion about possible changes to scientific monitoring shifts.
  • Fixed a problem with checking the status of SeqInsert at LLO.

Yakushin:

1) Testing the modified version of waveburst in which whitening procedure is improved and linear predictor filter is used.

2) Continue studying the loud L1 waveburst triggers.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

LDAS

The focus this week continued to focus on 64-bit Solaris. Each type of command has been successfully run on tandem-ii (this system has a 64-bit version for Solaris 10 and a 32-bit version for Fedora Core 4). When running the ALL USERS COMMAND from the cmonClient, there is a loss of synchronization between the test script and the manager.

Efforts are also being put forth to increase I/O throughput (PR#2968).

The LDASjob package has been enhanced to use TCL channel interface supplied by TCLGlobus.

System tests were done on ldas version 1.8.58

TCLGLOBUS

A 4-byte length value now precedes the transmission of data via the TCL channel interface. This enhancement allows the receiving side to know exactly how many bytes to expect and prevent lockups due to data transmissions with few bytes.

GRID COMPUTING

Planned and submitted a Level4 Inspiral pipe DAG work flow to the OSG_LIGO_PSU site which is still running OSG 0.2.1. Work flow of 303 DAG nodes required 30 minutes to move 3.4 GB of L4 data from CIT to PSU and 47 minutes for data analysis. Prior work flow benchmark at PSU required 224 minutes for L3 data movement of 38GB from CIT. Data analysis with L3 data required 44 minutes at PSU.

Reinstalled Condor and OSG 0.3.4. on LIGO-CIT-ITB due to extensive patches in VDT 1.3.9(a) in last three weeks.

Determined that LIGO data transferred to  TTU_TESTWULF filesystem is not visible from PBS processing nodes on CE. Reported result to PI at TTU.

Determined that an unknown number of VDT applications are still built on Red Hat 7 only and require patches that conflict with Condor installation under FC4.  Have asked the VDT support team for details as to which packages are built only on Red Hat 7 to determine the extent of the problem on FC4 systems.

Worked with OSG Council and Executive Board to put finishing touches on "Letter of Intent" and "Proposal" to be sent to the DOE and NSF later this month.

Began preparation for two talks LIGO has been asked to present at the OSG Consortium Meeting next week.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

  • The usual ingesting of S5 data.
  • Found a missing file for Gareth Jones.
  • Built LUN on LLO's new fb0_frames 3511.
  • Helped with archiving problems at LHO.
  • Consulted with Ben on configuration of new 3511 /archive/home disks/ filesystem.
  • Put T3 disks in spare at CIT and tested them (vol verify).
  • Hooked up old LHO fb0_frames 3510 as new spare at CIT.
  • Tested new FC switch blade.

(Phil Ehrens)

  • Patched LDAS manager API to allow adjustment of Active Job Status page update frequency.
  • Provided fix for LDAS 64 bit tcl key::time string incompatibility.
  • Issued new hostcert for ldas-pcdev1.ligo.caltech.edu. The old host cert, issued by Naveen, expired, and I was not notified since the notice is sent to the admin issuing the cert.  Perhaps a cert issuance alias should be created to prevent this from happening in the future?
  • Installed correct /etc/init.d/sshd on ldas-pcdev2. The default FC4 file was in place, preventing proxy cert based unchallenged logins.
  • Issued ldas cert for host ldas-test.ligo.caltech.edu in support of installation of globus enabled LDAS on ldas-test system.
  • Made a big pile of 6 cable bundles of ethernet for use with new cluster nodes.
  • Did general cleanup in Synchrotron 215. Ordered new sticky shoe cleaners.
  • Working with Mary Lei and Michael Samidi to get ldas-test up and running LDAS.

(Erik Espinoza)

  • Built x86_64 FC4 w/ updated kernel.
  • Updated kickstart scripts:

-         added updating

-         automated condor configuration

-         automated ganglia configuration

-         automated /usr1/ directory structure creation

-         synchronized x86_64 w/ 32 bit kickstart

  • Provided data to ASA for pre-configuration information.
  • Provided e-mail aliases list to Dwayne.
  • Powered up more cooling in data center during weekend.
  • Replaced 2 disks on node244.
  • Installed node291 w/ updated x86_64 distro/kickstart.

(Stuart Anderson)

  • Continued testing of Condor-6.7.14 with a successful resolution to intermittent job startup errors related to IP firewall settings.
  • Established network connections for monitoring the PDU's for the new cluster.

MIT

(Keith Bayer)

  • Work to install a/c in lab starting.  Rubber mounts and separate pipe connectors being used for seismic isolation.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

  • Working on moving ldas-gridmon from node2 to the old VPN computer.
  • Working on putting some of the data (S4 GEO, BurstMDC frames) onto nodes to speed up access to those and reduce the load on the tape robot.

(Dwayne Giardina)

  • Tapes ejected and shipped to CIT:  LL0811, LL0817, LL0819, LL0851, LL0853, LL0861, LL0863
  • LL1710-LL1719 imported into L700 library
  • Received replacements for the 22 Maxtor disks that were RMA'd a few weeks ago.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

  • S5 Data archiving, publishing, and RDS generation continues to run without loss of data. There have some problems with filesystem I/O becoming too busy, and last night the primary framebuilder filesystem froze. We are working to fix these problems. The backup framebuilder has taken over providing data for now, though we should have the primary framebuilder writing data again by the end of the day.

(Ben Johnson)

  • The two new 3511 units have been set up with 3 LUNs each. Each has been updated with the latest firmware (4.13C). I am currently running an rsync job on selected /archive/home directories as (preparation for) a test.
  • t3-17's controller went offline. A powercycle fixed the problem. I will assume that this problem is unlikely to occur again in this T3 due to past experience with these units.
  • fb1 daqd crashes still occur due to raw minute-trends falling behind.
  • Worked up a better scimon monitoring page, which should summarize all the various alarms on one page, as well as give admins the ability to send messages to the scimon via the webpage.
  • Replaced bad disk in t3-27 (the /dmt filesystem).

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Keith)

  • Built 4 FC4 linux boxes for urops.  They are using a separate shared NFS mount home directory server and are authenticating off of an LDAP server as the first stage of integrating LDAP (and Linux) into our GC network.
  • Still in contact with Sun regarding TLS client-side verification.  Sun said it should work - I don't think it can...
  • Spec'd and ordered thinkpad and dell laptop -Ordered spare computer parts and sysadmin tools (screwdrivers etc)

Livingston

(Dwayne)

  • With Tom, rebooted DHCP server this morning.  users were unable to obtain IP address.
  • Removed some software from 'Start Up' on Janeen's laptop.
  • KVM switch cat 5 cable was unplugged from one of the dongles in the CUR, breaking the chain and thus not having connection to all servers.  now fixed.
  • Carriage belt on large format plotter was replaced yesterday - Received complaints that color printer in front of office building is squealing loudly.  looked at it this morning, problem is not obvious, will look more later.

Hanford

(Christine)

  • Programmed the LAN switches with a second vlan for the new phone system and then assigned phone ports to the vlan.
  • Finished doing an inventory and upgrades of the loaner laptops.  Set up one of the loaners for a user to take on extended travel.
  • Set up several user accounts for LSC members.
  • Had a meeting with a sales rep and technical engineer on disk storage and backup options for the user accounts.
  • I'm still trying to get a service contract for the Cisco network equipment.  Cisco no longer sells service contracts for their equipment.   I have to buy it from a re-seller who has to re-certify the equipment.   There are no re-sellers in the Tri-Cities, but there are 47 re-sellers in Spokane.  Of the 47 none lists service contracts as one of their products.  PNNL and LMSI both have service contracts directly with Cisco, so they can't recommend any one.  I do now have the name of a Cisco sales rep in Seattle who might be able to help me.
  • The backup network between LHO and ESnet is now working, but has a 40% loss of packets.  The original problem was a vlan on the Amerion router which didn't get set up correctly.  Amerion thinks the packet losses may also be due to a card on their router.  ESnet thinks the losses are due to the differences in speeds between LHO and ESnet, i.e. LHO is set at 10 Mb/s half duplex and ESnet is at 100 Mb/s full duplex.  Neither of us is able to change our speed without buying different equipment.  Amerion thinks they can solve the problem through their equipment and is working on it.

CIT

(Veronica)

  • LSC:  Working on a webpage of the LSC conference participation.   Working on a database-backed application which would make it easier to keep track of the information of the participation by the LSC members and the presentations that were made.  Updated the database of the LSC papers under review and the Observational Results webpage.  Updates to the LSC roster database.
  • LIGO:  Installed patches to the Win servers.  Keep working on the setup of the new LIGO webserver.  Addressed a couple of instances of access and permissions conflict on the new machine.  Loading a test linux box for mySQL testing.  Addressed an issue related to the audit of our use of AuthorizeNet.com as an ecommerce provider for past LSC meetings.  Met with the site administrators and discussed the issues of website support for the upcoming meetings.  The request was to find a way of implementing access to more comprehensive information about the prospective participants.  Looking into ways of separating the links at the homepage into more intuitive/manageable sets that would make it easier to use.  Updated the Calendars web page and put in the new links.

(Christian)

  • Installed and configured Kronos plug-in for Irene Baldon.
  • Created Windows unattended dvd's for Livingston and Hanford.
  • I did an inventory of printer cartridges and picked up two systems that needed surplus.
  • Re-imaged laptop that was returned to the loaner pull this week.
  • Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Mike)

  • Finished the installation of the Synergy software for the new DCC server system. The installation work for the past week dealt mainly with getting the the s/w between the two server boxes to communicate. The problem turned out to be a syntax issue in a database configuration file.  Presently, working on documenting the installation of the system.
  • Worked the spam filters with Larry.
  • Reset some of the DHCP services.
  • Performed a backup on a couple of the servers.  Restored files for a user and burned a DVD of engineering files for LLO.

(Larry)

  • Worked on the DCC server with Mike. The server is up and running and now Linda will be able to start her work on getting the s/w configured for her needs.
  • Went through a number of purchases. Most items have been delivered.  In the process of resolving a couple of license issues.  Reconciliation of the P-card took some time. Getting the paperwork to match the charges still takes time.  Ordered a couple more computer systems to replace old units and still have a few more items to get ordered.  Spent time tracking down a couple order issues only to find out that the company had just packed the wrong paperwork and mislabeled the box. Also, tracked down the equipment that Bason had thought they had shipped, the equipment should arrive today.
  • Worked with Veronica on a number of web issues. The switch over to a newer version of Apache has caused some problems because of syntax differences but they seem be to getting cleared out.  Worked a number of the calendar items in the switch-over to the new calendars and to the new server.  Installed more memory in the old DCC server. This seems to have helped improve the performance of the unit. Also, changed the method of which the server accesses remote files for web access.
  • Repaired a E2E machine that had a rogue process.
  • The backup system had a hiccup and was able to get it back on line with just having to reset some of the file systems.
  • Worked a number of matlab license issues for different people.  Everything from helping them with their environments to generating new licenses.
  • Worked on the remote control room server. It is back up and running but will probably need to be replaced in the not too far future.
  • Worked a number of accounts. Presently, in the process of removing some of the old dead accounts.
  • Worked the spam filters. Also, checking on who needs to move to a mail utility that has spam filtering built in. We hope to eventually move to a tagging system to where the enduser will be filtering out the spam and we won't have to spend so much time working on the server checking for false positives.

Mail statistics January 12-18, 06

Mail Statistics

January 19, 2006

Rejected Messages

34,926 

Virus Messages

2,246 

Accepted Messages

15,467 

Total Messages

50,393 

 

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Systems, Management

Development of Cost/Schedule profiles; discussion with the NSF on the Advanced LIGO review cycle.

Systems

from Dennis Coyne

See also:

AL Systems web page

AL Systems email archives

Records Of Decision or Agreement (RODA)

See also the RODA status web page

  • Posted signed RODA M050175-01, Initial Alignment Requirements on COC Coating Reflectivity
  • Posted signed RODA M050397-02, Core Optic Sizes including TMs, BS, FM, RMs
  • Plan to issue a RODA calling for the removal of the photon actuator from the baseline, relying solely on the electro-static drive actuator.

Requirements/Design

  • Have established an Optomechanical Layout Working Group (Mike Smith, Ken Mailand, Calum Torrie, Janeen Romie, Luke Williams, Ken Mason). We meet weekly (Thu 11-12PT) and have met a few times so far. We’ve established a shared repository of SolidWorks 3D layout models and are addressing a number of layout issues and trade studies. Results as they are developed will be posted to the Optical Layout link from the main Systems web page.
  • Have held 2 Systems meetings in the last 2 weeks. Peter Fritschel led a discussion on the motivation for a Suspension point interferometer. As follow up, we are considering the practical issues associated with implementing a SPI. Ken Strain described recent design changes to the electro-static drive actuator to achieve high force and large dynamic range: Update on the Electrostatic Drive.

Interface Issues

See the "Interfaces" section of the AL Systems web page

  • Nothing significant to report

Vacuum Compatibility

Residual Gas Assay (RGA)

See also the Vacuum Bake Lab

Bob Taylor

  • I have Finished building and testing 7 more OSEMs for the Quad SUS. These are spares.
  • I am doing some house keeping to get ready for the safety inspection on the 40m.
  • I have taken resistance measurements on the Quad SUS ESD for Calum. These measurements include circuit path resistance and insulation brake-down resistance of the mini coax wiring.
  • I am continuing to do PMs on the ovens in my spare time.
  • I continue to help calum with the Quad SUS check-out.

Scatter/Absorption Test Measurement System

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang, Bill Kells

We had a big leak on the pumping cavity on the 30 watt laser. We ordered all the parts necessary to upgrade and replace the damaged ones.

High-Irradiance, Contamination-Exposure Cavities

Lee Cardenas, Liyuan Zhang

Changes indicated in yellow highlight.

Cavity

(Location)

Material/Item

Start

End

Comments

Cavity #1

(OTF Lab, Bridge)

“Cable wire” (material type?)

~11/17

TBD

No Change: The cavity has been aligned & locked.

Replacement oscilloscope fails to work with LabView version used, so waiting on new LabView upgrade.

Cavity #2

(OTF Lab, Lauritsen)

NA

NA

NA

Cavity not ready. It needs some other optics(such as: polarizing cube, 1/4 wave plate and some curve mirrors and lens) and the electronics. We have used/borrowed some of the optics from this system to accomplish
the completion of the other two cavities. Recently the 700 mw NPRO laser was used for Garilynn’s experiment and it needs to be realigned to the cavity.

Cavity #3

(OTF Lab, Lauritsen)

OSEM Flexi-circuit cable, qty ~ 45

(Helena Armandula, SUS)

supplied by Univ. Birmingham (Stuart Aston)

~9/30

TBD

The pulsed generator just ordered has a problem with the background noise. We are going to return it & get another one.

taking daily absorption & ring down measurements

DuPont Flexible Circuits. The whole part to be constructed of 'flexi' i.e. no 'rigid' sections. (Stuart Aston,Univ. of Birmingham, SUS/UK subsystem)
- Start Laminate: Kapton (LF8515)

(document link: http://www.dupont.com/fcm/products/H-73244.pdf

Coverlay (x2): Kapton (LF0110)

(document link: http://www.dupont.com/fcm/products/H-73245.pdf

DuPont Pyralux Series - Kapton / Acrylic Adhesive system.

(document link: http://www.dupont.com/fcm/products/H-73246.pdf

Queue

Priority 1

2 Cleaned 50ppm transmission mirrors, 1 in dia., REO coated --

TBD

TBD

witness samples for the LHO vertex volume (added in 6/29/2005 vent)

Queue

Priority 2

Stepper Motor (Riccardo DeSalvo, possible SUS or ISC use)

TBD

TBD

Stepper Motor sample had been placed into Cavity #1: Power dropped from 175 mW to ~25 mW after introducing the stepper motor sample, and continues to decrease. It is very hard to keep cavity locked. The stepper motor may have contaminated the mirrors. Will re-test when a cvity becomes available again.

To be rebaked soon using the self-heating capability of the stepper motor (not just the oven heater controls)

Seismic Isolation

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

Agenda for the weekly SEI telecom - Friday, Jan 13, 2pm Eastern, 1pm Central, 11am Pacific time

Announcements - single stage plans, frame meeting conclusions

  • Joe, Brian and Corwin to meet at Stanford the week of Jan 22 to design and analyze single-stage active HAM platform concept.

Electronics (Jay): with Rich's help, he is redesigning HEPI boards to work with the new DAQ/DSP system at LASTI.

  • Jay is working on a lower-current version of the ISI coil driver electronics; he expects that the same board will be able to function in both the low- and high-current versions.
  • BSC work, adaptive modeling and FIR (Rich M)
  • 3 blended loops, 3 displacement sensor loops closed on BSC HEPI.
  • Sensor correction sys-id being taken for x, y, and z, to be followed by adaptive FIR experiment.
  • Test stand ready to support dummy SEI (stiff table).  Plan is to assemble table next week.

HAM control with VME (Pradeep)

  • no report

ETF platform work - Brian

  • See LSC-SWG log entry from Wednesday.
  • First two SUS frame modes successfully damped using a parallel path to the vertical stage-2 active seismic isolation loops.  (Brian says that they are stable with or without the stage-2 active control loops.)  This is really good news!
  • It took of order 10 notches at the nuisance modes; the damped modes were allowed to poke up by about 20 or 30 by tuning the overall shape of the damping control law.

LLO HEPI:

  • During last Tuesday's S5 maintenance break at LLO, we removed the valve operating the HAM1 V4 actuator because its gain had decreased over the past few months.   This valve had been fitted with a set of filter screens between it and the actuator to prevent the failure from contamination that once plagued it.
  • Examining the screens, we see whitish scaling on the source port, with nothing visible on the other ports.  So, we left it with a new screen assembly that has screens in only the source and drain ports, and nothing in the way of the working ports.

Suspension

From: Janeen Romie romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu

Advanced LIGO

Attended the Wires for Mode Cleaner Review yesterday. Working with Caroline and Helena on the ear alignment fixture design. Last week, attended the meeting with Brian Lantz on his work testing the quad structure at the ETF. Coordinating with Gregg Harry on proposed earthquake stop testing. Created a preliminary agenda for the Suspensions Workshop at LHO March 23 & 24, and sent to a limited audience for comment. Coordinating for quad delivery to LASTI in February.

From: Ken Mailand kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu

I’ve completed shop drawings for the SUS installation, plate style fixture, for Calum, and working on an assembly, the majority of
purchase parts have been ordered.

I’m working with Mike Smith on the Adv. Ligo Layout.

From: Rolf Bork <rolf@ligo.caltech.edu>

AdvLigo:

  • Completed tests of Last quad suspension controls in the synchrotron lab.
  • Preparing Lasti CDS design documents for informal review at MIT next week. A formal review will be scheduled for February.

Core Optics

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

We are intent now to really finish off the analysis of the removed H1 ITM (ITM07).  We already have suggestive tentative results.  The main problem now is our absorption scanning apparatus is down. We plan to proceed with chemical characterization of most of the area (OTF scanning needs only a small partial area, and all our tests so far indicate that the contamination is [quasi] uniform). An intriguing hypothesis is emerging: The absorption is essentially in the form of highly absorptive (~opaque) dust attached to but in poor conductive contact with the HR surface. In vacuum (H1 ops) a large fraction of the "opaque" absorption ends up heating the substrate. However in the OTF (in air) most of the heat dissipated in the ambient air. So, indeed we have been seeing the dominant point absorption in the OTF but it is severely attenuated.

IT may be noted that our circumstances would be very sensitive to "opaque" dust contamination. Our level of concern is ~1ppm mean surface absorption, which is equivalent to ~1ppm surface area interception by "opaque dust".  For "dust" particles 10umx10um this level would be achieved by one such particle per square cm!!

Pre-Stabilized Laser

From: Peter King pking@ligo.caltech.edu

The low-frequency intensity noise coherence measurements that I am doing keep being affected - I think - by noise in the power lines introduced from the machine shop downstairs.  The measurements will have to be repeated at a quieter time.

Auxiliary Optics

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

VERTEX LAYOUT

In process of adding the IO optical train to the ZEMAX vertex optical layout.

SLC

Hiro is working on obtaining transfer functions for scattered light noise in ADLIGO.

TCS

Made solid works model of Phil's latest ring heater. Incorporated the ring heater and quad suspension into the SW Vertex model.

SUSPENSION POINT IFO (SPI)

In process of making a SW layout showing possible ray paths for a SPI.

Other Laboratory R&D

From: Riccardo DeSalvo desalvo@ligo.caltech.edu

Justin

The report for the mono-crystalline silicon flex joint work has finally been completed. Just last week it was determined that the output of the spectrum analyzer had to be squared. Once this was understood, the Lorentzian function fitted quite well to the data and gave good results that agreed with the ring down tests.

Alberto

  • getting close to finish the draft of the magic wand paper

Yumei

  • measuring the quality factor versus frequency of the HAM SAS IP.
  • working on HAM SAS in Solid works and ANSYS

Valerio

  • returned from sustaining an exam in Italy, restarting the simulations of HAM SAS with Virginio

Maddalena

  • Very happy after receiving the reprint of the 30 mHz GAS filter paper.

Vincenzo

  • submitted to LSC paper LIGO-P060003-00 on a family of hyperboloidal beams for possible thermal noise suppression

Marco

  • working on the mesa beam paper.

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