Weekly Report for Week Ending June 7, 2007

Past Weekly Reports

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday, June 11, 2007 will be:

(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

1. Announcements

2. Programmatic (Marx)

  • End of May Financial Reports

3. Comments on Weekly Report

4. LSC Issues (Reitze)

5. LIGO Lab Operations

  • Administration (Lindquist)
  • Sites (Raab, Giaime, Shoemaker)
  • Commissioning (Fritschel)
  • Optical and Mechanical (Coyne)
  • Control and Data Systems (Bork)
  • 40m (Weinstein)
  • TNI (Libbrecht)
  • LASTI (Mittleman)
  • Lab computing ( Anderson )
  • Data Analysis Group (Weinstein)
  • Instrument Science (Gustafson)

6. Enhancements (Zucker)

7. Advanced LIGO (Shoemaker)

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

  • Change Request CR070004 submitted by P. Fritschel and D. Coyne requests the release of FY 2007 and FY 2008 budget to cover a priority subset of the Advanced LIGO "wish list" items.
  • Change Request CR-070005, submitted by M. Zucker, D. Ottaway, and R. Mittleman, requests funds to replace the aging main turbo pumps for the LAST facility at MIT.
  • Change Request CR070006 submitted by M. Zucker modifies the budget for Advanced LIGO, Enhanced LIGO (ELI) Fabrications.

Site and other Business Issues:

No meeting scheduled; a teleconference has been scheduled for June 13 to discuss the evaluation of the test data relating to the wind farm at Hanford.

Special Items:

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights

The NSF convened a panel for an update of Advanced LIGO this week in Washington.  That review went very well.  At the closeout, the panel indicated that Advanced LIGO was ready to move into construction.  They were impressed with the development progress made during the last year and the quality of the documentation of that progress.  This review was an important step towards our first year of Advanced LIGO funding in FY 2008.  The team is to be congratulated.

LSC Issues (Reitze)

  • The second joint LSC-Virgo meeting (and the first to be hosted by Virgo) was held in Cascina, Italy two weeks ago.  By all measures the meeting was a success, with approximately 130 registered participants; roughly half of the attendees came from the LSC.  Highlights of the five day meeting included a press conference to announce the beginning of the first Virgo science run and joint running with LIGO and GEO as well as a site visit to Virgo for the LSC attendees.  Meetings of the joint run planning committee and data analysis council were held to continue developing scenarios for post-S5 planning.  In addition, there were many reports from analysis groups and instrument science groups, including a report on the status of the GRB070201 search.
  • The LSC has kicked off a congressional letter writing campaign in support of Advanced LIGO.  As of this writing, approximately 35 letters have been sent.  Approximately 100 letters will be needed to be considered effective.  If you are reading this and haven't done so, please take the time to write.
  • Planning is underway for the next joint L-V meeting to be held at MIT on July 23-26.  A web site will be posted on ligo.org very soon.
  • The S3/S4 known pulsar paper "Upper limits on gravitational wave emission from 78 radio pulsars" was accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

The following MOUs were signed-off, posted and submitted to DCC this reporting period:

MOU

Attachments

ACIGA

ACF, DAT, LAS, OPS, OPT, SUS, Z

Carleton College

DAT, OPS, OUT, Z

GEO600

ACF, DAT, LAS, OPT, SUS, Z

Texas at Austin

DAT, OPS, Z

A new (March 2007) MOU was also signed-off, posted and submitted to DCC:

Montana Gravitational Wave Astronomy (MtGWA), Attachments DAT and Z

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)

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

  • Created and submitted asset information forms for three fabrication accounts to Property Services.
    1. LIGO.HVAC-2.12-NSFLIGO.FY02CA
    2. LIGO.HVAC-3.12-NSFLIGO.FY02CA
    3. LIGO.AIFOF-5.6.1-NSFLIGO.FY02CA
  • Created property records for a Sun Computer (I. Yakushin @ LLO)
  • Created property records for a Surface Grinder and a Sweeper attachment (J. Worden @ LHO)
  • Created and submitted an Asset Retirement form for eight computers at LLO.
  • Worked with our broker in making shipping arrangements for a Bake Oven from Galli & Morelli, Italy to LLO.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

  • Document Scanning Project - Progress continues on the scanning of all non-electronic "M" category documents

Update to Current Document Management System (Lindquist)

A meeting was held Friday, June 8.  The committee is assembling a consensus document to be presented to LIGO management..

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Funaro, Brambila, Kaufman)

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

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

  • Issued the purchase order for the re-design and building of 21 actuators.
  • The order for the 4 HAM septum plates is now being worked by the vendor since they have received the two revised drawings for the modified ports.
  • Waiting for the Debarment Certificate from Australia National University to complete the order to them.
  • Working on the order to Limerick which is still pending receipt of the Debarment Certificate.
  • Working on the order to Agilent which still requires a justification and source selection.
  • Completed the change order for Triad and routed it for approval.

>From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman>

  • Completed and posted the monthly report for the FY07 Ops and R&D Award as of the end of May.
  • Completed and sent out various other monthly reports.
  • 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>

  • Several employees from Triad are being renewed via modifications to the contract.  The increases are based on recommendations provided by the LIGO supervisors of the employees.

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

  • Preparations have been completed for P-Card training at both sites.  Training at LHO will be done by Michelle Reagan on June 11, and at LLO by Criselda Rodriguez-Brodeur on June 26.
  • A teleconference has been scheduled for June 13 to discuss current testing being done by the company proposing to put a wind farm seventeen miles from LHO.  Participants will include David Flores of Caltech OGC, consultant Pamala Krueger, previously our attorney on wind farm matters, two attorneys from Perkins Coie, Fred Raab, and Ed Jasnow.  The discussion will center on proper evaluation of the test data and actions after the evaluation.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

  • GPRA performance estimates are due from our facility PIs by Friday, June 15, 2007.
  • The monthly report is also due to the NSF Friday, June 15.  I have asked for contributions by Monday.
  • Still trying to assemble first draft of the Continuing Operations Proposal (FTY 2009 – 13).  Our objective is to have a draft for review by the PAC by the end of next week.  An outline of the text with status and links to the text has been provided on the Operations Proposal Web page.  Please see me if you need access.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

The following change requests are on the agenda for a meeting of the LIGO Change Control Board as part of the Executive Committee meeting on Monday, June 11, 2007.

  • Change Request CR070004 submitted by P. Fritschel and D. Coyne requests the release of FY 2007 and FY 2008 budget to cover a priority subset of the Advanced LIGO "wish list" items.
  • Change Request CR-070005, submitted by M. Zucker, D. Ottaway, and R. Mittleman, requests funds to replace the aging main turbo pumps for the LAST facility at MIT.
  • Change Request CR070006 submitted by M. Zucker modifies the budget for Advanced LIGO, Enhanced LIGO (ELI) Fabrications.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

The next LIGO Safety Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 12 June 2007 at 1300 PDT.

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

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

Stormy Tuesday, but Wednesday's just as bad. (Fortunately, unlike that song, Thursday turned out OK.)  Still the duty cycle (Thu May/31 to Wed Jun/06 2007) of H1 and H2 were 86.1 and 84.0 percent, respectively.

Summaries: Range and Duty Cycle update. Tuesday maintenance summary.

Highlights from the LHO elog:

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

S5 Summary (Igor Yakushin)

  • Inspiral range during the week was ~14 Mpc. The duty cycle: 81%. Good week except for periodic logging happening near the X-end. Last Friday, during H2 downtime, Brian did some checks of the linearity of the response to calibration line amplitudes: http://ilog.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi? group=detector&date_to_view=06/01/2007&anchor_to_scroll_to=2007:06:01:17 :00:46-brian . The measurements caused trouble for  the statevector: http://ilog.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi? group=detector&date_to_view=06/01/2007&anchor_to_scroll_to=2007:06:01:18 :39:36-lisab

CDS Computing (Lisa Bogue)

  • Spent a significant amount of time working on blind injections.
  • Worked through some vpn test cases.
  • Working with Dave on security planning for advLigo.
  • Did troubleshooting on a statevector problem that was preventing us from locking.
  • Continuing to build a backup server for llo1 and control3.

LLO Outreach (John Thacker)

  • Made SEC staff  summer programs schedule assignments
  • Completed Developing Programs for 3 groups
  • Contacted MSP leaders about programs
  • Developed LIGO-SEC Pathways Program for Teachers
  • Completed planning for June Elementary Teacher Workshop
  • Reviewed LIGO SEC website for improvements
  • Registered for LSTA conference
  • Conducted Teleconference of Next Phase Committee
  • D. Muhammad completed CPR training
  • Welcomed 2nd of two RET teachers aboard for 6 week program

LIGO Computing and Network Security (Roddy)

Reported under General Computing, see below

General Computing and LDAS Admin (Giardina)

Reported under General Computing, see below

Reported under LDAS System Administration, see below

Data analysis & Computing (Yakushin)

Storage/Condor/LDAS admin: Reported under LDAS System Administration, see below

Data analysis: Reported under Data Analysis activities, see below

Mechanical and Optical Systems (Coyne)

See Advanced LIGO

Controls and Data Systems (Bork)

See Advanced LIGO

40-Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

There was a meeting of the 40meter Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on June 7th at 08:30 Pacific. Rana went through these slides. The focus was on DC readout, and plans for the future.

IFO Commissioning, Electronics, Controls, Computers

  • Rob got the interferometer back into reliable PRFPMI locking, after fixing some problems that was hampering lock acquisition recently. He noticed lots of glitches in the length sensing signals, and traced it to the c1ass alignment system.
  • We are preparing to vent in order to drag-wipe the test mass optics, in hopes of learning about anomalous losses and point scattering centers on the optic surface. Helena is giving us a tutorial on safe drag wiping. Steve is checking and turning up the HEPA filters.
  • The laser power has been slowly decreasing over the last couple of months; Steve is watching it carefully.
  • Rob noticed that the PSL autolocker is getting unreliable, and Rana is tracing it to some problems with the alignment into the PC and PMC cavities. To be tweaked up.
  • Tobin compared the RIN of our various HeNe lasers with that of the diode lasers we used to use for oplevs. The diode lasers are much worse.
  • Various scripts are being moved off of op140m onto other controls computers, with the goal of decommissioning op140m soon. Several EPICS processors had to be reconfigured to point to linux1 instead of op140m.
  • op540m continues to spontaneously crash, and suspicion lies in the dual-head video card. Under investigation.

IFO Modeling

  • Stefan is modeling the new length sensing scheme for aLIGO, and planning is continuing for prototyping the new scheme at the 40m.

DC Detection

  • Rob and Rana made a suite of measurements of laser and oscillator noise couplings in DC and RF readout, in the PRFPMI configuration. Some effort was necessary to compensate for the RFAM stabilization circuitry. Most of the broad features are understood, but some discrepancies in comparison with the Optickle modeling point to couplings that aren't yet understood.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

This week, Ilaria resolved the alignment issues with the mode cleaner and brought the beam around into the arm cavities. The arm cavities displayed some unusual behavior when we tried to align to them, almost acting like there was an AR coating applied to the curved surfaces for 633 nm. We switched to 670 nm for the auxiliary alignment beam, and the problem went away.

LASTI (Mittleman)

  • We are back under vacuum after our vent from 2 weeks ago. There are continuing issues with the chilled water system. We have a very minor failure during the initial pump down, that took 2 or 3 days to clear up because MIT maintenance hasn't officially taken charge of it yet, negotiations are under way.
  • We have been spending a lot of time preparing for the Quad-Noise prototype assembly and the ISI assembly, both of which are now schedule to begin on June 25th. The scaffolding around the ISI test stand is completed, next week we will do a final cleaning of that area and declared it a clean area.
  • The work area for the suspension assembly/welding is coming along. The water chiller has arrived and is waiting to get plumbed. The small clean room for that area arrived today and will get assembled next week.
  • We did a clean and bake of one of the ISI capacitive position sensors as a test run, it passed so we will now to the rest of the sensors.

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

_________________

Gregory Mendell:

  • I am continuing to work with Karl Wette on generalized PowerFlux methods for a poster to be presented at the Amaldi meeting in Sydney in July.

_________________

Kent Blackburn: OSG Group

OPEN SCIENCE GRID APPLICATION ACTIVITIES:

  • Organized weekly teleconference and agenda with Pegasus developers.
  • Attend weekly LIGO-Pegasus and DASWG teleconferences where it was reported that we are now able to use the Data Archive at UWM for OSG production runs.
  • Filed Monthly report to OSG Twiki
  • Continued troubleshooting of problems running workflows for the H(t) binary inspiral analysis on OSG sites:
    • unable to get data from Caltech due to current heavy load on all tape drives
    • began using PSU for data transfers but unfortunately the data being used was accidently deleted and will need to be restored from Caltech (which will take awhile due to the current load on tape drives)
    • worked with site admin at UWM to get the necessary setup and permissions to be able to transfer data from there
  • H(t) binary inspiral workflow analysis:
    • Create 10 segment files to produce LIGO workflows of different job size. Create 10 dax files corresponding to these segment files Used gencdag (Pegasus) to create  10 dag files from the dax
    • Currently running on 10 OSG sites and ldas-grid (local CIT LDG cluster)
    • Measuring the scaling relationships for increasingly larger workflows at the OSG sites currently being used to determine how best to utilize these sites for doing a simulated injection run for the binary inspiral group as part of their efficiency analysis runs. This includes disk usage, run time, number of jobs, errors and failures. Results are being captured in a spreadsheet.

OPEN SCIENCE GRID INTEGRATION TESTBED ACTIVITIES:

  • Updated several new components of the Caltech ITB site, including the CRLs that were announced this week.
  • Discovered a third gateway on the OSG-ITB cluster and addressed same security issues that were previously addressed on the other two gateways.

OPEN SCIENCE GRID MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES:

  • Reviewed preliminary budget sheets for  funded OSG institutions for year two. Discussed evolution and changes with Executive Associate to the OSG.
  • Reviewed my own Caltech budget for the previous month.
  • Reviewed supporting documents to be sent to the NSF for continued funding of the engagement team at RENCI.
  • Reviewed OSG resource access policies document to be discussed at this weeks OSG Blueprint meeting. Circulated to all LSC OSG site admins.
  • Worked with MIT on configuration issues with assistance from the LIGO VO Support Center at PSU to bring up the MIT OSG Production System.
  • Attended OSG Executive Board Meeting and LSC Computer Committee Meeting. Continued discussion of year 2 science milestones to OSG.
  • Began discussion of the formation of an allocation  committee with the OSG Council which would fall under the  responsibilities of the OSG Resources Managers.

_________________

Eirini Messaritaki:

  • I worked on the blind injection test analysis.
  • I worked on the project of detection of eccentric binary inspirals with non-eccentric post-Newtonian templates.

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

  • After adding much debugging code to the diskcacheAPI to analyze the deadlock, a new approach is being tried with utilizes timed thread lock acquisition. This new code should be in place for the weekend running. Efforts are also underway to eliminated the sending of signals to cancel threads.
  • The use of S5 data for cmonClient's createRDS tests is currently under testing on one of the tandem systems.
  • The cmonClient has also been enhanced to return the correct description of a resource when there is one description for similar resources.
  • The logging of scanning times in the disckcacheAPI has been enhanced to break the time into hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds instead of just milliseconds.
  • The DMT tests now pause at the end of each round waiting for the completion of the last job. Only after the last job completes is the database purged of the information in preparation for the next round.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

  • Relabeled tapes containing obsolete (rm'd) data at LLO.  There are three more tapes like this that will be put back in the silo next week.
  • Did lots of LDR work (kicking it to make it work mostly).  Identified problem with network bandwidth from LLO over the weekend.
  • Set up access for Scott Koranda as grid@ldas-cit.
  • Did lots of work with staging problems for Xavi's h(t) generation.
  • Confirmed details of CIT tape order with Greg.
  • Worked on problem of unstageable files which eventually required a reboot of dataserver-cit.
  • Struggled with smaller (2 tray + controller) 6140 set up which had gotten wedged in a very bad way at some point in the last few weeks (power outage maybe?).  Finally got it back to "out of the box" configuration.

(Phil Ehrens)

  • Installed LIGO MOU webforms project on betelgeuse.  Ongoing configuration and debugging of installation.  Currently the wiki, the initialisation form, and the report upload form are operational. PDF generation script is partially complete.

(Erik Espinoza)

  • Deployed logmon key to all nodes.
  • Worked with Phil to get log_mon properly restarting.
  • Debugging kernel issues.
  • Participated in telecon for os-committee.
  • Submitted case on RAID/ldas-grid with Sun.
  • Configured demo ASA Computer w/ CentOS 3.x.
  • Worked with Dan to stage files for Xavi's jobs for proper termination.
  • Configured condor_preen to not send e-mail.
  • Configured test nodes to do Periodic Checkpoint every 24 hrs.
  • Requested quote from Sean for a half dozen node fans.
  • Worked with Xavi on final dagman issues.
  • Worked with Livio to transfer final WSR8 files to Cascina.
  • Diagnosed and fixed ldas-jobs after file system problem.
  • Tested condor x509 credential fixes.
  • Built condor test dag which does vanilla, standard, multiple variables and x509 credential forwarding.
  • Configured head node scratch space backups.

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

  • ligo-burst cluster ldap integrated with nova/gravity cluster.
  • Centralizing config files, administration scripts for the 3 clusters on gar (for now), shared automounts between the 3 clusters.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

  • X4500 has been running the burntest for more than a week; it passed successfully ~154 iterations
  • Resyncing LLO and CIT databases is scheduled to start on Friday.
  • Working on a new version of segpagegen that includes Virgo and GEO science segments into segwizard dump. 

(Dwayne Giardina)

  • Tape eject for shipment to CIT.
  • Replaced power strips on another rack of nodes.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

  • I am working on ordering tapes to archive data until the end of S5, and post S5 plans for RDS generation and the LDAS room at LHO.

(Ben Johnson)

  • Racked up the X4500 along with a 5kVA UPS (required moving a T3).  Also rebalanced circuits B and C which feed the UPS.
  • Received the 10 node power supplies from ASA.
  • Continued work on the LDAS NDS server.
  • Patched gateway and dataserver with the FC patch.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

  • Prep for move (listing ip address to change etal; moving equipment (to basement; some to reuse).
  • Effective ldap syncrepl under tls now working (burst cluster, gc).
  • Setup ilog site (for crash/burn) on pellinore (zone); monitor ergonomic issues (lcd) for solidworks machines.
  • Resolved; some purchasing issues (LASTI macine; software).

Livingston

(Dwayne)

  • put new PC in HPLF
  • activated a few network ports in offices
  • set up 3 PCs for SURF students
  • usual user support requests
  • cleared spam trap

LLO mail summary for 31 May 2007 - 7 June 2007:

Rejected:  7,350(580 containing virus)

Accepted: 4,591

Total: 11,941

(Shannon)

  • Configured a new vlan for HVAC infrastructure.  This is mostly to allow the HVAC software to be used from Allen's office, though it will first be tested from Dwayne's office.
  • Replaced a failed power supply in the web server, and replaced a borrowed power supply in one of the outreach PCs.
  • Ordered a variety of replacement items, (power supplies, UPS replacement, etc.).
  • Dug up some inventory info for Rod.
  • Quite a bit of work on documentation, conference calls, etc.
  • Ordered a laptop for John Thacker.
  • Looked into a networking issue over the weekend on the WAN connection. It is still a mystery to both LSU and LIGO as to what happened.  It was past the LLO network so my troubleshooting is limited.
  • Investigated a potential vulnerability.  Ongoing.
  • Sent Larry some information on IDS alerts over the last week.  They are looking into it.

Hanford

(Christine)

  • As of Tues., 6/5, LHO is now running BGP peering with ESnet for both our primary GigE network and our backup FastE network. The backup network was tested after having been moved to new fiber for the LHO to PNNL run and it works. BGP will allow me to test the backup network periodically, which I was unable to do before with the static routes.
  • Coincidentally on Wed. 6/6, Charter accidentally pulled the fiber for the LHO GigE while working on adjacent fiber. The BGP automatically switched network traffic to the backup network within seconds of the outage and automatically switched back to the primary network when the fiber was restored.
  • There is still an issue with the backup network not performing at expected bandwidth. All of the hardware on the circuit is FastE, so we should be getting near FE bandwidth, but are only getting about a tenth of that. More testing is needed to track down the cause.
  • The LHO network MRTG bandwidth usage graphs do not appear to properly report all the bandwidth.  Testing is being set up to track the problem.
  • Set up two old WinXP desktops for summer student and visitor use. Configured and added two "hand-me-down" laptops to the loaner pool.  One running WinXP the other Fedora Core 6 with local user account only, not NIS+ client.
  • Set up GC accounts for first SURF student and for summer helper.
  • Installed latest Matlab on community PCs.  Helped other users get the new license file and install the software.
  • Setup a new printer in the Computer User room.  Setup local printers and computers in the Staging building for summer teachers.
  • Set up three Solaris 10 Ultra 25s for the Computer User Room.

CIT

(Mike)

  • A lot of user support with new SolidWorks user. Things seem to be working ok for him now.
  • I now have our SolidWorks sandbox upgraded. I have some licensing issues to work out before I put this server into use.
  • Continued work a on sun box that is going to be used to swap out canopus. Larry is working on this as well. There are a lot of packages that need to be installed before we swap this server out.
  • I loaded a new sun box to swap out (sadal) this is on going project as well.
  • Some work on in our server room, working with electricians and Larry moving network cables and other equipment out of the way for plumbers to do their welding without burning anything.
  • Spent time on pherkab. Presently, using a newly built machine to see of a reboot problem on the old machines goes away.
  • Other misc. user support and sysadmin tasks.

(Bruce Sears)

  • General iLog maintenance and issue handling.

(Christian)

  • 40 Meter- Configured new system with our standard LIGO image. Iıve also upgraded visitorsı workstation from Windows 2000 to XP.
  • Configured loaner laptop with Mathlab and Mathematica for new Surf student.
  • Minor tweaks on the unit in the display case.
  • Continue working with the installation on WSUS clients for LIGO users.
  • Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Larry)

  • Continual work on procurements. Received and delivered a number of misc. items. Ordered new workstations to replace obsolete ones. Working out maint. contracts on a number of items and Solidworks license renewal is also in the works.
  • Worked a number of different h/w issues with Mike and Christian. Different computers and specialty setups.
  • Resolved some configuration issues on a couple of the 40M computers. Still some work to do but they are now functional.
  • Continual work with PMA and the contracting groups doing work on the different rooms.
  • Assisted PMA in troubleshooting a switch and a computer that appears to have a bad motherboard.
  • Setup a number of new accounts including ones for the students that have started arriving.
  • Worked with Mike and Christian on some solidwork issues. Things appear to be in pretty good shape. However, we did learn that in the future the existing hi-end machines will not be enough and that 64bit machines will be needed to supply the resources for Solidworks to function properly.
  • Working on a couple of new server installations and upgrades on other equipment.
  • Finally have CISCO communicating with us and trying to workout a economical upgrade on the existing router.
  • Installed a new edgeswitch in the sub-basement. Troubleshot another edgeswitch that is now in the process of being RMA'd.
  • Regular user support and meetings.

(Veronica)

  • LIGO:  Web support of the AdLIGO NSF review, PAC meeting.
  • LSC:  A website for the July L-V meeting, installed the static part, working on the online registration app., pending the organisational details being finalised.  Updates of the database of technical papers, sysadmin support.
  • CaJAGWR:  Taped the last talk, processed for streaming, updated the website.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Systems

Modeling and Simulation

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

Static IFO simulation (Hiro)

  • Code development of the coupled cavity code to speed up and to clean up so that the full configuration simulation can be built easily and can run fast.
  • Also the algorithm for the full configuration simulation is being developed.

Modeler : e2e simulation engine and ALFI : e2e front end (Hiro, Bruce, Melody)

  • UserDefinedPrimitive (mex file equivalent of matlab, to build a primitive with arbitrary inputs and outputs without rebuilding the simulation engine) development is in the final stage. Melody ported a module to calculate the radiation pressure to UDP. This brought up several issues to be solved. Bruce is visiting Caltech this from June 8 to 14, and the code development and basic documentations are planned to be finished. 

Mechanical Simulation for advanced LIGO (Sany and SLU team)

  • With the summation cavity model (called TriCav) that Hiro modified last week, we looked at the influence of computation time step. (There was an uncertainty regarding the computation time step related to the way the summation cavity model handles time derivative.) We tested time steps of 10 micro sec and 1 micro sec by including TriCav into our Mode Cleaner model and found no significant difference between them in the resultant transmitted optical power.
  • The six undergraduate students pursuing LIGO related research on campus continued learning e2e simulation and matlab. They are now able to write simple e2e codes using alfi, and have mastered other basic things such as the use of .par file and .in file. One student started to learn Mark Barton’s mathematica model of Adv LIGO suspensions. He is planning to model the violin mode effect with e2e by re-computing Mark’s mathematica model with the violin effect taken into account and including the resultant statespace matrix.

CDS Prestabilized Laser

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

  • A standard operating procedure (SOP) for the 2-W InnoLight NPRO was completed and submitted for approval.  The SOP is based on the new guidelines in the Project's laser safety program.
  • A webpage outlining the results of testing some laser safety eyewear with the 35-W and 140-W laser was written.  The materials tested were the Schott filters KG3 and KG5.  The results will be presented to the safety committee at the next meeting.
  • A new schematic for an hour meter was drawn up.  The circuit was quickly prototyped.  The behaviour of the actual circuit and the circuit model differ in the response of the trigger level - something which I suspect is due to the hysteresis of the LM311 comparator.  Otherwise if the trigger voltage swings through 0V then the circuit behaves properly and drives the hour meter.

Control and Data Systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

Lasti ISI Controls

  • Installation is to begin next Monday, June 11, and continue through June 22.
  • Electronic chassis are either through test or finishing up test. Most everything will ship in time for Monday delivery.
  • Initial software is undergoing test. This software will only be used to test the system ie the actual controls software will follow later.
  • This system requires more I/O cards than will fit in one of our I/O chassis. We connected a second unit on a separate PCIe link, and this seems to work fine (first time we had tried this).

General Software

  • At the CDS software meeting, we discussed two primary items:
    • Justin presented a list of items that operators would like to see improved in existing software. I will try to prioritize this list and see what we can do.

One item was to have the alarm managers produce different sounds, not just the standard 'beep' for everything. I sent Dave and Lisa some options on how to do this with the present system.

  • Discussed the possibility of automatically generating an EPICS Status system from the Matlab files that generate the FE code. The basic idea is that a tree would be automatically produced for use by the EPICS alarm handler (ALH). The concept seems ok, but details still need to be worked out to see if this will meet our needs.
  • Started discussions on additional diagnostics to be provided with each system:
    • Common state vectors for each major component eg for each chamber, the HEPI softcware could provide a state vector, which might include UP/DOWN/TEST_MODE/OFF/ALARM_TRIP, etc. The individual vectors then could be rolled up to higher level states, such as LOCKED/ALIGN/ALIGN++/SCIENCE, etc.
    • Besides the standard FE control software, each system would be delivered with standard code/scripts which can be used to automatically test full system operation. The idea is to go out and find those scripts that others have developed over time and see if we can come up with a common way and/or set of rules for providing these types of features for all systems as part of the initial delivery.
    • Worked a bit with writing S functions in Matlab. As it stands now, our Matlab parts used to generate CDS realtime code will not all work in Matlab simulation mode. So, I made a few into S functions, such that they would work both in Matlab and in our code. In general, this seems pretty simple to do. I will continue to look at this for all of our parts. If this works out, then perhaps our next release will have these new parts and function in both environments.

OMC

  • We are putting the finishing touches on the interface electronics for the ELIGO OMC.
  • Finished my analysis of braided cables and have ordered some custom braids from a cordage company.
  • Working the last details of OMC related metal work.
  • Doing noise measurements on the OMC DCPD.  Initial results show that the current design is well within spec.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

BSC Seismic Isolation Assembly and Test

  • The results of the FTIR testing of the (9) large BSC parts showed the parts were acceptable. They have been crated by Galli & Morelli and will be picked up for shipment on Friday. Stephany has completed the first draft of the BSC seismic assembly procedures.

HAM Seismic Isolation Design and Fabrication

  • A final design review was held on Tuesday to review changes since the last review, review assembly drawings, and review assembly procedures. Andy has completed checking approximately 50% of the fabrication drawings which includes all long lead items. HPD has received the purchase order for the fabrication of the two Enhanced LIGO HAM Systems. A purchase request has been submitted for the HAM support tubes, spherical bearings, and tube mounts. An extra set of support tubes was ordered to be used for th HAM test stand.

From: Brian Lantz <BLantz@stanford.edu>

The SEI telecon is Friday, June 1 at 2 pm eastern, 1pm central, 11 am pacific, etc.

HAM contract status

  • Contract was Fed-Exed to HPD on 5/30
  • Orders for the actuators, and Geophones went out last week
  • This week we've put out orders for 6 support tubes displacement sensors
  • Quotes coming in for cabling
  • Who will make the lockers? Seems like this should be CDS, Joe G got lockers last time for the BSC ISI.
  • Ben to make internal board for GS-13s
  • FDR will be Tuesday June 5 at 1pm eastern. Will cover the assembly and some details
  • Bolt breaking phonecall on Thursday, 1pm eastern

Progress on the BSC

  • Cleaning status of big parts: Riccardo  took FTIR samples, sent samples to JPL, should have results today (6/1) but haven't seen them yet. The parts will ship from G&M to Arland tool, Ken to be on site at Arland, Arland has special carts, etc to deal with large, heavy equipment
  • Bob Taylor sent another crate to LASTI, nearly all done
  • Bob Taylor noticed that some of the bolts were rusting. 3/8-16 bolts Ken says that LASTI used some black oxide bolts for the dirty assembly, but they should not have been cleaned. there is some 420 stainless, but can corrode.
  • G&M will ship the oven to LLO, when the BSC is done. John Worden to make final call about location, he said LLO Alan Sibley, John to talk about facilities changes at LLO to receive the airbake oven from G&M.
  • Dennis reports that the actuators are back from the second (hotter) bake, and that the RGA scans from Kyle look really good. Yeah!
  • ISI electronics: Jay, Alex, coming in June 11, Rolf on June 18. to LASI Ben Abbott will probably be there, too. Richard McCarthy coming also.
  • Stephany has finished assembly procedures, so we can have a template for markup when we put it back together.
  • Pods at LLO: 1 STS-2 left to be assembled GS-13s tested, 1 didn't pass. On disassembly, GS-13 passed, so not sure what the problem is.
  • Put L4C pods in bake oven 7e-10 torr liter/sec leak from L4C pods spec'ed torque didn't squeeze the gasket all the way. Increased the torque on the bolts, and the metal flanges now touch. On L4C, For the 5/16th bolts, went from 190 to 300 inch-lbs on the GS13, took 5/16th from 345 to 440 in-lbs on the 1/4-28 bolts, went from about 110 to 200 inch-lbs. Joe Hanson did some destructive testing of the unlubricated bolts in the lab to determine their proof strength, but the test conditions didn't match the conditions of the L4C pods, so the testing will be improved. Put the L4Cs back in, did a RGA scan, New scan shows hydrocarbon contamination, perhaps of the oven. Rebaking the RGA, then will retest the RGA volume, then the empty bake oven. Is there a better way to do the leak testing without using the  bake oven? For leaks of < 1e-9 torr-liter/sec, bell jar probably not good enough. Brian O will look into getting another leak check oven, so that leaks do not necessitate cleaning the bake oven. STS-2 emulator needs some modification, because it doesn't emulate the host box.
  • Control computer: Playing with quack, trying to design a matlab function which will extract block names from simulink diagram, and then use quack to create the filter from matlab, and push the data into the foton file.

Suspensions

From: Norna Robertson <nroberts@ligo.caltech.edu>

  • OMC suspension work: Electronics and computing system now completely installed and working - thanks to Jay and CDS group. OSEMs now connected and functioning and some preliminary sys-id on mode frequencies carried out. Damping loop successfully closed on one degree of freedom.
  • Draft of Suspensions and Isolation (SWG) section of LSC white paper completed and sent round for comments.

From: Janeen Romie <janeen@ligo-la.caltech.edu>

  • Output Mode Cleaner Suspension: Rich delivered the OMC cables yesterday to room 056. Norna and Vuk will continue the OMC testing. In the meantime, Calum will update the new metal bench drawing along with the new interface parts to get them into procurement as soon as possible. These parts closely resemble Sam's actual glass bench and interface.
  • Recycling Mirror Suspension: I have been working with Bob & Greer daily on the recycling mirror suspension tasks. Bob is concentrating on the design and Greer is concentrating on stiffening up the structure. Greer is near the goal 1st mode plus a safety margin. Calum has been able to join us for a few meetings to provide direction and background, for which we are grateful.
  • ELI EQ stops: The metal screws and silica tips are being fabricated now. Screws are due ~June 25, tips are due between July 10 & 17.
  • Provided a monthly schedule status to Dwight and Carol with Norna, Jay and Helena's input.
  • Provide back-up information to Dennis on QA issue the NSF brought up last night.

From: k mailand kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu

  • I finished the layouts of the faraday assembly suspended in an LOS, the pick off  telescope, and the pick off mirror for Mike Smith, for review at the aos meeting 6-7

Core Optic

From: Bill Kells kells@ligo.caltech.edu

This week, more on the front of understanding [fully] the "globular cluster" beam spot images ubiquitous to all interferometer HR surfaces. We have now made some useful comparisons of such images: 4k LHO; 40m ETM; and a 1'' diameter sample (superpolished) mirror in air in the OTF. A tentative conclusion (in agreement with previous non-imaging scan scatter measurements) is that a significant fraction of the most prominent points in the "globular cluster" are "fixed" physical points. This means that they are identifiable as fixed in [surface] position for any view point imaged. This invariance would not be the case for random surface speckle (e.g. generated by micro-roughness). However this appears not to be the only component. A speckle like background component is identifiable. This becomes especially apparent in careful review of video taken several years back of beams spots on diagonal surfaces at LHO (BS and fold mirrors). True physical scattering points "twinkle" differently than the background micro-roughness speckle (under scanning by the cavity sanding wave pattern).

From: Helena Armandula ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu

Advanced LIGO Coatings

  • LASTI mirror: We are settled in the Robinson lab, received the holder to move the mirror. I'll be cleaning the holder on Thursday and be ready for a visual inspection of the coating on Friday. The document sent by LMA on the coating characterization, E070150-00, can be found in the DCC OUT. Testing new mirror cleaning methods to be used during Enhanced LIGO interferometer up date. Nothing new will be used that has not been tested before, just developing more practical applications.

Advanced LIGO SUS

  • The gold plating on the inner surface of the ring heater shield will be ready for pick-up on Friday.Orders for the ELI bumpers (earthquake stops)have been placed. Signed the drawings for the clean room to be used during OMC assembly.

Auxiliary Optics

No report

Input Optics

From: David tanner@phys.ufl.edu

Muzammil Arain

  • We are proposing to use Bullseye sensors for mode matching measurements at LLO. This will be particularly useful in determining the causes of 17% light at the reflected port at full power. A document describing the measurement techniques and plans has been submitted in DCC with DCC number of LIGO-T070120-00-Z.  The plan is to do these measurement after the finish of S5.

Muzammil Arain and Antonio Lucianetti

  • Rotation of polarization through TGG has beem measured as a function of position of TGG Inside the Faraday rotator magnet housing. Thermal lensing measurements in air were also performed to determin the thermal lensing in DKDP and TGG.

For additional information about this report, contact Albert Lazzarini or Phil Lindquist