Weekly Report for Week Ending September 20, 2007

LSC	Administration	Hanford Observatory	Livingston Observatory
Optical & Mechanical	Controls and Data Systems	40 Meter Facility	TNI
LASTI	CIT Science Group	Laboratory Computing	Adv. LIGO Development

Past Weekly Reports

---

LSC Issues (Reitze)

• The LSC was well represented at the 2007 Frontiers in Optics/Laser Science Conference in San Jose, CA this week.  FiO/LS one of the two large optics conferences organized by the Optical Society of America; Fred Raab was one of the co-chairs of the Laser Science conference.  By my count, there were approximately 8 invited talks by LSC members on various aspects of gravitational wave interferometry, and all talks were very well attended and received.
• The S4 CW PowerFlux/Hough/Stackslide all-sky search has been submitted to PRD.
  

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

• Andrews University has been approved and is now being routed for signature.
• ACIGA and Goddard were resubmitted with the revisions requested by the review panel. These revised MOUs were posted for review by the panel only.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

• Beginning to process a fairly large backlog of MOU's and attachments that haven't been addressed due to other pressing needs.
• Much progress has been made in processing in the large backlog of documents that has accumulated over the last couple of months.

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Funaro, Brambila, Oracion)

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

• For ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY Press Here.

>From: Karl Oracion <koracion@ligo.caltech.edu>>

• Started analysis and reconciliation of Sep-07 data for monthly report for operations.
• Sent two cost transfers to project accounting for pre-approval.
• Submitted realignment request to project accounting.
• Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport. (For passwords contact Karl)

SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Jasnow, Salone)

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

• Renewal of several contracts that expire at the end of the fiscal year is taking place now.  Funds are being added where necessary.  If sufficient funds are available, the contracts are just having the period of performance extended.

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

• The third phase contract for the HAM seismic isolation system is being issued to HPD Industries.  This is the final contract for the test and assembly of the system.
• Inventory of property at the LLO warehouse is underway.  After the inventory is completed, we will request a transfer of title to all the property from the NSF.  We will then dispose of it as required.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

We submitted the LIGO Continuing Operations Proposal (FY 2007 through FY 2013) to the NSF this week. [AL note: Phil, thank you for seeing this through to completion!]

We are currently building a first draft of the budget for FY2008.  This will be distributed, and we will be making appointments with the task managers to go over these budgets.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

• CR-070007 for funding to cover increased design and fabrication costs for SEI HAM Prototypes was reviewed on Monday, September 17.  The Change Board recommended approval.  The change request is currently in the electronic signoff cycle.
• No open change requests are ready -- we are expecting a few soon.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

Nothing significant to report this week.

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

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

The duty cycle of H1 and H2 (from Thu. 13/Aug/2007 to Wed. 19/Sep/2007) were 89.2 and 86.1 percent, with typical binary range of 14 to 16 Mpc and 6 to 7+ Mpc, respectively.

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

Highlights from the LHO elog:

• Major earthquakes of this week: 6.4 Indonesia, 5.2 and 4.7 Russia, KOMANDORSKIYE OSTROVA, 6.6 Indonesia.
• Calibration measurement for H1 and H2.
• Noise hump in H2, which might be related to RM bias noise, came back. Then it repeated itself once more.
• Beam splitter centering servo died once, taking both IFOs out of lock.
• H2 BS optical lever laser was swapped.
• Results of scattering measurements were posted to elog.
• More examples of H1 ISS glitches coincident with DARM glitches.

Outreach (D. Ingram):

• Guillermo Rodriguez and Antonio Trevino are pursuing engineering coursework at Columbia Basin College and WSU Tri-Cities. They are in the midst of LHO internships during which they are working on a combination of outreach and science projects. On the outreach side, they have completed a simple yet stylish wave machine that will be of value as an on-site exhibit and a road-trip activity.

 

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

S5 run summary (Igor Yakushin)

• The duty cycle for the week is 81%.
• Most of the time the inspiral range was close to 15Mpc.
• On Saturday calibration measurements were done from 12:26pm to 8:20pm CT (ilog entries: Shift summary ,MICH open loop gain measurements on ASPD1-4, DARM open loop gain measurements in ASPD1-4 ).
• The downtime was coordinated with LHO.

CDS Computing (Lisa Bogue):

• Attended ligo-wide cyber security review.
• Working with Dave to list and prioritize post S5 changes.
• Continuing work on LDAP.

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)

• Rob has been locking the dual-recycled michelson (without arm cavities), using double demod signals (with SRC->PODD, MICH->APDD, PRC->SP133). The handoffs from the single-demod signals (PRC->REFL33I, MICH->REFL33Q, SRC->REFL166I) used for lock acquisition appear to work well. He's working on better defining the output matrix and diagonalizing the loops.
• In the process, Rob found that the front end ETMX controller was running late. He and Tobin will work on diagnosing and fixing the problem, maybe with the help of Alex. Rana suspects there is too much load on the front end processors due to the large number of fast channels being acquired.
• Rana implemented new suspension damping filters on the MC optics, with resonant gain only at the pendulum frequencies. There is a significant reduction in rms noise. We'll look into implementing similar filters for the POS degree of freedom of all optics. Sonia's damping gain optimization needs to be redone with these new filters; Andrey is working on it.
• Andrey is using the XARM_CTRL signal to optimize the damping gain of ETMX and ETMY, using his modifications of Sonia's scripts. He can't do the YARM until we get YARM_CTRL into the DAQ.
• Elena has come up with some SISO adaptive filters to cancel the newtonian noise from the suspension signal using the signals from the accelerometers. She played with different filter orders and found that filters of order 64 or 128 seem to work well. Now she's working on combining data from multiple accelerometers in a MISO scheme.
• Sam has finished assembly of the first eLIGO OMC, and measured some of its optical properties. He finds a 96% mode matching coupling, 95% transmission for the carrier, and a finesse of 400. Compared to specs, this suggests an anomalously high mirror loss, despite drag wiping the mirrors and running the HEPA filter at full blast.
• Bob and Steve replaced the flaky 4-pin lemo cables on the ETMX and ETMY suspension controllers that go from the OSEM whitening boards to the AA chassis.
• Rana has received a GigE camera for profiling beams, and Pinkesh will look into implementing it. The ultimate goal is to replace all the analog cameras at the sides and the 40m with a network of these things.
• Rob's talk on DC readout at Amaldi was chosen as a highlight paper for CQG. So now Rob is writing the paper.

 

---

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

• Recommissioning continues after the move. All the magnets are now glued on the arm-cavity mirrors, and the mode-cleaner axis has been established.

---

LASTI (Mittleman)

BSC ISI

• We have finished the installation of the small actuators and suspended and rebalanced stage 2. The shimming of the actuator brackets seems to have worked, the definitive test will come when we get the electronics connected and can start measuring transfer functions.
• We have moved on to installing the large actuators. We have had some problems here also, but yesterday we found that the actuator bracketry had not been installed properly so hopefully fixing that will solve the problems.

Lasti Vacuum

• The pondermotive squeezers have finished their mortifications in the mid-x HAM chamber and we have started pumping down.

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

Kent Blackburn for the Grid Computing Research Group:

GRID APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT

• Wrote agenda for weekly LIGO-Pegasus conference call.
• Participated in weekly LIGO-Pegasus, DASWG and OSG-USERS conference calls.
• Familiarization with ReSS: read on-line documentation,  contacted Gabriele for additional information.
• Familiarization with SRM: read on-line documentation, contacted Abhishek for additional information.
• ITB CE OSG 0.7.0 testing continued:  FNAL_FERMIGRID_ITB, TTU_TESTWULF, LIGO_CIT_ITB done, nsf-lite problem at CIT_ITB_1, UCSDT2_ITB1 continuously fails with same error message (see below), jobs idle at remaining 2 sites.
• ITB SE OSG 0.7.0 testing: started srmcp test on ITB SE sites in question to verify that the LIGO VO is supported.
• Trouble shooting (with Karan Vahi) UCSD_T2_ITB1: message in *.err: main job specification empty or invalid.
• Troubleshooring (with Duncan Brown) pegasus-plan-error regarding filename double nesting.
• Continue testing on OSG sites: run-time testing of LIGO workflows of different job size/job length.

OSG INTEGRATION AND VALIDATION TESTBED

• Attended PEGASUS, DASWG, OSG ITB and OSG VTB telecon.
• Debugged (globus-job-run, globusrun-ws) ws-gram with Jeff and Xin on BNL site.
• Exchanged ideas/solution about LIGO idle condor jobs at UC_ITB and IUPUI-ITB.
• Worked with Rob Quick on IUPUI-ITB site to complete the LIGO work flows.
• Discovered RESS missing LIGO-CIT-ITB site info, report the problem to the ITB mailing list.
• Found httpkey.pem read permission problem by "daemon"; change ownership of httpkey.pem to "daemon", LIGO-CIT-ITB report to osg-ress-4 server correctly. Site info shows up in OSG RESS.
• Deleted VOs from VO Site Validation Table according to Abhishek's instructions.
• Continued debug LIGO work flow on UC ITB site with Suchandra.
• ws-gram stop function, found key permission problem (because the last fix on Ress overlook the pemission for ws-gram), changed to correct permission 600.
• Added CompBioGrid to VO validation table on the twiki page.
• Debugged the LIGO work flow on FNAL site and UCSD site.
• Ran LIGO work with old binary on osg-itb successfully.
• Ran LIGO work flow on TTU site.
• Setup both SRM v1 and v2 client environment for Britta to use and test.
• Edited VO site validation twiki page to add back NANOHUB and put checks on sites according to their test results.
• SRM SE Testing, found authentication problem, request FNAL, UCSD and BNL to add ligo user DN.
• Found difference between usage manual and version 2 srm client usage, report to ITB list and Storage list.
• Current SE test result of 5 sites in the validation table:
  • FNAL_FAPL_ITB_SE (SRM v1) pass
  • LIGO-CIT-ITB (SRM v1) pass
  • BNL_Test_SE (SRM v1) (authentication fail)
  • TTU_bestman (SRM v2) pass
  • UCSandiegoOSG-Prod-SE (SRM v1) pass

OSG MANAGEMENT

• Continued receiving OSG Year 2 Statements of Work for review.
• Discussed strategy to streamline review process from Resources Managers view point with Project Associate and Paul Avery.
• Announced to the OSG Finance Board the date and place for the next face to face meeting. A couple of conflicts in scheduling have been reported. It is not yet certain if the originally scheduled date or venue will need to be changed.
• Informed the Pegasus Developers and Users of a policy constraint from UCSD regarding number of files per directory and proposed making this a topic for development in the months ahead.
• Contacted organizer of the Campus Initiative Workshop to be held in Seattle next month where I have been asked to give a brief presentation of OSG and attend the workshop to participate in brainstorming on the subject of distributed computing in the education communities.
• Worked to organize two grid related meetings. One with a visitor from China that will be visiting both Caltech and the US. The other a telecon with German Einstein@Home developers to begin reviewing techniques for running Einstein@Home on OSG and possibly TeraGrid.

_____________________

Kari Hodge

• I have almost finished debugging my neural network code for low mass H1L1 triggers from the S5 playground.
• I have come to the conclusion that adding certain parameters, like eta (even though the distributions of eta are not physical, so it would not actually be an input into the final neural net), cause a 'squashing' of the neural network's output from 0 to 1 to 0 to ~.6 for two reasons. First, the distributions of eta from one instrument for time slides and for injections are not that dissimilar. Second, for any given double coincidence candidate event that came from an injection trigger, the difference in eta between the instruments is usually much larger than the delta M.
• I also got new low mass CBC injections from Drew. I am using these to create a new neural network that starts with one input parameter and builds, rather than the "pruning" method that I was previously using.

_____________________

Kipp Cannon

• Corrected clustering bug in excess power burst search pipeline, and reorganized pipeline's workflow to reduce memory requirements allowing thresholds to be lowered.
• Reanalyzing S4 to measure effects on the pipeline's sensitivity.
• Participated in continuing review of S4 ring-down search results.
• Telecons:  Bursts, DASWG.

_____________________

Gregory Mendell

• I have begun writing up conference proceedings papers for last July's Amaldi meeting.

_____________________

Anand Sengupta

• Craig and I took a look at some of the r-squared stuff (Page 51 and 52 of the S5 Time Domain Notebook), and came to the conclusion that it looks like we could get a good veto out of it, provided we can explain the outlier injections by following them up. One thing we did notice is that there seem to be more outliers on the plot Craig produced than in my plots (even taking into account the lack of available EOB injections in my plots).
• I have created a new tag for lal/lalapps, called s5_highmass_140907. This tag contains all the updates we will need to run the full data for the s5 1yr run, including the file compression, and the max thinca segment length options, amongst other things.
• I have used this to generate a cache for the version 3 dataWe are now in a position to run the full data set slides with the new tag (at least as far as trigbank, until we nail down the r-squared veto).

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• Efforts to integrate all system tests into a single master controlling script continue. Documentation of the descMetaData and database exception test has been updated. The 4 db matrix scripts have been converted to the new system testing framework and have been incorporated into the master script. The metadata test script continues to be reworked to increase reliability and to generate the statistical output.
• System testing was done using version 1.9.53 of LDAS. All system tests passed.
• Long term testing (7 days) of LDAS using build 1.9.46 resulted in only 10 errors. Seven of the errors were with the datacondAPI not receiving data before starting the requested algorithm. This issue is known and a fix is being implemented. The other three failures were malformed commands in the frameAPI. This has been seen in the past and also indicates a communication problem. Currently there is no solution to this problem.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

• Continued work on cleaning up regenerated C03 h(t) situation--all missing data regenerated by Xavi is now in /archive/frames and on tape.  All the data he regenerated that wasn't missing in /archive has been rsync'd back to the nodes.  Remaining to do: finish publishing the newly regenerated stuff, md5sum checks of data rsync'd back to cluster, complete check against Xavi's file lists.
• Worked on setting up 3511 for GC backups and copying backups back from /archive/backup/GC to new filesystem (ongoing).
• Got shared QFS to work between distinct networks using balance.
• Wrote sed script to parse IPMI fan output.
• Worked on LDR problem (some data not transferring).
• Added replaced disk in thumper2 to spare zpool.
• Reconfigured 10.10.x.x network using new switch in Booth.
• Got opterondata-cit to communicate with ACSLS and began testing archiving/staging and checksumming on opterondata-cit.

(Erik Espinoza)

• Condor/Postgres integration and testing of 6.9.4 release.

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• Fixed gar web scripts (node/pcraid disk status); data8 wedged, rebooted; disks(2 returns, 2 replacements).

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

• Coalesced all Science segments in the segment database by creating the next version for each of them.
• Modified LSCsegFind server to work with the version of each segment type. Testing it at LLO.
• X4500 had yellow lights on it indicating a problem. The logs did not show any problems. Tried to use ilom, however, it did not work properly, was extremely slow and showed that /SYS was empty. Powercycled x4500. At first it refused to boot giving 0037 message. However, the yellow lights disappeared. After ilom was unplugged, x4500 successfully booted. I plugged ilom back and everything seems to work again. Not sure if there is still some problem with x4500.

(Dwayne Giardina)

• Tape eject for shipment to CIT.
• Replaced power strips on last remaining rack of nodes.  All are now using new, custom-made power strips.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

• Like last week, I am continuing to work on the next release of LDG and some cyber-security work, and as usual I am making sure the generation, archiving, and transfer of S5 raw, RDS, and trend data is up-to-date.

(Ben Johnson)

• h(t) pulls from CIT to LHO are stumbling along. So far there have been two "transfer is hung" errors which prevented any h(t) data from being transferred for many hours. They have inconveniently occurred at night.
• A T3 reset itself about 23:15 PDT 9/19/2007, causing the corruption of several frame files. Good copies have been copied over from fb0.
• Participated in LIGO-wide cybersecurity review meeting.
• Released initial 5xRAIDZ2 benchmarks. Need to redo the untar benchmarks, and test the 3 and 4 x RAIDZ2 benchmarks.
• Enhanced NDS documentation nearly finished. Initial draft should be ready by Monday.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Moved over a few more ip addresses from 18.120 to 18.161 net (plasma will be reclaiming the 18.120 addresses in nw22).
• More ilog work.
• Secondary (backup) mm server (done).
• Moved(reinstalled) nessus from gar to nepal(updated).
• Testing brightspark syncbackup for xp backups to linux.

Livingston

(Dwayne)

• More WebDAV configuration, tweaks, debugging, etc.
• Replaced ink in a couple printers, replaced the drum kit in one.
• Installed Matlab on a FC6 install, required libXp.  installed CVS on same.
• Moved a couple workstations to the new network.
• mySQL database work for SEC.
• Other usual/unusual user support requests.
• Cleared spam trap.

(Shannon)

• Traveled to Pasadena for the security review
• Upgraded the IDS system at CIT while there.  This makes it essentially like the IDS at LLO now.

Hanford

(Christine)

• Installed Solaris 10 U4 on a Sun X2100 to use as the DNS and public web server.  Started setting up the DNS software and files.
• Purchased a Sun X2200 M2 which will become the new mail server or web mail server depending on which application best fits with the hardware.
• Attended the LIGO Cybersecurity Review on Tues. morning.
• Still working with Veritas support trying to get the tape backup software working.  Generated more debug files for them to review.
• Still trying to find some equipment listed on the property spreadsheet.

Caltech

(Mike)

• Ordered some equipment through Techmart, plus made changes to my account.
• Ran multiple tests on an email certificate issue, when using the Mac OS X Mail tool.
• Millikan: Moved Irene Baldon's workstation to another area. Christian and I setup a cubicle in the same office as Irene for Marilyn Wright.
• Moved and re-programmed an Access Point in synchrotron from the Bay area to the server room.
• Christian and I setup a new plotter up on the 3rd floor of W/B. I also ran some tests with Ken Mailand to figure this printer out when printing Solid Works drawings.
• Worked with Larry on cleaning up the Bridge Annex Server room-18.
• Came across a DCC problem while trying to compact the database. It looks like this process is going to have be done once a week rather than every other week.
• Rebooted all NTSRV's to install Microsoft's critical updates and also went through logs looking for intrusions and system errors. All looks good!
• Other misc. user support and sysadmin tasks.

(Veronica)

• LSC:  Updates of the database of technical papers.  Misc. website updates.
• LIGO:  Load a Linux server to be used as a test box for upcoming projects.  Attended a class on Ruby on Rails.  Images for the homepage headline update, pending Management's approval.  Roster database update. Ongoing web udpates and user support.

(Christian)

• Setup new Hp Plotter in the 3flr W/Bridge with Mike.
• Configured workstation with a Data acquisition card for Riccardo's  Surf Students.
• Minor tweaks on the Windows SUS server.
• Setup a new workstation and helped in a data transfer from a old 51/4 inch floppy.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Larry)

• Worked a number of procurement items. Used Techmart a little for one of the purchases. Worked with a number of people in getting the SUN order through the system. We should start receiving equipment by the end of the month. Tracking down a Dell order for a couple of notebooks. Presently, it looks like I will have to redo the order. Tracked down invoices to wrap up the reconciliation for P-card. Things went well on most of the orders, just some bad timing on when things hit the books. Still working on new workstation orders.
• Worked with Mike and Christian on a number of different setups; Irene's office, the new plotter and various computer setups for different people. Fortunately, Mike and Christian have been carrying the load on these items along with their other work.
• Still working with PMA and others on different network issues for the lab setups being done in Bridge and Synchrotron. The Synchrotron now appears to be nailed down but there are still a few things up in the air for the network setup in the sub-basement of WestBridge.
• Worked on documentation for and participated in the internal Cybersecurity review.
• Worked with a number of users for different items. Setup of accounts and aliases for testing was a popular item this week. The regular items; file recovery, account modifications, licensing setup, printer fixes ...
• Still working on system backups and moving items from disk to tape. This will be a on going project for a few more weeks.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Management

No report

Advanced LIGO Systems

Modeling and Simulation (Yashida for Hiro)

• Hiro integrated an e2e tool that allows us to simulate responses of gravitational wave signals into the latest version of e2e. In this model, the gravitational wave effect can be included in the detector simulator as phase changes in the arm cavities (via a phase input port of the cavity model). We injected a sinusoidal signal to the phase port and confirmed that the optical field of the arm cavity responded to the injection. More thorough validation is planned.

e2e weekly meeting

Attendees: Mark Barton, Richard Williams (SLU undergraduate student) and Sany Yoshida

• We continued the discussion on the e2e modeling of Adv LIGO quad sus with the violin dynamics. Mark showed us how to modify the mathematica code originally written by him so that it outputs actuation forces to the masses.

Static IFO simulation (Hiro)

e2e

• Several years ago, a SURF student (Jeff) modified the e2e package to simulate the response of the GW signals. This includes:
  • a couple of simple GW signal generators,
  • a module to convert the hx and h+ strains to the phase changes along two arms when the orientation of the signal source and two arms are given, and
  • the arm module to accept the phase change due to the GW signal.
• I integrated these modules in the latest e2e 4.0.1 package. Prof. Yoshida and his students will validate this tool and will study the response of IFOs against the GW signal (and the difference between this and the noise induced by noises).

SIS

• The ROC dependence of the marginally stable cavity has been studied. The very stringent requirement reported by Yi Pan could not be observed. ~5 times less loss with the same ROC error. I am trying to understand this difference. Mine is a coupled cavity and his is a full advLIGO configuration. This could be the reason. I asked Yi to let me use his Mathematica code to compare step-by-step.
• SIS for the stable coupled cavity has been modified to run ~10 times faster. This has been accomplished by letting the arm cavity use its own grid size (256), instead of 1024 which is needed to simulate the Michelson cavity. To simulate the proposed configuration, the cavity between MMT2 and MMT3 needs to use a grid size of 2048. This demands huge memory, and, to calculate the audio sideband component, 32 bit memory allocation is not enough, i.e., one needs to use a 64 bit CPU. Unfortunately, my laptop is 32 bit (used at LHO control room and hotel), and the development and test run need to be done remotely on the machine in my office.

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

(Melody Araya)

SIS

• Performing benchmarks between the Intel Math Kernel Library's Fourier Transform functions and FFTW's implementation.

Mechanical Simulation for advanced LIGO (Sany and SLU team)

• Richard and Sany computed Adv LIGO quad sus pos motion taking into account the wires violin mode effect. Norna Robertson found out that the resultant violin peak (420 Hz) was smaller than the design (should be 490 Hz). Mark Barton pointed out that the discrepancy comes from the accuracy in modeling the wire by a certain number of beads. For better accuracy, the number of the beads must be increased and that would require longer computation times. we have concluded that for our current purposes (such as looking at whether or not the violin dynamics cause instability), the present accuracy would be sufficient. We appreciate Norna's comment.  

CDS Prestabilized Laser

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

• Work on the Beckhoff interface took a small leap forward this week since the interface code from LZH compiled.  However it took a disproportionately long time to track down a bug in the hardware where the TwinCAT programming environment did not recognise that the touch panel had an software PLC installed.  I was told that this feature is normally recognised by the software in a majority of cases.  We were in the minority.  After linking the software channels to the hardware, the software then recognised a PLC. Problems arose when it came to the visualisation, as an error message saying that the target visualisation is not supported.  This can only be fixed by yet another software package.  I have a call into Beckhoff for the software and some more hardware terminals.  The extra hardware will replicate that used in the control box and diode box of the front-end laser.
• Still working the heat load numbers; incorporating the heat load of the hose runs.  This is expected to be small but I would like to get an estimate of it.
• Following a recommendation from the infrastructure and review panel, we have asked the company making the optical fibres whether it is possible to get a different coloured jacket.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

BSC Seismic Isolation Assembly and Test

• The assembly of the BSC structure is nearly complete. We have had trouble aligning the stage 0-1 actuators. The actuator gap is small (.045") so a slight mismatch between the stages gets us close to rubbing. New actuators have been designed with larger easy to check gaps. The first 7 are being assembled and will be delivered by 10/15.
• Jay Heefner will be at MIT next week to set up the electronics.

HAM Seismic Isolation Fabrication and Test

• Assembly of the first HAM prototype is scheduled to start during the first week of October. The assembly and test stands are being shipped directly to HPD to meet schedule.
• The first 7 position sensors have been shipped to us. The actuator bobbins have been wound and the magnets are now being sent to Bob Taylor for cleaning.
• A quote was received for the cleaning of the large plates and for the HAM support tubes for enhanced LIGO. They will be shipped to Astro Pak the week of 10/8. The turnaround time is 2-3 weeks, after which they will be sent to Livingston for air baking in the new oven.
• The support tube spherical bearings, bases, and caps have arrived from Limerick Machine.

Suspensions

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

• Main item this week - working on SUS budgets for FY08 with Janeen.
• Also, follow-up from OMC SUS review: prepared and submitted answers to questions sent from the committee.
• Submitted report from Enhanced LIGO update schedule review.
• Attended meetings/telecons on welding issues primarily associated with getting the OMC structure and weld samples tested.
• Attended schedule meeting to discuss LASTI SUS work over next few months.
• Finalised plans for LIGO staff to support RAL visit to LASTI 25th Sept - 5th Oct.
• Sent out note to LSC PIs seeking input for revising the LSC authorlist

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

Advanced and Enhanced LIGO

• Recycling Mirror Suspension: Greer, Bob & Calum are double-checking the non-suspended mass values to make sure we are in line with each other and with the requirements.
• Output Mode Cleaner: Participated in the fab readiness review. Worked with Ken Mailand on a lifting fixture design for Sam's bench and ordered parts to support this. He has received the parts and hopes to get down in the lab in the near future to try it out. The structure is still out with the machine shop for the extra holes for the cable strain reliefs. A meeting with the weld test company representative is tomorrow at 9am PT.
• Earthquake Stops: RFQ process is almost complete. I hope to place a PO tomorrow. Helena has confirmed tip delivery for 27 September.
• Working on budgets with Dennis & Norna. Worked on updating the EQ and OMC schedules.

From: k mailand kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu

Adv. LIGO

• The OMC lift jig fab and assembly is complete and in the 056 lab. I have two local quotes for Janeen re. the beryllium copper fasteners. I have started the design of the zero expansion pick off telescope for Mike Smith.
• The test setup for the faraday 4 wire style damper is in Phil Willems lab, labview is not working.
• Phil and Virginio tried to reinstall it, the test can be made with the oscilloscope.
• The preliminary assembly of the installation arm tool is in progress, also work on a test setup has started.

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

• When we put the ears on the TM and PM at LASTI the positioning relied on a calculation of the effective ribbon flexure position thrown together with ANSYS at the last minute at Glasgow because Phil Willems had been having computer troubles. But now Phil has been able to do the calculation independently and the agreement is very good, so we're retrospectively confident that the ears went on correctly (red=Mark Barton, blue=Phil Willems):
• Here is the graph. Figure caption: Here, dweld is the distance from the point where the neck is half the width of the slide (chosen as an easily identifiable reference) back to the tip of the ear, and dflex is the distance from the tip of the ear forward to the flexure point. The curve asymptotes to 0.3 mm on the left (a weld in the uniform section of ribbon) and rolls off gradually towards an asymptote at 30 mm on the right (a weld very far back along the slide)].

Core Optics

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

• Working budget issues.

From: Helena Armandula ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu

• A technical note documenting the coating characterization of the LASTI mirror performed at Caltech can be found in the DCC # T070233-00 (currently in ‘OUT’).

Auxiliary Optics

From: Michael Smith smith@ligo.caltech.edu

• OPTICAL LAYOUT FOR MARGINALLY STABLE RC: Mike has completed a preliminary layout for the marginally stable recycling cavity. The horizontal wedge for the BS must be increased to approximately 1.4 deg so that the ITMX and BS PO beams separate sufficiently from the main beam. The wedge of the BS and the shift in the minus y-direction causes the MMT3 suspension to move to the minus y side of HAM2, which causes the input modecleaner mirrors MC1 and MC3 to move to the plus y side of HAM2.
• OUTPUT FARADAY ISOLATOR SUSPENSION: Preliminary measurements of the un-damped suspension Q were measured by Virginio. Ken will measure the damping with various elastomeric and eddy-current damping configurations.
• OPTICAL LAYOUT FOR MARGINALLY STABLE RC: Mike has completed a preliminary layout for the marginally stable recycling cavity. The horizontal wedge for the BS must be increased to approximately 1.4 deg so that the ITMX and BS PO beams separate sufficiently from the main beam. The wedge of the BS and the shift in the minus y-direction causes the MMT3 suspension to move to the minus y side of HAM2, which causes the input modecleaner mirrors MC1 and MC3 to move to the plus y side of HAM2.
• OUTPUT FARADAY ISOLATOR SUSPENSION: Preliminary measurements of the un-damped suspension Q were measured by Virginio. Ken will measure the damping with various elastomeric and eddy-current damping configurations.

Input Optics

From: David Tanner tanner@phys.ufl.edu

Muzammil Arain:

• We recently obtained repolished TGG crystals. The crystals were tested at 30 W with e-LIGO beam size (1.62 mm beam radius) under vacuum for 20 hours. No visible damage has been seen under 5 x microscope. The coatings have less than 0.2% reflection loss. 
• Thermal lensing measurements were also performed. The result is similar to earlier measurements. We have a 33 m (+/-3 m) thermal lens at 30 W in both x and y directions. 

Kate Dooley and Antonio Lucianetti:

• Working on optimizing the design of the Faraday Isolator for eLIGO. This past week we've taken measurements of the thermal drift and isolation and transmission ratios as a function of time for a CWP+TFP+HWP+TGG+QR+TGG+DKDP+CWP configuration. Most measurements were done in a vacuum of order 4*10^-6 Torr, but some were repeated in air.
• We observed an 80 urad maximum drift in the reflected and transmitted beams over the course of several hours.
• The isolation ratio degrades significantly in vacuum (from 40dB to 25dB) over the course of a day, while it remains constant in air. Transmission behaves similarly.
• We think a significant portion of the observed drift could be due to the laser and/or optics before the FI. We'll investigate the sources this next week. We are also now preparing to repeat the above measurements with a slightly altered configuration: CWP+TFP+HWP+TGG+QR+TGG+CWP+DKDP.

Volker Quetschke:

• The construction and performance testing of the first eLIGO three electrode modulator (Tri-Mod) was successfully finished.
• The modulator to be used in enhanced LIGO provides the following modulation frequencies / modulation induces:
  • 24.5 MHz / m = 0.37
  • 33.0 MHz / m = 0.14
  • 61.2 MHz / m = 0.14
• The electrodes were driven with the respective  modulation frequency at 10Vpp (24dBm).

Luke Williams:

• Continuing to shepherd eligo FI parts through the machine shop and sending for bake Writing safety analysis of FR assembly.

Rodica Martin:

• Measurements of the magnetic field for the e-LIGO Faraday rotator. The data show a flat plateau of maximum field of 1.159 T, across ~1 cm axial distance inside the magnet. Measurements of the polarization rotation in TGG crystals are under way.
• Prepared the LIGO clean room for polarization rotation measurements for the repolished TGG crystals and other tests for e-LIGO.

---

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