Weekly Report for Week Ending October 11, 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)

• Nothing of consequence this week.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

• Loyola, Maryland and Texas at Austin (shown in table below) were all approved and signed off this reporting period. These will be posted and submitted to the DCC.
• Carleton College, IUCCA and Hobart and William Smith College MOUs were re-submitted with changes requested by the review panel. They have now been re-posted for review by the panel only.
  
• The table below shows all of the MOUs and their attachments that have been approved and signed off to date, by both the LSC Spokesperson and the LIGO Laboratory Director.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)

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

• Working with our broker in making shipping arrangements for an aluminum oxide piece from CIT to Japan.  
• Provided pictures and back up documentation to the NSF for the five assets that were not identify as part of the NFS review last month.
• Working with Property Services in reviewing the FY 07 year end report for Government Property over 25K.
• Submitted a request for relief of accountability for three missing assets at LLO to the NSF.
• Working in gathering procurement documents for thirteen assets as part of the NSF review at LHO.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

• For the most part, am finally up to date on processing of "current" documentation.
• The next daunting task will be to sort, create files and hopefully store all these hundreds of documents that have accumulated into numerous large stacks over the last several months onto the limited shelf space in the DCC.

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Funaro, Brambila, Oracion)

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

For ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY Press Here.

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

• Issued the no-cost extensions to Perkins Coie, and Nor-Cal.
• Complied with vendor's request to close out the Frequency Devices subcontract.
• Working on the response to the PWC audit on subawards. I have researched and pulled together the payments made on the subawards being audited, and have arrived with an amount of payments made during the applicable time period. The figures have been submitted to Karl to review before they are submitted to PWC.  
• Pulled and submitted the files on other orders also being audited by PWC.
• Working on completing the package for Northrop Grumman. The updated certificates were received today and the file is being routed for approval.

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

• Completed and posted monthly operations report as of the end of September 2007 on the network.
• Sent out reports for three discretionary accounts, Low Noise, I2U2, U.Wisconsin awards.
• 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>

• Gina Salone and Guy Fish are gathering data to be included in a presentation for the NSF review in November which will show the cost of site operations over the past year.  This will include both recurring costs and non-recurring costs.

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

• One proposal was received for the additional Pathfinder optics effort for Advanced LIGO. The Evaluation Committee has found the technical proposal meritorious, but the proposed cost is significantly higher than expected.  Discussions with proposer are being scheduled for next week for the purpose of exploring cost reduction options.
• Discussions were held between members of the NSF BSR Team and Rod Luna and Ed Jasnow to resolve some property issues which arose as a result of the TBSR Team visit to Hanford.  All of the issues were either resolved, or will be resolved with additional input from LIGO.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

I have requested contributions to the monthly report for the NSF.  So far I have received about half of them.  The report is due to be submitted on October 15.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

• The updated LIGO System Safety Plan has been signed, released and is available at the DCC:http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/docs/M/M950046-D.pdf .

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

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

• Post-S5 measurements continued at LHO. Many of the experiments are intended as cross-checks on the DC strengths of the actuation paths. These include asymmetric Michelson configurations, in which and ITMX(Y) and ETMY(X) are aligned and a calibration is obtained in both locked and unlocked states, single-arm locks in which the fine-actuators drive the end-station to and from the corner-station while the LSC path maintains the cavity length, and newer methods such as the VCO calibration technique and the ongoing and comprehensive photon calibration program. Electronic transfer functions of filters in the LVEA and outbuildings were performed.
• Other post-S5 measurements have been launched: a package of PEM injections was begun over four nights, with followup experiments slated later in the month. Test mass absorption studies, stepping input laser power and TCS powers, have been made during targets of opportunity on graveyard times. Hardware astrophysical injections have been made, including a key stochastic injection coincident with Virgo, something that tests the understanding of the relative signs of calibration between the projects. Bursts and binary pulsars have also been injected. Lastly, a new program of test-mass imaging has begun, in which images of core optics will be obtained while the IFOs are locked fully but with low power.
• FJR writes: Northwest Wind Partners has asked for a meeting on Nov 16 to discuss results from their exploratory measurements on vibration and infrasound transmission between their proposed wind farm site and the LIGO and BGPL sites. (Measurements were done back in May, using explosives to generate impulses and seismic and infrasound sensor at various locations in between.) A phone call from Chris Mulick, Tri-City Herald, was triggered by news that Northwest Wind Partners had signed a lease for a land parcel held by the Washington Department of Natural Resources in the Rattlesnake Mountain area.
  

Outreach (Dale Ingram):

• The "LIGO Roadshow" made a visit to 8th-grade science classrooms at Pasco's Ochoa Middle School on 10/4 and 10/5. ~220 students got their hands on our 12 wave and periodic motion activities.
  

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

Post-S5 characterization (Brian O'Reilly):

• We are continuing to make calibration measurements during the daytime hours. This week we focussed on the electronics filters and transfer functions. During the evenings Robert Schofield has been making PEM injections and will finish on Friday. After Robert finishes Rana, Aidan and Valera have been characterizing absorption of the test masses to determine if drag wiping will be required. Studies of the coil drives to the test masses to determine the efficacy of upconversion techniques are also being studied.
• The Isolation Ratio of our [present, L1] Faraday was measured and found to be much lower than expected ~14dB. The recycling gain was also re-measured using PPOB and found to be consistent with the transmon measurement.

Safety & Security (last several weeks, Rich Riesen):

• Working with other staff in preparation for upcoming vent. (80% of my time).
• Completed crane, man-lift, and scissor-lift training for appropriate staff with a couple of catch up personnel to be re trained within a few of weeks.
• Forklift training will start next week for appropriate staff.
• Conducted a detailed inventory of all materials needed for upcoming vent.  All shortages have been ordered (site, laser, and personal safety items, including cleaning supplys.
• Completed all safety requirements for facility, zone, and/or laser operator for: Amber Stuver, Kate Dooley, Mike Meyer, Jeff Kissel, Chris Rinaldi.
• Issued 7 replacement access swipe cards due to cards either lost or worn out.
• Finished property updates and handed over to Dwayne for new property data base.
• Ordered and received all necessary clean room hepa pre filters.
• Ordered and received two 3-wheeled electric scooters for up coming internal BTE inspection.
• Continuing work on last LLO safety audit AI's.
• Working on the last seven LLO staff members in getting CPR trained/ retrained.
• Took 34 obsolete/inop computers, monitors, and misc. electronics to local recycling center. (All items to be recycled were pre-approved by CIT Property).

LLO Outreach (John Thacker):

• Developed and delivered 4 outreach programs this week: 12th grade, 9th grade, 5th grade and a church Seniors group.
• Developed an Astronomy Classroom activity using gel filters.
• Substantial update to the LIGO SEC website:  http://www.ligo- la.caltech.edu/contents/sechome.htm
• Installed new IR Camera exhibit.
• Continued work on Next Phase grant opportunity.

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)

No report (on vacation)

---

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

From Greg:

• I've worked with Akira on installing SAC mirrors, cameras, and aligning the cavities.  We have seen flashes in both cavities (separately, rather high order), but currently have none due to a so far unsuccessful second run-through of the cavity-axis-finding procedure.  I also took care of some LSC trip details with Sheri.

From Tara:

• Summarize a journal, photothermal displacement spectroscopy, by MA Olmstead and give a talk during the meeting.
• About registration for PSU, John Miller, Akira, and Greg have no idea about it, I will try to look for more help.

From Akira:

• Finalized the positions of all the optics between the mode cleaner and the arm cavities.
• Measured the waist of the beam inside SAC's barn then tweaked the lens positions until the target waist size and position were reached.
• Greg and I suspended and balanced the SAC mirrors after we found enough wire standoffs. We need to get more of those. Then I dabbed the standoffs with epoxy to keep them in place and I installed the.
• Using a red laser pointer placed on the output side of SAC and directed into the cavity, I was able to find the cavity axis of SAC. I then aligned the mode cleaner output beam to the laser pointer beam. Having done that I was able to see flashes of resonance on the output side using a camera. Next I put the circulator in place and directed the reflected beam to the photodetector. I was seeing dips in the reflected power as the cavity passed through resonance.
• Greg had found the cavity axis for NAC and we could see very faint resonances on a camera placed on the output side of NAC. Using the motorized mirror mounts I tried to adjust the alignment of the beam before NAC to improve the mode matching but I was unable to improve the visibility. The resonance flashes for NAC are much fainter than for SAC so the initial alignment to the cavity axis using the laser pointer should be redone.
• I suspected that for at least one of the mode cleaner mirrors the motion was not being sufficiently damped since the output beam of the mode cleaner was moving a lot on the video monitor. I thought we could use the laser pointer to form an optical lever to measure the motion of the mirrors and compare them. I aimed the laser at the back of the output mirror and looked at the reflected beam. Even when the reflected beam travelled all the way to the back of the cleanroom I could not see any movement of the beam so the output mirror is very steady. Then I did the same to the input mirror of the mode cleaner and this time even over a much shorter distance I could see the reflected beam moving. The motion was much larger when I turned the damping off so the damping works just not well enough. I think I need to fix the input mirror controller but before doing that I will swap the controllers and repeat the optical lever experiment to make sure that the problem lies in the controller. Greg may have done the same experiment.

---

LASTI (Mittleman)

BSC ISI

• We found last week’s actuator assembly problem. The new fine actuator horizontal bracket needs to have its screw holes enlarged by a small amount to allow enough adjustment range for installation. Two out of the three corners needed to be rebuilt to correct this problem. We finished that today and have moved on to commissioning the sensors. We hope to be floating both stages next Monday.

Quadruple Pendulum

• All of our “extra” helpers have left leaving Brett to finish up the final steps in the installation, installing the remaining OSEM and final balancing and checking.

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

No report (on vacation)

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• The process of supporting CentOS 5 has started with the installation of the OS on ldasbox2. Most of the LDCG packages have been installed. During the process, more RPMs were used. The major system supplied package is the GCC compiler suite.
• The MDC tests continue to be modified.
• System testing this week used version 1.9.74 of LDAS. The dbperformance test showed a slow down. This is most likely due to differences with the current test methodology versus the previous model and not actually a change in the database performance.
• The diskcacheAPI on the ldas-test system was hung. This system was running release 1.9.70 of the LDAS system.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

• Continued to work on the regenerated h(t) cleanup.  Once again it looks like we're close, but we've been there before.  Xavi generated a small amount of new h(t) data (to fill in a gap caused by a bad segment list) and that's raised some new questions.
• Tape ejections for shelf storage at LLO/LHO.
• Finished copying GC backups back to new filesystems on 3511-3 and then recabled and mounted them on pollux.
• Helped with 3511 problem at LHO (bad controller).
• Moved /archive to new 6140 based SAM-QFS filesystem on opterondata-cit.  Lots of associated work...
• Lots of publishing work (Virgo, h(t)).
• Investigated odd archiving behavior on /home[12] with thousands of 1 file archive requests.  No real answers, but cleared it up by restarting archiving.
• Called in broken tape drive to Sun.  Part is backordered.
• Took delivery of 9 boxes (30 tapes/box) of 9940B tapes.
• Tried ssum (checksumming) with our new Opteron based SAM-QFS server, but it doesn't work on Opteron yet (confirmed by Sun).
• Replaced 3510 drive.

(Phil Ehrens)

• The usual certificate related tasks and user support.
• Ongoing support of MOU review process and data.
• Configured ldas-suntest2 and ldasbox2 as a tandem system with Sol10u4 and CentOS5 installed respectively.
• Replaced 12 fans in cluster nodes. There are currently 41 additional dead fans.
• Replaced drive p2 in node206.
• Removed fan 3 from node214, and swapped fan 4 into fan 3 position. Replaced drive p0. Other drives were apparently displaying ecc errors due to extreme vibration from fan 3, which had shed a blade and was wobbling dramatically.

(Erik Espinoza)

• Link Aggregation troubleshooting.
• Antivirus configuration/compilation for mail servers (not installed yet, will coordinate wtih Larry).
• Kickstart checks.

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• Condor upgrade; usual disk issues pc raids(2 more).

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

• T3-10, which is part of /archive, got offline. Powercycling fixed it.
• Still could not configure ilom on x4600: powercycling did not help.
• Working on segment insertion tool.

(Dwayne Giardina)

• Tape eject for shipment to CIT.
• Tape storage eject.
• Located a couple items at the request of Rod Luna.
• Rebooted tape robot and restarted samd to fix stalled archiving and staging.
• Restarted framecache process to fix stalled publishing.
• Stopped createRDS L1 generation due to a flood of email warnings.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• gwdaw12 website work.
• cgi registration form.
• More work on windows backups/ integrated with nagios.
• ilog coding.
• Dell return issues(cross shipment).
• Some purchasing.
• Started identifying critical systems (cybersecurity).

Livingston

(Dwayne)

• Received new x2200 for LDAP server, installed two 250 GB SATA HDs, mounted in CUR rack.
• Received new monitor for Mech. Engineer.
• Replaced a failing HD in PC for mechanical engineer, cloned image to new disk.
• Replaced keyboard on a Dell laptop for Janeen.
• Setup conf room for lift training.
• Working on an inventory control system, database is mostly ready, need to start importing data.
• Removed a couple viruses from a users PC.
• Other usual/unusual user support requests.
• Cleared spam trap.

(Shannon)

• On Vacation

Hanford

(Christine)

• Organized a meeting on Mon. morning with Amerion, PNNL and Lockheed. Martin to discuss getting the backup network working and keep it working.  Lockheed Martin is going to re-route the entire fiber route for the backup network.  This will make it a little shorter and will move it to a different fiber bundle and path from the primary network fiber.  Amerion engineers checked their router configurations against mine and found some discrepancies which were fixed.  I tested the backup network after Amerion made their changes and it did work better, but still only kb/s of bandwidth.  PNNL will help Lockheed Martin with planning the fiber re-route.
• Started setting up a DNS backup server.  Working with Caltech ITS to become the DNS authority for the LHO domain.

Caltech

(Veronica)

• Taking a training class.
• LIGO web support.
• Working on a webpage diagram as part of the plan to change the distribution scheme of the LIGO internal web items.
• Setup items for a video recording and getting it put on the web.

(Christian)

• Rana Adhikari - Configured new Macbook Pro with parallels and Mathlab.
• Kari Hodge - Configured loaner laptop for Kari.
• Toner cartridge replacements- 2flr W/B and Millikan.
• Stocked printer cartridges that were delivered to LIGO this week.
• Dennis Coyne - Called Dell support to have motherboard replaced on laptop.
• Ben Abbott - Called Dell support to have LCD screen replaced on laptop.
• John Cortese - setup a pc notebook for his use.
• Mike and I tested the latest Microsoft security patches.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Mike)

• Trouble shot a PDU from APC that came DOA. I called this in and have received a replacement for this unit.
• Loaded CENTOS 5.0 64-bit on Sunfire X4200. Had a lot of problems with this installation due to the way Centos probes the hardware. This causes the system to over heat and then goes into a continuous reboot. I turned off most of the 64-bit hardware probing features at the beginning of the initial installation; this seems to have worked. I would need to do some additional testing to find out exactly which probes that are causing the problems. One thing for sure is the APCI probe was one of the main culprits. This is a on going project.
• Reloaded a Sun X2200 webserver using CENTOS 5.0.
• More purchasing for users.
• Worked on a printer configuration for Syd.
• Other onsite/phone user support and other sysadmin tasks.

(Larry)

• Working a number of procurement issues. Still clearing up a number of P-card items. Placed a number of orders for misc. equipment. Reordered some of the Dell equipment. Working on a couple more maintenance contracts. I hope to get at least the SUN one wrapped up today. Worked with Mike on a couple of orders.
• Spent time setting up new accounts and locking old accounts.
• Restored files for multiple users. Having the disk backup system has been a big time saver. Still putting the older backup files to tape.
• Worked with Mike on the setup of a couple of new SUN boxes. Also, assisted Mike and Stuart with a problem PDU which has been replaced. After the bad experience in trying to get the issue resolved, we've gone back to one of the more reliable companies that we've used in the past, the order of a couple more of the units.
• Resolved a couple of E2E issues. They have a couple of machines in need of replacement but they are limping along until then.
• Worked with Mike on a couple of installations of equipment in the computer rooms. Did some more cleanup of the rooms. Still a lot to do.
• Worked with Shannon on a couple of log items.
• Assisted a number of users with different items. Web services, plotter assistance, environment changes, e-mail modifications, cabling ....
• Worked with PMA on a couple of small items that still need to be done in the labs.
• Worked with Mike, Melody and Veronica on different web server items.
• Worked with the DCC group on a couple of different items.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Management

No report

Advanced LIGO Systems

Modeling and Simulation

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

Modeling and simulation (Hiro Yamamoto)

• John Cortese has join Caltech simulation group, starting last Friday. He will work first to enhance and utilize SIS. In the future, he will expand his work to e2e.

e2e weekly meeting

• Lisa Barsotti of MIT/LIGO talked about her locking study of the AdvLIGO IFO using e2e and opticle. www.ligo.caltech.edu/~e2e/Inbasket/LockAcq_Lisa.ppt

Static IFO simulation (Hiro)

• The effect of changing the beam size on ITM smaller (6cm to 5.5cm) was studied. For the marginally stable cavity showed that the loss is reduced, but the stable cavity simulation did not lock well. Muzammile calculated the new MMT curvatures and for this smaller beam size case, and Hiro has started simulating using this new set. 
• In order to make the SIS package accessible for more people, at Caltech and outside, Melody did:
• Set up a (GNU) build environment for the project.  Customized the configure file to allow for the user to specify the location of the FFTW library or look for the appropriate library files from the LD_LIBRARY_PATH directories.
• Checked in all SIS source and supporting files in CVS. Created a SIS tarball for distribution.

Mechanical Simulation for advanced LIGO (Sany and SLU team)

• Continued AdvMC e2e analysis. Computed MC-length fluctuation under two conditions: (a) the same ground X (in the X arm direction or normal to MC2 mirror) motion fed to bottom of HAM1 and HAM2 seismic isolation models (Single Stage HAM model based on state space matrix provided by SWG), and (b) different ground X motions (i.e., the floor correlation near HAM 1 and HAM 2 considered) to HAM1 and HAM2 seismic isolation models (the same Single stage HAM model). In the resultant MC length fluctuation spectra are identical from 0.1 Hz to 0.4 Hz, but in f>0.5 Hz, case (b) (the case in which the floor correlation is considered) is an order of magnitude greater in m/rtHz. Note that in this model, the ground sensor correction, which affects the active HAM isolation in 0.1 Hz – 1 Hz, is not included. (Information concerning the ground sensor correction will be provided soon by SW group).

Prestabilized Laser

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

• I have been going over the channel access protocol requests and responses, trying to understand what sequence they occur in so that we can write something akin to a channel access server in TwinCAT.  This week we successfully mimicked the behaviour of the channel access command to retrieve the hostname.  The TwinCAT code opened a TCP socket, interpreted the channel access request, replied in the specified channel access format and then closed the TCP socket.  Thus it would appear that the basic strategy will work and what remains is to write the remaining channel access commands.

Control and Data Systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

ELIGO

• Completed install of electronics and computers in Rm. 56 to support Bram's testing of the tip/tilt mirrors. We received an additional request today to add some ISC electronics for some OMC testing next week.
• We had hoped to start installing new computer systems at the sites the week of Nov. 12. However, after today's ELigo meeting, it appears the consensus is for us to not disrupt the present CDS systems until the first week of December. (Just spoke with Barker, and he has a full up spare FrameBuilder computer, so we may be able to get a system together early using that).

AdvLigo

SEI

• Jay and Alex went up to Stanford earlier this week to sort out some problems they were having with the controls. After fixing their network routing and replacing their computer (a model which does not behave properly with the realtime OS), things seem to be running fine.
• Last of electronics were shipped to Stanford and Ben is their today for final testing prior to shipment of equipment to Boulder next week.

Common CDS

• We had a local vendor in house to see if we can outsource our chassis assembly process. They will start by producing assembly drawings and procedures for one of our chassis designs, then later do actual assemblies. Hopefully, this will work out so we can outsource most of our assembly work in the future.
• Working out a structured system of storing all of our CDS documents, including installation drawings, chassis assembly info, board manufacturing docs, standards, etc. We have a concept (standard directories and file structure) and disk space in place and the engineers are starting to populate the structure with their documentation to see if this will work. Note that this is not a separate DCC or DCC replacement, but rather a structured mechanism for the group to work together and find things easily.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

BSC Seismic Isolation Assembly and Test

• Two of the fine actuators have been removed and put back on. It turns out that the locking bar had prevented the actuator assembly from sitting in place tightly. This means that when the locking bars were removed the screws holding the actuator to the BSC suddenly had more slack in them. Fabrice discovered this while trying to help Rich.  "Pods" have been wired and tested.
• We have wired the actuators and sensors for testing using some dirty components to simulate the feedthroughs, we'll have to swap out the correct "clean" parts before the BSC goes into the chamber.

Single Stage HAM Assembly

•  This week Ken, Myron, Corey, and Jeff Kissel are at HPD assembling the single stage HAM.
• The assembly and test stands have been assembled and aligned.
• The stage O plate with spring posts have been assembled on the test stand. We are waiting for several stiffener plates before we can finish the stage 0 assembly.
• The stage 1 lower plate with all wall plates has been assembled on the assembly stand.
• The lower stage 0 plate is heavily stained and appears to be caused by coolant puddling onto the part and remaining over a weekend. Pictures along with MSDS sheets of fluids which have made contact with the part has been sent to AstroPak for evaluation. The three plates which will be used for the LLO unit have been crated and will be shipped to AstroPak as soon as this is resolved.
• Four support tubes for Enhanced LIGO have been shipped to AstroPak.
• Crates have been ordered for the remaining parts which will be shipped to Caltech and LHO for cleaning. The crates are scheduled to arrive on Friday and the parts should go out on Monday.
• The actuators and position sensors will arrive at HPD on Friday for assembly.

Suspensions

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

• Further work on SUS budgets for FY08. Change Request sent to Carol.
• Follow-up on pitch frequency queries in quad design (can we push up the lowest frequency to reduce low frequency noise coupled into global control loops?): checked the situation for all other multiple pendulum designs (beamsplitter, input modecleaner, output modecleaner, recycling mirror). Result - beamsplitter is similar to the quad, and its pitch frequency can be pushed up in the same way. Other suspensions are OK.
• Working with RAL on beamsplitter design.
• Began preparation for input modecleaner PDR.
• Started work on BlockNormal review as part of review team.

From: k mailand kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu

• I have finished a new preliminary design for the zero expansion pick off telescope/hartman sensor. The direction after a few meetings with Phil, Riccardo, Aidan, and Mike Smith is to make it out of  Zerodur and Invar material. To mount it with a ~4 wire suspension, and a thermal box around it. There will be many issues to discuss re. this design.
• Testing the faraday 4 wire style damper is in Phil Willems lab, is in progress.
• The preliminary assembly of the installation arm tool is in progress, also work on a test setup has started.

Core Optics

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

• The QED polishing pathfinder review was held October 5th.  Peter Fritschel, GariLynn Billingsley and Kathy Creath were present.  QED presented the results of the polishing pathfinder.  QED will be providing an additional quote for augmented metrology work.
• The CSIRO polishing pathfinder review is scheduled for November 5th in Sydney.  GariLynn Billinglsey and Kathy Creath will be present.  CSRIO has submitted a draft final report LIGO-C070179.  We have responded with some questions which are to be clarified in the final report.
• We have received bids for the third polishing pathfinder.  The review committee has evaluated the proposals and found them to have technical merit.  The committee recommends opening discussions with the vendors to clarify the scope and approach.

 From: Liyuan Zhang <zhang_l@ligo.caltech.edu>

• We switched the RTS bench back to the TIS measurement. The optical noise level is significantly decreased, from ~10 ppm to ~0.6 ppm,  by replacing the three commercial beam folding mirrors close to the integrating sphere with LIGO-grade ones and loosing a bit the beam waist ( from 100 to 150 um), so we have more confidence on the scatter result now. We'll first measure the 6 MC spare mirrors for eLIGO and then re-visit LIGO-I mirrors and Adv LIGO R&D samples.

Auxiliary Optics

From: Michael Smith smith@ligo.caltech.edu

HARTMANN/PO TELESCOPE CONCEPT

• Conceptual design discussions are ongoing within the AOS group. Ken presented a preliminary concept drawing of a suspended telescope with Zerodur/ULE spacers.

OPTLEV TRANSMITTER

• Mike created a concept for an actively stabilized Optical Lever Transmitter with local ground reference.

Input Optics

From: David tanner@phys.ufl.edu

Volker:

• Working on the finite element simulations for the Faraday magnet assembly for eLIGO.

Luke:

• Finished design of LLO Northrup Grumman TGG holders.
• Reworking the FR hazard analysis and assembly procedure with IAP scientists

Muzammil:

• We have been simulating the magnetic field of the FR magnets. It has been estimated that if needed be, FR can be assembled with six magnetic disks with the Northrop Grumman TGG crystals. Thermal depolarization studies for various cuts of DKDP are underway.

Rodica:

• Inventory of eLIGO small optics for cleaning and baking. With Muzammil, measured the rotation for the rest of the TGGs for the eLIGO rotator. More measurements and data analysis to follow.

UF team at LLO:

• Together with Valera, Dave R. , and Kate measured the isolation ratio of the current (LIGO I) Faraday Isolator. We found the surprisingly poor result of 13.6 dB. This corresponds to a full thermal load through the isolator when the interferometer is locked.
• We are setting up experiments to determine the culprit of the FI thermal drift.

Also:

• We've got a strawman schedule for eLIGO installation of Faradays and EOMs at both sites Prototype FI (Magnet #1), possibly for use in LHO, is in the bake oven at Caltech. Replacement magnet rings (for Magnet #3) received from IAP. We are measuring the field and then will ship for cleaning.

---

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