• The pulsar group all sky S4 analysis "All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data" was published online at http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v77/e022001 and will appear in the 15 January 2008 issue of Physical Review D.

• The joint LIGO-Auriga burst search, "A joint search for gravitational wave bursts with AURIGA and LIGO" was provisionally accepted in Classical and Quantum Gravity.

• The burst group GRB paper "Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with 39 Gamma-Ray Bursts Using data from the Second, Third, and Fourth LIGO Runs" has been provisionally accepted in Physical Review D.

The AAS meeting was held in Austin, TX this week with a special session on gravitational wave astronomy.  Five talks from the LSC and Virgo were presented, including talks on the current status and future plans for detectors as well as astrophysics presentations on beating the Crab pulsar spindown limit, the stochastic gravitational wave background, and GRB070201.

Organization efforts are underway for the March LSC-VIrgo meeting to be held in Pasadena from March 17-20.

Student volunteers will begin to show up for the H2 Astrowatch at Hanford, with Astrowatch officially beginning in early February. We are still a few students and postdocs short of a fully staffed Astrowatch program, so please volunteer if you're so inclined.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

• The table below shows the MOUs and their attachments that have been approved and signed off to date by both the LSC Spokesperson and the LIGO Laboratory Director.

  MOU	Attachment
  Andrews University	DAT, OPS, Z
  Carleton College	DAT, OPS, OUT, Z
  Embry-Riddle University	DAT, OPT, SUS, Z
  Eotvos University	DAT, OPS, OUT, Z
  Florida, University of	ACF, DAT, LAS, OPS, OPT, OUT, SUS, Z
  Goddard	DAT, OPS, Z
  Hobart and William Smith Colleges	DAT, OPS, Z
  Institute of Applied Physics	OPT, OUT, Z
  IUCAA	DAT, Z
  Louisiana Tech University	DAT, OPS, OUT, Z
  Loyola University	DAT, OPS, Z
  Maryland, University of	ACF, DAT, OPS, Z
  Montana State University	DAT, Z
  Northwestern University	DAT, Z
  Oregon, University of	DAT, OPS, OUT, Z
  Rochester, University of	DAT, Z
  Southeastern Louisiana University	ACF, DAT, OPS, Z
  Stanford University	ACF, DAT, LAS, OPS, OPT, OUT, SUS, Z
  Texas-Austin, University of	DAT, OPS, Z
  Texas-Brownsville, University of	DAT, OPS, OUT, Z

  • This reporting period Northwestern University (shown in table above), was approved and signed off. It will be posted and submitted to the DCC.
  • ACIGA is still under review.
  • Sannio and Washington State are pending, requiring changes requested by the review panel.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)

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

• Continued writing exports and imports procedures.
• Assisted G. Billingsley in receiving two Fused Silica Blanks from CSIRO.
• Assisted S. Reed at LHO in making relocation / moving arrangements from Seattle, WA to Richland, WA.
• Working with Ruth in reviewing two requisitions that may need an expenditure type changes.

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>

• Working on the routing of several subcontracts.  Responded to inquiries on pending mods.  Responded to requests for several name changes on subcontracts.
• Coordinated the loan of the seismometer for delivery to Stanford University.

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

• Sent out reports for three discretionary accounts, Low Noise, MIT.GRID, UWISC, I2U2, Outreach and Visitor's program awards.
• Completed and posted FY 2007 and FY2008 monthly operations report as of the end of December 2007 on the network.
• Continued to meet with project accounting/IMSS personnel to discuss possible enhancements to operations report (on-going).
• 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>

• A meeting was held yesterday among LIGO Business Staff and representatives of IMSS to discuss the availability of several financial reports that could be used to track Advanced LIGO procurements and expenditures.  The meeting was very successful, with full cooperation from the IMSS reps.  Further meetings are scheduled to view different reports available.

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

• A copy of the contract with Tinsley for the Pathfinder optical polishing contractor was electronically sent today to Ann Miller of the NSF for review and approval.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

In the process of updating various budgets for Operations, Advanced LIGO and Continuing Operations (FY 2009-13) based on latest information concerning funding constraints.

The end-of-December report is due to the NSF early next week.  I am still missing a couple of sections.  A reminder will go out tomorrow.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

• There are no open change requests.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

• The next Staffing Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 14.  All files for the Staffing Committee are up-to-date and posted on the SC web page.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

• Distributed to a safety alert regarding "Uvex" brand laser safety glasses, which no longer provide adequate laser eye protection (discovered by the 40M lab personnel).
• Scheduled the LIGO All-Hands safety meeting for the 30th of January starting at 0830 PST, in room 201 Bridge.  I will also send out an LIGO-all notice.

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

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

• Enhanced LIGO installations continued. Work on diverting half of the AS beam from HAM4 down to HAM6 was completed, with the in-chamber installation of a 50:50 splitter and associated beam dumps. The work was complicated by a lack of certainty on input pointing and the validity of inmon (OSEM) values in replicating good running alignments of S5, i.e. under vacuum. We may need to revisit HAM4 after the IO work completes, before pumping down.
• A second alignment issue on the 4km interferometer was nvestigated. H1 ITMX had both earthquake stops retrofitted and PAM bias adjustment/gap increases made, while the H1 ITMY had only earthquake stops retrofitted. Both masses appear to be shifted in alignment to a larger degree than expected from venting. We can get beams out the AS port but biases are larger than desired. More investigations here are required. As a gauge of the impact of earthquake stop/PAM work, and to expedite Astrowatch, we opened gate valves to connect the 2k vertex and beam manifold volumes and locked the H2 PRM. Thus, the 2k ITM work has not significantly impacted alignments there.
• A large contingent from the University of Florida has returned to LHO and is now working in HAMs 1 and 2, en route to replacing the Faraday isolator and drag wiping the MC. The installation procedure was elogged here.
• Work has begun on the e/aLIGO PSL external diode room.

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) and Interferometer Operations
(R. Wooley for J. Giaime)

IO Work (Hoak)

Continued our diagnosis of the alignment of the input optics. New cameras were installed to help the view of things from the control room.

Establish the limits of the SM and MMT1; the pointing of these mirrors is constrained by the apertures of the Faraday and by MMT2. Then, we used these and other MMTs to steer the REFL beam out of HAM1. We believe the two DLC-mounted steering mirrors that point the REFL beam out of the vacuum are misaligned. We can compensate for the misalignment of these mirrors by skewing the MMTs and the RM, but then we start to clip in the Faraday itself.

The primary task for the next few days is to quantify the misalignment of these mirrors, and come up with a plan to correct them once we vent. This might be difficult, because the RM becomes unstable in air (or at least it was back in December).

Checked the position of the AS beam on the viewport out of HAM4. It's pretty good, close to the center, only about a centimeter or so away from where it was under air.

VE Work  (Wooley)

We are continuing to pump out annulus spaces.  So far we have found an outer o-ring leak on the south 84” cover of HAM1 and an inner o-ring leak on either HAM2 or HAM3. 

The HAM1 leak will be fixed when we vent for the septum window install.  I have a new o-ring ready to go.  The other we will live with. It is possible that the inner o-ring problem has been there for several years.  We have had no way of knowing because the last two times that we went into these chambers we pumped down the annulus space and the main volume at the same time.

The new view port for HAM4 is out of the oven and ready to install.  The window for the septum plate and associated hardware are here and will be ready to install next week.

I plan to vent the vertex section next week.

SEI Work

Daily summaries of the HAM6 SEI ISI work are posted in the elog

Safety and Security  (Riesen)

No outstanding safety or security issues to report this period.

Outreach  (Thacker)

Prepared and delivered 3 outreach programs to visiting school groups this week.

Prepared materials and programming for one Teacher workshop.

Created UV Bracelet Post Activity.

Met with officials from 2 school districts to establish future formal partnerships.

Continued work on annual NSF report.

Prepared monthly LLO outreach report input to Large Facilities Project Monthly Report.

Exhibit repair (4 exhibits) (Holt)

Collected materials for teacher PD on Sat.Livingston Parish teachers Constructed and prepared snacks for teacher PD Scheduled field trips.

Mailed previsit packets to February  Schools Contacted Hammond Daily Star to write an article on the SEC.

Reviewed website and listed needed corrections.

Compiled list of materials and prepared booklet for Sat. PD Designed program for next weeks Teacher in-service in Zachary. Purchased materials for classroom and programs.

Collected data from Pendulum Snake exhibit.

Participated in program design and school groups this week.

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)

• John, Tobin and Rana have been making good progress in lock acquisition. They were able to lock the DRFPMI (i.e., full IFO) a couple times last night.
• Rana and others are thinking about using auxilliary lasers (or a fiber-run pickoff of our main laser) sent through the ETMs to lock the arms independently of the DRMI.
• The PSL, FSS, PMC and ISS are all behaving well, except that the PMC servo sometimes rails and requires relocking. To be investigated.
• The mode cleaner and most optic suspensions are behaving, except ETMY watchdogs seem to trip a lot and the BS UL OSEM has a ratty signal; seem to be picking up stray 1064 light.
• Alberto continues to work on the RFAM monitor photodetector design. He's now working on the prototype PCB.
• David continues to work on mode matching for the 35W laser.
• Rob is working on his thesis.
• Pinkesh and Tobin continue to work on reading out the GigE camera for use as a digital beamscanning device.
• Steve sent out the RGA for repair and they say it's working and are sending it back.
• Electricians have now installed a row of ethernet ports in our office and control rooms.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

• Over the holidays, Akira achieved full lock of the instrument and obtained a complete noise curve with optimized coatings. The last hurdle to be overcome was apparently light scattering into the OSEM heads from the back surfaces of the end masses. This problem was solved by tilting the end mirrors until an acceptably low level of scattering was found.
• The final noise curve for the optimized, undoped coatings is near the one for the unoptimized, doped coatings, as Innocenzo's models predict. This data is preliminary, and we are working on finalizing and confirming it.

LASTI (Mittleman)

BSC-ISI

• At the end of December we completed a round of system-ID on the second stage of the ISI. There are some results posted on the Lasti-ilog. The quad suspension did not have the sleeve (a piece that is supposed to stiffen the support structure and raise its resonance frequencies). We tested in this configuration in the hope that the sleeve will not be needed and because it hasn’t come back from cleaning. There seems to be a nasty resonance at 17Hz that will make ISI control difficult. Hopefully it will go away once we install the sleeve, and finish screwing down all of the trim mass.

• This week we installed the sleeve and as expected the 17Hz (actually 17.8Hz) resonance has disappeared. We also did some tapping before the sleeve was installed and determined that this resonance was a flag pole resonance of the quad support structure in the beam direction. There was also a resonance at 45Hz that appeared to also be in the quad structure, in the transverse direction. This mode went to 50Hz after the sleeve was installed, We will have to look closer at this.
• Stage one is still suffering from some rubbing problems which look to be in one of the horizontal actuators. PSI is working with us to fix this.
• A reworked Simulink diagram has been installed along with new MEDM screens that once it fully works will allow feedback, modal drives and the full control of the ISI system.

Noise Prototype Suspension

• As mentioned above the sleeve has been installed. Brett has found the major (maybe the only?) source of the pitch to vertical coupling, it turns out that this is very sensitive to the leveling of the top mass.
• Next week Doug (LHO) and Danny (LLO) will be here working with Brett on the over all quad alignment.

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

_____________

Antony Searle:

• Antony has started a postdoctoral appointment at LIGO Caltech. Please make him welcome! He will develop a Bayesian extension of X-Pipeline [http://arxiv.org/abs/0712.0196] and conduct an S5 bursts search.

_____________

Drew Keppel:

• Investigating the recalculation of effective distance for spinning binaries in which the orbital plane precesses.
• Writing a report on how to compute a mass dependent upper limit which can be found here:

  <http://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/ligovirgo/cbc/protected/papers/technical/mass-regions/calcmasscut.pdf>

• Monitoring injection runs for the S5 1yr Low Mass CBC search.

_____________

Kipp Cannon:

• Preparing technical documentation for excess power code review.
• Preparing for SGR burst search code review.

_____________

Kent Blackburn for the Grid Computing R&D Group:

GRID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

• Wrote agenda and minutes for weekly LIGO-Pegasus telecom.
• Attended LIGO-Pegasus, DASWG and OSG-USERS telecon.
• Participate in Gratia survey.
• LIGO activity on OSG:
  • Gridftp error at PSU, trouble shooting with Jeff Minelli.
  • Pre-WS-GRAM submission at OSG 0.8.0 sites: FNAL_GPFARM, FERMIFGRID,BNL_ATLAS_2, GLOW, CIT_CMS_T2 -- success.
  • Pre-WS-GRAM submission at OSG 0.8.0 sites: BNL_ATLAS_1, OU_OUHEP_SWT2, TTU_ANTAEUS, UWMilawaukee, STAR_BNL--fail (STAR, TTU ticket with Abhishek).
  • WS-GRAM submission at FNAL_GPFARM, OSG_LIGO_MIT: both fail at job # 1. Troubleshooting with Fillippo at MIT. Steve Timm at Fermilab informed us that WS-GRAM not configured at this time but they are working to set it up and will get back to us when it is ready.
  • SRM and Pegasus: fail, trouble shooting with Karan.
  • srmcp from/to osg-itb and osg-itb-se successful with help from Kent.
  • srmcp from/to osg-itb-se/osg-itb and CIT_CMS_T2 (using gsiftp-->srm, srm--->gsiftp) successful.
• LIGO activity on ITB:
  • Test run on LIGO_CIT_ITB -- 2 success
  • LDG Activity
  • Install glue/lal/lalapps on osg-itb-se
  • testing LSC's ldg_submit_dax on cit, lho, llo, uwm_nemo without data transfer (submit machine: osg-itb-se):
    • cit fail at first condor job
    • lho successful
    • llo idle at job1
    • uwm_nemo ldg_submit_dax error
  • Test ldg_submit_dax on cit, lho, llo, uwm_nemo without data transfer (submit machine: ldas-grid):
    • cit successful
    • lho ldg_submit_dax error
    • llo ldg_submit_dax error
    • uwm_nemo ldg_submit_dax error

OPEN SCIENCE GRID MANAGEMENT

• Reviewed LBNL Statement of Work for year two and made a couple of recommendations for changes to be re-evaluated by LBNL's PI.
• Wrote one page description report in preparation for the Joint DOE/NSF review of the OSG as cover material for the OSG Resource and Project Management activities.
• Reviewed the other dozen or so one page reports addressing other areas of OSG as preparation for review.
• Reviewed press announcement of new OSG partnership with NYSGrids  and made recommendations for extending the circulation lists.
• Worked with Paul Avery (UFL) and Chander Seghal (FNAL) on the Resource and Project Management presentation slides for talk I am giving at the Joint DOE/NSF review of OSG.
• Worked with LIGO Directorate and LSC Computer Committee to hash out a new version of the MOU with USC-ISI which will allow stronger R&D relationship with Pegasus development team on Grid application development applicable to both LIGO LDG and LIGO OSG activities.
• Received a couple of new candidates in the application system for the Grid System Administrator position at CIT and will evaluate qualifications.

_____________

Gregory Mendell:

• My data analysis time since my last report has been spent doing some additional checks for the calibration team and commenting on upcoming CW papers.

_____________

Igor Yakushin:

• Presented the status of analyzing the whole S5 with the coherent waveburst at the burst weekly telecon: http://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~igor/S5all_010308/.

_____________

Amber Stuver:

LIGO Research

• I didn't get too much done on this front since the control room computers are still suffering some minor complications from the power outage before the holidays.  However, I have taken this time to put together a web page draft to document some work I have done regarding the likelihood of a GW candidate event being real given the time delay in detection between two sites and the resulting SNR ratio.  Once this is completed, I will be scheduling time to present this work on the CBC telecon and I will share the link here as well.

SEC Work

• Gave control room tours to about 130 people (~100 5th graders and ~30 parents and K12 homeschoolers).
• Presented the Giant Slinky exhibit to about 50 5th graders.
• Recorded a short introduction to a new astronomy unit for the Zachary school district.
• Gave public tour last Friday (control room, roof and exhibit hall).
• Started compiling a 'Further Reading' list for interested visitors.

Other

• Prepared and sent out my abstract for the APS conference on graduate education being held at the end of the month (I am representing the APS Forum on Graduate Student Affairs).
• Worked on poster to present at said conference.

_____________

Anand Sengupta:

• Created and updated a comprehensive project report page for the S5 high mass CBC search.
• Met telecon with Craig Robinson about the status of the search and created an itemized list of things to do.

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• To help facilitate performance analysis of the diskcacheAPI, a class has been added to the C++ layer which mimics the TCL logging facilities (PR#572). It is thread safe so it can handle logging requests from multiple threads. Once the functionality has been vetted at the C++ layer, the TCL layer will be modified to utilized  the C++ implementation.
• The cntlmonAPI has been extended to compute max cpu and thread and mode; compute max memory and least square fit of apis. The job rate/hour, queue mode and max queue, job/log/cleanup resource values have been added.
• The rsync instructions for centos5_x86 have been documented.
• System testing of LDAS was done using version 1.9.164 of the software. Jobs involving wrapper all failed because there is not a working wrapperAPI for CentOS 5 as yet. A tag for these known issues have been added so they can be conditionally skipped. RDSVerify still reports gss_init_sec_context error. Had to manually run fr2ilwd, lsync because of incorrect path in remote execution but this is now fixed.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

• Moved unused 9940 tapes from boxes to cabinets in Booth (with the help of Jim Covington).
• Pinged Sun again about the morbo crash case (no answer).
• Sent Sun a ssum problem example with full debugging.
• Did some detective work for Vladmir's corrupt file problem.
• Helped Greg with 3510 problems at LHO.
• Installed latest SAM-QFS patches and the "Australian patch" on gateway, dataserver and opterondata-lho at LHO.
• Installed latest SAM-QFS patches and the "Australian patch" on gateway, dataserver and opterondata-lho at LHO.
• Helped move ldas-cit's /export (3510) to Synchrotron.
• Did tests with a 3510 and mpxio to confirm the correct set up for fully redundant operation.
• Replaced bad 3510 disk.
• Helped Scott track down the provenence and correctness of a file with different md5 than was in the LDR database (Greg was going to republish).

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• Continued work on kickstart server.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

• Right before holidays the was a power outage. As a result, one of the metaserver's disks was damaged and had to be replaced. Also metaserver is currently generating some error messages that might be related to RAM problems. One of the nodes lost half of its RAM.
• Manually resynced the databases again after the replication was broken a month ago. Duncan helped to figure out that the problem with replication was Web Sphere's expired certificate.
• Added a new password on ldas-jobs' web server.
• Modified LDR configuration to get missing h(t) data from CIT.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

• Since my last weekly I have worked on resolving several problems with the LDAS system at LHO. Between Dec. 24, 2007 and Jan 09, 2008 the tape library system went down,  then the main fileserver crashed, and then the HVAC system needed maintenance. The last of these problems was resolved yesterday, and the LDAS services and cluster are now back up at LHO.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Configured new machine for rm dual xp/linux.
• New for EK cubicle students(linux)(dell refurbs).
• Modifying tintagel backup scripts.
• ilog web interface completed; asked lisa etal to test.
• Ram upgrade sf - laptop sent to llo.
• Spam issues, thus installing spamassassin on ligo.
• Misc purchasing, (looking for lost orders ..),licensing issues, desktop issues (ms office, matlab).

Livingston

(Dwayne)

• Kantech upgrade to take place on January 12.
• Ongoing upgrades of Solaris workstations to Sol 10 U 4 and LDAP client, and migration to the new subnet.
• Troubleshot various errors on color-front printer, changed a couple of settings and reset network connection.
• Fixed disk errors on a new Intel Mac, did a repair installation, all is well so far.
• Assisted Bonnie, Deborah and John with SECimages problems.
• NS1 has been powering down unexpectedly with nothing suspicious in the logs.  Starting to think the power supply is faulty.
• Added NS1 and SEC/DOCSHARE to the nightly backups.
• Swapped tapes in the GC tape library, ran manual backup.
• Ordered two new Macbooks for SEC staff.
• Renewed our CanIt spam filter support contract.
• Migration of support.ligo-la to a new machine on new subnet, included new installation of mediawiki, mrtg, postfix, and possible addition of a trouble ticket system.
• Other usual/unusual user support requests.
• Cleared spam trap.

Hanford

(Christine)

• The final user has moved over to the new mail server.  Both mail servers will be down this Sunday so I can copy files from the old to the new and turn off the old mail server.
• The backup network has been down since Dec. 19th.  The problem has finally been traced to some work Lockheed Martin was doing on another circuit.  Apparently our circuit was disconnected by mistake and then re-used for another circuit.  Lockheed Martin claims to have fixed the problem yesterday, but now my router is refusing the connection. Lockheed Martin is still trying to figure out what is wrong.
• Installed the latest Windows updates on all the guest computers. Restarted the Advanced LIGO servers to install the updates there.
• Un-configured the Advanced LIGO servers as web servers because a Windows application, IIS, is a security risk and is not needed.
• Removed from people's offices all the old computers and monitors that are no longer being used.  Removed some old disks and computers from the server room racks.  Replaced a few old CRT monitors with LCD monitors. Removed all the old Sun Ultra 10s from the Computer Users Room.
• Re-located a wireless AP because the conference room where it was located is being turned into office space.
• Purchased new MAC laptops for two users.
• Misc. support for visitors and new hires.

Caltech

(Melody)

• LAAC Finished data entry screen and table list for the Thesis Topics page. Migrated student data from the pherkab database. Fixing table sorting feature (javascript) (currently does nothing).
• Starting on security features for the wiki.

(Veronica)

• LSC:  Working on the website for the upcoming March'08 L-V meeting. Ongoing work on the redo of ligo.org.  Implementation of password migration on various sites.  Updates of the database of technical papers. Updates of the database of past talks.  Misc web related updates.
• LIGO:  Modifications of the TAR application per Marilyn Wright request. Certificate issues for websites running on amaldi.  Ongoing web updates/user support.

(Christian)

• Installed new COMSOL software and fixed minor email issues on laptop.
• Configured new laptop and installed Matlab and Mathematica for Alan.
• Installed Leopard OS on new system and transferred all of the data and settings.
• Installed and configured new laptop.
• Hard drive failure on workstation. Configured new system  and transferred all of Bob’s settings and data back.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Larry)

• Worked a number of purchases. Most items have been delivered that have been received. Working on quotes for a couple of new workstations and notebook systems. These are for new hires and replacement of a couple of outdated machines. Purchased a number of misc. replacement items and supplies for different people.
• Worked with Christian on resolving some COMSOL licensing issues.
• Worked with Mike on a rack setup and moving some equipment around in the server room. Also, spent a little time getting a few more things cleaned up in the rooms.
• Spent time helping people move over to another mail server. Presently, it looks like one server is wrapped up. One more to go.
• Working on various documentation items.
• Working logistics for different meetings that are coming up.
• Spent more time than usual on end user support. Most of the time was spent walking people through different setups over the phone.
• Worked on various backups and tape transfers.
• Worked with Mike on a couple of server installs and PC fixes.
• Spending more time going over the logs. It is now pretty much a daily item.

(Mike)

• Barry Barish: Backed up his laptop and tried to migrate him over to Thunderbird which failed due to lack of disk space. I also updated some of the software on his backup laptop and made changes to his email to work on gacrux. This was done on his office workstation as well. I also loaded Firefox with the bookmark Synchronization plugin on all his computers.
• End of month ghost backups on all critical NTSRV's.
• Updated Server's and Client's with the latest version of Prism Project Management software to 5.1. I still have a few more clients to update.
• Continued work on assisting users with moving them over our new mail server gacrux.
• Ken Mailand: Worked on a problem with Ansys 11. I had reinstall the software and now have a problem with some networking issues. This is an on going problem.
• Bob Kirsner: Fix a SolidWorks problem with custom Templates. He is also having some other system problems on his workstation. Christian has taken this over by loading another workstation to replace his current workstation.
• Started working on loading a web server using CENTOS 5.
• Air conditioning problem in the server room Bridge Annex RM:18. We lucked out, this turned out to be a cracked vacuum hose. This took campus air conditioning guys a while before they figured this out. With the one good air-conditioning unit and Christian and I working on bringing the temperature down in the room by we only had to shutdown non-critical servers.

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

Static IFO simulation (Hiro, John)

• Based on the formulation by John, Hiro implemented a low pass filter in the code to load the phase map data to be used in SIS. The spatial frequency region, ~a few mm,was re-evaluated to understand the scattering loss from this frequency region, and the old result, i.e., a few ppm loss from this region, was confirmed to be correct. This is only the effect in the phase map.
• Hiro calculated the performance of stable and marginally stable Michelson cavity using SIS with the new low finesse optical parameters. Calculations include a baffle in front of ITM with the size of 22.4 cm x 25.9 cm. The summary results are:
• Stable Configuration:
  • CR - Power recycling cavity : signal loss = 2.6% and does not change when 
    the RM ROC is changed by 1%
    Signal recycling cavity : signal loss = 0.5% and does not change when 
    the RM ROC is changed by 1%
  • Signal SB - The loss of the signal sideband in the signal recycled cavity does not 
    depend on the frequency in the range < 1kHz
  • RF SB - 00 mode SB power does not change with RM ROC is changed by 1%
  • Loss of CR power on MMT3
        in Power recycled cavity : 83ppm
        in Signal recycled cavity : 73ppm
  • Increase of MMT3 aperture from 26cm to 28cm does not change the loss.
• Marginally stable configuration:
  • CR - Power recycling cavity : signal loss = 1.5~1.6 % and does not change 
    when the RM ROC is changed by 1%
    Signal recycling cavity : signal loss = 0.35~0.45% and does not change 
    when the RM ROC is changed by 1%
  • RF SB - Sideband power in Power CC drops down a lot with dROC = +- 1%, and 
    there are large higher order modes.
• Summary: For CR, there is no distinction between SCC and MSCC (MSCC is a little bit better because SCC suffers from the diffraction loss on MMT3), but the sideband in SCC is much more stable by adjusting the distance between MMT2 and MMT3. No study on the ITM ROC dependence because the diffractive loss in the arm is the major factor, not the difference of recycling cavity choice.
• More things to be done.
  • Mode stability in the cavity formed by PRM and SRM.
  • Effect of mirror aberration in the arm
  • Effect of thermal deformation can be factorized, so no special simulation is planned for now.

Mechanical Simulation for advanced LIGO (Sany and SLU team)

• In close collaboration with Riccardo DeSalvo et al, conducted a numerical study on the effect of back reaction exerted by Advanced LIGO Mode Cleaner triple suspensions on the HAM table with the passive seismic isolation mechanism (HAM-SAS). E2e models of MC1 and MC3 triple suspensions (based on Mark Barton's mathematica model) were placed on the HAM-SAS model (with both horizontal and vertical models 
  based on Valerio Bosch's matlab model taken into account). The MC1 and MC3 were placed at their respective locations on the HAM table (the same locations as Init LIGO). With ground horizontal and vertical displacements fed as input, the HAM-SAS model computed the suspension point displacements at the respective triple suspensions. Using these suspension points as inputs, the triple suspension models computed reaction forces (both via the suspension points and the local damping 
  actuations forces), which were fed back to the HAM-SAS model as reaction force inputs.
• Using typical ground motions (modeling the ground motion at LHO) as the input to the HAM-SAS model, the effect of back reaction was studied via comparison of the resultant optic’s position motions with the case when the back reaction was not taken into account. When the HAM-SAS horizontal model only was considered, the effect of back reaction was negligible. When the vertical (tilt) model was included, the effect was substantial in the frequency range of 0.04 to 2 Hz; the total back reaction was found to raise the optic’s position amplitude up to by an order of magnitude (0.08 to 0.2 Hz).
• To investigate transmissibility of one optic to another on the same HAM table, MC3 optic was excited in the pendular degree of freedom with a sinusoidal artificial force via the OSEM actuator, and the resultant pendular displacement of MC1 was compared with the pendular displacement of MC3. (Here, MC1 optic was not excited by an artificial force but indirectly affected by the artificial force on MC3 via the reaction force that shook the HAM table.)  The amplitude of the artificial excitation force on MC3 was at the expected level of radiation pressure on AdvLIGO MC3 (the same order of magnitude). It has been found that the ratio of MC1 pendular motion to that of MC3 peaks to be unity at the horizontal HAM-SAS resonance (~60 mHz), falls 
  as 1/f^2 to the level of 0.01 around the triple pendulum resonances (0.6 ­ 1.5 Hz), and after that, falls steeply to the level of 1e-4 at 2 Hz.

Prestabilized Laser

From: Peter King pking@ligo.caltech.edu

AdL PSL

• The chiller and spare chiller for the laser have arrived at the observatories.  The laser will come in two (large) boxes.
• The Techmart requisition for the instrumentation racks has been placed after finally receiving a quotation from Knuerr - which took over a month
  of constant haggling!
• After talking with Rolf, the PCI-based DAQ card count has decreased due to an increased channel per board.

From last week:

• The paperwork for a supplemental accession number has been submitted to the FDA.  After going through the FDA website and given the scheduled ship date for the laser, it was easier to apply for a supplemental accession number rather than apply for an exemption.  I have asked LZH to delay shipment of the laser pending receipt of the number otherwise we would suffer some delay in customs.
• In sorting out the paperwork for the laser I had to find out who our customs broker in Seattle is since that is the port of entry into the US. The form FDA-2877 was filled out in preparation.
• The communications optical fibre and network switches have arrived at the observatories for the 35-W laser.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

BSC Seismic Isolation Assembly and Test

• We still see evidence of rubbing inside one of the large actuators which appears to be something lodged inside the actuator. We are cleaning the spare actuator as a replacement. Also PSI is sending us their assembly tooling and Scott Stewart will be visiting us to help us disassemble and inspect the actuator.
• PSI is putting together a proposal to increase the gap size of the small actuators similar to the large actuators. We have not had trouble to date with the newer design rubbing.
• Five clean bolts seized this week and must be removed before the BSC isolation system is placed into the chamber at LASTI. These were stainless steel bolts which need to be replaced with silver plated bolts. The correct bolts are being plated and should be in next week.
• A seismometer from Nanometrics has been ordered and is being evaluated as an alternative to the Streckheisen STS-2. The seismometer is being delivered next week to Stanford for evaluation.

Single Stage HAM Installation at LLO

• Myron, Corey, and Stephany are at LLO again this week assisting with the assembly. Andy and Ben Abbott are scheduled to help next week.
• Fabrice has completed the installation fixture and ordered all parts. Delivery is expected on 1/22.
• Several bolts seized on stage 0 during assembly which again were specified incorrectly as stainless and not silver plated. We are going through all BSC and HAM documentation to make sure this is corrected on the drawings and does not happen again.
• With stage 0 on hold we are beginning the assembly of the Stage1 Pitchforks & Boxworks. Nitronic helicoils have been added to all parts and to all barrel nuts.

Suspensions

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

Advanced and Enhanced LIGO

• Output Mode Cleaner: We are proceeding with re-building the OMC here at Caltech. Some of the aluminum parts are missing from the 40m lab and are suspected to be at LLO with a SEI shipment. Stephany, who is at LLO this week, has been asked to pursue finding these items. We are waiting for FTIR results for the OMC structure. Bob still needs to bake the Birmingham osems. We are looking for a vendor to do Young's modulus measurements on the maraging steel so that we can place the PO for the 2nd set of OMC blades. We are almost ready to submit the structure drawing for fabrication for the LHO OMC.
• Recycling Mirror Suspension: Greer is working on the structure drawing, which is almost ready for fabrication. Bob is working on piece part drawings.

Core Optics

From: Helena Armandula ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu

Advanced LIGO Coatings - CSIRO

• CSIRO completed all the HfO2 coatings and a R&D run, single Ta2O5 on cantilevers for Glasgow that were annealed at different temperatures.
  In order to make the HfO coatings more stable to annealing, one run was made by Si doping HfO.
• Observations from Mark Gross:

  "The SiO-doped HfO material was, in my opinion, over-annealed and certainly explains why there are 'bubbles' on the surface. I noted that they were there and put them down to local delamination of the film due to recrystallization (and consequent weakening) of the film at those points. The compressive stress is quite high in HfO films (although less with SiO in them).

  The pure HfO films are damaged at only 350-400 C and the addition of SiO to the material was meant to delay the onset of recrystallization to a higher temperature. From a paper I have I estimated that 550 C might work OK for the SiO doping level I produced, but in hindsight it was just a little too high and 500 C would probably have produced no damage at all.

   

  The annealing profile was 20 C to 550 C at about 1.5 C per minute then 550 C soak for 24 hours, then cool-down to 20 C overnight (~14 hours) - ie. about 0.6 C per minute.

   

  (Note: the oven cannot be force cooled and is very well insulated, hence the low cooling rate)."

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

• Basically all effort threads are (have been since early December) aiming toward a near term (end of month?) PDR for the COC. I am assembling materials for a revised DRD for this PDR. Basically I am collecting the latest analysis results on issues such as the RC design (probably stable as a straw man for the review); ROC tolerance choice; Cold startup absolute ROCs; arm cavity loss tolerance in addition to the traditional specification of the glass (substrate) and mirror surface fabrication quality. I am hoping to distill all this to an initial DRD draft by the end of next week. Then perhaps tendering
  this for edits pending sending out as the PDR edition.

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

• The third pathfinder contract went to the NSF for approval, January 10th. We will have samples from each site of optics that have been inside the vacuum chambers long term.  These will be evaluated for contamination first by examining  the absorption on the scanner at Caltech. We have received the CSIRO pathfinder optic and the last CSIRO pathfinder invoice. We need a decision on when/how to fund future work at QED.

Auxiliary Optics

From: Michael Smith smith@ligo.caltech.edu

IFO LAYOUT

• Mike has determined the available ranges of mounting locations for the recycling cavity optics for the stable, folded and non-folded configurations with all horizontal wedges, and is the process of writing a document.

SLC

• Mike has begun to update the SLC Conceptual Design doc by adding the new drawings showing the locations of the ghost beams and beam dumps and baffles based on the new ZEMAX IFO layouts.
• Virginio and Ken measured the damping characteristics of a four-wire suspension for the Faraday isolator with Viton inserts to provide damping. The damping with the Viton was insufficient and exhibed a non-linear dissipation. Riccardo proposed that a relatively inexpensive eddy current damping mechanism could be be designed.

ELIGO

• ELIGO BAFFLES: Mike and Ken developed concepts for the following baffles for ELIGO - end BSC chamber end-cap baffle, ITM manifold baffle, and HAM5 manifold baffle. The baffles will be made of formed SS with black porcelainized coating.

Input Optics

No report

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