Weekly Report for Week Ending March 6, 2008

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

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LSC Issues (Reitze)

• Preparations for the upcoming L-V meeting at Caltech are mostly complete.  So far, a total of 218 participants have registered for the main meeting, satellite meetings, and the Coating Workshop.  A password protected preliminary meeting schedule is available at http://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/ligovirgo/meetings/LSCVirgo0803.
• The Remote Participation Committee has surveyed the LSC and Virgo Collaborations concerning the needs and desires for enabling better remote participation at L-V meetings.  The results of this survey will be discussed at the LSC meeting.

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.

• GEO600, LSU, Massachusetts and Minnesota (shown in table above), where signed off and will be posted and submitted to DCC.
• CEGG and Moscow University were approved and are now being routed for signatures.
• The University of Mississippi has been submitte for review.
  

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PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)

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

• Assisted H. Armandula with packing, shipping and preparing a commercial invoice for two Fused Silica Substrates to the University of Glasgow.
• Tagged and created property records for a Modular Library System for S. Anderson at CIT.
• Assisted K. Mason at MIT in making local shipping arrangements for three crates from LHO to AstroPak in Downey, CA.
• With the help of G. McIntyre assisted B. Tyler in disposing of six monitors, four computers and one power supply.
• Tagged and created property records for two Optical Tables for R. Adhikari at CIT.
• Updating LLO's Inventory database.
• Tagged and created property records for two Vacuum Pumps for B. Taylor at CIT.
• Created and submitted an Asset Retirement Form for three computers and two LCD Projectors from LHO.
• Provided assistance to P. King with filing a Duty-Free entry form to US Department of Commerce for the Laser that came from Germany.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

• There has been a noticeable spike in drawings being submitted over the last couple of weeks.  Is this the beginning of a trend with Advanced LIGO right around the corner.......?

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>

Work in Progress:

• U of Florida

Routed:

• MIT (Pending response on inquiry)
• Dr. Meshkov

Completed mods:

• CMC: Submitted to vendor

Modifications pending vendor signatures:

• Triad
• QED
• Support Services
• Excel
• Taylor Porter
• Benton
• LSU (LSU came back with inquiries: Pending response from Caltech)

Closeouts pending:

• Shanghai
• Squid Labs
• Galli and Morelli

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

• Started expenditure analysis, budget review, and data entry for February 2008 monthly operations report.
• Continued to work with IMSS to reconcile FY2007 carry forward amount to Oracle.
• Started work with OSR and project accounting to determine total participant support committed on current LIGO coop agreement PHY-0107417.
• 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>

• The contract for the erosion control effort at LLO is being awarded to Industrial Enterprises of Baton Rouge.  The contract is being reviewed.

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

• The kickoff meeting for the Pathfinder optical contract with Tinsley is scheduled for Friday, March 7, at the contractor's facility in Richmond, CA.  Ed Jasnow will be attending along with four other LIGO staff members.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

• We issued a request for contributions for the monthly report to be sent to the NSF for the end of February.  The report is due to the NSF by Friday, March 14, 2008.  I have requested input by Wednesday, March 12.

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 this coming Monday, March 10.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

• Some of the annual safety audits of LIGO campus labs and facilities were completed.  The audits had been delayed pending completion of equipment moves and/or lab modifications.  Meanwhile, plans continue to change and estimated completion dates are becoming less certain.  The work-around will be to audit labs that do not have pending major modifications.
• Also continued support for design reviews in the area of safety and (some) QA.

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

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

• We opened the beam tubes to the 4k vertex on Monday for a few hours, and found that we could hit the frames in both end stations, and get flashes in both arms, with alignments that register at the AS, REFL, and HAM6 ports. Thus we will remain under vacuum and press on with ISI and PSL installation. ITM alignments will need to be re-unbiased on the next vent.
• HAM ISI stage 0 and 1 plates are at Astropak for cleaning this week
• optical lever piers move about nine times as much as the floor they rest on. A prototype for AdL reduces this by a factor of 3.
• After the IO work, the 4k MC length was measured and found to be 0.9mm shorter than before. We've run out of range on the Wenzel and will for now swap oscillators (borrowed from LLO). In the fall vent we may move MC2.
• Sensing matrices for the 2k running at various (higher) powers were obtained
• The beat between H1 and H2 lasers was (again) observed, this part of the effort to help lock 4k AdL machines
• Astrowatch: the 2k has had a science mode duty cycle of 30% since Feb 17 (A5 start). However, the "up" time (power up, and everything but the science mode bit set) is a remarkable 60%. See here.

Outreach (D. Ingram)

• LHO EOC Ingram has been invited to represent LIGO on the planning team for the development of a STEM high school near the WSU Tri-Cities and PNNL campuses north of Richland. Battelle, WSU TC and Tri-Cities school districts are the principal partners in the effort. Similar projects have taken root in Ohio, including a school with strong Battelle ties in Columbus.

 

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

VE, CDS, overall ops (Rusyl Wooley):

• We vented HAM6 and removed both of the 84" covers from HAM6. This is in preparation for the HAM ISI installation later this week.[AL note: late breaking information received from Mike Zucker reports succes -- please refer to the LLO elog]
• One thing that was left out from last week. Harry added a second 2-1/2" all metal valve to the one that is leaking. He then installed on of the aux. turbo carts and began pumping on both valves. I closed the second valve...this should put us in a good configuration until we perform our final vertex section vent prior to S6.
• Harry took new RGA scans of the corner station and forwarded them to Rai.
• Harry and I performed a He leak check of the septum window and found no problems. We also closed the new back to air valve that is in series with the one that leaks, and turned off the turbo pump that is attached.
• After discussion with Rai, we have determined that the leak is fixed and that the water load is acceptable for opening the arms for low noise locking.  I plan to open GV3 on Monday.  This will open CP1 to the vertex.  After 24 hours I will open the vertex to the end stations.
• Bids for the diode room and TCS chiller closets are expected on Friday.  Selection will be done early next week.
• The new communication fibers for ISI, SUS & OMC have arrived.  We will test them on Friday and if that test is successful we will install them next week and move the computers to their design location.

CDS Computing (Lisa Giaime):

• Decommissioned control3 as an nfs server.
• Verified that everyone in the control room has a cds home account.
• Began writing some training documentation to teach people how to move files in and out of their cds home account.

Enh LIGO HAM 6 SEI install (Brian O'Reilly):

• We have completed testing of the HAM-ISI and the results look good.
• We hope to verify a couple of confusing results once we have the table in the chamber. The installation fixture was erected with comparative ease earlier in this week. On Thursday we put the table on its cart and installed the risers on the support tubes in the HAM. We were somewhat concerned about how level it would be, but on the first attempt we were within three thousandths. Today (Friday the 7th) we will install the ISI table.

Bake Oven (Tom Evans):

• We have finished a load of assorted stainless and silver-plated screws for the OMC SUS assembly.
• We are beginning to bake some tip tilt suspension bars for the OMC.

LLO Outreach (John Thacker):

• Developed and delivered one day teacher professional development program in Monroe, LA.
• Prepared material for another 1-day teacher workshop.
• Delivered programming for 3 school group visits.
• Hosted 8 staff from LA Art and Science Museum (Baton Rouge).
• Contacted teachers about scheduling.
• Mailed previsit packets for April schools.
• Finished first draft of 1-page Next Phase Project Summary Sheet.
• Finished first draft of 15-page Next Phase Project Description.
• Prepared LLO Large Facilities Projects Monthly Report

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)

• DR Locking: Rob is making progress with locking just the DRMI. Acquisition with the single demod signals is working well, and handoffs to all double demod signals using the input matrix ramping worked several times with the scripts. Arm locking (without the DRMI) also works fine. Up next will be more work to put together the DRM+ARMs.
• Aux Beam Arm Locking: John continues to work on this, with help from visitor Lisa Barsotti. They are working on getting clean signals through the PDs, cleaning up RFAM contamination, and looking for excess frequency noise. John is measuring the RFPD responses.
• GigE Cameras & Image Processing: Joe continues to assemble a dedicated GigE backbone to test network capabilities as regards frame rate, resolution, etc.
• Noise cancellation: visitor Matt Evans is looking into setting up a Borkspace system for noise cancellation at the 40m.
• Youichi Aso is studying the AdvLIGO and 40m modelling that has been done with Optickle.

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Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

• Since our last report, Greg Ogin has made considerable progress on the ellipsometry analysis. He now has a quantitative model in Mathematica for the psi parameter that reproduces the main features of the data. He is now working on fitting the model to the data but is having some difficulty getting the periods to match. We are exploring alternatives to the native Levenberg-Marquardt fitting method.
• Akira has been working on a comprehensive analysis of shot-noise in the TNI, an issue that has long troubled me but always had to take a back seat to more pressing business. He now has a quantitative prediction for the improvement we should get by rotating the polarization at the Pockels cell, and we are planning on testing this model after the upcoming LSC meeting.
• Tara now has a cooling block for the laser in the photothermal experiment, and he has begun alignment.

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LASTI (Mittleman)

BSC-ISI

• We have completed the system-id of stage 1 with the stage 2 damping loops running; mostly it looks pretty good, although the horizontal one corner #3 looks a little odd. There are some results posted on the Lasti ilog (3/6/08). Fabrice has designed and is in the process of installing the stage #1 damping loops.

Noise Prototype Quad

• After reinstalling the OSEMs and getting the local damping running Brett has been setting up a small angle measurement system, quad diode and some lenses on the optical lever, to finish the characterization of the hysteresis effect.

Monolithic Preparations

• The fiber pulling machine is now mostly complete and is now able to pull cylindrical fibers (albeit in ribbon configuration).  We have successfully tested pulling tapered cylindrical fibers.  We have also successfully pulled 200um fibers that will be needed for the quantum optics experiments.  We began testing ribbon pulling and there is some work that will be needed to get fibers with a good shape.  I also tested tapering the ribbon ends, though this did not work so well as in the cylindrical fibers.  Tests on welding took place on the optics bench.  There is a labview control program that is being further developed for welding. 
• Russell Jones has been visiting this week. He has been installing the fiber characterization systems.   

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

________________

Amber L. Stuver:

LIGO Research:

• Continued working on the h(t) and h(f) factor comparison investigation.  Long story short, there doesn't appear to be anything in the factors themselves that would be responsible for the 60 Hz sidebands that have been observed.  There is still a significant amount of work that needs to be done to prove this statement, but the preliminary results agree.  I presented this work at the h(t) calibration telecon and the calibrator/reviewer telecon.

SEC Work:

• Gave control room tours to about 50 1st graders and about 20 older students.  While the little first graders are cute, I am not sure how much they are benefiting from the LIGO experience.  But one little turned a carpet tile in the control room into a biohazard area...
• Worked with the 20 older students mentioned above in the exhibit hall during their 'free play' time.

________________

Antony Searle:

• Continued work on main Bayesian search paper for PRD.
• Writing a short paper on relationship between Monte-Carlo simulations and Bayesian searches for GWDAW 12 proceedings.

________________

Drew Keppel:

• Working on fitting the background distribution triggers for the S5 1Yr Low Mass CBC search for use wiht the loudest event statistic.
• Generating plots for the review of the S5 1Yr Low Mass CBC search.
• Fin ishing the follow up of near-by missed software injections for the S5 1Yr Low Mass CBC search.

________________

Kent Blackburn for Grid Research and Development:

GRID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT:

• Worked closely with Nebraska's OSG site to resolve some issues with running Einstein@Home on this OSG site.
• Attended the OSG All-Hands Meeting in Chapel Hill where several contacts with users, sites and engagement were made which will provide for useful interactions with our application deployment over the next few months.

OSG INTEGRATION AND VALIDATION TESTBEDS:

• The OSG security officer asked if it was acceptable to removed the OSG ITB and OSG VTB sites from the integration testbed registration due to lack of contact information. This should be overcome by the hiring of a grid administrator, but I approved dropping these until such time as the new grid administrator is available with the agreement that these would be re-registered at that time. However, they will not be unplugged locally.

OSG MANAGEMENT:

• I worked with candidate for the grid administration position to formulate an acceptable offer. The offer letter is now being drafted by Caltech (via Cindy).
• I will be stepping down from my role as a co-Resources Manager of the OSG and will step into a new role as the co-Chair of the OSG Council beginning this month.
• Attended the OSG All Hands Meeting and the OSG Council Meeting.

________________

Joseph Betzwieser:

• Running a noise comparison between H(t) and H(f) for the segments used in the S5 Crab search and at the frequencies searched in the wide parameter search.

________________

Gregory Mendell:

• I spending a small amount of time discussing data analysis with grad students on astrowatch duty at LHO.

________________

Anand Sengupta:

• Helped Jessica with some plots to debug ethinca for LIGO-VIRGO pipeline. Also, spent some time on devising a scheme to incorporate different scaling frequencies in the searches.
• Analyzed data around hardware injection times for the h(t) calibration assessment. In progress.
• Another set of injection runs using the band passed templates - completed all the way upto plotting the results.

________________

Kipp Cannon:

• SGR flare paper and code review work.  Checking injection correctness, testing "howto" documents by re-running the pipeline from scratch.
• Telecons:  burst.

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• Worked with John Zweizig to resolve an initialization issue observed when using FC4 rpms of frameCPP on a system running Ubuntu. It was concluded that the problem was the result of the 4.0.2 version of the gcc compiler used by FC4. As the FC4 reference platform is being deprecated in favor of CentOS 5, no further efforts have been made at getting this configuration to work.
• This week also sees the start of frameCPP supporting the next version of the frame specification.
• A leak of tcl objects in the frameAPI has been resolved by correctly deallocating the ::${jobid} resource.
• The managerAPI is now responsible for the updating of archiveIndex to prevent file corruption (PR#3250).
• LDAS System testing was done using version 1.9.219 of the software. Most tests ran through without interruption and passed.
• The ldas-test system ran with version 1.9.224 of LDAS and ran ok with tcl sockets. The only errors observed where "no such symbol" errors from the datacond.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

• More 6140 benchmarking.
• Discussed the history of changes to the tape space monitors (now working) with Greg.
• Added the SUNWspro package to ldassuntest2 for Ed Maros.
• Rebooted dataserver-cit for patches to take effect.
• Rebooted od-cit to unwedged tape drive/daemons.
• Called in 9940 power supply to Sun.
• Consulted with Greg re: 351x check script and the actual state of some of the LHO RAID arrays.
• Updated LDR config to accept GEO A5 when published.

(Phil Ehrens)

• Created cvs repository repository_prototype for German prototyping (?) group.
• Various tasks associated with end-of-life of 2006-2007 MOU review website and forms.
• 8 mce errors logged for node65 in a 3 day period.
• Replaced fans in nodes 215,269, and 284 when each of these nodes began to show ecc errors on multiple drives. In each case, a single fan was found to be vibrating excessively.
• Replaced a failed HD in node109.
• Patched TAR form to support required Contact/Liaison fields. 

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• Condor updated; surge suppressors replaced; 6 machines updated to centos; used extra mainboard in pcraid sent from caltech -- seems to be working now.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

• u1d8@T3-8 failed and was replaced by u1d6@T3-1.
• Condor was upgraded to 7.0.1.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

• I have updated Condor on the cluster to version 7.0.1.  I am working on installing patches, fixing disks and nodes, and renewing our hardware maintenance contract.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Resolved some ram issues on new opteron burst server (straw).
• Resolved; some filesystem issues nova/gravity.
• Set up new machine (squid x64 intel).
• Tracking down rogue machine on 18.120 net w\plasma.
• Some nagios notification issues re: xp backups (resolved).
• Worked on video conference testing.

Livingston

No report.

Hanford

(Mike)

• Rack mounted a V125 Sun server. Tried loading Solaris but could not get a USB dvd-reader to work. I had to go with pre-installed Solaris load, which is not going to work for a application server. We need to purchase a dvd-reader for this server.
• Setup new visitor accounts.
• Backed up Christine's laptop.
• Did some shuffling with servers to make room for the V125 server. I pulled two servers out of the rack that weren’t being used.
• Backed up NTSRV's Yacolt & Tiffany.
• I setup two ghost server’s to dump users laptops and workstations. This will only work on Windows operating systems. I also created ghost boot disks to connect to these servers.
• Call in StorEdge 3300 “this is the raid array system that went down”. After running many diagnostic tests Sun is has decided to replace the midplane.
• Ghost backups: Started backing up user laptops (Mary Kurts, Dwight Carter, and Ski's laptop).
• Other misc. user support and sysadmin work.

(Larry)

• Performing backups of the user home directories until the disk system is resolved.
• Trying to get a s/w licensing item renewed. Still waiting for a new quote from the company.
• Worked with Mike on a couple of logistical issues.
• Worked with Richard on the Polycom s/w installation.
• Reset DHCP licenses.

Caltech

(Mike)

• Finish up loading a Sun Solaris nisplus workstation.
• Ran end of month ghost backups on most of the NTSRV's.
• Worked on few user computers regarding some email and application issues.
• There were a few problems with the mail servers. There was a lot of spam that were slowing things down.
• Continued work managing the DHCP and Mail servers for CIT & LHO.
• Other misc. user support and work performed in our server rooms.

(Christian)

• Ken Mailand - Installed new dvd writer for Ken.
• Clevand Mak - Restored missing data from old backup image.
• Marilyn Wright - Relocated printer from Irene Baldon’s desktop to Marilyn.
• Toner cartridge replacements - 3flr W/B and 2flr W/B.
• Ran monthly ghost backups on all NTSRV's.
• Testing new Office 2008 for Mac this week.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Veronica)

• LSC:  Ongoing support of the March meeting.  Continued the work on the makeover of ligo.org; received positive reviews from Dave Reitze about the status of this project.  Updated the database of technical papers. Other web related updates.
• LIGO:  Various web updates/ user support.
• CaJAGWR:  Videotaped /compressed the 03/04 talk.  Updated the website.

(Melody)

• New DCC: Continuing with DocDB installation and configuration on the new DCC server. A DocDB database has been created and scripts have been modified. Trying to figure out some configuration errors.
• LAAC: Continuing testing of the wiki. Found some user authentication glitches which need to be fixed.
• Assisted in some of the video conferencing tests.

(Larry)

• Finally ordered some of the notebook computers we need. They will be used to help support the L-V meeting. Need to order a few more for specific users along with a couple of desktop units. Ordered a number of misc. items for different people. All of the items received have been delivered.
• Working a number of logistical issues for the L-V meeting that is coming up. We've got the power issues worked out for the main auditorium but still working in network issues. All of the breakout rooms are taken care of as far as the network and phone systems go. Still work going on to improve remote connectivity.
• Testing of the polycom systems continues.
• Worked a number of small issues for different people; calendar, mailman lists, file transfers/conversions, and then the regular support.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Systems

Modeling and Simulation

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

Static IFO Simulation (Hiro)

• The clear aperture of CP was estimated to be 27cm. If ESD area is too small, an oval shape with a shorter minor axis is an option, possibly 23cm.
• Restarted to reinvestigate the effect of the astigmatism, including the baffle geometry. 

Time Domain simulation (Hiro, John)

• John finished the basic PSD C++ code using a revised algorithm. It is in working condition, but he is still tweaking it. He is now starting on incorporating it into an e2e primitive. Melody assisted John by proving C++ help.
• Hiro traced a bug reported by Lisa who found a problem when simulating the smartSPI by injecting lasers from ETMs. This bug has been fixed, together with other issues. A new version, e2e-4.0.4, will be released soon.

Mechanical Simulation for Advanced LIGO (Sany and SLU team, Melody)

• Richard installed the most updated release of e2e (modeler and alfi) in our new Linux machine, and started to investigate AdvLIGO MC frequency noise with the HEPI implemented. Previously, we found that with the HEPI model implemented, the MC transmitted light had a prominent peak around 1.2 Hz. This frequency is close to the triple suspension’s mode 5 resonance at 1.19 Hz, whose dominant motions are the middle and lower mass’s vertical motions. We looked at the MC1’s vertical spectrum and confirmed that its 1.19 Hz peak was indeed high. We do not understand why this peak is high, and will look into it carefully.
• Melody assisted SLU group regarding the installation of alfi. The trouble was caused by incorrect version of java on their system.

Facilities Modifications and Preparations

From: John Worden <worden_j@ligo-wa.caltech.edu>

• Nothing to report this week.

Prestabilized Laser

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

• Using a current version of the frequency stabilisation servo, the 35-W Enhanced LIGO laser was locked to the reference cavity.  This was a happy union of the new-fangled DAQ front-end hardware, the so-called "Borkspace" environment and the existing hardware.  Characterisation and improvement work will continue at the AEI.
• The hazard analysis was updated to correct some minor mistakes.  This is for a review that would enable installation of the Enhanced LIGO laser at LHO.
• The latest round of laser safety eyewear testing was an eye opener.  An update of a previous report is being worked on.

Control and Data Systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

AdL SUS

• Completed testing of PUM Driver chassis. The report has been completed and is out for comments. It should be sent to the UK group by March 7. The LHO group is working on the UIM test report.
• The modified UIM driver has been sent back to the UK group for evaluation.
• Received the ESD driver from Strathclyde.
• Continued modeling efforts aimed at developing the requirements for the triple suspension electronics.
• Still to do-- write test plan for UK Sat Amplifier. write test plan for UK ESD Driver.
• Installation of the UK electronics at LASTI is scheduled to begin April 7.
• Redesigned the US Sat Amp. The redesign was prompted by our inability to procure the BUF634 parts used on the boards. Several other components have also become hard to obtain. These units are needed for the RM test stand to be built at CIT.

AdL Timing

• Daniel, Szabi, Vern and myself had a phonecon meeting this week to discuss the timing system. Szabi and Daniel have agreed to present a timing system PDR on Mar. 26 during the normal CDS meeting time.

AdL Daq

• Running performance tests of networks and I/O cards in preparation for a DAQ PDR (sometime in April).

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

SEI Activities and Progress at LLO

• This week we continued testing of the HAM-ISI table. All sensors and actuators check out OK. We took some nice transfer function data showing the spring resonances where we expected them to be. There's no evidence of any large structures below 100 Hz.
• Earlier in the week we erected the installation fixture for installing the table in the chamber. Thursday we removed the table from the test stand and prepped it for installation. The risers have been installed on the support tubes and measured to be level (perfect on the east side, within 2 and 3 thousandths of an inch  for each corner on the west side). Friday (March 7th) we will install the table in HAM6. It promises to be an exciting day.  - Brian O.

SEI Electronics Design and Fabrication

• The gain of the ISI Interface was changed to twice its old gain so that we use the entire range of the ADC.  Brian O'Reilly and Rich Mittleman changed the gains in the chassis that they have, and I changed the ones going to LHO.  I have made a flock of the GS-13 Emulator boxes that are up-to-date with this change.  They will be disseminated to the sites shortly. - Ben A.

SEI Activities and Progress at LHO

• Parts inventory & tooling cleaning along with work space organization and Clean Room Staging in preparation for ISI sub assembly work. Large plates have been received at Astropak are are being cleaned.  - Hugh R.

HAM SEI Documentation and Design

• Nearly all the PDF drawings for the HAM ISI are now available on the DCC
  Gullswings: Have researched previous work characterizing the gullwings, and now running new FEA studies to develop a baseline from which new designs can be compared.  - Andy S.

Adv LIGO HEPI

• Started writing documents in preparation for FDR and Fabrication Readiness Review to occur at the end of this month.- Ken M.

Suspensions

From Janeen Romie and Norna Robertson

(romie_j@ligo-la.caltech.edu, nroberts@ligo.caltech.edu)

HAM Suspensions for Advanced & Enhanced LIGO

• Output Mode Cleaner Suspension: The hazard analysis document is now signed and deposited in the DCC.  Janeen is updating the installation procedure. Derek is working with Sam and Valera on the Solidworks layout of the OMC suspension on the HAM optical table, along with the needed counterweights. Chris is sending drawings for the LHO OMC to the LLO engineers to review. The PO for the 2nd OMC SUS blades has been placed; parts are due at LLO in mid-April where they will be inspected and characterized. Calum is sending Solidworks info on further LHO OMC parts  to LLO engineers for processing.
  
• Recycling Mirror Suspension: Bob & Greer are sending drawings to Calum & LLO engineers for review. The PO for the RM blades has been placed. Parts are due at LLO in mid-April where they will be inspected and characterized. Mike got a quote for the Young's modulus testing of the blade material (RM and OMC blades). Janeen will facilitate getting the samples cut in a couple of weeks and get the samples sent to the testing company in Georgia.
• Input Mode Cleaner Suspension: Mike has made a number of changes to the structure in ANSYS with little change in resonant frequency which is currently lower than requirement, so is therefore looking at how to improve this.

BSC Suspensions for Advanced LIGO

• Quad: Further work on understanding the pitch alignment problem on the quad suspension is strongly suggesting this is a hysteresis effect. Riccardo has seen similar effects. Larger “d’ values (giving higher lowest pitch frequency) should reduce this to a manageable value to allow alignment to proceed. Modelling using the Mathematica quad model will be used to check magnitudes of the effect. Increasing “d” can be achieved in the all-metal quad by swapping round wire clamps. At the same time as such changes are done we will swap out the blades plus their clamps which may have been slipping and replace them with modified ones (more bolts). We have already prepared to increase the “d” value for the monolithic quad by suitable placement of breakoff prisms.
   
  Jay has completed the PUM driver electronics test report and made it available to Birmingham.

• Beamplitter: All parts for RAL prototype are now out for manufacture.
  

Core Optics

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

• Gregg Harry is working to resolve differences in loss measurement results made by Penn and Gretarson on the CSIRO Ti/Ta.
• The final meeting of the COC PDR has concluded, we thank the review team for their time and attention.  We look forward to their report.
• LIGO staff attending the Tinsley pathfinder kickoff meeting Friday 3-7-08: Billingsley, Cresta, Gustafson, Jasnow and Kells.
• Helena Armandula has unofficially left LIGO, we will miss her experience and enthusiasm.  Thankfully, she is still available to answer questions.
  We plan to have a small celebration at the L-V Lunch on Wednesday to wish her the best in her retirement.

Auxiliary Optics

From: Michael Smith smith@ligo.caltech.edu

IFO LAYOUT

• Mike corrected an error in the coordinates of the PRM3 and BS in the non-folded recycling cavity IFO. The revised documents (3/4/08) were placed in the ADLIGO SYS Wiki.

SLC

• Ken has received samples of enameling steel. He will send one sample to a company in TN and another to West Coast Porcelain to evaluate their surfaces.
• He has completed a preliminary eligo /adv ligo manifold non suspended /suspended cone style beam dump design.
• He is  working on a simpler eligo only, flat panel, installed at a 5 deg angle in the tube, as a quicker to make alt. version.
• Ken is working with Virginio on the suspension concept for the manifold baffle, which will be assembled using hardware, without any welded joints.
• Mike is in the process of revising the SLC conceptual design document to reflect the stable recycling cavity layout.
• Luke is working on the LASTI arm cavity baffle and the LASTI elliptical baffle.

INITIAL ALIGNMENT SYSTEM

• Mike is gathering information from the Initial LIGO design requirements doc to aid in writing the ADLIGO requirements and conceptual design documents.

ETM TELESCOPE SUSPENSION

• Chris and Virginio are working on the conceptual design for the ETM Telescope suspension.

ELIGO

• TCS: Mohanna, Virginio, and Tobin discussed modifications that will be made to the intensity stabilization circuit for the ELIGO TCS laser. A minimum of 2 chassis and boards are needed at LLO by 3/24/08 for installation and testing.
• SLC: Luke is working on the ELIGO end BSC baffle, and the ELIGO HAM4 baffle.
  Ken and Mike created a simplified ELIGO manifold baffle concept made of a single, plane, oxidized, polished SS baffle tilted at 5 deg. The preferred method for bringing the manifold baffle into the manifold is to remove the B-8 spool piece at the end of the manifold tube closest to the ITM BSC chamber.
• A tentative schedule for the ELIGO baffle design review is 4/15/08.

Input Optics

From: David tanner@phys.ufl.edu

IO for AdvLIGO

• Progress is being made on the mechanical layout details for advanced LIGO (Luke).

IO for eLIGO

• Work characterzing the mode cleaner for eLIGO was done at LHO, plus some work on the mode matching telescope alignment. When the arms were opened the alignment seemed pretty good. (Muzammil, Kate, LHO crew)
• The 3-terminal EO modulator for LHO eLIGO has been assembled. The frequencies of the matching circuts are being tweaked. (Volker)

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For additional information about this report, contact Albert Lazzarini