Weekly Report for Week Ending March 27, 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)

• The LSC-Virgo meeting took place at Caltech last week, with an agenda that spanned both instrument science and data analysis.  Over 250 LSC and Virgo members attended the meeting (the largest attendance to date).  Highlights of the meeting included progress reports on the E-LIGO upgrade, an update on Advanced LIGO and the anticipated approval by the NSB in late March, progress on Virgo+, and a number of data analysis results from all of the search groups - burst, CW, inspiral, and stochastic. Mature drafts of several papers from the CW group were also presented.   At the Council meeting, a new member, Selim Shahriar of Northwestern University, was admitted to the LSC.  In addition, a change to the nominating process for LSC leadership positions was approved, as well some changes to the ByLaws.  This was the first meeting that remote participants could join in using EVO, and a rough survey indicates that quite a few L-V members listened in from afar.

The Directorate is indebted to the many Caltech staff who worked long and hard to make the meeting a success -- thank you from Albert, Jay, & Dave.

• In addition, a satellite Coating Workshop was in conjunction with the L-V meeting, with a large attendance from LSC and Virgo members as well as scientists from other optics communities and industry scientists.  Judging by the large attendance and enthusiasm during the presentations, the meeting was a big success.
• The Caltech organizers did a great job and deserve our thanks for putting together a great meeting.
• The date and venue of the next LSC-Virgo meeting have been set.  It will take place at the l'Université Paris-Sud 11 in Orsay on June 11,12.  This meeting will cover only data analysis. Face-to-face meetings will be held on June 9,10.
• 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 published in - Phys. Rev. D 77 (2008) 062004.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

MOU status remains as reported last reporting period (see below).

• 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.

• CEGG and Moscow University were approved and are now being routed for signatures.
• The University of Mississippi has been submitte for review.

PROPERTY ACCOUNTING (Luna)

• Assisted K. Mason at MIT in making shipping arrangements for three crates from LLO to LHO.
• Created an Inventory report for all capital assets at LHO.
• Per Albert's request I am working in gathering what the estimated relocation cost is from various locations to CIT, LHO and LLO.
• Assisted G. Billingsley with packing, shipping, and preparing a commercial invoice for two Substrates to the University of Genova.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

• Very busy supporting LSC-VIRGO meeting.

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>

• Benton: Re-sent ontract modification #13 which is still pending.  It is in routing for signature at Benton.
• Excel: ontract modification #41 is fully executed.
• Taylor Porter Brooks: Re-submitted ontract modification #2 for signature.  Vendor has not responded.
• Ezus Lyon: Re-submitted mod #10 for signature.  Vendor has not responded.
• REO contract modification 32 was signed on 3/17/08. REO has submitted the order acknowledgement which includes all the specifications. It is pending review from the technical staff.
• Triad: Contract modification #191 was signed and completed.
• Support Services: Re-sent mod #40 which has been signed and routed for Caltech's corresponding signature.
• Issued the purchase order to Global Risk for loss control for LLO.
• Closed out the Galli and Morelli contract.  A reminder for the release to close out a second contract with the firm has been sent.
• Working on the contract modification for Ares.
• The request for close out was sent to High Precision Devices.
• Working on the order for the construction of the chiller rooms at LLO.

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

• In the process of establishing a new series of POETA accounts for Advanced LIGO.
• Attended OSR session on Policy on Faculty Effort in Federally Funded Proposals.
• 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>

• Contracts are being prepared for construction and air conditioning of the laser diode room at LLO.  These were competitively bid, with award going to the lowest bidder.

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

• Efforts continue in trying to get a blanket exemption letter from customs duties for items imported for Advanced LIGO.  The exemption will be based on the fact that all imported items will be the property of the U.S. Government.  Proposed language has been submitted for the draft CA to cover those items donated by foreign governments.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

• Previously distributed sections of the financial report for the end of February to the account managers and provided a projection of an Estimate-at-Completion for the year.  These estimates were discussed during the executive committee meeting on March 24.
• I have prepared and distributed an updated version of the budgets for LIGO Operations FY 2009-2013 in preparation for a scrub to the NSF funding profile scheduled for the closed Executive Committee meeting on March 31.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

• The next Staffing Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 14.
• A Staffing Committee meeting was held on Monday, March 10th.  The minutes and action items from the meeting have been posted on the SC web page.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

• The LIGO Safety Steering Committee discussed the major criteria for future purchases of laser safety glasses.  The committee agreed that the preferred glasses should have sandwich construction with outer glass lenses and frames with side beam blockage.  Also recommended was the use of a frame that has provisions for an internal snap-in frame for corrective lenses.  This last item should make the use of safety glasses with eye correction cheaper and faster to implement.
• Glasses with dual wavelength/OD capability are available, laser operators will be encouraged to retain for their exclusive use laser safety glasses.
• The methods (formulas and assumptions) for calculation of OD was also discussed.  Additional evaluation and comparison of what is now being "marketed" for these kind of calculations was recommended.  The committee asked to have the additional information before making a recommendation.
• Several Hazard Analyses and SOPs for upcoming work/installations were reviewed, discussed and often reiterated before final approval.
• Supported design reviews for safety and in a few cases QA comments.
• Submitted a concern about lack of QA requirements for AdLIGO procurement planning/guideline documents.  Volunteered to prepare QA related guideline information (work with Bert Cresta).

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

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

eLIGO commissioning

• BSC 8 was vented, ETMX surface was inspected, ETMX LOS was removed from the BSC9 and transported to the optics lab. ETMX was removed from the cage, magnet removal is going on and new magnets will be attached.
• Old 10 W laser is out, new 35 W laser is in.
• SEI - CoreyG & HughR: The HAM Bellows are on and are in the process of being leak checked today. We received the ClassA Tooling bars from LLO and installed those before closing up the Chamber. All other external hardware is basically standing by.
• ISI - CoreyG & HughR: Continuing more staging and cleaning. Received the final crate of ClassA AL parts from Caltech. Corey Helicoiled and pressed Dowel Pins in all the Boxwork and Pitchfork Walls; and, we assembled all of them. We need to press pins in the Bottom and they are then ready to go on the Stage1 Base; they are bagged..

Astrowatch

• Timing errors (both ramp and duotone) have been reported from Astrowatchers for some time. It seemed to be finally fixed by a boot fest.
• Several attempts to improve the reliability and performance of the H2 are going on, including the AS5 trigger, TCS tuning and WFS investigation.

Outreach (D. Ingram)

• LHO welcomed several spouses of the WSU Board of Regents for a brief visit on 3/20 while the Regents were meeting at WSU Tri-Cities. LHO EOC Ingram and Professor Judy Morrison shared information about joint LIGO-WSU TC activities related to teacher professional development and student and family outreach.

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

General activities

• TCS Chiller closet construction is largely complete.
• Continued work on erosion control behind the LIGO SEC building.
• MC mode sweep study in preparation for planned vacuum incursion to re-rework IO.
• Various troubleshooting after last week's UPS failure, including for one HEPI instance.
• Continued work on OMC locking.
• Removal of old TCS and start of the installation of the new version.

CDS Computing (Lisa Giaime)

• There was a problem with HEPI reflective memory loop after last week'spower outage.  Once that was fixed, I spent a fair amount of timeworking with Brian because one of the HEPI position sensors was railed.
• Working with Rolf on fiber testing and timing problems on OMC & ISI.
• Received the new laptop for the LVEA.  I hope to have the installfinished early next week.
• Working on a number of procurements.

Safety & Security (Rich Riesen)

• Work is continuing on the TCS retrofits.  All safety requirements are being followed.
• All site emergency lights were checked for proper operation, one unit is inop. and is being replaced.All fire extinguishers were checked for proper pressure, and physical condition.  All site units meet specs. and have been signed off for this month.
• The LLO Eligo 35 watt ( laser diode room/PSL) SOP was released for review. (LLO only, for now).
• Site safety walk thru found multiple trip hazards (removed). The SEC complex gets an A+ for housekeeping and safety awareness.

LO Outreach (John Thacker)

• Prepared and Delivered two school programs this week.
• Continued work on the Next Phase Proposal.

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: John was able to acquire lock of the DRM with 3f signals, and hold the lock, albiet rather shakily.
• GigE network: We need a new GigE network for readout of the digital cameras that Joe is working on, as well as to make the rebooting of front end processors lass flaky. Joe is beginning to draw up a plan. He's also taken some pics with two different cameras (GC650 (CCD) and GC750 (CMOS)) for comparison.
• Noise cancellation / adaptive filtering: Rana borrowed a Guralp seismometer from MIT, and he and the Abbotts have wired it into our PEM system. Alex routed the signals from the PEM to a BorkSpace processor (c1ass), Matt wrote Adaptive filter code ("Filtered-X-LMS") to generate control signals which will be routed to the unused SUS_MCL channels of all the optics suspension controllers (except MC2). Matt was able to produce adaptive filtering that can achieve results similar to those of the MISO FIR Wiener, potentially reducing seismic noise by factor of 10 or more in the 1-25 Hz frequency band. In the current setup, we have 6 accelerometers and 1 seismometer around the MC to be used to demonstrate the principle of the whole thing.
• Suspension controller problems: we continue to have problems with c1susvme2 getting out of sync and/or giving a red status light, requiring power cycling. c1susvme1 is also misbehaving; we suspect that the fan installed to help cool the crates is causing the problem.
• RFAM monitor: Valera visited the lab and measured the RFAM after the RF stabilization box in the 166 MHz modulation path.
• Squeezer goes home: Tim Bodiya came by, completely dismantled the squeezer from the PSL table, boxed it up and shipped it back to MIT. We now have a lot of empty real-estate on the PSL table.
• New PCIX-based controls: Rolf is beginning the design of new PCIX-based (AdvLIGO-like) controls to replace our VME-based system.
• Safety inspection preparation: Steve, Bob and alan prepared the lab, and prepared documents, in preparation for an upcoming safety inspection.
• Vacuum: small turbopump TP2 (forepump for main TP1) failed and was replaced by Steve. The software interlock (which closes the main valve and shutters the laser) worked fine, which confused the people working on the IFO at the time.

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Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

No report provided.

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LASTI (Mittleman)

• We have been doing prep work for the ISI/Quad installation which is now scheduled to start on April 7th and take about 2 weeks.
• The BSC is being prepared to remove the solid stack and controls prototype pendulum next Tuesday. The dome and side door have been removed, the inner flooring and staging around the lip installed and the quad has been locked down. We still need to finish preparing the BSC-HEPI, getting the loads cells running, engaging the stops, zeroing the displacement sensors …….

BSC-ISI

• Fabrice has been investigating an elevated gain peaking in our damping loops that has been driving the Quads lowest transverse mode (~0.5Hz). We have checked for plant changes, and found none, so he is now checking the MEDM/Simulink software.
• We are also getting the ISI ready to install into the vacuum chamber. The final trim masses have been installed and screwed down, we still have some cabling work to do and then it should be ready.

Noise Prototype Quad

• Waiting to go into the BSC.

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

______________

Antony Searle:

• Attended and presented at PCGM. [http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~acsearle/pcgm-searle.pdf]
• Completed and submitted for approval GWDAW proceedings paper. [http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/docs/ScienceDocs/P/P080034-00.pdf]
• Began XPIPELINE and QPIPELINE merger into {\omega}PIPELINE; several teleconferences and successful generation of an XPIPELINE/EXCESSPOWER style time-frequency basis with QTRANSFORM [https://geco.phys.columbia.edu/omega/]

_____________

Drew Keppel:

• Prioritizing the list of items to review for the S5 1yr Low Mass CBC search for the April APS meeting.
• Going through the review for the S5 1yr Low Mass CBC search.
• Following up review action items for the S5 1yr Low Mass CBC search.
• Putting together my talk for the April APS meeting.

_____________

Kent Blackburn for the Grid Computing R&D Team:

GRID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

• Britta is back from Germany!
• Wrote Agenda and minutes for weekly LIGO-Pegasus telecon.
• Attended weekly LIGO-Pegasus, Inspiral Coding, OSG-USERS and OSG-INTEGRATION telecons. Discussed need for a lightweight client model for submitting jobs to a grid. Determined in the LIGO-Pegasus call that this is due to behavior of Condor-G.
• Worked on lalapps_ihope development to enable OSG submissions.

OSG INTEGRATION AND VALIDATION TESTBED

• Nothing to report.

OSG MANAGEMENT

• Held teleconference with my OSG Council co-Chair to discuss the formation of ad-hoc subcommittees to address several high priority, high visibility open issues within the Council which have languished. Also discussed strategy to begin planning for next Science Advisory Board meeting.
• Reviewed and signed off on an outstanding Statement of Work update to provide funding for new OSG cybersecurity staff since the new Resource Manager has yet to be identified.
• Reviewed several new resumes for the Grid Administrator position open at Caltech after previous candidate had to turn down the offer. A few good candidates were identified and I will be following up as soon as possible.
• Discussed planning for LIGO-OSG face-to-face meeting with the LSC Computer Committee. Will have a telephone call with LIGO's new OSG Council Representative (Patrick Brady) on Monday to further prepare for the April 7th meeting.
• Circulated OSG VO policies (acceptable use, site policies, barring policies, etc.) to the CompComm's SCAT subcommittee for review.
• Was a very busy week for CSO duties!

________________

Gregory Mendell:

• I attended the CW F2F meeting before the March LSC meeting at Caltech. I made plans with the CW group to create a standard regression test of a typical CW pipeline that runs under Condor, to revalidate the pipeline after code, Condor, or cluster OS changes.

_______________

Amber Stuver:

LIGO Research

• Finished fitting GW simulations with random polarizations and sky locations to a distribution.  The wrapper around the detection delay and SNR ratio follow-up plug-in now returns the probability that a given candidate event is real along with the Boolean for if the time delay and SNR ratio are within the measured polarization averaged bounds.  This work is now ready to be translated into python for application in the CBC follow-up pipeline.  The next step in this work is to apply noise profiles to the SNRs and broaden the application to 3 detectors.  I hope that this will be a simple tool to evaluate event likelihoods and give a first shot at the inverse problem parameters.
• Continued the factor investigation for the h(t) review.  It appears that the differences in the factors from h(t) and h(f) are due to measurement noise and not from a physical detector source.  (Xavi suggested looking at the standard deviation of the real part of the h(t) factor and divide it by the standard deviation of the imaginary part. Since the imaginary part is a result of measurement noise only, a large (>>1) ratio of the real and imaginary stds would suggest a physical source for the h(t) fluctuations.  This isn't the case.)  I have also associated 'weird' (i.e. not white) FFTs of the differences in the h(t) and h(f) factors with discontinuities in the h(t) factor timeseries. Again, there does not appear to be any physical cause to the said 'weirdness'.  Results (without commentary) can be found here: http://touro.ligola.caltech.edu/~stuver/research/ hoft/longfft/

SEC Work

• Gave control room tours to 2 school groups (~30 students).

______________

Kipp Cannon:

• ade review readiness presentation to burst group to initiate code review of excess power pipeline and targeted upper limit search.

______________

Joseph Betzwieser:

• Presented Crab results at Pacific Coast Gravity Wave meeting.
• Working on getting h(t) validated for the Crab paper by comparing h(t) to h(f) in 1800 second chunks.

_______________

Igor Yakushin:

• Comparing injected and detected triggers for coherent WaveBurst and incoherent WaveBurst + CorrPower pipelines on LIGO-GEO S4 data on request from the reviewers: http://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~igor/test_031108/.
• Checking how Burst MDC injections cover LIGO-GEO S4 segment list on request from the reviewers.
• Preparing segment lists for analyzing the second year of S5 for coherent WaveBurst low and high frequency searches.
• Reviewing a paper on request from the P&P committee.
• Preparing a list of injections for S5 first year coherent WaveBurst analysis that would indicate whether a particular injection was analyzed or not and, if analyzed, whether it was detected or not. Such lists from each of the three burst pipelines (and networks) will be used to construct a single upper limit
• Constructed tables of the loudest triggers (with their properties, coherent event displays and qscans) after opening (empty) H1H2L1 and H1H2 boxes for coherent WaveBurst analysis of the first year of S5:

http://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~waveburst/S5fullyear_L0/H1H2_PROD/0/index.htmlhttp://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~waveburst/S5fullyear_L0_PLAY/H1H2_PLAY/0/index.htmlhttp://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~waveburst/S5fullyear_L0/H1H2_PROD/0/index.htmlhttp://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~waveburst/S5fullyear_L1_PLAY/H1H2_PLAY/1/index.htmlhttp://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~waveburst/S5fullyear_L1/H1H2_PROD/1/index.html

______________

Diego Fazi:

• Testing the kludge distance in the PTF intrinsic parameter space.
• Implementing an exact distance for the PTF intrinsic parameter space.
• Running the first comparison between PTF and SPA templates in recovering spinning injections.

______________

Anand Sengupta:

• New code has been added to lalapps_inspiral to cluster triggers over a window that is greater of the template length or a fixed window size (which can be chosen at run time). This has been incorporated to address Marco's observations while studying high-mass triggers for veto purposes.
• A new play ground run has been started with these new changes in place. Craig will submit a bug report soon.
• Working with Kari to plot snr and chisq time series of some of the loudest glitches in the low mass CBC search.
  

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• FrameCPP continues to be modified to implement version 7 of the frame specification.
• Work has been been done to get tclglobus ready for the next release of VDT.
• The cmonClient system reporting facilities now supports sending the results directly to a browser.  Report generation support has been expanded. Reports are archived on the server. From the cmonClient, the user can request reports to be archived, removed, or downloaded.
• The managerAPI is being modified to support detaching of certain user commands, such as rmJobFiles, since they can take a long time to complete. Currently there is an issue with the assistant manager returning back to the client due to socket errors.
• Within the userAPI, LDASJobH has been modified to set the variable ::X509_CERT_DIR so TCLGlobus can use the certificates under /ldas_outgoing/grid-security/certificates. Previously, the default directory of /etc/grid-security/certificates was being used. The ldas user did not have access to the directory resulting in connection failures.
• The user command rmJobFiles resulting in the requesting timing out has been fixed.
• The ordering of some systems tests has been modified to ensure correct answers.
• The week long run on ldas-test using version 1.9.244 resulted only in "no such symbol" errors from the datacond.
• To facilitate the "cit locking" problem, the job purge time has been extended from 3 hours to 12 hours. With this modification, rmJobFiles actually has files to remove.
• The datasockTest now supports dynamic generation of the needed ilwd files.
  

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• Continued with cluster centos upgrade: tried x64 on some machines, successful, but staying at 32bit for consistency: reinstalled boinc on a number of nodes (~15):  a fair number bad disks, will try to install with one disk (no raid) on these. new perl script for cluster monitoring (ldas-kickstart.mit.edu/index.cgi).
• Completed centos installs; took nodes with bad disks offline; updated disk monitoring script for nodes and pcraids.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

• On 03/19  3511-3 (which is part of /frames) stopped working.  Resetting it and rebooting fb1 fixed the problem.
• A day later, fb0's file system went down due to UPS failure in the mass storage room.
• Moving grid-mapfile to /etc/grid-securing on gateway broke LSCsegFind server at LHO and the test LSCsegFind server at CIT that had to be restarted after the configuration files were updated.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

• I am working to renew the maintenance contract on LDAS Sun hardware at LHO, and update the LDAS LHO UPS batteries/units.  I have followed up on recent problems with archiving of trend and astrowatch data, and confirmed that there are no extraneous gaps in this data due to RAID filesystem and/or UPS problems at LHO and LLO that happened during the LSC meeting.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Added hardware to tintagel (for backups)
• Esata controller, disk. recovered data for Ken's computer (disk died - replaced).
• Some ilog work.
• More work on spamassassin.
• Sun enterprise dir. server (ldap) installed, test agt. fedora dir. server (ldap).
• Work around for some yum security updates changing shared libraries (meetingmaker server).

Livingston

(Dwayne)

• Supported the LSC-V conference.
• Installed disks in two new X2200s.
• Assisted a user with some HTML issues.
• Helped a user migrate to a new PC.
• Ordered tapes for the GC tape library.
• Replaced tapes in the GC tape library, ran a full backup.
• Ordered a laptop for a user.
• Had to restore mail from a tape backup after yet another disk failure. A more reliable solution is in the works.
• Installed Calcium 4.0 on LLO web server.
• Other usual/unusual user support requests.
• Cleared spam trap.

Hanford

(Larry)

• Worked on some minor e-mail issues.
• Worked on backups.
• Some minor user support.
• Performed daily backups of home accounts.
• Renewed s/w license.
• Working on monitor purchases.
• Some work with the AdvLigo group.

(Christian)

• Inventory of computer at Hanford.
• Created backup images of Yacolt, Tiffany and Sysadmin laptop.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Mike)

• Reset DHCP.
• Regular user support.
• LHO: Worked on trouble shooting some login issues with the Advanced LIGO server "Primavera".
• Continued work on CIT & LHO managing dhcp & mail servers.

Caltech

(Mike)

• Finished up supporting the LSC meetings with our GC group.
• Maintenance on 3rd floor printer. Needed to replace transfer kit, toner cartridges, and cleaned up the rollers and other parts of this printer to get it working correctly.
• I did printing supply inventory for all printers. I also placed an order with Gina with needed supplies.
• Worked on Bill Kells laptop: This included trouble shooting a wireless problem he was having. Also update our IP database with his current system info.
• Other misc. user support.

(Veronica)

• LIGO: Worked with Larry, Carol and Mary on a timekeeping application - I set up a test interface, and looked into tying it up to an already existing backend.  However, time constraints of the project don't allow writing a custom interface, so different solutions were considered,such as a wiki.  Updates of AdvLIGO website.  Other misc web updates /user support.
• LSC: Implementing the new universal password.  Updates of the database of technical papers.  Ongoing work on the ligo.org redo.

(Melody)

• New DCC: Able to get DocDB running on the new DCC server. Demonstrated the software to Stuart and David. Currently testing the package and trying to resolve some features that were not working. Started inserting items into the database which would be needed for general usage, such as a list of possible journal targets and possible publication topics. Need to work on database backup replication, user authentication and authorization, and test the versioning feature.
• Product Search:Looked for a web-based timekeeping (open-sourced or freeware) software for the AdvLigo group.  Sent a list of possible products with a summary of features and system requirements.

(Christian)

• Helped wrap things up on Friday for the LSC-V meeting.
• Worked on e-mail issues on Riccardo's computer.
• Updated display case system with the latest security patches.

(Larry)

• LSC-V conference support. Support of the different conference rooms and meetings. The EVO system worked out well.
• Regular user support and maint. on the servers.
• Wrapped up most of the cleanup items from the LSC-V meeting. Most of the borrowed equipment has been returned and a number of misc. items stored. Still some of the logistical issues are being reviewed.
• Ordered a few more h/w items for different people. Need to go through the list again and update multiple items.
• Installed a updated Comsol license. Had to modify a few of the scripts to get the new license running.
• A few more tests on the EVO. It proved to be a useful tool for the conference. We are now checking out which h/w will work the best.
• Finished up a couple of p-card reports. A couple more to go. Also going over the budgets to see where things stand.
• Regular user 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)

• Getting ready to start the full dual recycled AdvLIGO simulation coding, ~6 months time scale.
• Before I start the development, the following will be done in 2~3 weeks.
  • baffle aperture design
  • wedge angle effect
  • summarize the FFT study of mirror surface aberration 
  • summarize the FFT study of the comparison of stable vs marginally stable cavity discussed at Florida at the beginning of February

Facilities Modifications and Preparations

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

• Preparing for upcoming reviews.
• Working on identifying needs and solutions for an inventory system.

Prestabilized Laser

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

• PSL: Nothing significant to report.
• AdL PSL: The 35-W laser has been installed on the LHO 4k PSL table.  The diode box, control box and pump fibres have been installed.  The laser interlocks have been checked and are functional.  The TwinCAT/EPICS communication checks out okay, although there was a minor hiccup when it seems a Sun keyboard inserted an invisible character into the records database, leading to a read error.
• Initial checks of the system seem to indicate that it survived shipment from Hannover okay.

Control and Data Systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

• ELIGO: No report.
• TCS: First two chassis for TCS controls have been built, tested and shipped to LLO. These units are for testing only, predicated on some generic test board designs. After these prototypes have been tested, production models will be designed for both sites.
• ISI: Electronics and cabling for LHO Ham 6 installation are being prepared for shipment to LHO next week. Present plan is for Ben to travel to LHO week of Apr. 14 to help finish installation and perform in place testing.
• DAQ: Alex has the beta release of the data concentrator/broadcaster software ready and has done preliminary testing in the lab. Equipment is being moved to the 40m lab to continue testing on a larger scale and in an environment similar to the sites.
• PSL: LHO group is supporting the 35W laser installation this week.
• AdLIGO: No report.
• Timing System: A timing system PDR was held this Wednesday. A draft review report is due by the end of next week.
• Seismic: Ben is working the details of the HEPI electronics in preparation for AdLigo build scheduled to start this year.
• Suspensions:
  • Vern completed the Quad UIM electronics test report. I believe this is the last electronics test report that was due to be sent to the UK.
  • Installation of UK electronics is scheduled to occur at Lasti the week of Apr. 7.
• PSL: Electronics build and test continues for shipment to AEI. Best guess, at this point, is that all equipment should be ready to ship by first week of May, with an installation/test visit to AEI in late May.
• DAQ and Supervisory Controls:
  • Met with Keith Riles, Stuart and a few other members of the DASWG group last week to discuss on line h(t), the new version of the Network Data Server (NDS2), on-the-fly FrameBuilder code, and a few other items.
  • ADC/DAC work - One commercial vender has an 18bit DAC that is now in production. We are looking to get one unit for evaluation soon.
  • Same vendor is working on an 18bit ADC design (same chips as previous in-house design) and should be ready on the order of a month or two. This unit will include an FPGA on board.
  • We have one combination ADC/DAC module coming in from another vendor for evaluation. This unit has an on-board FPGA that could be used for decimation/upsample filtering.
   
• Other: Rich is working with Dennis on in-vac cabling specs with the idea that we could possibly make bulk order purchases this year.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

SEI electronics design and fabrication

• We are getting the last, small things together for the LHO ISI Install.  Power cables, Coil Driver cables, field cables, and rack cables are all either on order, in hand, or being soldered up today.  The electronics is in hand, and will be shipped to Richard McCarthy early next week for installation in the racks, and field cabling.  Also re-doing the front and back panels for the SEI Interface chassis that Rich Mittleman sent.  We are also getting the AdLIGO HEPI and ISI drawings together so we can plan for rack placement, and predict the budget. -Ben A.

SEI activities and progress at LHO

• LHO SEI/ISI: External SEI:  With some leaky door O-Rings and a small scroll pump on the chamber, Kyle Ryan is being slowed at the HAM Bellows leak check.  So far he has passed three of the four Bellows.  The remaining external hardware is staged and ready to install once all have passed.
• ISI: Continued staging and pre-assembly late last week we completed the helicoiling and assembly of the Boxwork and Pitchfork Assemblies.  They still need the 'bottom' of the wall dowel pins but are bagged and staged near the Test Stand.
• The Locker Assemblies are complete and ready for install--the Pins and Sleeves all went together well and move smoothly.
• All the Keel Wall and Small Outer Wall Assemblies are complete with their helicoils, long 1/2" Dowel Pins, and 1/2" bolts.
• Position Sensors--Head assemblies are complete.  We are looking for the Sensor Target Post... Actuator Assembly ongoing.
• Stephany will be traveling to LHO next week to assist in the assembly. -Hugh R.& Corey G.

HAM Documentation and crossbeam design

• HAM Documentation: Minor update to HAM ISI assembly procedure posted to mLIGO wiki.
• HAM Gullwing Design: developing concepts to replace existing Support Tube Clamps and Gullwings. Stiffness analyses run on new designs. Redesign is taking shape. -Andy S.

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: Working on procurement of hardware for the LHO OMC SUS. The parts list has been organized by vendor and bake travelers are being created. A draft schedule for the suspension delivery to Hanford has been worked out, based on the long-lead structure weldment. We've also worked out a weld sample design to support weld quality and that work has started.

BSC Suspensions for Advanced LIGO

• US Suspensions personnel are going to LASTI to support the quad/ISI installation into the BSC chamber April 7-18. A draft ETM Noise Prototype Installation Hazard Analysis has been created and circulated for comments. SUS is working with SEI on an installation plan as well.
• Work is ongoing to prepare a technical note to put forward the proposal to change from ribbons to an optimised cylindrical fibre design for the monolithic stage of the quadruple pendulum (ref. talk by Alastair Heptonstall at LSC-V meeting)
• Report from the BOSEM review was sent out last week.

General

• A review of the LASTI program and schedule was held during the LSC-V meeting last week.
  

Core Optics

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

• We are concentrating on resolving the question of the index homogeneity requirements for the ETM and ETM reaction mass in anticipation of the upcoming material procurement.  Mike Smith has presented an analysis to the advanced LIGO optics group that concludes:

Even though the QPD spot becomes severely distorted, as modeled by Zemax, the X, Y position of the output spot centroid at the ETM transmission monitor QPD varies monotonically with the IFO beam displacement up to 4 mm at the ETM. This result holds true for up to 2.5 waves of combined astigmatic and comatic optical distortion in the central 160 mm clear aperture of the reaction mass.

It appears that the ADLIGO ETM reaction mass can be specified to have less than 2.5 waves of phase irregularity in transmission over the central 160 mm diameter clear aperture of the opticFind the complete document; T080073-01 at  www.ligo.caltech.edu/~smith/

• A composite of homogeneity images from the LIGO 1 non-transmissive optics can be found at http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~gari/Corning% 20homogeneity/0A-GradeHomogeneitySamples.pdf
• These were specified as < 1x10^-6 in the central 80 mm and < 2.5x10^-6 in the outer 200 mm this translates to grade A in the center and grade D in the outer zone.  These show examples of the types of inhomogeneity we can expect from the manufacturing process used to make initial LIGO ETMs.  I have suggested grade F be acceptable for use as ETM and ETM-RM blanks.

Auxiliary Optics

From: Michael Smith smith@ligo.caltech.edu

ADLIGO

• SLC: Mike is working on a ZEMAX model to calculate the glinted/diffracted light from the rounded edges of the "blkglass" baffles.
• COC: Mike analyzed the effect of optical distortions in the ETM reaction mass on the ETM output beam shape and position at the ETM monitor QPD. The QPD was placed at the focus of the final lens in the Zemax model. An early conclusion is that the optical phase distortion could exceed 1 wave, with the output spot displacement on the QPD as a function of the beam displacement on the ETM remaining monotonic and almost linear. There was an anamalous sign reversal of the output position for a particular aberraion condition. The calculations will redone, with the QPD placed at a defocused postion that produces a spot size of approximately 1 mm--this will be a better simulation of the actual ISC detection system.
• ETM Telescope Suspension: Chris and Virginio are working on the design of the suspension for the ETM telescope/output bench.

ELIGO

• SLC: Luke presented a revised design for the ELIGO end BSC baffle, and a preliminary design for the HAM4 baffle. The group recommended that the upper and lower support members of the end BSC baffle be made of open channel or I-beams instead of tubing to facilitate cleaning. The baffle should be attached to the wall of the BSC with a compliant attachment, such as springs, to avoid the stress due to the change in dimension of the chamber during pump-down. The HAM4 baffle will be renamed the HAM5 baffle and hung from the mounting brackets within the HAM5 chamber. It is a louver design made of oxidized stainless steel, similar to the end BSC baffle. Luke needs the location of the output beam in global coordinates so that he can place a 2in dia hole in the baffle for passage of the beam to HAM6.
• Ken presented a detailed design for the ELIGO manifold baffle, made of oxidized stainless steel.
• The design review for the ELIGO baffles will be held at 1:00 PM PST on Monday, 4/14/08 in the SCR with telecon.
• Phil and Aidan are at LLO upgrading the CO2 laser TCS system.

Input Optics

From: David tanner@phys.ufl.edu

• We are reviewing glass, substrate and coating specifications for the Procurement Readiness Review for the IO optics. (Rodica)
• We are investigating degenerate higher-order modes in AdvLIGO arm/PR/SR cavities. (Volker)
• We are starting to plan and set up a super-invar MZ experiment for the advanced LIGO moduation system. (Volker)
• We are contiinuung to develop the details of the advanced LIGO layout. (Luke)

eLIGO IO

• We are making measurements to characterize LHO eLIGO modulator. (Volker)
• We are also working on analyzing mode mismatch at LLO and calculating the amount of MMT2 repositioning needed. (Muzammil and Luke)
• We are investigating the effect of a steel optical table top on the magnet field of the ELIGO magnet prototype, in order to understand the isolation drop observed when the Faraday isolator was mounted on the aluminum HAM table. (Rodica)

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For additional information about this report, contact Albert Lazzarini