Weekly Report for Week Ending April 10, 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)

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.

  MOU	Attachment
  ACIGA	ACF, DAT, LAS, OPS, OPT, OUT. SUS, Z
  Andrews University	DAT, OPS, Z
  Balearic Islands	DAT, Z
  Caltech Relativity Group	ACF, DAT, OPT, OUT, Z
  Carleton College	DAT, OPS, OUT, Z
  Columbia University	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
  GEO600	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 State University	DAT, LAS, OPS, SUS, Z
  Louisiana Tech University	DAT, OPS, OUT, Z
  Loyola University	DAT, OPS, Z
  Maryland, University of	ACF, DAT, OPS, Z
  Massachusetts at Amherst, University of	DAT, OPS, Z
  Michigan State University	ACF, DAT, OPS, OUT, Z
  Minnesota, University of	DAT, OPS, SUS, Z
  Montana State University	DAT, Z
  National Astronomical Observatory of Japan	ACF, Z
  Northwestern University	DAT, Z
  Oregon, University of	DAT, OPS, OUT, Z
  Pennsylvania State University	DAT, OPS, OUT, Z
  Rochester, University of	DAT, Z
  San Jose State University	ACF, OUT, Z
  Sannio-Benevento, University of	DAT, OPT, Z
  Southeastern Louisiana University	ACF, DAT, OPS, Z
  Stanford University	ACF, DAT, LAS, OPS, OPT, OUT, SUS, Z
  Syracuse University	ACF, DAT, LAS, OPS, OPT, OUT, SUS, Z
  Texas-Austin, University of	DAT, OPS, Z
  Texas-Brownsville, University of	DAT, OPS, OUT, Z
  Trinity University	OPT, OUT, Z
  Washington State University	DAT, OPS, Z
  Wisconsin at Milwaukee, University of	DAT, OPS, Z

• 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 submitted for review.

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PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)

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

• No report.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

• Completed processing the majority of talks from the recent L-V Meeting.  All talks from the main meeting have been processed.  Only a small handful of talks from the weekend face-to-face sessions still need attention.

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>

• Completed mod. 11 to the University of Michigan and submitted to vendor.
• Closed out the contract with Squid Labs.
• Submitted modification 34 to MIT.
• Working on mod. 7 to Exploratorium.

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

• Completed FY2008 monthly operations report as of the end of March 2008 and posted report on the network.
• Sent out reports for Visitor's program, Outreach program, U.Wisconsin award, Low Noise account, I2U2 and 2 discretionary awards.
• Requested travel expenditure type reclassification.
• Submitted task set-up requests to OSR for Advanced LIGO IO accounts.
• Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport. (For passwords contact Karl)

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

• Revised budgets for FY 2009 through FY 2013 Operations.  Provided data to Advanced LIGO as first step towards integrated staffing plan.
• The monthly report is due to be submitted to the NSF Tuesday, April 15, 2008.  I have requested contributions from the usual suspects by Friday, April 11, 2008.  Have received several.
• We have received $13 million authorization from the NSF for Operations during the second half of FY 2008.  Karl is preparing the budgets for the Office of Sponsored Research.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

• Change Request CR080002 submitted by D. Coyne for Advanced LIGO R&D adjustments is currently on hold.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

• The next Staffing Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 14.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

• Nothing significant to report.

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

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

• After removing the x-arm cavity baffle, the ETMX was reinstalled this week. A vacuum bake of the optic was completed late last week, the optic rehung, inserted into EX and the osems restored. As with the 2k ETMX, manipulation of the new earthquake stops produced some chipping at the edge of the optic chamfer. Furthermore, we continue to see shifts in test mass angles due to charging or decharging
• ETMX pam gaps were measured
• the recent PSL installation is documented here
• the EY volume was vented Thursday, and inspections/photon calibration measurements made. We will pull the ETMY test mass Friday
• SEI report below, but plenty of coverage and great photos in the ilog

HAM SEI/ISI (Stephany, Jody, Vagesh, Cyrus,

Gerardo,Rolf, Richard M., Kyle, Hugh, & Corey)

• Stage1 work assembled such that it could be installed on Stage0 (Boxworks, Pitchforks, Flexure Posts, Keel Base, & Lockers were assembled on Stage1).
• Stage1 was then moved onto Stage0 (Stage1 resting on Stage0 via the Lockers). Springs installed, Springs compressed, and then Flexure Assemblies were installed. Particle Fences installed on Spring Posts. We now have something which looks like an *ISI Assembly*!
• All helicoils installed on Optics Table (1,054 holes!). All tangs were broken off the helicoils. Tweezers were used to remove tangs in blind holes. Optics Table was moved onto the ISI Assembly.
• With a now-free cleanroom in the ISI Work area (aka LVEA East Bay), many items from our work area in the South Bay has been moved over.
• On the External Structure front, HAM6's NW Bellows was re-installed. Waiting for Kyle to be freed up so he can perform a leak check on this pesky Bellows. Gerardo has been helping with staging for the External build.
• Gerardo machined some new Sensor Target Posts for us (the originals have disappeared). Two different sets were made, and they are currently in a bake oven.
• Rolf is visiting and working with Richard on ISI/OMC software/electronics.

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

eLIGO Activities (Valera Frolov):

• The interferometer locking was re-established using the RF readout path, which receives 50% of the light on the dark port. The up script has been reworked to transition to the low noise state. The remaining issues are the re-commissioning of the angular control system, which is currently not used except for the dark port ASC loop, and to switch the RM/BS coil drivers from high dynamic range to the low noise mode. At the moment the RM/BS coil driver switching causes the interferometer to loose lock.
• The mode matching into the ifo was investigated further. It was found that moving the MMT2 closer to MMT1/3 using HAM2 HEPI by 0.7 mm improves the mode matching into the full ifo from 21.5% to 17.5%. From this result we extrapolate that the MMT2 has to be moved by about 5 mm towards the MMT1/3 to obtain the optimum mode matching. We plan to have a vent next week to make this change.
• The DC readout work was focused on measuring the transfer functions of the steering mirrors to the OMC beam as seen by a pair of quad photo-detectors. This data will be used for the design of the fast shutter to protect the DC readout photodetectors during the lock loss transient as well as for the OMC angular control loops.
• The reflected beam stabilization servo is being re-commissioned to facilitate the ASC work. The RBS servo sensing matrix was measured but appears to be nearly degenerate possibly due to new optical path layout. The reflected beam path was adjusted to obtain the WFS3/4 beam sizes comparable to the ones during the S5.

Seismic Commissioning (Brian O'Reilly):

• We have leak tested the GS-13 sensor pods for LHO and they are being packed for delivery. Joe Hanson will drive them to the LHO site. He will also bring miscellaneous electronics and other hardware needed for the install there. Jeff Kissel made a very nice poster for the forthcoming APS conference, concentrating mainly on the HAM-ISI.

General Operations (Rusyl Wooley):

• The erosion control work behind the Y-arm is ongoing.  Two of the four cross-overs have been dug up. We cleared a path to the seismometer vault behind the Y-arm and locked the instrument/disconnected power.  This is to prevent damage during the erosion control work. We continue to install the new vacuum equipment on HAM6. The plumber was here this week to do the material take-offs for the chilled water lines that the new laser requires. The new diode room was painted this week.

CDS Computing (Lisa Giaime):

• Spent quite a lot of time working with the code on borkspace to make it portable.  The installation on that machine is the prototype for the control room both here and at LHO.  It is largely in good working order although I expect there to be a few more tweaks as time goes by.
• Finish building the linux laptop for use in the LVEA.
• Continuing to work on a number of procurements including equipment to replace the framebuilders and getting some service contracts up to data.

LLO Outreach (John Thacker):

• Scheduling SEC obligations for summer and next fall Program development for middle school field trips.
• Prepared and Delivered 3 outreach programs to schools: 2 Elem + 1 High School Docent training.
• Prepared and mailed all field trip pre-visit packets through May.
• Developed RET program materials.
• Worked on Next Phase grant.

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)

• Upcoming TAC meeting: The 40m Technical Advisory Committee will meet next Thursday, 4/17/08, 8:30 Pacific. Ken is unavailable, so Valera will chair and prepare the TAC report. Slides will be posted on the 40m wiki http://lhocds.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:8000/40m/TACs a microsecond or two before the call starts.
• Rana and Stefan continue to develop the plans for upgrading the 40m for the new AdvLIGO broadband RSE control scheme, including: modifications to the ITMs (mass, transmission at 1064 and at 900 nm); different modulation frequencies; different controls signals for broadband RSE; longer recycling cavities; elimination of the Mach Zehnder; new front-end controls (BorkSpace); and other cool innovations.
• Modeling: Lisa continues to develop Optickle and Looptickle modes of the 40m in PRFPMI and DRFPMI configurations.
• GigE network: Joe has drawn up the current 10/100BT controls network and is making plans to upgrade it to GigE for readout of the digital cameras.
• Suspension controller problems: Much reduced, now that Rob has swapped some of the Penteks in the sus crate.
• Physical environment monitoring: Andrey and Steve have brought back the readback of the inside and outside weather station sensors.
• Beam dump development: Steve continues to measure reflectivity of various candidate materials.

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Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

From Akira:

• I have been going over the calculations for the thermo-optic noise to explain the disparity between the noise measured at the TNI and the noise calculated from Andri's values for dn/dT.
• I worked with Tara to get the photothermal experiment up and running. Tara is now doing some mode-matching calculations.
• I am preparing a new procedure for opening and closing the vacuum chamber at the TNI as I await space to open up around the lab to set down the upper part of the vacuum chamber.

From Tara:

• I'm checking the beam profile of the laser, and working on mode matching of the cavity.

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LASTI (Mittleman)

• Tim and Chris have been installing the second pumping station. The turbo pump has been mounted, the foreline, water cooling lines and cabling are being worked on.
• Jay and Todd are here this week installing the advanced LIGO Quad-pendulum electronics.

BSC-ISI

• We have started to prepare the ISI for the installation in the BSC chamber.
• We have done a test lift to check the load and balance and are aiming to do the insertion on Monday.

Noise Prototype Quad

• Ken Mailand (CIT), Derek Bridges (LLO) and Gerardo Mareno(LHO) are visiting this week to work on getting the Quad installed. Since we don’t have enough head room at LASTI to insert the ISI with the full Quad installed, the bottom half of the Quad has to be removed and insert through the BSC door. Ken has designed a set of tooling for this purpose which the SUS team has been setting up this week.

Fiber Pulling and Welding

• A number of welding tests were done this week. We investigated welding different diameter rods to different thicknesses of silica. It was easily possible to weld 1.5 and 2mm rod to pieces of same geometry as ears. Further tests are now taking place on 3mm rod which was not so easily welded. An initial test of grinding flats onto 3mm rod to help welding look promising.
• Fibers were pulled from different diameter rods to measure neck dimensions (these will be taken to Glasgow next week). This data will be used in FEA

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

___________________

Amber L. Stuver:

LIGO Research

• Investigated the h(t) factors produced referencing the high frequency (1100 Hz) calibration line.   (All of my investigations thus far have been referencing the currently used mid-frequency (400 Hz) calibration line.)  It was found that there is a low frequency (<0.1 Hz) noise in the factors for H1 and H2, that L1 is significantly 'noisier' than the Hanford IFOs (and this may be why we don't observe the low frequency noise here), and that the variations in the factors are not simply due to measurement noise.  The results can be found here: http://touro.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~stuver/research/ hoft/hifreq/.
• Started working to incorporate a detector's noise profile in the event follow-up comparing the likelihood of an event with its detection delay between IFOs and the measured SNR ratio.  As it stands now, the test assumes identical detectors (and therefore can only be used for H1 and L1, within reason).  To generalize this follow-up, the noise profile of the specific detector and the measured SNR must be used to make SNRs between detectors comparable.

SEC Work

• Spoke with the organizer of a teacher professional development workshop being held here (at LLO) the last Saturday in April or the first Saturday in May.  As it stands, I will be the guest speaker and may present a classroom activity as well.
• Started working with Gabe Popkin on developing a short document (on the level of the New York Times section) on gravitational waves and LIGO for the APS PhysTEC project.  I have exchanged an extensive outline with him and we are going meet in St. Louis this weekend.
• Started organizing my collection of gravitational wave audio/visuals for use in control room tours.  If anyone else has anything they want to share or have good pointers to neat, short A/V's that can enhance the control room tour experience, I would appreciate the help.  I currently have things like radio pulsar sounds, GW chirps buried in LIGO noise, the movie of LISA's orbit, etc.
• Gave control room tours to 40 students.

Other

• Travel to St. Louis for APS Council meeting.

___________________

Antony Searle:

• Incorporated LSC reviewer comments and submitted to GWDAW12 proceedings a paper [http://arxiv.org/abs/0804.1161].
• Worked on main Bayesian bursts paper for PRD.
• Helped with QPipeline scale factors run on S5Y1 [http://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/ ~shourov/s5_qpipeline_rerun/].
• Implemented coherent transform in WPipeline, replaced special case transforms with unified implementation and began correctness testing [https://geco.phys.columbia.edu/ omega/].

___________________

Pinkesh Patel:

• Fixed a bug with the windowing in the resampling code.
• Reading a couple of papers on pulsars.
• Attempting to estimate search parameters for a globular cluster search for pulsars.

___________________

Kipp Cannon:

• Addressed referee comments on Bayesian coincidence paper (LIGO-P070085-00-Z), revisions accepted, paper to appear in CQG.
• Completed re-run of S4 string cusp search verifying reproducibility of results, and tagged code for review.
• Worked on improving LAL's handling of some XML tables.

___________________

Kent Blackburn for the GRID Computing R&D Group:

GRID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

• Wrote agenda and minutes for weekly LIGO-Pegasus telecon.
• Attended weekly LIGO-Pegasus, DASWG, OSG-USERS, OSG-INTEGRATION telecons.
• Continued lalapps_ihope development to enable osg submissions of injection runs:
  • lalapps_ihope modified to generate playground dag via pegasus to run on osg --ok
  • Attempted to run ihope original version on cit -- in progress
  • Attempted ihope with osg playground submission from ldas-grid -- fail, possibly due to a Java error
  • Attempt ihope osg submission from ldas-pcdev1, also failing with globus-job-run err: GRAM Job submission failed because the job manager failed to open stderr (error code 74)
• Activity on Open Science Grid:
  • Cchange LIGO sofware to 32 bit version, rerun CIT_CMS_T2 (ok), AGLT2 (ok), TTU_ANTEUS (batch jobs fail again)
  • Trouble shooting TTU: condor_submit test jobs using jobmanager-lsf  (/bin/hostname ok, pegasus/kickstart fail)
• Activity on LIGO Data Grid:
  • Remote submission via Pegasus to cit, lho, llo, uwm_nemo; retry with 32 bit binaries, so far cit, lho ok, llo, and uwm_nemo failed

INTEGRATION AND VALIDATION TESTBED

• Continuing to look at resumes for the grid admin position openning.
• Hope to interview a candidate today or tomorrow if his availability has opened up.

GRID MANAGEMENT

• Organized and held first OSG Council Meeting as the new OSG Council.
• Chair. Meeting covered a report from the OSG Executive Director, the formation of ad-hoc subcommittees to address at-large VO representation and a review of OSG Council organization and relationship to the OSG Executive Team, and a recommendation for the status of MonaLisa service at the OSG GOC. Minutes are posted on the OSG Council webpage.
• Attended a joint meeting between LIGO and the OSG in Chicago IL to review and discuss the relationship between LIGO and the OSG for the Executive Board, LSC Computer Committee, and LIGO Directorate. Reviewed minutes from this meeting from the OSG side as the OSG Council Chair at the request of the OSG Executive Director and made a few minor edits. These minutes are expected to be circulated to all in attendance early next week.
• Provided a financial assessment report to the OSG Project Manager as the Caltech Institutional PI.
• Began discussions and planning for a Pegasus tutorial for LIGO applications developers in this week's LIGO-Pegasus meeting. Stuart Anderson suggested this after the LIGO-OSG meeting in Chicago. ISI is very much in favor of this, but I have asked that we get to the point where the new MOU with ISI is clearly paying off before jumping into developing a presentation so that all lessons learned will be elements of the tutorial.

___________________

Joseph Betzwieser:

• Worked on getting Crab H(t) phase comparison code debugged, and currently running it on the cluster to produce final systematic error numbers. Review page is located at: http://emvogil-3.mit.edu/~josephb/hoft/hoftRevew.html.

___________________

Anand Sengupta:

• Generated frequency dependent calibration frame files for S5 data.
• Ongoing exercise to understand mass dependent \chi^2 veto - more plots and matlab programs.

___________________

Diego Fazi:

• Following up missed injections at low effective distance for the PTF 1-month injection run.
• Investigating the cause of the buggy missed-found results for the corresponding SPA search.

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• The frameCPP library continues to be modified to conform to the version 7 frame specification. This effort is expected to last another 2 weeks.
• Mailing LDAS administrators when the ldas cert is about to expire has been added. Also, LDAS now uses the certicates from /etc/grid-security instead of having a custom set in /ldas_outgoing/grid-security.
• System testing of LDAS was done using version 1.9.255 of the software. Only the database insertion test failed.
• Week long running of the software on ldas-test used version 1.9.259 of LDAS. The system had several "no such symbol" errors from the datacondAPI. Also, 12 jobs were rejected. A slight increase in the amount of delay between loop jobs was added to reduce the system load.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

• More 6140 benchmarking and reconfiguration, discovered the dread power of the 'sscs reset array' command.
• Did benchmarking related to FC interswitch links, both 5600 <-> Sanbox64 and, after moving a 5600 to Booth, 5600 <-> 5600 via interbuilding fibres.  Discovered that we cannot get a 4Gb connection over multimode fibre between Booth and Synchrotron.  Discovered that dynamic trunking has a cost (got ~300MB/sec over two links that are individually capable of 200MB/sec).
• Played with FC zoning and had to clean up the production, dev & test systems afterwards.
• Ejected 80 more 9940 tapes for shelf storage at CIT and replaced with 60 blanks (now labeled and in use).
• Rerouted power to get around 6th floor UPSes whose batteries had ceased functioning.
• Installed new ACSLS license key.
• Coordinated with Marty (Sun) to have him install SL8500 firmware upgrade.
• Cleaned up CIT RLS configuration to avoid pushing bloom filters to sites that are not longer accepting them.

(Phil Ehrens)

• Discovered that mysterious fortnightly reboots of some computers in the Millikan machine room were due to the self-test cycle of the UPS units. UPS units do a self diagnostic at 14 day intervals, and if the battery is unable to hold charge, power to the load is interrupted!
• node322 has been locking up at intervals between 2 hours and several days for the last week. Swapping memory dimms had no good effect. node322 and node500 are currently swapped so that diagnostics can continue without disrupting cluster work.
• Created svn repository for Brian O'Reilly and the seismic group. Used this as an opportunity to test a browser-based repository viewer named web-svn-view, which was not very good. Also reorganised the svn repos to facilitate better group access control. 
• TkCVS now handles subversion as well as cvs. I think that we should remind people of it's existence and encourage it's use. It is possible to manage cvs and svn repos simultaneously from a single instance of the program, and it can be used without compromising server security.

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• Finished upgrading all pcraids to centos5; added  2GB ram to pcraid 9 (=4gb); 2GB to pcraid3 (=3GB); increasing nfsd to 100 disk-readahead to 256 improved performance X4 (BH job went from 40hrs to 10 hrs) (node io waits single digits, pcraid9 ~25%); setup solaris x86 jumpstart server on ldas-kickstart, installing (right now) solaris x86 on pcraid1 for zfs testing ..; ordered 6gb ram for pcraids; updated ldas (gateway) to sol10u4 w\ patches.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

• Figured out why Marcelo had trouble with LSCsegFind/LSCdataFind: there was an error in his account application certificate line ("OU=people" instead of "OU=People").
• Studying publishing scripts source code.
• Still no idea why John cannot publish online DMT segments into the database at LHO. I checked that all the relevant certificates on LDAS side are up to date and there is a corresponding entry in the gridmap file. I successfully published a segment with ldbdc from ldas-pcdev1@LHO while John cannot do it from a DMT machine. LSCsegFindServer does not have any records in the logs that DMT was trying to connect, so the problem probably happens upstream from LDAS.  John checked that DMT certificate has not expired yet, however, there is a strange error message requesting to run   grid-proxy-init: I would think it should be necessary with a service certificate. Certificate file permissions change? CDS/GC network change? Firewall configuration change?

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Config/licensing issues for new visitor (xp, algor, sound card).
• More issues KM xp machine.
• Notebook reinstall.
• Bad disk on tintagle (backup machine - rma'd).
• LSC password update scripts.
• Some ilog wor.

Livingston

(Dwayne)

• Inventory updates.
• Installed lvea-cam1 opposite of lvea entrance on south wall.
• More rolling out individual access to SPAM filter, allowing users to have some control over their mail stream.
• First use of pca software to patch Solaris 10 was a success.  I will roll-out to all of the GC Solaris installs.
• Received and installed new RAID system on mail.
• Received additional disks for docshare/inventory system RAID.
• Replaced failed disk in /export/data/mirrors filesystem.
• Ran DiskWarrior to repair corrupt filesystem on MacBook running Leopard, replaced memory in same machine.
• SEC docshare had mysteriously lost it's lock database, had to recreate the directory to resolve.
• Scanner PC in visitor office hard drive reached 100% capacity due to Desktop Search log files approaching 210 GB.  Removed those log files and uninstalled Desktop Search.
• Installed AutoCad 2006 for a user.
• Assisted user with problems printing to new plotter.
• Reset a GC account password.
• Worked a few procurement items.
• Other usual/unusual user support requests.
• Cleared spam trap, upstream filtering has reduced load some.

Hanford

(Mike)

• Worked with Mary and Dwight regarding prismpm software.
• More work on Advance LIGO server Yacolt.
• Flushing out DHCP and clearing out trapped email on mail server.
• Turned off patch management on a few Sun workstations that were generating many errors on syslog server.

(Larry)

• Ordered a number of h/w items for different people.

Caltech

(Mike)

• Updated Advance LIGO server (Alcor) with the latest prismpm updates.
• Worked on the mail servers. Problems with users trying to send big attachments, which causes problems with our other mail servers. Larry was working on this as well remotely.
• Problem with a SUN workstation due to power disconnect. Running fsck seem to have fixed this issue.
• Much work on a user's laptop had many OS and application issues that I fixed. This unit was also infected with a virus.
• Installing a larger hard disk on a mac due to user not having enough disk space to install additional applications.
• Other user support and misc. sysadmin tasks.

(Veronica)

• LIGO:  EVO setup/test/user support for the Tue seminar.  Went with David Shoemaker over audio troubleshoot.  David's feedback is that, overall, both video and audio were of good quality.  Installed the new lead story on the CIT/MIT homepages.  LHO roster updates.  Misc website updates.
• LSC:  Installed a webpage for the presentations for the March meeting, posting the talks as the DCC processes them, 103 so far.  Updates of the technical papers database, other web updates.

(Melody)

• New DCC:  Worked on docdb backup and data replication procedures. Also, surveyed other docdb sites to determine a preliminary Topic List.

(Christian)

• Configured new 2003 server with File Maker pro 9 for Mary Kurts.
• Re-imaged all the laptops that were used for the LSC meeting.
• Installed Citrix Discoverer for Karl Oracion.
• Updated display case with new live webcam from Hanford.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Larry)

• Setup a few more mail aliases and mailman aliases.
• General 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)

• The details of the effect of the BS prism effect were investigated more carefully.
• The implementation of the effect in the code was revised to reflect the fundamental physics, instead of the the ABCD ray tracing expression.
• Essentially, when there is a wedge angle, the beam size seen from the propagation direction changes by the ratio of cosines of the beam propagation direction. That is the A in the ABCD expression.
• The beam profiles in various cases (opposite wedge angle, different locations, etc) show non trivial behaviors, and most of them could be explained by the combination of details, geometrical boundaries + diffractions + prism effect.
• The analytic form of a resonating field in a FP cavity with a prism inside is studied to grasp intuitively the complex profiles in the coupled cavity - long arm + BS + stable cavity for Michelson.
• Trying to generates signal losses in various cases so that the proper choice is done for the direction and the size of the wedge angle.
• Muzammil sent Hiro a beam profile of the reflected field observed at LLO. Using the simulation code, the quantitative meaning (mode mismatch and dislocation of the beam position) is being investigated.

Mechanical Simulation for Advanced LIGO (Sany and SLU team)

• Continued the e2e modeling of PSL’s frequency noise that we started last week. Our initial model simulated the effect of PSL noise by shifting the optical frequency of the PSL’s output light using the e2e’s frequency shifting function. Hiro noted that this might affect the sideband frequency in an inappropriate manner. So we modified our model so that it simulates the effect by changing the PSL’s optical phase accordingly. The modified version seems to work reasonably. Further assessment of the model is being conducted. 

Facilities Modifications and Preparations

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

• No report this week.

Prestabilized Laser

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

EnL PSL

• Some trend data of the 35-W laser's diode powers, diode currents and temperature were examined to explain an observed jump in the diode power. It turns out that the jump was a change in setpoint of the diode current during the installation.  So far so good as far as the laser performance is concerned.

AdL PSL

• Still on track for the DAQ and control hardware, which is scheduled to be at the AEI in May.  Both Rolf and I will be there for installation and an extensive round of tests.

Control and Data Systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

ELIGO

• Working at LHO to get the OMC ISI control computer up and running in preparation for electronics testing next week. Last item to test is the DAQ link, which will be connected tomorrow.

AdL Design Activities

• Met with Daniel et all at LHO to address some timing system questions and see the prototype system.
• Met with LHO staff to develop a plan for AdL CDS electronic rack layouts. I think we have agreed to using the 'clean storage area', same as present L1. Still need to check with others, including facilities folks.
• Working on CDS infrastructure software document (Matlab Simulink stuff). I hope to have a draft out next week.
• The AdL SUS Noise prototype electronics controls and software are installed and operational at LASTI. This includes the UK coil drivers and satellite amps provided.All signals and controls were verified to the vacuum feedthrough connector and are ready for hook up to the quad when it is installed in the chamber. System wiring diagram LIGO number D080180-00-C has been added to the dcc.
• Additional spare satellite amps have been received from Birmingham. They will be tested at Caltech and then shipped to LASTI.
• The testing of the UK satellite amplifier has been completed and the test report should be available for distribution by 4/18.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

SEI Activities and Progress at LHO

• Stage1 Assembly Stand work completed & Stage1 moved onto Stage0.  Springs compressed, flexures installed and Optics Table moved onto theISI Assembly.- CoreyG.

SEI Activities and Progress at LLO

• We are packing sensor pods for LHO and Joe Hanson will be taking them there over the next few days. On
  Wednesday we shipped the cart needed for the install. It is expected to arrive at LHO 4/15/08. -Brian O.

SEI Electronics Design and Fabrication

• We have secured an STS-2 Interface through the generosity of Rus Wooley, and should now have everything to finish the electronics install at LHO next week.  Richard McCarthy has been installing the electronics that was sent to him, and anything left can be installed when I get there.  We are now making some extra power cables, and getting everything together for my trip to LHO next week.  -Ben A.

BSC ISI Installation and Test

• Mike Meyer has written a hazard analysis for the Quad/ ISI installation which has been approved. Installation is scheduled for Monday.

HAM Crossbeam Design

• Two design variations have been designed and an FEA analysis report has been uploaded to the advanced ligo wiki. A decision will be made this week on which design will be used.  - 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

• Work ongoing on documentation and procurement for LHO OMC and recycling mirror prototype suspension. The MATLAB model of the OMC is being updated with the as-built parameters of the LLO OMC to allow comparison of mode frequencies and transfer functions.

BSC Suspensions for Advanced LIGO

• Installation work of the noise prototype quad plus BSC-ISI and the UK electronics for the quad is underway at LASTI. Several LIGO staff from Caltech, LHO and LLO are supporting this work.

Project Activities

• Work is ongoing to update the SUS section of the Advanced LIGO costbook to reflect the change from marginally stable to stable recycling cavity configuration

Core Optics

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

AdLIGO Project

• Drawings and specifications for all COC blanks (glass) have been signed off and released to the DCC.
• Working with US polishing vendors to see if they would be willing to work directly with UG on the penultimate and reaction masses.
• Development: Not much.

Auxiliary Optics

From:   k mailand <kmailand@ligo.caltech.edu>

• No report this week.

Input Optics

From: David tanner@phys.ufl.edu

IO for eLIGO

• A note (and pictures) on the optical layout changes in the IO system for e-LIGO at LHO is in the ilogs. (Muzammil)

IO for Advanced LIGO

• We have been investigating ring heaters for DKDP for Advanced LIGO. The Watlow company has some nice ring heaters that fit our requirements. Two heaters were ordered and they will be here soon. (Muzammil)
• A domestic source for the magnets for the AdvLIGO Faraday rotator has been identified. Work is progressing on designing tools for FR magnet ring assembly (Luke )

Research in Support of the IO

• Optical realignment of the system for testing the mirror coatings to include a Faraday isolator for laser protection from backwards beam leakage through the polarizers. At 15 W power incident on the isolator, about 13 W (87%) is delivered through the system to the test mirror. This includes transmission losses in the Faraday as well as losses in 3 steering mirrors and through the automated power control (used to reduce the power when the focused beam is moved to a different location on the mirror, though avoiding effects caused by large thermal gradients). Also a telescope for beam size control has been introduced. (Rodica)

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For additional information about this report, contact Albert Lazzarini