Weekly Report for Week Ending April 24, 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

---

LSC Issues (Reitze)

• A small group of LSC members attended a workshop discussing possible experiments for the initial suite of experiments in the future Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) at the Homestake mine in South Dakota.  The focus of the working group is to develop a research program for assessing low frequency seismic and gravity gradient noise deep underground.  The research is intended to assess the feasibility of putting a future gravitational wave detector in an underground setting.

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 submitte for review

PROPERTY ACCOUNTING (Luna)

• No report.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

• The recent surge in document submittals continued this week.  Two batches of more than 40 files each were received.  The first set included Advanced LIGO drawings, component specs and technical documents.  The other large batch consisted of Process Travelers.

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>

• Provided training and responded to inquiries on business processes.
• Submitted mod # 7 to the Exploratorium.
• Placed orders for goods and services.  Placed the orders for the Sun servers for Caltech and LHO.
• Renewed the maintenance agreement for software at LLO.
• Completed the close out of the contracts with Columbia and High Precision Devices.
• LSU modification is pending resolution on the prior modification.

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

• Submitted budget import form to Sponsored Research to allocate 2nd half of FY2008 funding for LIGO Operations.
• Continued testing various Discoverer worksheets customized by IMSS to retrieve LIGO Operations financial data.
• Attended Grant Managers Gathering at 114 E. Bridge and met new Director of Project Accounting, Urmila Bajaj.
• 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>

• UOF & MIT: Req in progress.
• Ares: LIGO Received proposal, being reviewed.
• Support Services, Triad & Northrup: Need Req to be processed.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

Working on the financial data to support the review of the end-of-March status scheduled for the Executive Committee Meeting Monday, April 28, 2008.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

• Change Request CR080002 submitted by D. Coyne for Advanced LIGO R&D adjustments is currently on hold pending discussion of Ops financial status on Monday.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

• Continued review of design/specification documents for several Advanced LIGO review committees.  Reviewed applications for Advanced LIGO Safety and QA Engineer support jobs for LLO and LHO.
• Otherwise, nothing significant to report this time.

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

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

• ETMY was rehung, rebaked, transported to EY and installed in the BSC chamber there. This process has been deliberate and slower than the work on ETMX: having looked into ETMX alignment shifts, we are giving the optic and table opportunities to drift and settle, before closing up on Monday.
• Reference cavity mode matching was completed (refcav visibility 91%), and then the FSS locked with 25dB of gain at 100kHz. Fast path actuation was found to have less range, necessitating FSS gain modifications. The mode cleaner was later locked, paving the way for a look at the ETMX alignment early next week. Trends of PSL performance can be found here.
• Astrowatch report: H2 stopped locking on the weekend, and many avenues were tried and tested to restart the machine. Late in the week, after many reboots and much heroic effort on the part of students and a few staff, good running order was re-established.
• Tires were kicked on the new TCS lasers
• further torquing of conflats meant that the HAM6 bellows passed it's leak check and thus external SEI buildup can continue.
• For a full HAM6 ISI report see below, but, late in the week, the first two damping loops were applied to vertical and horizontal actuators V1 and H1 (they damp! transfer functions here).

HAM SEI/ISI (Brian L., Jeff K., Joe H., Mike L, Brian O.,

Cyrus, Jody, Kyle, Hugh, Corey)

• Jeff Kissel, Brian Lantz and Brian O'Reilly arrived to help with electronics/software work and assembly work.
• Mass loaded onto ISI according to plan to make CG of system close to centerline of Actuators (we needed more weight than the plan, so recalculations are needed for more optimal mass placement).
• GS13 Pods (vertical & horizontal) installed.
• HAM6 Bellows passed.
• Sensors tested by Ben & are on their way to be Class-A-ed.
• Actuators (vertical & horizontal) installed.
• Floated ISI!!
• Spring Profiles measured; Lockers were shimmed & Optics Table weight was removed to center Lockers.
• External SEI work--Scissors Tables & XY dummies installed.
• Actuators connected to Stage0.
• Cables run from rack to the cleanroom, and getting ready to make connection from the ISI to these cables (after proper testing of cables, of course).

LHO Outreach (D. Ingram)

• A group of Montana State U. (Bozeman) physics undergrads drove 560 miles for an LHO visit that occurred on 4/18. They also toured a PNNL facility during their stay. The groups's determination was rewarded with a detailed look at LIGO offered by Fred Raab and Anamaria Effler.

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

Operations (Rusyl Wooley):

• Rolf and Matt Evans were here this week to help Lisa go through all the scripts and verify that what have is up to date.  Rolf and I worked on the reflected memory loop to include the OMC with the LSC and ASC.  We also met with Lisa, Dave Barker and Joe to come up with a prioritized list of  tasks required for CDS computing prior to the start of S6.
• The diode room work continues.  The electrical contractor is expected on site this coming Tuesday.  Plumbing materials for the cooling water loop are on order.
• Erosion control work along the South arm is complete.
• We continue to pump down the vertex section in the LVEA.  The pressure is at 3.7 e-8 and falling.  RGA scans identified an air signature in this volume. We have been looking for a leak for several days with no success.  The oxygen levels of subsequent scans continue to fall which makes it appear that this is nothing more than the o-rings degassing.  A decision will be made early next week on when to open the gate valves.

Enhanced LIGO Upgrade (Valera Frolov):

• The OMC work continued this week using a single ITM bounce beam or simple Michelson configuration. The multi hour lock was achieved by engaging the slow thermal actuator loop. The angular control loop was engaged using the OMC board mounted QPDs. The OMC mode matching optics were changed. The mode matching into the OMC has improved to ~70%. The fine tuning will be done once the mode matching into the interferometer is established. The temporary class B hardware on the in vacuum HAM6 table was replaced with permanent class A hardware. The OMC transmitted and reflected pick-off beams were aligned to come out through the view port target.
• The front end code was modified to pipe the OMC PD signals into the LSC AS_Q so we can handoff the DARM control from the RF to DC now.
• To improve the mode matching into the interferometer the MMT2 was moved by ~4 mm towards HAM1. The vertex pump down is in progress. The vacuum pressure is low but there are appears to be a small leak in the vertex section. The search for the leak is ongoing. We hope to be able to open the gate valves to the arms sometime next week.
• The initial LIGO TCS's were reinstalled.

LLO Outreach (John Thacker):

• Conducted one visit to a High School discussing gravity and spacetime.
• Prepared school visit reservations for schools in 2009 and confirmed.
• Prepare post visit packets.
• Conducted outreach to 4 schools at LIGOSEC this week.  On Wednesday we had two separate schools visiting us simultaneously (one 12th graders and one 5th graders).
• Made site preparations for the APS Teacher's Day workshop to be held at LLO on 4/28.
• Made program and site preparations for the LA Section of the AAPT meeting to be held at LLO on 4/28.
• Continued work on Next Phase project description document.

Safety & Security (Rich Riesen):

• Wiring has been completed for the eligo safety/secutity system but has not been terminated (next week). All hardware has arrived and installation will begin starting tomorrow.
• All LLO safety/security documents have been sent to DCC for posting.

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)

• Controls electronics upgrade: Jay Heefner presented plans by the CDS group for upgrading the 40m controls to the new AdvLIGO PCIe-based system. Rana is drawing up a budget for the 40m upgrade.
• Network: Joe continues to develop plans for upgrading the ethernet controls network for higher speeds. He is documenting the existing infrastructure. Andrey helped him trace and inventory existing cabling.
• Laser safety: Steve has been measuring the laser power on the PSL table and the AP table, and installing high power metal beam shields in various places.
• Dual-recycled locking: Rob and John continued to work on improving lock acquisition of the full AdvLIGO configuration. They continue to struggle with finding a good CARM signal for the common mode servo.
• Mode cleaner WFS system: Rana tried to diagonalize the MC WFS system and couldn't. Rob found a problem in the way the dewhitining switches were implemented. It apparently now works, and worked a little more on the MC WFS, making many changes to the sensing matrix script and also to the MCWFSanalyze.m script.
• Adaptive noise cancellation: Rana and Caltech undergrad Caryn Palatchi are working on developing effective and efficient FIR filtering.
• Weather monitoring: Andrey continues to work on improving the weather station performance and readout.
• IST Building construction: Heavy construction work continues to prevent working with the interferometer during construction work hours.

---

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

• Greg Ogin has returned from visiting Andri Gretarsson at Embry- Riddle, and Andri was able to provide Greg with the sample the SOPRA ellipsometry data was taken on.
• Eric is back from taking time off to be with his new baby.

---

LASTI (Mittleman)

• The second pumping station was turned on and tested, there is still one automatic valve that needs to be installed to protect the turbo pump in case of a fore line failure. Once that is done we will move on to leak check all of the new fittings.

BSC-ISI

• The BSC feed through flanges have been installed and they have been cabled, there are a lot of cables. We have installed three shelves off of the BSC stiffeners to mount the displacement sensor electronics, once we straighten out some wire issues with those boxes we will start to release the ISI stops.

Noise Prototype Quad

• Brett has released the suspension and is working on realigning the top mass OSEMs, there was a small change in the pitch alignment during the insertion process.

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

________________

Antony Searle:

• Miscellaneous OmegaPipeline development [https://geco.phys.columbia.edu/omega/].
• Reviewed a paper for the LSC.

________________

Kipp Cannon:

• SGR flare code review work.
• Edit final proofs of LIGO-P070085-00-Z for CQG.
• Telecons: daswg.
• LAL/LALApps:  working on clean-up of XML I/O code, in particular trying to reduce the level of entaglement between the XML I/O code and other unrelated pieces of LAL like injection code;  this is being done to help lay the groud-work for other efforts in those code base like the inspiral group's move to coinc tables and the separation of LAL into separately-released libraries.

________________

Kent Blackburn for the Grid Research and Development Group:

GRID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

• Attended LIGO-Pegasus, DASWG, OSG-USERS, and OSG-INTEGRATION telecons.
• Wrote agenda and minutes for the LIGO-Pegausus meeting.
• Prepared a report on OSG-LIGO activities in powerpoint form for distribution to the DASWG and CBC groups.
• Continued to troubleshoot ihope issues, which have also been seen by others in the CBC group. A suggestion was made in the DASWG meeting to compile with a different option and run in the "vanilla" universe to see if a previously patched bug in Condor has crept back into the current version.
• Successfully ran the Einstein@Home application at BNL this week. Still having trouble at UWM but working with local staff to troubleshoot.
• Continuing to troubleshoot problems running any jobs at Texas(TTU) OSG site.
• Meeting with OSG User Coordinator and UCSD system administrator to discuss better testing for LIGO applications on OSG and to plan for running E@H jobs at UCSD site.

OPEN SCIENCE GRID INTEGRATION TESTBED

• Strongest candidate for grid administration position that was interviewed last week contacted this week to say that she will be staying with her current position at UCLA.
• Integration Testbed team requested that LIGO test out its applications on the pre-release candidate software stack currently running on the OSG-ITB grid for compatibility before the official release.

OPEN SCIENCE GRID MANAGEMENT

• Arranged kick-off meeting of OSG Council sub-committee for "at-large VO representation" for later this week. Updated the sub-committee's website with relevant information in preparation for the meeting.
• Continuing to organize a new sub-committee to review OSG Council's role and interactions with the OSG Executive Team.

________________

Gregory Mendell:

• I have finished off the first version of a simple but complete Condor test DAG, added to CVS lalapps/src/pulsar/test,  for regression testing of the pulsar analysis against changes in Condor, operating systems, and the pulsar group's code.

________________

Pinkesh Patel:

• I have found a bug with excess losses in signal as compared to noise. I suspect that this has to do with my heterodyne correction calculation. Having thought about it a bit, some theoretical work is underway and I am hoping that a solution comes to me soon.
• Started preliminary calculations for a globular cluster search.
• H2 has been out of commission for the past week or so and we have been working to get it back up.

________________

Igor Yakushin:

• Working on applying the final category 2 and 3 DQs and vetoes to the Coherent WaveBurst production and simulation triggers on the first year of S5. Considering that the final segment lists for each ifo are extremely fragmented and have ~ N*106 segments and that the amount of triggers that need to be tested against those segments is also of the order of N*106, it turned out to be a surprisingly computationally intensive task requiring heavy use of Condor.

________________

Diego Fazi:

• Investigated the origin of the bug in the head of LAL.
• Studied the dependence of SPA mass parameters estimation accuracy on spin parameters.
• Carried on the tests on kludge vs real distances in the PTF intrinsic parameter space.

________________

Kari Hodge:

• I am developing a script that will automate the implementation of the multivariate classification method known as a random forest to be used in the inspiral analysis.

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• Migration to version 7 of the frame specification continues. All but the FrStatData structures are in place. Efforts are currently focused on getting the unit tests for the FrameCPP library to compile and pass.
• To avoid a deadlock situation noticed with the rmJobFiles command, the processing of the command has been shifted from the managerAPI to the control and monitor server.
• Testing of DB2 9.1 started this week. After modifying some kernel parameters, jobs began to be processed. Eventually the metadataAPI did become hung and could not be cleanly shut down. This continues to be investigated.
• The TCL exec command has been overloaded to allow logging of the calls. This is being used to investigate which tasks are still being done by auxiliary programs. The goal is to eliminate most of these calls and replace them with local functions thereby eliminating the need to spawn new processes.
• The unit test that had been failing for multiple nightly builds has now been corrected. The system now passes all of its unit tests.
• System testing was done using 1.9.269 of the software base. The All user command test failed to run because of modifications to the buffering model used for the managerAPI's sockets. The modifications have been reverted.
• Week long system testing only yielded "no such symbol" errors from the datacondAPI.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• Spent a bit of time with Greg LHO cluster; went over kickstart scripts, some monitoring scripts. Made disk space for Brennan on data9 disk (some simulation injections he's running); fixed data13 disk problem (with Filippo's help remotely).

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

• Fixed the problem with publishing GEO segments: after the recent rearrangement of grid-mapfiles the entry needed for the GEO publishing scripts to function disappeared from the grid-mapfiles on gateway and nodes.
• In the first approximation finished reading the source code for publishing scripts.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

• I have put together a test version LDG 4.6 built on the latest release of VDT, for testing on our cluster reference operating systems, CentOS 5 and Debian 4, that we will transition to before S6.  I am also preparing my talk for next week's Condor Week meeting in Madison WI.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Worked at LHO this week.

Livingston

(Dwayne)

• Remote connection problems with PQNode software, going to investigate today.
• Adjusted delay on main gate opening again.
• Main gate, guard shack communication problems in kantech system.
• Rebooted kantech server.
• Helped a user with some documentation.
• Upgraded two autocad installs.
• PRISM software demo.
• Worked a few software renewals.
• Installed new backup software and external HD for a user.
• Replaced tapes in the GC tape library and ran an additional full backup.
• Other usual/unusual user support requests.
• Cleared spam trap, upstream filtering has continued to reduce load.Hanford

(Fred)

• LHO this week: reinstalled solaris os for new app. server.
• Built xp backup server (lhobackup.ligo-wa.caltech.edu) on new pc (server 2003, filezilla ftp over ssl) for windows backup clients - test client on crested.ligo-wa.caltech.edu doing dailies, seems ok.
• ssh build enabled rainier2.
• Reinstalled veritas netbackup rainier2, got sun tape robot working (sent notes to Larry and Dave B re: conf), did a couple of test tape backups of several 10's g, seems ok.
• Ilog discussions with Dave B -- reverting to ilog 4.
• Fixed boot problems sun machine bear.ligo-wa.

(Larry)

• Worked on the mail services. Reworked some of the filters and modified a few of the scripts.
• Worked on a couple of the servers and installed some peripheral hardware.
• Purchased a couple of computer items to augment some of the GC services.
• Placed SUN order on the matching grant program for different groups.
• Tested out the Duet speaker phone on the EVO system. This worked out well. We still need to get more people trained on its use.
• Assisted a number of users with different items. Mostly the login environments and some application modifications to where they could work with fewer issues.
• Worked on some of the documentation.
• Working on license renewals and quotes.
• Backed up user accounts.

(Mike)

• Finish up working on Advanced LIGO server "yacolt".
• Managing DHCP for LHO.Managing DHCP for LHO.

Caltech

(Mike)

• Fix some user login issues on Advanced LIGO server "alcor".
• Continued work on server for 40meter.
• Setup EVO for Excomm meeting.
• Other misc. sysadmin tasks.

(Veronica)

• LIGO:  A Google map API to be included into the new visitors webpage.  Roster database updates.  Ongoing user support /web updates.
• LSC:  Updates of the database of technical papers, posts of the March meeting talks.  Other web updates.
• CaJAGWR:  User support /web updates.

(Melody)

• New DCC:  Going over the requirements matrix to determine which requirements aren't satisfied by DocDB. Write some documentation along the way on how to use certain features in the product.

(Christian)

• Phil Willems - Called Comsol support to have new license file generated for his new laptop.
• Riccardo Desalvo - Minor tweaks to fusion software for Riccardo.
• Workstation backups - Norna Robertson and Eric Gustafson.
• Cindy Akutagawa - Configured loaner laptop for Cindy to use on travel.
• Re-imaged laptops that were returned to the loaner pull this week.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Larry)

• The computer room has a problem with one of the air-conditioners, repairs on the unit are being hampered by the lack of replacement parts. We are continually monitoring the room and have had to shutdown/adjust some of the servers to keep things from getting too warm.
• More testing on equipment to use with the EVO system. So far we've had pretty good success with the Phoenix audio units. We believe one of the ClearOne units is not functioning properly but the ClearOne150 is working with some minor issues.
• Placed a SUN matching grant order for different groups.
• Working on a new server for the 40M. It is just about ready to be taken over to the 40M to finish up the installation.
• Placed orders of multiple items for different people. Also, working on quotes for workstations and notebooks.
• Resolved some mailman issues. Cleaned up a couple of calendar problems.
• Resolved mail alias issues for different people.
• File recovery for a couple of people.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Management

From Carol Wilkinson

 Project Controls

• Still waiting for project funding to arrive[AL update: it arrived on Friday].
• Project Baseline cost and schedule has been loaded into PRISM for Earned Value performance reporting. Discoverer reports from ORACLE for actual cost loading are set up.
• The Time and Assignments Verification system is undergoing improvements. Time for the second pay period is now due.
• Training sessions on the PRISM procurement module and demonstrations of an inventory control system were held this week at LHO.
• The AdL Acquisition Plan is being prepared for submission to NSF for pre-approval of all procurements >$250K.
• Draft procurement guidelines are being circulated for review.
• Change Request ADL-CR-080001 for minor schedule adjustments resulting in cost increase of $108K to be covered by contingency is being prepared and will be circulated before CCB review on Wednesday April 30.

Procurements

• Contracts for the University of Florida, MIT, ARES project controls staff, and other LIGO contract workers on the project are being prepared and processed in the LIGO Business Office.
• An RFQ for Core Optics glass blanks has seen sent to vendors.
• Technical leads in FMP and SEI are working on RFQ’s for site preparation and HEPI procurements.

Progress Updates

• Progress updates for the period from April 1 through April 30 are due by April 28 for Advanced LIGO subsystem development and for the first month of the AdL project.

We will be using the output from the PRISM Earned Value software and reports from subsystem leads to prepare the first monthly report to NSF due before May 15th. Subsystem leads will get training on the process required for status reporting and on understanding the PRISM reports on Tuesday, May 6. The first monthly meeting to go over the reports and to discuss cost and schedule issues will be held on May 8.

Meetings & Reviews

Teleconference Number 1-800-704-9896, 814691#

• Wednesday, April 30, 9:00 AM PT :  CCB meeting to review CR-080001 (weekly Systems Engineering meeting time slot)
• Tuesday, May 6,  11:00 AM PT: Training for monthly status reports for subsystem leads (one time meeting)
• Thursday, May 8, 8:30 AM PT:  AdL Project Monthly Status Meeting (standing monthly meeting)

Systems Engineering: Operations Activities

• Reviews - Supporting or conducting the following reviews simultaneously, all at various stages of completion:
  • eLIGO Baffle Design Review
  • 40m TAC
  • HEPI FRR
  • IO FDR & Long-Lead PRR
  • E/ITM Glass FDR/PRR
  • E/ITM Mechanics FDR/FRR
  • FMP PDR
  • SYS PDR
  where FDR = Final design review, PDR = preliminary, FRR = fabrication readiness review, PRR = procurement readiness review, and the other acronyms are standard LIGO subsystem terms. For a list of reviews, see the main AdL wiki page
  <>http://lhocds.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:8000/advligo

AdL Project-Funded Activities

• Technical Review Board (TRB):
  • A report on the TRB's recommendation to switch from the baseline marginally stable recycling cavities to stable recycling cavities is being prepared.
• Vacuum Review Board (VRB):
  • Requested the VRB to review and approve an RGA qualification specification for suspension structures. This could permit the UK to provide already UHV qualified structures to the US. (UHV cleaning and baking is currently a US responsibility.)
  • Requested the VRB to rule on whether to permit (continue to permit) 303 and 303 Se stainless steel into the LIGO vacuum system. The LIGO UHV approved materials list, E960050, allows all 300 series stainless steel. However use of 303 and 303 Se SS is contrary to accepted UHV practice. This could have significant immediate (eLIGO OMC) and long term (AdL) impact.
• Change Control:
  • Preparing a Change Control (CR) request for the Change Control Board (CCB) for the scope transfers between subsystems and the costs changes associated with the TRB's recommendation to adopting stable recycling cavities.
• Configuration Control:
  • Have started an effort to document the configuration control (distinct and separate from change control handled by the CCB) process for LIGO Lab, including AdL. Section 1.4.2 of E010613-02 <http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/docs/E/E010613-02/E010613-02.pdf> outlines what we currently do. After more fully documenting our current process, we will look to improve or extend the process if/as it make sense.
  • Most mechanical drawings and CAD models are maintained in the PDMWorks vault. We wish to move to a system in which all are maintained in this change tracking and check-in/out system. However, guidelines for organization and best practices are needed (similar to T960051-02 <http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/docs/ T/T960051-02.pdf>). We have begun to pull together a document.
  • We plan to develop a document tree for the AdL project to guide people to appropriate documentation. We have in mind a wiki/web-based block diagram (perhaps Visio generated) with links to documentation. Section 1.4 of E010613-02 <http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/docs/E/E010613-02/E010613-02.pdf>, Generic Requirements for Subsystems, is a first step at gathering the relevant (and irrelevant or conflicting/mis-leading) documents.
• Design:
  • Corrections were made to the optical layout in Zemax: BS envelope corrected, HAM small triple suspension optical height corrected which resulting in shifting some input & output optic suspensions slightly, moved H2 optics to increase Schnupp asymmetry range, etc. Will issue a revision to T080078-02 <http://lhocds.ligowa.caltech.edu:8000/advligo/SysPD?action=AttachFile&do= get&target=T080078-02.pdf>. See also the companion document T010076-02 <http://lhocds.ligowa.caltech.edu:8000/advligo/SysPD?action=AttachFile&do= get&target=T010076-02.pdf>.
  • Revised H2 ETM chamber axial location in the end station vacuum equipment layout model in SolidWorks to maximize the H2 Schnupp asymmetry range. Also rotated chamber for SEI installation and spool access reasons. Preparing a memo and vacuum equipment layout drawings.
  • Reviewed and approved the SUS proposal to switch from the baselined fused silica ribbons to fused silica fibers for the test mass quadruple pendulum suspensions. See G080254-00 <http://lhocds.ligowa.caltech.edu:8000/advligo/ NextMeetingAgenda?action= AttachFile&do=get&target=G080254-00.pdf> and T080091-00 <http://lhocds.ligowa.caltech.edu:8000/advligo/NextMeetingAgenda? action=AttachFile&do=get&target=T080091-00.pdf>.
• Interfaces:
  • Nothing significant to report. See the RODA status page <http://www. ligo. caltech.edu/%7Ecoyne/AL/project_management/RODA/RODA_status.htm> and the Interface Control page <http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/%7Ecoyne/AL/ Systems%20Site/ICD.html>.

Systems Science

From: Peter Fritschel <pf@ligo.mit.edu>

• Project Activities:
  • Started to the technical note on the comparison of stable and  marginally stable recycling cavities.
  • Started to prepare responses to the SYS PDR committee comments
  • Matt Evans has been looking deeply into the theory of coating thermo-optic noise. He's found that the treatment we have been using is incorrect, and in fact has been overestimated. There is still significant uncertainty in materials parameters, but the bottom line is that thermo-optic noise is just not significant compared to brownian noise. Details are coming together in a write-up.
  • Jonathan Soto, a student intern from France, has been looking at the effectiveness of the test mass electro-static drive actuators in providing a little bit of damping to the test mass internal modes, as a possible way to prevent parametric instabilities. This is a modeling effort for the time being, and is starting to generate some numerical results.

    Advanced LIGO System

Modeling and Simulation

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

Static IFO Simulation (Hiro)

• The prism effect of the BS wedge affects the transfer function in the horizontal plane. This is because, as Muzammil pointed out in his document, the beam size change changes the gouy phase, and the detuning is changed. http://ilog.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:7285/advligo/WedgeAngleSI.
• Redoing calculations to summarize the Florida meeting to quantify the difference between stable and marginally stable Michelson cavity.
• Preparing to Start the Full AdvLIGO Simulation Coding

Mechanical Simulation for Advanced LIGO (Sany and SLU team)

• Continued redesigning AdvLIGO Input Mode Cleaner’ with PSL’s frequency noise incident to IMC. Started redesigning the MC control servo filters. (The currently used filters are good to reduce IMC’s frequency noise associated with the IMC length fluctuation but optimized to suppress PSL’s frequency noise.) Computed open loop transfer functions for the length and frequency control filters under various conditions, and the results are being analyzed. The computations indicate the possibility that the simulation time step may have a substantial effect on the phase of the frequency control servo.

Facilities Modifications and Preparation

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

• In preparation for the FMP review we are looking at options for the placement of the HEPI pump stations. An attractive option for LHO is a mezzanine above the vacuum equipment roughing pumps. Vibration concerns will be looked at.

Prestabilized Laser

From: Peter King pking@ligo.caltech.edu

• No report this week.

  Control and Data Systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

General

• Met with Barker, Lisa G. Joe G. and Rusyl to plan LLO CDS sysadmin support and priority work.

  40 Meter

• Jay presented a plan at the CDS meeting for upgrading the existing front end controls to AdL style controls. This would then allow the 40 meter to become a testbed for AdL CDS and AdL ISC systems.

ELigo

• Installed fiber link and software to connect signals  between OMC and LSC computers at LLO.
• Ben finished install / preliminary checkout of ISI electronics at LHO.

AdLigo R&D

• Timing system PDR panel follow up questions sent out to presenters.
• PSL electronics  ready for shipment to AEI next week.

AdL SUS (Project)

• Completed testing of UK satellite amplifier. Test report has not been started.
• Continued to work through design changes and modifications proposed by the UK in response to the various coil driver test reports.
• Began updating the costbook to reflect the choice of a stable recycling cavity.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

• SEI Activities and Progress at LHO: Joe Hanson, Brian Lantz, Brian O'Reilly, and Jeff Kissel are at at LHO assisting in the assembly and test.  Actuators, GS-13's, and locater/locks have been installed. The planned date for installation into the chamber is 5/12. 
• SEI Project Activities: Documentation for  the ADLigo HEPI Fabrication Readiness Review scheduled for this week.

Suspensions

From Janeen Romie and Norna Robertson (romie_j@ligo-la.caltech.edu, nroberts@ligo.caltech.edu)

Operations Work

• HAM Suspensions for Advanced & Enhanced LIGO
  Nothing significant to report.
• BSC Suspensions for Advanced LIGO ETM/ITM fabrication readiness review for the mechanical elements of the quad suspension is underway.
  A document on wire attachment points and flexure corrections has been drafted by Mark Barton.
• Latest version of the conceptual design document for the beamsplitter suspension has been sent to the DCC

General

• Monthly SWG telecon held on 18th April. Minutes posted on SWG elog. We had a timely reminder from Riccardo's experience with an old SAS prototype unit that was inadvertently exposed to the elements that maraging steel can rust and then fracture through stress corrosion, so we must take care how we store blades.

Project-Funded Activities

• Work continues on updating the SUS section of the Advanced LIGO costbook to reflect the change from marginally stable to stable recycling cavity configuration. We have also been discussing the first article build and training activities for the quad suspensions with our UK colleagues.

Core Optics

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

Project

• Submitted the RFQ for material April 10. I sent out an advance draft to our vendors April 21.  I'm not sure if the official copy has gone out yet.
• We've had a meeting with Glasgow reps. regarding the UK glass/polishing procurement.  We have a viable plan, pending the resolution of some small questions.

Development

• We have received the Schedule update from QED for the completion of the Pathfinder.  Ted Mooney, our QED contact is leaving the company.  He is being replaced by Chris Hall.  The current schedule is aggressive, but shows completion, it does allow for four iterations of MRF, with one pad polish iteration.  The iteration window runs from early July to early September, with completion scheduled for September.
• The 6" metrology sphere is complete for the Tinsley pathfinder.  The current schedule shows IBF starting in July, and the project finishing in early September.
• REO has asked if we have further need for the 250mm coating tooling that they have had since '98.  The answer is yes.  REO has asked if we can store the tooling.  They will advise us of the required storage volume and provide an estimate of shipping costs.
• Cheryl Vorvick has been able to correlate visible defects (found with flashlight) with the photographic images of scatter off optics in a locked cavity. http://ilog.ligo-wa.caltech. edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=04/16/2008&anchor_to_scroll_ to=2008:04:16:13:19:56-Vorvick.
• Hiro and Muzammil are converging on the model for the effect of the BS wedge on astigmatic loss.  They expect to be able to advise us that a 0.8 degree wedge is acceptable after a few more modeling runs (circa next week)

Auxiliary Optics

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

• All work below is under the Operations Budget

ADLIGO

• ETM Telescope Suspension: Chris and Virginio are working on the design of the suspension for the ETM telescope/output bench. Chris will design the ETM Tel suspension so that it can accomodate a 195mm diameter clear aperture ETM telescope of the same length as the initial LIGO ETM telescope.

ELIGO

• SLC: Ken is doing the final design layout for the manifold baffle. Luke is in the process of revising the HAM5 baffle.
• TCS: Rupal is shipping several components from the TCS CO2 laser heater prototype to CIT. Phil plans to develop a test bed at CIT to evaluate several options for eliminating the beam steering that occurs when the polarizing attenuator is rotated.

Project Activities

• IFO Layout:
  • Mike is in the process of adding a pre-mode matching telescope to the IO layout on the input HAM chamber. A meeting will be held with Dave Tanner and Luke next week to resolve the alleged discrepancy in the recycling cavity lengths and optics positioning for the folded IFO.
  • Mike analyzed the 160 mm diameter beam of the proposed end-locking IFO and found that with a wavelength < 1023 nm, after one round trip through the recycing cavity, the return beam misses the ETM.

Input Optics

From: David tanner@phys.ufl.edu

Adv LIGO IO: All R&D

• Work in DKDP ring heater is in progress. We see some thermal lensing due to the ring heater (as desired)  but the data are not conclusive yet. (Muzammil)
• We are working od the Adv LIGO procurement review
• We have finished the  first version of layout based on T080078-02 (Luke)
• We are making changes in the specifications and documents for Procurement
• Review.

---

For additional information about this report, contact Albert Lazzarini