Weekly Report for Week Ending June 12, 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 & Project

Past Weekly Reports

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LSC Issues (Reitze)

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

PROPERTY ACCOUNTING (Luna)

• Submitted a request to dispose Government equipment to NSF.
• Assisted R. Abbot with shipping and preparing a commercial invoice for the export of one Electrical Connector to the University of Birmingham, UK.
• Assisted H. Radkins in making shipping arrangements for one crate from LLO to LHO.
• Assisted B. Laliberte in making shipping arrangements for two crates from MIT to LLO.
• Continued working with Property Services in tagging and closing 25 fabrication accounts.
• Continued updating Hanford's Inventory database.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

>From: Turner Linda <turner@ligo.caltech.edu>

• Worked on options for LIGO's hosting of the LSC in March 2009.  Several people are involved in determining the cost and feasibility of the Brown Gym on campus, enabling the set dates of the LSC to remain.  Hopefully, a consolidation of all necessary considerations will be completed early next week so management can determine its viability.
• Continued to work on a form for Bill Tyler that is web-based and intuitively expands or contracts based on a user's input.  The basic form is completed, but I am learning how to data bind the fields to a schema as well as tailoring the form to different fields of information based on the user's input.

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>

• No report

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

• Completed the FY2008 monthly operations report as of the end of May 2008 and posted report on the network.
• Sent out monthly reports for Visitor's program, Outreach program, U.Wisconsin award, Low Noise account, MIT Grid, I2U2 and 3 discretionary awards.
• Provided data/charts for End of May 2008 report.
• 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>

• Since it was discovered that Support Services already has the required liability insurance policy, the P.O. for Advanced LIGO will be issued immediately.
• The Advanced LIGO P.O for Triad has been approved in TechMart by Purchasing Services, and will be issued to the contractor immediately.

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

• The proposed contract for fused silica with the Heraeus Company was taken to the Office of Sponsored Research for transmittal to the NSF for approval via Fastlane.
• The proposed contract with the Ares Corporation for project management support was taken to the Office of Sponsored Research for transmittal to the NSF for approval via Fastlane.
• The proposed contract with the University of Florida for the Advanced LIGO input optics subsystem is being assembled and will be taken to the Office of Sponsored Research tomorrow for transmittal to the NSF for approval via Fastlane.
• Ed Jasnow, GariLynn Billingsley, Stan Whitcomb, and Bert Cresta traveled to the Tinsley Corporation facility in Richmond, CA on Tuesday, June 10, to discuss their projected 10 percent overrun on the Pathfinder optics polishing effort.  Tinsley presented the reasons for the overrun, which were a need for additional quality assurance and a need to procure another piece of glass, since the one they planned to use was found to be defective.  It was made clear to Tinsley that communication of these issues to LIGO is critical to properly manage the program.  Tinsley agreed, and concurred in the suggestion that their major subcontractor, ASML, will join in the bi-weekly teleconferences between LIGO and Tinsley.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

• NSF Audit Questions – materials have been prepared and sent to the NSF in response to questions provided in May concerning supporting information for the FY 2009-13 Operations budget sheets submitted last January.  The NSF is attempting to do due diligence before issuing the cooperative agreement for FY 2009 Operations.  The NSF has requested additional information, which is mostly for information concerning the Caltech Financial systems.  We have forwarded this request to the Office of Sponsored Research and are trying to determine what they really want.
• We will review the FY 2008 Operations Financial Status as of the end of May during the executive committee meeting scheduled for this Monday, June 16.  I am preparing materials for that review including an update of the forecast of an estimate-at-completion for the end of the year.
• We are assembling the monthly report for Operations for the NSF.  It should be ready to send this week.
• During May, we prepared an integrated staffing plan for Advanced LIGO and Operations.  I am now taking this plan and plugging it into the Operations budget model for FY 2009 – FY 2013 and repricing the whole mess.  As soon as this is completed (next week) I will distribute the plan to the task managers for their information and comment.  This cost estimate will be the basis of budgets established for next year as well as any revisions of the proposal that we may have to prepare for the NSF.
• It is that time of year when we have to provide some kind of performance metric to give to the NSF for LIGO Operations.  Last year we used number of days of data from the S5 Science Run.  We are working with Fred Raab to develop some kind of meaningful performance parameter for the current year.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

• The staffing committee meeting has been scheduled for Monday, June 23, 2008.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

• Nothing significant to report this week.

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

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

• With H1 IO excess loss attributed to the thin-film polarizer in the input Faraday chain, and UFL investigating ways to reproduce and possibly mitigate this, attention turned this week to relocking the IFO. We opened gatevalves to the arms and locked single cavities (x, y, prm), confirming what we thought were good alignments at the AS and REFL ports. In order to check the beam at the HAM6 septum window and begin HAM6 pumpdown, plus maintain viewport safety, we briefly closed GV1 and 2. The beam looked good on the septum window, although it was a little over 1" low. Much aligning of output tables ensued (POB/POX/SPOB/REFL/AS). Late in the week however it was discovered that our alignment was signficantly (4") high on the BS, and MMTs 1-3 (but mostly 2-3) were used to translate the beam down. In this alignment, 25% more arm power has been recovered (better real estate in the Faraday?). State 3 has been locked, but no full locks yet.
• See the beam coming through the HAM6 septum window, early in the week and prior to the lowering of the spot on the BS, here
• A blended z-direction loop was closed on the HAM6 ISI, limiting motion to 1-2 nm. More loops to come.
• Acoustic coupling on the new PSL was studied
• The optical spectrum of the transmitted mode cleaner beam was measured

Astrowatch (P. Roberts)

• The H2 duty cycle has been low this week due to suspected BCS problems and very high winds
• Investigations this week have looked further at seismic causes of out two weeks of down time a month or so ago

LHO Outreach (D. Ingram)

• Art students from Kennewick's Southridge High School have loaned LHO a set of works that were motivated by the class's field trip to the site earlier in the spring. You can peruse both the 2008 and 2007 collections here. The photos don't do justice to the texture of the work. Our thanks to SHS art teacher Anne Wendt.

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

General operations (Rusyl Wooley):

• The new Diode Room is complete.  We are now installing the new electronics for the 35W laser. The new cooling loop has been pressure tested and is now wet and circulating.  Michael Fyffe has done an outstanding job getting the work done.  All the fibers have been run but not terminated.  We ran the new cables required to get the pressure gauges attached to HAM6 into EPICS.  The magnet removal test is complete...very successful.  All of the magnets fell off within a few minutes...We have some cleaning of tools left to do but I believe that we are ready to open the end station volumes.

LLO Outreach (Deborah Muhammad):

• Conducted 2 Teacher Professional Development Workshops for LSU Cain Center (32 teachers) and LPSB (55 teachers).
• Developed programs and made preparations for 3-day workshop with St. Tammany teachers: June 16-18, 2008.
• Developed Program for Math Circle (LSU High School Summer Math Program).
• Prepare for visit from Fred Rabb (LHO) and Washington state superintendents.
• Prepared LLO Outreach Monthly Report: May 2008.
• Preparations & scheduling for future summer teacher workshops.
• Scheduled Field Trips for summer and school year 2008-09.
• Scheduled and conducted public tours for Friday.
• Purchased supplies for teacher PD.
• Managed SEC documents: Archived folder from (shared) Active File.
• Downloaded pictures (LSU Cain Center) to share folder and uploaded to website.

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)

• DRFPMI locking: Rob and John are making steady progress in lock acquisition of the full ifo. Things get twitchy and lock is lost as they ramp down the CARM offset and ramp up the power.
• Digital camera network: Joe is measuring the noise and response of another, higher resolution CMOS camera. The first CMOS camera (Prosilica GC750), when uniformly illuminated with scattered light, showed strange patterns (like PCBs); this new one doesn't.
• Noise cancellation: Caryn is working on filters that predict the mode cleaner fast and slow servo signals using data from accelerometers, seismometers, and microphones.
• Steve is seeing very little reflection or scattering off of his curved-wedge SS beam trap.
• PSL: Youichi is looking at the PSL transmittance.
• Youichi received 40m lab safety training from Steve.

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Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

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LASTI (Mittleman)

BSC-ISI

• The BSC has been sealed with the ISI and Noise prototype quadruple pendulum inside of it. So far everything seems to be works properly.
• We have started to the commissioning. The damping loops that were developed and installed while the ISI was on the test stand work similarly in the BSC. We have installed 6 displacement sensor loops on HEPI and are in the process of installing 12 high frequency blend (~1Hz) on the ISI. That is an intermediate step where the crossover frequency between the displacement and inertial sensors is higher then in the final loops and is used for tuning out tilt couplings.

Fiber Pulling and Welding

• The fiber pulling machine has had its mechanics and optics swapped over to the conical mirror /cylindrical fiber pulling setup. We have aligned all the mechanical parts and are now getting the alignment of the optics done. The ZnSe optics for the articulated arm have been replaced with spherical mirrors, and we are currently measuring beam diameters for given mirror separations. We have been able to get the CO2 beam through the articulated arm successfully, though alignment was not as good as we hope to achieve.

SUS

• Brett has been measuring undamped transfer functions on the quad since LASTI went under vacuum last week. The transfer functions appear to be the same under vacuum as they did in air.
• The Q's of the resonant peaks most are between 250 and 500. The most notable exceptions are the first two pitch resonances, which have Q's between 50 and 70 and both the main chain and reaction chain and we are guessing that this has to do with the mechanical hysteresis in the wires.
• Some plots are post on today’s Lasti ilog.
  

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

_______________

Igor Yakushin:

• Working on postproduction of coherent waveburst simulation and production triggers for H1H2, H1L1, H2L1 networks.
• Running coherent waveburst on the second year of S5: H1H2L1 network.

_______________

Gregory Mendell:

• I am working on generating SFTs for the next Einstein@Home run, which will include the 1st and 2nd year of S5.

_______________

Antony Searle:

• At LIGO-Virgo meeting.
• Worked on C++ implementation of fast Bayesian burst search.

_______________

Anand Sengupta:

• EOBNR injections with bandpassed EOB templates - the run has finished a day ago and I am plotting up the results.
• Participating in the Inspiral F2F

_______________

Kipp Cannon, Chad Hanna, Drew Keppel, Amber Stuver:

• Attending LSC-VIRGO meeting.

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• The library frameCPP is now entering Alpha testing phase. This version supports versions 3, 4, 6 and 7 of the frame specification. The focus is shifting from core development to enhancing stability.
• As frameCPP was lacking version 3 and 4 support of the frame specification, testing efforts focused on understanding issues revealed once DB2 was upgraded to version 9.1.5.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

• Rearchiving data in backup archive set to T10KA tapes at CIT (ongoing).
• Did many things related to moving LHO's /home to ZFS and repurposing the 3511 JBODs that had been part of the old QFS /home.
• Relabeled and ejected tapes at LHO, LLO, CIT.
• Identified problem with some 40m backup filenames (they had ^J characters in the file name) and notified Alan Weinstein, who got it fixed at the source. Then deleted the old versions in /backup.
• Did some test work to help identify on QFS allocates metadata space, then did the work to samgrowfs CIT's /archive to give it more metadata space.
• Helped a bit with the down mail server.
• Added users dietz & rahul to configuration files for Pegasus use.
• Added "cit" pool attribute for all strain-L2 files.
• Worked with Greg on setup of LHO's 6140.
• Identified new bad frame file (/data/node247/frames/S5/L1/LLO/L-RDS_R_L1-8520/L-RDS_R_L1-852011648-64.gwf) in weekly scan but it checked out fine later.
• Reloaded some tapes from shelf storage at CIT (some to help with rearchiving, some to get some specifice S3 & S4 L0 data online again at CIT).
• Reconfigured archiver.cmd at CIT to get ExtTrig-MDC files on tape.
• Replaced 1TB drive in CIT 6140 home2.

(Phil Ehrens)

• Worked all this week on MOU Review website.

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• Finishing centos upgrades; ldas-gridmon, ldas-pcdev1, ldas-grid; ldas-condor just completed. added disks (raid 5) to morel (einstein@home) - disk capacity now 320GB, back on line.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

• Fixed a bug in publisher_monitor.py that would crash it when *.pid file was absent for ldbdd servers.
• Inserted LSCsegFind Server Dev entry into publisher_monitor.py.
• The new x4600 is rack mounted.
• Modified the user account creation script for the new ZFS home file system.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

• I am continuing work on LDAS filesystem reconfigurations at LHO.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Some new licensing issues (purchase/install).
• Installing moinmoin wiki.

Livingston

(Dwayne)

• Inventory system review with Mark Lubinski.
• Installed remaining fans in CUR racks.
• Moved our list server to the new VM.
• Installed matlab on an Ubuntu install.
• Created VPN accounts for a few LLO users.
• Other usual/unusual user support requests.
• Cleared spam trap.
• LLO mail summary for 6 June 2008 - 12 June 2008:

  Rejected: 15,133 (7 containing virus)
  Accepted: 6,601
  Total: 21,734

Hanford

(Larry)

• Ordered and ordering some more equipment for the site.
• Working on some documentation.
• Working on filter updates.

(Mike)

• Loaded a LINUX workstation for a user.
• More trouble-shooting on an X2200 regarding a hardware issue. "This is now resolved� Thanks to Dave and Vern for finishing this ticket up for me.
• Worked on setting up more user accounts and mail aliases.
• Continued work on freeing up expired DHCP addresses.
• Some work on flushing out spam in the mail spool.
• Other misc. user support.

Caltech

(Mike)

• Loaded a 64bit XP workstation and server 2003 vmware for testing on SolidWorks 2008. We have decided to hold off on this and start testing SW09 which the first beta release is early next month.
• Trouble shot a printer on the W/B 3rd floor due to paper jams.
• Worked on a few ADVLIGO server issues.
• Tested terminal server. This seems to be a viable solution for users to login remotely accessing and running applications.
• Other misc. user support and sysadmin tasks.

(Veronica)

• LIGO: One of the newer versions of IE renders CSS based layouts in a way that's different from other browsers or even other IE. I am looking into hardening the pages using CSS layouts including the homepage to improve reliable rendering by all current browser types. Taped the PMA seminar by Kip Thorne, produced a video stream and a set of DVDs for the TAPIR group and PMA.
• LSC: Continued working on the redo of the ligo.org. Various web updates.

(Christian)

• Cindy Akutagawa - Installed and configured Adobe Element.
• Dorothy Lloyd - Installed and configured Adobe Dreamweaver CS3.
• Steve Vass - Picked up old computers and monitors from 40 Meter be surplus.
• Riccardo Desalvo - Created backup images of workstations from Riccardo's lab before Surf student arrive.
• Working on configuring new workstations with Mathlab and Mathematica for Surf student that will be arriving next week.
• Toner cartridge replacements - 3flr W/B, 6flr Millikan and 40 Meter.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Melody)

• New DCC: Continued work on the content search for the new DCC. Looked at Google API and htdig.

(Larry)

• A lot of time spent with procurement issues. Purchasing of new equipment and upgrades as well as working on a number of licensing contracts. Part of the problem is that the vendors are not responding as well as they have in the past.
• Working on logistical issues for the SURF students. We now have some information on equipment requirements but it is going to take some time to get things in place as things are still fluid and we don't have the reserve of computers that we've had in the past.
• Working items for the new hires.
• Spent time resolving mail issues. Thanks to Dan and Stuart for helping out, it was turning into a long day. Along the same note there is new h/w being put in place to update the mail services.
• Working logistical issues for the LSC-V meeting planned to be held here at CIT in March. So far we've found some network items that need to be worked out but no real show stoppers.
• Software installation for the 40M on one of their servers.
• Worked with Mike on a couple of his projects.
• Regular user support including setting up a couple of new accounts.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Management

From Carol Wilkinson

Project Controls

• A request for a cost transfer from operations to project accounts to correct inaccuracies in the time reporting for project activities has been submitted to LIGO accounting.
• In process is a change request (ACR) to delay the production of SEI BSC internal isolation system (ISI) while the actuators are redesigned and tested. The HAM ISI final design period is being shortened due to a need for only minimal design updates and the HAM production will move forward in time to maintain overall project schedule. This change request will require NSF approval since major milestone dates called out in the AdL Cooperative agreement are affected.
• A second change request to incorporate the changes due to the decision to go to a stable recycling cavity is in process. NSF will be notified of the changes.
• The FMP design review has completed, with recommendations for the scope and costs of the assembly area preparation. AdL project management has asked that an ACR be submitted for the new scope, including building renovations to accommodate in- house cleaning stations.

Procurements

• NSF has approved the Advanced LIGO Acquisition Plan for awards >$250K in value, with three exceptions. They requested full procurement package information on the University of Florida contract for Input Optics, the contract for project controls support, and the award for the core optics glass blanks.
• The packages for the glass blanks and the project controls support were submitted to NSF on Thursday 6/12, with the package for the University of Florida expected to be submitted on Friday 6/13.

Progress Updates

• The Project Monthly Report will be submitted to NSF on June 13.
• The project is currently ~2 weeks behind schedule and $24K under budget. The schedule variance is increasing as we wait for NSF approval to begin major procurements and to start the Input optics activities for the University of Florida. Estimate at completion and project end date are still on baseline.
• The number of staff working on the project has increased and is approaching the overall budgeted amounts. Corrective cost transfers have been made for errors in reporting in April and May.  

Meetings & Reviews

• The next monthly status meeting will be on Thursday, July10 at 8:30 AM PT.
• Advanced LIGO will report to the PAC at the meeting June 23-25.

Advanced LIGO Systems

Systems

From: Dennis Coyne <coyne@ligo.caltech.edu>

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

Operations Activities:

• Nothing sinificant to report.

AdL Project-Funded Activities:

Reviews: For a list of reviews, see the main AdL wiki page Technical Review Board (TRB):     see the TRB log

Vacuum Review Board (VRB):

• Working with the Vacuum Review Board and in particular Mike Zucker (liaison to the Virgo viewport failure investigation) to evaluate LIGO prototcols, safety procedures and viewport design evaluation

Configuration Control:

• Nothing significant to report.

Design:

• Continued worked on calculations for the effectiveness of frequency dependent acoustic mode damping techniques to suppress parametric instabilities

Interfaces:

• Continued working on definitive SPI interface definition for the quad suspension
• Phil Willems held discussions with Joe O'Dell and Amanda Brummitt on the feasibility and design approaches to incorporating a stand-off thermal shield surrounding the test mass, as an alternative to the gold-plated test mass barrel
• See the RODA status page and the Interface Control page.

Modeling and Simulation

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

Static IFO Simulation (Hiro, Melody)

• Better implementation of field propagation in substrate to reproduce the effect of the corresponding ABCD matrix.
• Modified the scheme to generate mirror surface aberration to support more flexible specification.
• Melody started to revise the SIS document T070032.

Facilities Modifications and Preparations

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

• We continue iterating the cost estimates and are not far from our budget numbers.

Prestabilized Laser

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

Operations

• Most of the hardware for the table enclosure has arrived.  One item was incorrectly ordered and will have to be sent back.

Project

• A working draft of the preliminary design document was edited to see where we are in relation to the release of the document.  It is our intention to try and release the document by the end of the month.
• Some problems experienced with the pump diode current modulation depth and injection locking have been solved by changing the injection locking modulation frequency.  The frequency was lowered from 35.5 MHz to 20 MHz.
• The risk assessment was updated.

Control and Data Systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

• No report this week.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

• SEI Activities and Progress at LHO: Brian O'Reilly and Jeff Kissel are at LHO this week helping with the single stage HAM development.  STS-2 Seismometers have been installed both on the ground and in the vacuum  chamber (witness) ~ Brian O.
• BSC SEI Documentation and Design: Continue to work on stage 1-2 actuator design and items from the design change list. A requisition was submitted for the procurement of the modified actuators.~ Stephany F.
• HAM SEI Crossbeam Redesign: Detailing parts in HEPI that are affected by the changes to the Crossbeam design. Checked CAD assembly for clearance between HAM Chamber door and redesigned HEPI, for door removal/replacement..~ Andy S.
• SEI Project Activities: Joe Hanson has verified that the actuator drawings we have were updated and include all red-lines from the as built actuators at LLO.  A report to the HEPI Fabrication Readiness Review Committee was written to update them on the status of the committees recommendations. ~Ken M.
• We have started the procurement of  the HEPI pump station. PO's are out for 13 motors and pumps. A shop near LLO is building a frame for acceptance review. RFQ's are out for the manifolds. ~Hugh R.

Suspensions

From: "Greenhalgh, RJS (Justin)" <J.Greenhalgh@rl.ac.uk>

ALUK held its latest Project Management Committee on 6 June 2008 (See LIGO-M080087-00-K). A brief activity summary follows:

• RAL: All parts for the BS prototype have arrived; waiting for manpower (Joe) to allow assembly. OJEU process status remains as follows:
  • Machined items: Supplier selected. FRR complete; drawings being checked and sent to manufacturer in stages.
  • Weldments: Contract placed. FRR complete.
  • Blade springs: Tender process restarted; material supplier chosen.
  Lots of work to provide item that will be needed at LASTI for the monolithic suspension. Joe and Amanda spent a week visiting Hanford and Caltech; very useful trip. FEA work on BS full design to confirm effects of short stays.
  
  
• Glasgow: Steady work on monolithic suspension preparation at LASTI; some slippage (~2 weeks) on mid-June target date. OJEU process for glass masses completed and PRR held. Masses will be procured in the US. Flexure corrections documented (with others).
• Birmingham/Strathclyde: OSEM manufacturing ongoing. Materials issues on two components continue to be explored (phosphor-bronze in vacuum; use of alumina to improve noise performance). Promising theory for anomalous variability of PD output  is being tested. Feedback on the electronics complete and work in hand to make pre-production prototypes.
• Overall: continued steady progress towards monolithic suspension at LASTI; target ~end of June. Most contracts placed for ETM/ITM production; only blade manufacture remains. Continuing work on production OSEMs and pre-production electronics.

We note that the SPI interface is still undefined, and that it may require rework of parts to accommodate it. The definition of the requirements for the electronics for the remaining suspensions will be needed soon; delays will further reduce the already small testing window. We may have overlooked one of the suspension types in preparing these requirements.

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

Operations Work

HAM Suspensions for Advanced & Enhanced LIGO:

• OMC work. We have received the OMC structure after its brite dip treatment and it will be cleaned and put into bake oven today. There are still a few outstanding metal parts being fabricated - should be finished on Monday after which they will get cleaned and baked. The BOSEMs will be undergoing electrical tests under vacuum shortly.
• The tall pole for the schedule is now the blades. We have received and characterised them and unfortunately they are far away from spec. The upper blades may be usable but the lower ones are not. The blade order included recycling mirror prototype blades and they are also now being characterised. Once we have studied those results we will make a decision on how to proceed.
• RM work. Nothing significant to report, except receipt of blades (see above). At the end of June the focus of the RM work will move from Caltech to LLO, and the prototype will be assembled and built at LLO.

BSC Suspensions for Advanced LIGO:

• The final batch (16) of noise prototype BOSEMs from Birmingham has been received at Caltech and will shortly be baked. Thanks to Stuart for providing a few extra of these ones which have the wider bore allowing for easier alignment ( we will send back some of the smaller bore ones in exchange). We have a total of 36 from the final two batches which will be used for the LHO OMC SUS and tip/tilt mirrors, for the RM prototype, and to replace the current quad noise prototype local control OSEMs.
• Work continues to get parts etc ready for the monolithic suspension at LASTI.

Project-Funded Activities

• Nothing significant to report.

Core Optics

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

Project

• We are working on assembling a contract for the sole source glass vendor that will go with a procurement package to the NSF.  This is the top priority.
• The CASI scatter system is running in the Advanced LIGO scatter and absorption lab.  The first item being tested is a well known 1" standard mirror.

Development

• Cheryl Vorvick has proposed a plan using viewports for imaging test masses at LHO.  Due to recent viewport restrictions, this is undergoing a lot of review.  It is important that we get quality baseline measurements of the system as soon as reasonably, and safely, possible.

Auxiliary Optics

From:   Michael Smith <smith@ligo.caltech.edu>

ADLIGO

Work Under Project Budget

• IFO Layout: Mike revised the layout of the non-folded IFO to place the input mode cleaner mirrors as close as possible to the HAM optics table, and sent the COC coordinates to Luke and Tanner for checking. He will place the ZEMAX files in the

Work Under Operations Budget

ETM Telescope Suspension:

• Chris is designing the eddy-current damping structure for the ETM Telescope suspension based upon Riccardo's conceptual design. Phil will set the requirements for the ETM telescope suspension based upon the ETM Hartmann sensing beam requirement. Virginio will estimate the eddy-current damping requirements to meet Phil's requirements.

TCS:

• Aidan and Phil were able to re-align a CO2 laser and improve the output mode shape.
• A jam nut needs to be installed on the rotating polarizer wedge correcting tube to ensure that the tube does not loosen and lose alignment at both sites.
• A TCS laser at LLO failed over the week-end due to a chiller malfunction resulting from a lightning strike. Phil will investigate installing a chilled water sensor that will automatically shut off the laser when the chilled water fails.

SLC:

• Mike spent two days learning how to operate the CASI scatterometer that was installed in Liyuan's scattering test lab. He will compare the BRDF measurements he and Dan Riley made last summer of various baffle materials with new CASI BRDF measurements.
• Mike has begun to revise the Stray Light Control Conceptual Design document for the non-folded and folded stable recycling cavity configurations.

ELIGO

SLC:

• The support ring for the manifold baffle was rolled and is awaiting the final machining of the threaded holes at the CIT machine shop.
• Luke finished designing the sheet meal parts for the ETM chamber and HAM5 baffles. He will finish the remaining brackets by 6/13/08.
  Ken and Luke will design and make shipping containers to ship the oxidized parts to LLO for cleaning and baking and then to LHO for installation.
• All the ELIGO baffle parts are expected to be ready for oxidizing during the first week of July, and to be sent to LLO for cleaning and baking the second week of July.
• Ken completed drawings for additional HAM6 black glass beam dumps for Sam Waldman. Joe at the Areo shop is doing the work.
  Parts for an OMC fixture were completed at the CES shop this week and were sent to LHO for delivery to Sam 6/12/08.
• Luke designed a new errant beam baffle to be mounted directly to the MMT1 suspension frame. Ken will design a stiffener brace to increase the resonant frequency of the MMT3 errant beam baffle. Both baffles will be ready for installation during the vent in July.

Input Optics

From: David tanner@phys.ufl.edu

eLIGO Faraday Problems

• We are studying the properties of thin film polarizers from the same batch as the one in the LHO Faraday. So far, no bad behavior has been observed. The TFP transmits more than 99% of the incident power, at the expected angle of incidence, and appears stable over time.  We will investigate temperature behavior, and high laser power performance. (Volker)

Advanced LIGO Development

Advanced LIGO design:

• We are  modifying EOM housing design for the Advanced LIGO Mach-Zehnder. (Luke)
• We are still working on the IO ZEMAX layout, now including the Faraday isolator. Using the new reversed Y geometry, we are pretty close to aligning the main beam on PRM (after passing through the mode cleaner and the two calcite wedge polarizers). (Rodica) 
• We have gone over the report of the IO Procurement Readiness Review and are modifying the specifications and drawings in accord with the recommendations. (Luke, Rodica, others)

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For additional information about this report, contact Albert Lazzarini