Weekly Report for Week Ending July 17, 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

---

LSC Issues (Reitze)

Good news to report on an number of observational papers:

• The Burst paper "Implications for the Origin of GRB 070201 from LIGO Observations" was published in the July 10 issue of Ap. J. V681, p1419 - the first S5 paper in print.
• The CW paper "Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data" has been accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D. The referee noted "The paper contains significant new physics and it is likely to become a reference for the future activity of the Einstein@Home project. It is well organized and clearly written and can be published without changes."
• The Burst paper "First joint search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO and GEO600 data" has been posted on the arXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/0807.2834.
• The annual MOU review will be held at MIT next week.

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

• 2008 MOUs received to date and posted for review July 24-25, 2008, are listed below.

  MOU	Attachments
  Andrews University	DAT, OUT, Z
  Balearic Islands	DAT, Z
  Carleton College	DAT, OPS, Z
  Caltech Exper. Grav.-Physics Group	SUS, Z
  Institute for Applied Physics	OPT, OUT, Z
  IUCAA	DAT, Z
  Louisiana Tech University	DAT, OPS, Z
  Maryland, University of	DAT, OPS, Z
  Massachusetts at Amherst, University of	OPS, Z
  Rochester, University of	DAT, Z
  San Jose State University	ACF, Z
  Sannio University	DAT, OPT, Z
  Southeastern Louisiana University	ACF, Z
  Syracuse University	DAT, OPS, OPT, Z
  Texas, University of at Austin	DAT, Z
  Trinity University	OPT, OUT, Z

PROPERTY ACCOUNTING (Luna)

• Assisted K. Mailand with shipping arrangements for two crates from CIT to LHO and LLO.
• Created and submitted Asset Information Forms for eight fabrication accounts.
• Creating a detailed report for all LIGO assets located at CIT.
• Requested a new GSA supply sources letter for ADL / C. Wilkinson will follow up with A. Miller.
• Working with T. Freeman to create the FY '08 report for the GSA vehicles at LHO.
• Assisted N. Robertson in making shipping arrangements for three crates from CIT to LHO.
• Assisted A. Sibley in requesting approval from the NSF to trade a forklift.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

• packaged/shipped OSEM's to LHO.
• sent out RFQ's to vendors for the fabrication and assembly of the HEPI Hydraulic Actuator.

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Funaro, Oracion)

>From: "Funaro, Catherine" <Catherine.Funaro@caltech.edu>

• For ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY Press Here.

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

• Prepared and posted the end of July financial reports.  
• Preparing for end of June financial review scheduled for Monday.
• Many requests from Advanced LIGO this week.  Contract labor has not been properly allocated and we will have to make some adjustments.
• Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport. (For passwords contact Karl)

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

• Submitted the end-of-June monthly report to the NSF.

CHANGE REQUESTS (Lindquist)

• CR-080007 Revision A -- This change request returns budget from the FY2008 deferred list previously moved to the “budget not needed” column. This was discussed during the meeting of the Executive Committee on Monday, June 16 and no one registered any objections.  Therefore, the change request was sent to the Deputy Director to be signed, and minutes were prepared and distributed.  The signed copy has been forwarded to the document control center.
• CR-080008 -- Fred Raab provided information for a change request for budget to cover installation costs in WBS elements 2.8.2 and 3.8.2. The change request has been distributed.
• CR-080009 -- This change request adjusts the MIT budget to reflect a credit for an indirect rate adjustment.  The change request has been distributed.

Pending:

• CR-080010 -- Submitted by G. Billingsley, this request is for funds to cover a Tinsley overrun.  This change request has not been distributed.
• CR-080011 -- Submitted by G. Billingsley, this request is for funds for coating runs on samples of three additional polishing technologies.  This change request has not been distributed.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

• A Staffing Committee meeting was held on Monday, July 14, 2008.  The minutes and action items from the meeting are in progress and when completed will be posted on the SC web page.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

• No report.

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

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

• Noise hunting has yielded displacement curves with inspiral ranges ~6.6Mpc . Work focussed in part on increasing the power (first to two Watts, then to three), and on PRC and MICH coupling
• Upconversion, generated by driving the fine actuators in the endstations, was first measured. The upconversion is down from S5 by a factor of about 5, but not completely gone, causing some in certain circles of Boston to call for PAM magnet replacement
• Gate valves were closed on Monday to mount lexan-covers and camera jigs on ITM viewports, for optic imaging/scattering studies. Pre-vent ITM photos were made of H1 ITMY, with ITMX to follow. We also vented HAM6 to note the beam position on the septum window, and to get an initial beam scan of the light downstream of HAM4. This preliminary analysis suggests a waist about 1m upstream of the septum window. The measurement will be redone after the output Faraday realignment next week
• We begin a two-week vent next Monday
• TCS ISS transfer functions were obtained
• Noisebudget received updates, which in part make it easy to use/understand/modify
• TCS spot sizes on the ZnSe were imaged

Astrowatch (J. Slutsky)

• We have had low uptime (49.1%) and little science mode (23.5%) this week. We lost significant uptime from the HAM6 vent, and the TCS work that required closing gate valves 5 and 6. We lost significant uptime from a problem which may have been an awg issue that didn't go away with a reboot, or the dreaded Run/Aquire switches not responding. Once this went away, we were able to take good data again. When running correctly, we've been between 6 and 6.5 Mpc
• Summary report here

LHO Outreach (D. Ingram)

• LHO has offered drop-in tours for years, hosted by staff scientists on the 2nd Saturday of every month. Since 2005, the average attendance at these has been in the 30-35 range, with significant fluctuations. We've been pleased to note that nearly all the 2008 tours have been above 40, with several near 50 guests or above.

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

(Several reports missing due to LLO contingent attending CPR training today...)

Enhanced LIGO Commissioning (Valera Frolov):

• The 8 Mpc bns inspiral range was achieved with DC readout. The interferometer equivalent input power was 2.8 W during this lock stretch. The DARM noise above 1 kHz is mostly limited by the shot noise.
• The noise below 100 Hz is close to S5 level and roughly consistent with the OMC beam jitter estimate plus the contribution from other control loops. There is some excess noise in the mid frequency range above the estimated beam jitter, shot+dark, and auxiliary control loops. This extra noise appears to be the intensity noise on the light going into the OMC. The noise appears to go down with the power at the current power level. There are several broadband features in the spectrum around 450 and 900 Hz which are attributed to the mechanical resonances of the tip-tilt or the OMC board with mounted mirrors and electronics/cabling. The OMC length control loop and beam jitter noise couplings to DARM DC was measured. It was found that both length and angular dither lines produce broad band noise in the OMC transmitted light signal. The budgeting of the driver electronics noise is underway.
• Other activities included improving the RF isolation of the MCWFS photodetectors, staging for the ETMX magnet swap, and the PSL laser installation.

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)

From Rana Adhikari" <rana@ligo.caltech.edu>

• Work continues on the project to measure the absolute length of the arm cavities with an external laser. There is lots of alignment drift in the external setup.
• The 40M PMC has degraded greatly over the years. The transmission is low, probably from contamination and in the last few months it seems as if the PZT has slowly started to fail and now the PMC loses lock every hour or so. Calibrated cavity sweeps show that the PZT response in m/V is down by a factor of ~5 from spec. We only get ~1 micron / 400 V. We are now on the prowl for a spare PMC...
• Calibrated the VCO and thereby the frequency noise monitor (IOO-MC_F) of the PSL to ~1%. There is a significant harmonic distortion seen when looking at the drive to the AOM via a 20dB directional coupler (http://dziban.ligo.caltech.edu:40/40m/687). Not sure if this is 'normal' or not -- we will try to clean this up with a bandpass filter.
• Whitening filters being designed and constructed to interface the fiber noise experiment to the 110B ADCs.
• Exciting developments in the DR IFO Locking after much late night work from Rob, John, and Yoichi:
  • DR IFO locked using the gradual method described last week.
  • Length offset introduced into DARM as done before in the power recycling configuration and done at Livingston for DC readout locking.
  • This is, we believe, the first demonstration of DC Readout on a dual-recycled Fabry-perot interferometer.
  • This was all done with the DR coupled-cavity locked on the -166 MHz RF SB. This makes the phase shift such that the longitudinal optical spring in DARM is actually an anti-spring, not just an unstable spring.
  • Lock Acquisition is much harder in the good spring (+166 MHz) configuration (we want the good spring  configuration for the NS/NS optimized AdvLIGO interferometer).
  • We suspected that there might be an accidental higher order transverse mode resonance of the +166 MHz SB in one of the arm cavities. J Miller calculated where all the HOMs show up and it seems that by bad luck the TEM01/10 modes of the +166 MHz SB partially resonate in the arms (down by a factor of ~40 in field from the carrier). WE are going to measure the g-factor of the arms and try changing the modulation frequency by a couple kHz to avoid this bad place. If that's not enough we may vent to shorten the MC so that we can increase the 166 MHz frequency by ~100 kHz.

---

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

• We closed the big chamber at the main interferometer on Friday of last week, and alignment was still good on Monday after we had pumped out over the weekend. On Tuesday, however, all of the mode cleaner's OSEM shadow sensors were railing. Akira performed a short diagnostic, and that revealed that the back mode-cleaner mirror appears to be pulling the NIM power-supply voltage down and causing the others to fail. The problem remains at the back mirror if a new controller or cables are attached, so it looks like the problem is inside the chamber.
• Eric and Greg are making good progress on the upgraded photothermal experiment. They have the chamber in place and the seismic-attenuation stack installed, all the main optics are in place on the breadboard, and they have aligned well enough to get fringes out of the Michelson interferometer.
• Riccardo pointed out that, after the vacuum-window implosion at VIRGO, we need to have all of our windows inspected for safety.

---

LASTI (Mittleman)

BSC-ISI

• We were not able to find anything obviously wrong that would explain the plant variability that we had been seeing. We made sure that all the bolts associated with the pendulum structure were tight and closed up the vacuum chamber. LASTI has been pumped down and we have resumed the commissioning. Fabrice has redesigned the controller to be more robust versus this type of plant change.

Quad Prototype

• No news this week.

Fiber Pulling-Welding

• Some interesting entries on the LASTI ilog http://www.ligo.mit.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group= AdvLigoOptics.
• The strength tester has been setup, there has been work on the optical layout and efficiency and some welding tests.

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

____________________

Antony Searle:

• With Sam Schoenholz, converting and debugging Omega cluster submission scripts and running Bayesian signal and glitch test codes on JW1 data.

____________________

Gregory Mendell:

• My data analysis work for the past week was to help the CW group, in a very minor way, sort out an issue with the "cleaning" of instrument lines from SFT data.

____________________

Kent Blackburn for the Grid Computing R&D Team:

GRID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

• Attended DASWG, Inspiral Coding, OSG-USERS and INTEGRATION  telecons.
• Inquired about Gratia accounting issues.
• Met with Robert Engel: E@OSG 1.1 release troubleshooting,  bug fixes needed (application seg faults).
• Met with Chad, Kent, Becky, Robert, Kipp to discuss high  mass search on the Grid.

E@OSG ACTIVITIES

• Running E@H application at BNL_ATLAS_1, TTU_ANTAEUS, AGLT2
• Deployed GEO600-devel code at LIGO supported OSG 1.0 sites
• Test runs and troubleshooting are in progress

IHOPE ACTIVITIES

• Running SPEW with dynamic staging and cleanup at LIGO_UWM_NEMO      (no error but no cleanup done, staging successful).
• CVS update of Glue/Lal/Lalapps/pylal.
• Running Ihope DAG with dynamic staging and dynamic cleanup at      LIGO_UWM_NEMO (in progress).
• WS-GRAM submission of SPEW at AGLT2 and LIGO_UWM_NEM (in progress)

OSG INTEGRATION AND VALIDATION TESTBED

• Attended OSG Sites Telecon where issues with the recent OSG 1.0  software stack were reported by sites that have already upgraded.

GRID MANAGEMENT

• Wrote the LIGO contribution to the findings section for the OSG  annual report to the NSF. Passed this by Patrick Brady as the  current OSG Council Rep for LIGO, Warren Anderson as the previous  OSG Council Rep for LIGO and by Stuart Anderson as the LSC CompComm  Chair.
• Reviewed current annual report materials and discussed with Paul  Avery as the other OSG Council co-Chair
• Reviewed several VO agreements being reviewed between OSG and  EGEE.
• Worked with LIGO-Pegasus team to understand and identify longer  term needs for a light-weight client for job submission onto grids.
• Requested quotes from vendors for an ITB hardware upgrade.
• Conducted in person candidate interview for the grid administrator  position open here at Caltech.

____________________

Joseph Betzwieser:

• Updated Crab pulsar search section of the CW white paper.
• Produced a list of segments, approriately vetoed, for the 2nd half of S5 to be turned into V3 h(t) SFTs.
• Fixed a bug in the lalapps_NoiseComaprison code to allow it to work on frequencies above 2kHz.

____________________

Pinkesh Patel:

• I have been helping Berit run resampling. She has been having some memory issues and this  will help me debug the code as well.
• I measured the recycling gain of H2 using an experiment involving modulating the power going into the interferometer, which changes the radiation pressure on the mirrors in turn causing a change in the common mode length of the cavity. This change in length can be measured via the frequency oscillator (also known as VCO) of the laser. More details can be found in my elog entry - http://ilog.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group= detector&date_to_view=07/17/2008&anchor_to_scroll_to=2008:07:17:14:31:50-ppatel
• Picked a tentative target for the globular cluster search (NGC 6544, a cluster in the sagittarius arm of the galaxy).

___________________

Cristina V. Torres:

• Continued investigating creation new potential DQ flags, using all WFS channel information for S5. *Continue reviews of LLO iLog for creation of iLog based DQ flags for S5.

___________________

Kipp Cannon

• Working with Ashley King on a theoretical model for the pointing accuracy of directional coherent inspiral searches.
• Working with Chad Hanna on the development of a low-latency, low-memory cost, matched filtering algorithm for online and low-frequency inspiral analyses.
• S4 cosmic string cusp review work.
• Telecons: daswg, inspiral, inspiral coding, cosmic string review.
• Code support: libmetaio release preparation, glue and lal support work for inspiral pipeline, lalapps support work for coherent inspiral pipeline, LDR storage module work for CIT.

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• FrameCPP and frameAPI have been modified to correct errors revealed by regression tests.
• FrameCPP is now undergoing limited integration testing beyond LDAS. It is being validated by John Zweisig. Several problems have been reported and addressed.
• CntlmonAPI has been modified to prevent end times from extending into the future.
• The latest version of DB2 continues to be evaluated. The metadataAPI continues to lock up on ldas-dev. The older version of DB2 is running on ldas-test and does not lock up the metadataAPI.
• Also under investigation is the usability of MySQL. A small database has been set up. Some of the sql scripts for creating tables have been migrated. The migrating of data from DB2 to MySQL is showing some problems.
• Overall system testing continues to improve as frameCPP and the frameAPI continue to become feature complete.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

• Moved FC HBA from thumper2 to thumper1.
• Applied patches (fibre channel, among others) to several servers.
• Got T10KB drives configured on SAM-QFS.
• Hacked samfs.handle-nfs-exports at LHO to work with multiple shares per filesystem.
• Worked on getting /frames mounted on Linux at LHO, discovered it wasn't possible.
• In the process of discovering the above, accidentally repartitioned the /archive mm device at LHO. Recovered from samfsdump and used request+tar to recover data written to tape after the dump. Note for the future: use gtar.
• Commented LDR local storage module for Kipp Cannon to work on.
• Worked on LLO disk shuffle planning.
• Configured all cluster users for Pegasus use.

(Phil Ehrens)

• Replaced all four fans in nodes 3, 44, and 55 with new "Delta" replacement fans.
• Began to set up new x2200 as cvs/svn server. Got sidetracked by the MOU review process ;^)
• Various certificate and user support related duties.
• Ongoing work on and support for the MOU Review website.

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• All quiet; specing out monitoring machine (filippo; xeon 16GB RAM) per Erik K.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

No report.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

• I am working to complete testing for the next release of LDG. This release should be out at the beginning of next week.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Adding vmware virtual machines as backup servers.
• ilog development; -new matlab licenses (renewal).

Livingston

No report.

Hanford

(Larry)

• Worked with different visitors on s/w setups and debugging of a couple of workstations. The licensing of matlab has been an issue in that there are not enough to go around, so people are having to wait for a license to be released.
• Wrapped up licensing renewal for some dedicated matlab licenses.
• Worked with Dave, Mike and others on a e-mail debug. In short there were a couple of simultaneous events that clouded the issue; rebooting of the unit with multiple patches, suspected dns server conflict and CIT blocking the units IP address at the border router. Mail itself was down a couple of hours but the connection between the box and CIT was down for ~20 hours. The unit is now behaving differently so there is still some work to do but the core services are running.
• Working on some other logistics concerning computer installations.

(Mike)

• Worked on mail server with Larry and looked into other nfs mounting issues.
• Continued work on managing dhcp.
• Added additional user accounts, cleaned up some old accounts.
• Fixed some mail aliases.

Caltech

(Veronica)

• LSC: Addressed issues with an MOU application, which resolved to the missing files in the DCC; Dorothy/DCC are following up on this. Ongoing work on the ligo.org redo, which got a boost with a new samba account setup. Updated the listings of technical and observational papers. Other web related updates.
• LIGO: PAC meeting website updates; installed a page for the next meeting. Other web updates.
• CaJAGWR: Website updates /user support.

(Christian)

• Bert Cresta - installed and configured SyncbackSE on Bert's laptop.
• Upgraded Julie Hiroto and Dorothy Lloyd to Adobe Acrobat 9.
• Minor tweaks on the unit in the display case.
• Re-imaged four laptops that were returned to the loaner pull this week.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Melody)

• New DCC: Finished boolean capabilities (search for all or any of the documents) for the content search. Working on substring content searches and more testing. Next task: I'll be working on incorporating the current DCC's numbering scheme with DocDB's.

(Mike)

• Worked on updating our back-up DNS server, with latest patches and updating configuration "named" files.
• Rack mounted a new Sun server and am now testing this box with a 2003 Server build. This server is being tested to run the Advance LIGO stuff.
• Ran network & KVM cables in B/A server room to connect some new servers.
• Worked more on testing terminal server here at CIT. Plus getting ready to install this type of server at LHO.
• Misc. onsite user support and other sysadmin tasks.

(Larry)

• Worked on multiple purchases. Reconciled p-card, this took some time to get the paperwork needed to match things up. There were also a number of charges that did not match the invoices which took time to resolve. Working on a SUN maintenance contract renewal. Checking out a small network setup to be purchased for Riccardo. Other misc. purchases in process and getting info. for more notebook computer purchases.
• Able to spend a couple of hours on the local e-mail system upgrade. Some of the tests proved successful but was not able to do a full test on the new server. However, did get the files systems reset to where we can do some moving of items to improve the performance on some of the client machines. We will probably do the switch over this weekend if all the preliminary testing goes well.
• Worked on a couple of printer issues. Still trying to resolve a driver problem on a unix box at WH.
• Assisted a number of the visitors with different issues.
• Regular user assistance and support.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Management

Advanced LIGO Systems

Modeling and Simulation

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

Modeling and Simulation (Hiro Yamamoto)

• Last week, Hiro attended a meeting in Japan to discuss the update of the LCGT design.

Static IFO Simulation (Hiro)

• Hiro is modifying the MITFFT08 to incorporate the clipping effect suggested by Muzammil to explain the mode mismatch observed at LLO.
• Hiro helped John Milller to simulate a Mesa mirror cavity with thermal deformation using SIS.
• Melody is trying to compare the performance of the FFT routine in matlab with that of the fftw C library. If this comes to be comparable, a matlab version of SIS is a possibility.

Mechanical Simulation for Advanced LIGO (Sany and SLU team)

• Using our e2e model of Single stage HAM seismic isolation model, computed ground to HAM table transfer function. The computed magnitude is: about 1 (unity) in 0.01<f<0.2 Hz, decreases from 1 to 0.01 in going from 0.2 Hz to 1 Hz, stays at 0.01 in 1<f<10 Hz, and decreases to 0.01 in going from 10 Hz to 100 Hz. This result will be compared with experimental data when it becomes available.

Facilities Modifications and Preparations

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

• The bid package for cleanrooms is at Caltech for review. We have drafted a change request for the new clean/bake scope.

Prestabilized Laser

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

Operations

• The first round of comments for the proposed laser incident level have been received.  Some modifications to the document need to be made before it receives either another round of comments or a blessing.
• Current I am attending a laser safety workshop at Sandia National Lab. The material presented to date has been quite interesting, especially learning about other institutions' approach to the topic.  The incident investigation process at LANL was particularly interesting.

Project

• Nothing significant to report.

Control and Data Systems

From: Rolf Bork rolf@ligo.caltech.edu

From:   Szabolcs Marka <sm2375@columbia.edu>

• Tests of the Advanced LIGO DAQ Timebase Optical Distribution System Chain were executed last week. The time transfer precision and stability of the hardware and the associated FPGA setup was tested for extended periods (12h-days).
• No special effort was made to prepare a favorable environment for the devices. The inside of the chassis, including the OCXO, were exposed to the room. Human movement within the EELab and around the tests setup was uninterrupted. Since the test periods have significant overnight content, a fraction of the test result corresponds to relatively quiet periods. Overall, the tests were executed in a conservative setting and it is ensured that the normal working environments shall be significantly more stable, therefore the tests results can be interpreted as conservative.
• In summary, the results indicate that both the observed offset and deviation are in the tens of ns range, orders of magnitude better than the requirements. The extreme temperature induced maximum deviations are also a factor of several better than requirements, implying that temperature variation is not an issue for the distribution chain.

Preliminary test results:

Master-Fanout Chain
DT_MEDIAN=47.5ns, DDT_99%CL=14.7ns, DT_MAX=63.7ns, DTMIN=25.3ns
Master-Fanout with Extreme Temperature Stress -
DT_MEDIAN=46.5ns, DDT_99%CL=676.9ns, DT_MAX=702.5ns, DT_MIN=-655.8ns
Master-Fanout-Slave Chain -
DT_MEDIAN=71.8ns, DDT_99%CL=22.8ns, DT_MAX=97.3ns, DT_MIN=25.7ns

Imre Bartos, Paul Schwinberg, Daniel Sigg, Szabi Marka

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

HAM Crossbeam Design:

• Finished changes to HEPI Boot drawing. Continuing with updates to remaining HEPI parts affected by Crossbeam redesign. ~ Andy S.

BSC ISI Actuator Design:

• The large actuator assemblies have preliminary designs posted on the SEI log-- open for comments. The small actuator assemblies will follow very shortly but only with a temporary placeholder for the actuators themselves as PSI has not quite finished a dimensioned model. PSI now has the test polyimide for the new actuators-- we're awaiting their impressions on it.

SEI Project Activities:

• Documents for the second half of the HEPI fabrication readiness review have been finished and uploaded to the seismic AdvLigo wiki. The purchase order has gone out for the maraging steel springs and an RFQ has gone out for the actuators. A review of the HEPI schedule shows that the delay in getting these critical orders out may affect the start date for IFO1 but should not affect the finish date and the IFO2 and 3 assembly.  ~Ken M.
• Worked on the CDS Electronics portion of the HEPI Fabrication Readiness Review.  The schematics for the 8-ch Valve Driver, Pier Interface, DAC Interface, and STS-2 Interface are receiving a final go-through, and the PCBs are being finalized as well.  We have started the front panels for these new HEPI electronics chassis

Suspensions

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

Operations Work

OMC:

• We have spent most of the week putting together the OMC SUS for LHO. Our aim is to ship it out on Monday 21st.

HAM Large Triple Suspension (HLTS):

• Nothing significant to report.

HAM Small Triple Suspension (HSTS):

• We continued to prepare and upload to the Adv LIGO suspensions wiki documentation for the PDR. We held a very useful meeting with ISC and the UK team to discuss the electronics requirements for triples (HSTS and HLTS). A draft electronics document has now been prepared

BSC:

• Work continues on preparing for the monolithic assembly scheduled for August.

Project-Funded Activities

• Schedule fror the assembly of the various suspension types was worked on with the project management team.

Core Optics

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

Project

• We have in hand all documentation required to place the Corning and Heraeus contracts. I have provided a streamlined version of the COC fabrication schedule to project controls, this should allow us to properly report progress and provide a realistic view of COC progress.  The schedule reflects a better understanding of vendor capability and availability that has become apparent through the pathfinder process.  Namely, formally scheduling for two rather than one each polishing and coating vendors.

Development

• We have found in FFT modeling, using CSIRO pathfinder data that among Zernikes of order 12-20 certain ones cause anomalously high loss: on decomposing the CSIRO pathfinder there is an anomalously high component z 10 or z12 when analyzed, this would cause loss of order 10-20 ppm, loss strongly dependent on whether both mirrors or only one have the same shape.
• We are working with SUS to determine which attributes of the optic mechanical design should be controlled by which subsystem.

Auxiliary Optics

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

ADLIGO

Work Under Project Budget

• IFO Layout: Luke is updating the latest stable recycling cavity optical layouts into solidworks.

Work Under Operations Budget

OPTLEV:

• Tara, Zach, and Giovanni are making relative intensity noise measurements of a free-space HeNe beam that is a candidate for the optical lever transmitter source.
• Riccardo is studying the optical lever data of Robert Schofield to determine the characteristics of the ground/mirror support plant at LHO. He has received preliminary information regarding the thermal expansion coefficient and other physical properties of carbon fiber composite materials, which are possible candidates for a new optical lever pier design with improved damping and better thermal stability.

ETM TEL SUS:

• Chris is designing a test facility for him and Riccardo to test the dynamic eddy-current damping properties of magnets they intend to use for the ETM telescope suspension.

ELIGO

SLC:

• The FTIR results of the as-oxidized ELIGO baffles indicated clean parts. One of the ETM baffles fell from the conveyor onto the floor inside the oxidizing furnace and receive approximately 4 hours of continuous heating at 1560 deg F. The part was retrieved a few days later after the oven cooled and was brought to CIT. Ken and Mike cleaned the part and straighted the bend it received from the impact--the surface has a different color than the other parts that underwent the normal oxidation procedure; but other than that, it appear to be completely serviceable. All the oxidized SS baffle parts were shipped to LLO and LHO on 7/15/08. The remainder of the brackets and hardware will be shipped next day air by 7/18/08. Everything except the 4 manifold baffle support rings for LLO and Luke's T-sections for hanging the ETM and HAM5 baffles are expected to arrive at both sites by 7/21/08. The 4 missing support rings are in the process of being completed by the CES shop and are expected to be cleaned, baked, shipped and arrive at LLO by 7/28/08.
• Apparently a shipping error occured, and Luke's parts were sent to the wrong sites. This was discussed at the AOS meeting by LLO folk and LHO folk, and they are in the process of establishing a new schedule for cleaning/baking and installing The HAM5 and ETM baffles that were impacted by the error.
• Ken and Luke described the installation procedures to Mike Landry and Betsy at LHO, and Brian and Joe Hanson at LLO. Both sites will decide whether a hazard analysis needs to be made for the ELIGO baffle installation after they review the installation documents written by Mike, Ken, and Luke.

Input Optics

From: David tanner@phys.ufl.edu

No report.

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For additional information about this report, contact Albert Lazzarini