• For ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY Press Here.

• Karl prepared the projections for our estimate at completion (EAC) costs based on the end of July cost data.  See below.
• Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport. (For passwords contact Karl)

• Additional information is being gathered to respond to the NSF's request concerning the contract with the University of Florida.
• A letter contract was issued to the Ares Corporation to cover costs for project controls for Advanced LIGO.  This contract is to cover costs incurred while the main contract is being reviewed by the NSF.
• An RFP is being prepared for the new clean room at LHO.

• Five bids were received for the HEPI actuators.  Bids are now being evaluated.
• RFPs for the warehouse improvement project at LLO are being prepared to send to seven companies. 
  A job walk is scheduled for August 28, with bids due on September 10.
• RFPs are also being prepared for several other seismic isolation systems.

• The contracts for Heraeus and Corning are at the contractors for signature.  They are expected to be returned this week and awarded.

• We have prepared EAC projections for LIGO Operations based on the end of July data and have distributed copies to the task managers.  We will incorporate comments and present the data during the meeting of the LIGO Executive Committee on Monday, August 18, 2008.
• I have received contributions for the monthly report and am assembling the report.  Pending review, the report will be sent to the NSF this week.

• A staffing committee meeting was held on Monday, August 11, 2008.  Minutes are being prepared.

• A draft revision of the LIGO Laser Safety plan is in-process. This revision includes a revision of Section VII, Incident Procedure and Reporting, which incorporates the new stray/errant beam threshold power of 2mW and reporting procedure in the event a stray/errant beam is detected.  This revision will also include an updated Laser Incident Report form (Appendix A).
• Continued working with the AdL QA engineer Mick Flanigan to develop a QA/QC requirements template for procurement planning and review.

• Late last week we were pumped down on all volumes, with the exception of HAM6. The OMC and tip tilts were then installed onto the ISI and and cabled up. See photos of the OMC installation here. OMC modematching investigated, the ISI table was floated and levelled, the doors were shut on HAM6 and we pumped down on this last volume.
• Tip-tilt transfer functions were measured
• Earlier in the week OMC SUS spectra, with the glass breadboard suspended, were measured
• The TCS ISS was characterized - we're still at low (sub 8W) power on the TCS awaiting the outcome of pyrex vs silicon vs copper substrate mirror tests.
• Gatevalves were opened to the 2k vertex and detect locking resumed. After several alignment efforts, a bootfest ensued and power up locking was obtained. Thursday night saw modest runnning at about 5.8Mpc, but with some long lock stretches. Astrowatch is back online.

• More than 100 IEEE members and spouses from Portland swelled the attendance at LHO's 8/9/08 public tour to ~170. Sample the Sky on the evening of the same day brought another 140 guests to the site to look through Astronomy Club telescopes and to see a handful of Perseid meteors. Thanks to Raab and McCarthy for spending much of their Saturday on outreach.

• We fixed the cooling problem with the X end station roughing pump.  It turned out that a 2" valve on the chilled water return line was closed.  We opened up the BSC at the Y end station and removed ETMY for the magnet replacement.  The ETMY is currently in the optics lab. I vented the vertex section in the LVEA.  We removed both 84" doors on HAM1, the north door of HAM2 and the east door of HAM5.

• The first phase of the PSL upgrade was completed. The 35 W beam out of the laser is going into the PMC. When the power into the PMC was increased from 10 W to 35 W the PMC visibility deteriorated supposedly due to the thermal effects in the PMC from the absorption. After the PMC the power is currently reduced to 10 W into the EOMs. The NewFocus EOMs will be replaced with the University of Florida high power EOM during the phase two of the PSL upgrade in two weeks.
• The ETMY optics was removed from the chamber. The old magnets were removed from the optics. The optic is being prepared for gluing the new magnets. In mean time the ETMX chamber is being pumped down.
• The vertex section of the beam tube was vented for the input optics work. The Faraday isolator power measurements were performed. The FI transmission was found to be 91-92% and the isolation 28 dB. The isolation check beam was found and aligned to go through the viewport. The reflected beam was centered on the viewport.
• The ISI damping loops were implemented. The table resonances are properly damped but there is extra noise introduced at low frequencies from the control loops. Further improvements and commissioning of the isolation loops is expected to reduce the noise at low frequencies.

• Assisted Dr. Stuver with hosting SURF Students.
• Met with Cindy Sullivan about 2 LSU-Cain Center MSP workshops: August 23 and November 15.
• Met with Dr. Luria Stubblefield about Docent training Fall 2008.
• Met with Bobbie Remble, Project MISE project manager about Share-a-ton and future teacher workshop.
• Visited Southern University's science education exhibit hall.
• Scheduled field trips for school year 2008-09.
• Conducted Friday Public Tour.
• Conducted planning meetings for up school year 2008-2009.
• Scheduled Public Tours for Fridays.
• Managed SEC documents in share folder.

• Efforts to recover the interferometer from the earthquake damage are continuing.
• After some unsuccessful attempts to level the crooked PRM inside the chamber, we pulled the suspension out and inspected closely. Then we found that one of the stand-offs was missing. What seemed like a stand-off was actually a guide rod. Gary sent us spare stand-offs from Livingston. A new stand-off was placed under the guide rod, and we balanced the mirror. The PRM suspension was put back to the BS chamber on Thursday. We restored the alignment of the mirrors using the optical levers. We plan to pump down on Friday.
• Joe is slowly switching the 40m network to a Giga bit one. The Gaussian fitting code of the GigE cameras was tested using the PSL beam. The center position and the waist size were measured with relative errors of about 0.05%.
• John checked the relative positions of the higher order mode sideband resonances to the TEM00 carrier resonance in the Y-arm cavity using the g-factors measured by Koji. This time, the split of the horizontal and vertical modes by astigmatism was taken into account. For Y-arm, there is no +166MHz sideband (used for the springy lock of the SRC) resonance found around the main resonance up to TEM55. The closest higher order mode was found to be TEM50 of -33MHz at about 5kHz away from the TEM00 carrier resonance.

• Greg took a preliminary displacement spectrum with the new photothermal setup. We are now in the shakedown and debugging stage.

• We spent time last week on getting the calibrations of all of the sensors correct (there are 6 different sets of sensors). Also Fabrice has translated the LIGO seismic requirements curve to a LASTI requirement, various performance plots with low blending on stage 2, with this requirement curve can be found on the Lasti ilog. http://www.ligo.mit.edu/ilog/, LASTI Group Log.
• We have installed the FIR filter module, it needs to be tested and we can then use it for sensor correction.

• No News is Good News.

• The fiber holder, to move the fiber from cutting into the structure was tested.  Test welds were made, and some possible alterations to improve the design of this part are now being discussed in order to improve alignment and handling.  The motors were re-calibrated on the pulling machine.  The alignment of clamps was improved, and the alignment of the optics refined to give improved heating.  The fiber program has been altered to give fibers of very close to correct diameters and lengths.  Fibers for the quantum optics experiment were pulled and profiled.
• There are some pictures and more discussion on the Lasti ilog at http://www.ligo.mit.edu/ilog/, AdvancedLigoOptics.

• I have been at the NRDA2008 meeting.
• MR group f2f.

• Finished and submitted to LSC review Bayesian formalism paper [http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/docs/ScienceDocs/P/P070114-00.pdf].
• Preparing outline for Bayesian fast implementation paper
• Solved several long-standing normalization problems and other bugs in Bayesian code.

• Produced the S5 1Yr Low Mass CBC Search marginalized upper limits using lognormal error distributions.
• Worked on the S5 1Yr Low Mass CBC Search paper.

• Finished segment validation tests (requested by reviewers) of the first year of S5 coherent WaveBurst analysis: http://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~igor/S5_ review_first_year/segments.html.
• Continue tracking down failed jobs for the second year of S5 coherent WaveBurst analysis. Most of such failed jobs are due to the fact that some data stretches are very glitchy and generate huge amount of triggers that require too much RAM for our cluster nodes to handle.

• Wrote agenda and lead LIGO-Pegasus and OSG-USERS telecons, wrote minutes for LIGO-Pegasus telecon.
• Attended OSG-USERS, OSG area coordinator and LIGO-Pegasus telecons and OSG teleconference concerning LIGO and Globus 4.2 release.
• Gave report on E@OSG project to OSG executive team.
• Started LIGO employee performance review.
• Attended USER Group related phone conversation with co-lead.
• Held in person meeting with Users Group co-Lead.
• Attended User Group related telephone call with OSG documentation lead.

• Troubleshooting ticket at TTU resolved
• After maintainance at CIT_CMS_T2 jobs fail with:
  • RC 253: job did not finish cleanly, lifetime exceeded limit.
  • RC 255: unknown interrupt during execution, check stdout, stderr & log.
• GOC reports problems at SBGrid that affected jobs AGLT2 /bin/date fails after virtualization of gatekeeper

• Troubleshooting WS-GRAM submission via Pegasus.

• Purchase order for new ITB cluster received by vendor.
• Developed model for cluster layout and evaluated needs for switches and cables. Placed order for switches and cables.

• Posted minutes from last week's OSG Council Face-to-Face meeting in Chicago at: https://twiki.grid.iu.edu/bin/view/Council/Agenda2008Aug05.
• Worked with LIGO HR to complete a guidelines/agreement document for new grid administrator.
• Provided Caltech HR with post hiring data.
• Met with the OSG Users Group Coordinators to discuss joint survey of OSG VOs by the Council and the Users Group while one of the Coodinators was visiting Caltech from UCSD. Also injected my ideas for some directions I thought the Users Group should be looking at and agreed to have a telecon with Users Group Coordinators every two weeks as the OSG Council Co-Chair.
• Assisted LSC collaborators affiliated with Columbia University but located in Hungary to identify Hungarian Certificate Authorities that are part of the CA distribution from the VDT and used by LIGO Data Grid.
• Worked feverishly with Caltech Office of Sponsored Research and LIGO accounting and finance personnel to track down why a no-cost extension for the OSG subaward out of University of Wisconsin Madison had not been process. The paperwork was sent out in early July by UWMadision. It was later tracked down to having been signed off by the OSR on July 17th but not carried any further by their office. This triggered an avalanche of emails about not being able to pay salaries for OSG staff and a need to identify fall back funds. I have now been told by OSR that the paperwork has all been taken care of and that OSG salaries will be made this month.
• Began search for new Science Advisory Group members for the Open Science Grid.
• Began follow-up discussions with OSG PI, OSG Executive Director, OSG Co-Council Chair regarding request from NSF to look at the Track IID proposal solicitation.
• Reviewed proposal from Internet2 team made to the OSG to participate in OSG and to provide deliverables in the next fiscal year.
• Forwarded announcement of the next OSG Mid-West Grid School (MWGS'08) to the LSC DASWG and LSC CompComm groups.
• Reviewed draft letter to the European Grid Initiative Project Director (Dieter Kranzmuller) regarding mutual visions and roadmaps between EGI and the OSG and to identify a forum for collaborating.
• Reviewed AdvLIGO CDS DAQS Preliminary Design Review documents and sent comments and questions back to Vern Sandberg at LHO.
• Attended a joint OSG/LIGO/GLOBUS telecon representing LIGO VOs needs and plans for WS-GRAM interface. This is primarily a question of stability and compatibility for the Einstein@Home application running on grids. It is currently constrained to work with Globus 4.0 but the Globus Developers would like to see WS-GRAM applications migrate to the Globus 4.2 series. AEI was also on the call and represented that the German DGRID would not migrate to Globus 4.2. The OSG does not currently support Globus 4.2 so there is little opportunity for LIGO and the Einstein@Home application to migrate. An alternative was proposed to migrate the client side of Einstein@Home on the Grid to use Condor-G which should make it independent of the version of "gram" running on the server. Follow-up meetings are scheduled for later this week with OSG.
• Wrote Final Report for ITR2003 award and sent it to the PI at MIT.

• Finishing up Burst MDC comparison using different combinations of ETGs. Since it does not appear that AstroBurst (BlockNormal + CorrPower) will be used due to an analysis error in determining the location of detected triggers, the resulting combinations between Coherent WaveBurst and Q Pipeline are reduced by over half. I should have presentable results next week.
• Hosted Caltech SURF students visiting Livingston on 13 & 14 August. This included a detector tour, SEC tour, student talks, dinner and a special planetarium show at the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum.
• Developed mathematics based activities for use in teacher professional development (PD).
• Participated in planning for the 'Share-a-Thon' teacher PD that was postponed from last May. I will be the guest speaker for this event on 20 September.

• Began testing Pinkesh's resampling code.
• 40m: Worked on document regarding digital camera selection. Began connecting up the new network switches to existing devices (such as the frame builder).

• Comparing tapering against band-passing for suppressing power in the inspiral templates beyond the ending frequencies.
• Designing a time domain filter for band-passing the inspiral waveforms.
• Helped Satish with his SURF project work, and reports, helped Rahul with e-thinca questions
• Lead the high mass chat this week.

• Re-computed background trigger rates for PTF with different coincidence cuts and different snr threshold.
• Committed the PTF metric code * Performed injection runs in specific regions of the spin parameter space to test PTF vs SPA efficiencies.

• Focusing on the problem reports filed against version 1.9.388, several issues with frameCPP have been addressed this week.
• Also, discussions with Virgo continue regarding the version 8 frame specification.
• System testing this week used version 1.9.388 of the LDAS software. There were no changes from the previous system test results. Problem reports were generated for the failed system tests.
• Evaluation of DB2 and MySQL continues. The results continue to be consistent with previous weeks of running.
• Efforts are under way to integrate the regression tests into the automated system test framework.
• ligotools is being upgraded to utilize LDAS' certificate authentication.

• Got STK 9310 front panel replaced.
• Got remaining (we hope!) bad 9940B power cables replaced.
• Learned about and began setting up FC zoning.
• Worked with Igor to get two 3510s I'd sent him working at LLO, including sending fibres to LLO.
• Commented on Greg's proposal for S5 "data train" workflow.
• Helped Peter Shawhan with some files that were having trouble staging.
• Sent email to Scott Koranda about missing (mostly GEO) files.
• Consulted with Igor about bad 3510-1 controller at LLO.
• Prep'd for rack move/SAN zoning at CIT which has now been postponed.
• Set up LDR to receive more HrecOnline files and verified that they'd made it here.
• Replaced unreadable S5 L1 files at CIT with copies from LHO.

• Finished configuring the cvs/svn server vcs.ligo.caltech.edu and created svn repos for cds and a number of staff people.
• Installed CentOS 5.2 on machines quark and garrak.
• There are currently 20 fans in the "fail" state in the cluster. No cluster nodes required full fan replacement this week.
• Nodes 157, 287, 319, and 323 are all reporting large numbers of MCE errors, but I do not believe these reports indicate an actual failure or even pre-failure condition.

• All stable, routine.

• Rack mounted 3510-2 and 3510-3 that were shipped from CIT.
• Helped Ping with some replication issues.
• 3510-1 secondary controller failed. Disk ID 5 in 3510 keeps generating media error messages but has not completely failed yet. Got replacement disk and controller from SUN. Since there is a chance that replacing a controller might interrupt fb1, waiting for the convenient time for CDS to have such an interruption (most likely next week).

• Tightened up backup scripts (re-wrote in perl).
• Added smartd checks to nagios for most servers.
• xp/linux notebook troubleshooting & reinstall.
• Installing centos new box (replace web server).
• Some purchasing [laptop/cluster server (Erik K)].

• Cleared spam trap.

• Terry Gunter had an infected computer. Reconfigured workstation and transferred all of Terry's files and settings back.
• Visitor's laptop infected with virus. Installed Norton and advised the users that the laptop needs to be rebuild before using the LIGO network again.
• VPN server down. Replaced drive and re-imaged the sever from backup image.
• Ewan Douglas - Installed and configured new MacBook pro for Ewan.
• Daniel Atkinson - Installed and configured new Dell Latitude for Daniel.
• Configured new Dell Vostro Workstation.
• Dwayne and I are setting up Clearone with EVO system this week.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

• At LHO this week for Parts Tracking/Inventory planning.
• Began database design work for PTI system.
• Installed Mac Mini in LHO OSB Large conference room for EVO.
• Assisted LHO user with a software install .
• With Christian, tracked down an infected visitor laptop.

• I worked on the dhcp server, setting up logs, deleting stand alone dhcp numbers from pool, trying to keep pool with blocks of ip numbers. Continued work on freeing up expired ip numbers.

• Worked a number of procurement items. Mostly items for new employees.
• Misc. GC items have been ordered and should start arriving soon.
• Some minor work on e-mail configurations.
• Setup another user account and modified a couple of users environments.

• Finished up loading a X61s Lenovo laptop. I'm now ready to copy this user�s data over. I tested some backup software that would work on 60 Gig disk drives; now with the 200 Gig sata drives this software does not recognize the drives. I'm looking into purchasing some additional software.
• Fixed a hardware issue for a user. This turned out to be a disk failure. Installed a new hard disk and reloaded this user's workstation from a ghost image. Ran all updates, and updated anti-virus software to the latest version.
• Troubleshot many printing issues this week. Some of the issues were on the server side, and others were on user�s local workstations. Larry helped with this as well.
• Added some additional aliases for visitors and other users, some requested all LIGO email to be forwarded to their home institutions.
• Loaded a stand alone install of Matlab on a LINUX box for a user.
• Other misc. user/phone support and other sysadmin tasks.

• New DCC: Working on incorporating the current DCC's numbering scheme into DocDB.
• Currently modifying the mysql database schema and perl code to find the next available number for the document type.

• LSC: Ongoing work on the ligo.org redo. Updates of the techpapers database, other web updates.
• LIGO: Website updates /user support.

• Multiple procurement related items. Ordered misc. equipment for different groups on the project. New computers and related equipment has been ordered to replace outdated systems. Still tracking down information for a couple of different maintenance contracts that need to be renewed.
• Dealt with a water problem in one of the computer server rooms. Cleanup and the repair were wrapped up yesterday. We did not find any damage to any equipment from the water.
• Spent some time checking out some of the new equipment that has arrived. Some of it is just about ready to be installed.
• Assisted a number of different people with minor lab setup items.
• Setup a couple of new user accounts and modified mail aliases for different groups.
• Tracked down and did some preliminary setup of the DCC scanner equipment.
• Minor computer cleanups for different people.
• General user assistance and meetings.

Dennis Coyne <coyne@ligo.caltech.edu>, Peter Fritschel <pf@ligo.mit.edu>, Calum Torrie<ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>>, Matt Evans <mevans@ligo.mit.edu>

• For a list of reviews, see the main AdL wiki page,
• Have established review data items and schedule for the imminent BS suspension final mechanical design review.

• Nothing significant to report

• See the TRB log.
• Mike Zucker has proposed (T080126-04) a shorter wait period between the start of a vacuum pump-down and opening the beam tube gate valves. His principal argument is that waiting longer after each vent to reexpose the tubes only affects the water dose very weakly (in fact, logarithmically). Since this proposal is to change a basic and important standard operating procedure (and the associated integrated beam tube water load criteria) and could effect Advanced LIGO scope (a re-bake is a risk item for advanced LIGO), it will be considered by a TRB. Rai Weiss has two proposals for remedial measures to reduce the integrated water load without a complete beam tube re-bake; These proposals will also be considered by the TRB.  However, on the technical and programmatic strength of Mike's  proposal, a one-time waiver has been granted for a 1 week wait period, rather than the typical 12 week period employed previously, for the imminent LHO pump-down.

• See TRB item above .

• PDMWorks: A new release of the templates has been made of (LIGO-D030382-09). This is now available in the Templates folder in custom toolbox on the vault. It is an interim release covering a new Bill of Materials template and simplified drawing sheets. (A further release will be made in the coming weeks brining all of the information up to date with the new plans for the DCC and PDMWorks.)
• CAD and FEA: Calum has created some web pages hosting setup, software, user and tutorial information for both SolidWorks and ANSYS.

• Parametric Instability (PI): 
  • Completed a formulation of the test mass vibration coupling to the addition of dynamic, passive absorbers (pending document T080194-01). Working on a finite element calculation to check the closed form solution.
  • Developed a Matlab routine to evaluate a merit function for the addition of dynamic, passive absorbers. The analysis takes into account the overlap of optical modes with acoustic modes (approximately), as well as suppression of acoustic modes based on likely or achievable damper properties, mode shape and damper location. Will next work on improved high frequency test mass mode definition (current set is not converged at > 45 kHz).
  • Working on the configuration and design parameters for shunted piezoelectric and viscoelastic dampers.
• Test Mass barrel, thermal sleeve (shield): Two concepts for the barrel sleeve are currently being considered. These have been laid out in 2D, highlighting the coverage they offer, and passed to Phil Willems for calculation of  thermal shield effectiveness. 
• Inhomogeneous loss modeling: Using ANSYS Workbench both a static and a modal analysis of the ETM optic has been created in order to look at the strain energy associated with various sections of the test mass assembly including bond, ears and coatings. Models have now been built that compare well to existing work done by Elliffe and Cunningham. Liam Cunningham and Calum Torrie are each running independent modal analysis in order to extrapolate the total strain energy and that associated with bonds for 2 modes (fundamental longitudinal and initial drum mode). We now have the advanced LIGO test mass with correct ears. We currently have agreement for one of the modes and are chasing down a discrepancy in the 2nd mode. Once we get this sorted we can start expanding the model to include barrel and HR coatings and look at exporting the data. (We are getting computer limited and a new PC has been ordered.)
• BS gravitational sag: Again using ANSYS Workbench a static analysis of the ETM and BS optics under gravity has been created with a view to investigating the optical surface deformation due to gravity. The model has now re-created work done by Coyne in LIGO-T050184. I now have a model that can estimate the gravity sag on the BS optic for advanced LIGO. I can also export the data in a text file for use with the SIS (nee FFT) optical model.
• Nickel plating process/specification for maraging steel: Working with a group made up from LIGO, GEO and VIRGO we have come up with the proposal for how to include Nickel Plating into the manufacture & testing of the cantilever blade springs for advanced LIGO. It can be found on the suspensions cantilever spring blade wiki page (access restricted).

• Test Mass barrel, thermal sleeve (shield) interface: RAL have now modified the lower structure face plates in the ETM assembly in order to accommodate both of concepts noted above (see T080168-01 and D060434-C, D060462-C)
• Suspension Point Interferometer (SPI): Document covering agreed changes to UK suspension structure now in the DCC (T080158-02). [N.B.: A decision was made to pursue the PDH
• See the RODA status page and the Interface Control page.

• Signal generation code of SIS has been studied by using a laguerre (2,0) mode oscillation of ETM.
• After validating with a large aperture, the effect of the finite (34cm) aperture was studied in terms of the field power and resonance frequency.
• The power drops down by factor 2.6 due to large diffractive loss of 0.9% and the resonance frequency shifts by 2Hz.
• The actual problematic resonating field tends to extend wider and the effect will be larger.
• The code and instruction were sent to Hand Bantilan and Bill, assuming that Hans is going to revisit the issue using the new SIS.

• The code is being revised to include precise propagation of the field in substrate.
• The beam size effect on the loss and the effect of the BS lens effect will be studied after this code update is finished.
• Melody updated the SIS code handling the front-end user interface.

• Continued working on length and frequency control servos in our e2e model of AdvLIGO Input Mode Cleaner (IMC). By adjusting zero/pole frequencies of the length and frequency control filters, the frequency noise on the IMC transmitted light now reaches3e-5 Hz/rtHz at f=1 kHz with PSL frequency noise of 2e-3 Hz/rtHz incident to the IMC. It seems that with the current filters in order to achieve this level of MC transmitted light’s frequency noise at 1 kHz, the frequency noise at low frequency (where the triple suspended optics motion is substantial) inevitably goes up. Will look into the situation more.

• The bid package for the LHO staging building modifications went to Caltech this week. A PO was issued for paving work at LLO in preparation for Warehouse modifications there. Dwayne Giardina is at LHO this week helping us define the inventory control system.

• SEI Activities at LLO: Jeff has implemented damping loops for the HAM6 ISI. We are investigating why the loops add noise to the displacement sensors from 0.1-0.5 Hz.  ~Brian O.
• SEI Project Activities: Three of the HEPI electronics chassis are now fully ready to order.  They are the 8Channel Valve Driver, the STS-2 Interface, and the DAC Interface.  They all have PCBs, gerber files, stuffing files, and front panel files ready to go.  I am working on a digital Pump Servo, to replace the Basic Stamp processors that we used originally.  This will be mated to some analog electronics that will be very similar to the existing analog part.  I am also looking at how to interface the ADE 8800 Capacitive Position Sensors to the HEPI system. ~Ben  A.
• All five bids for the hydraulic actuator have been received and are being evaluated. A bid evaluation committee has been formed and will meet on Monday. RFQ's for the HEPI housings and crossbeam foot are nearly complete. Purchase orders for L4-C geophones and servo valve nozzles have been prepared and will be released this week. ~Ken M.

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

• OMC: The LHO OMC SUS was successfully suspended with its silica bench and moved into the HAM 6 chamber. Preliminary transfer functions have been taken. The chamber is now ready to be closed. Minor amendments to the drawings are ongoing to reflect the as-built configuration.
• Large triple: We have placed an order for clamps which will allow us to characterise the blades. Further work on finalising the other mechanical drawings is underway. Electronics requirements for all triples have now been sent to the UK.

• The RAL group are preparing documentation for the beamsplitter fabrication readiness review which is expected to take place in September.

• Norna and Janeen have been at LHO working with the project management team on the changes to the schedule and costbook for stable recycling, and also updating the details of the accounts to better fit how we intend to order items.  We discussed the procurerment and acquisition plans for the upcoming financial year. We  learnt about the proposed inventory system and talked over some issues related to value engineering of the LIGO 1 OSEM design. We worked on the statement of work (SOW) for the mechanical test stands and are preparing information for the RFQ for the assembly tooling. We received a demonstration of a laser displacement sensor device which could be used for setting the parallelism of the test masses and their reaction masses.

• A flurry of activity as we pull together the documents for the final design review.
• Gregg Harry has put a note summarizing what we know about noise from charge at   http://www.ligo.mit.edu/~gharry/temp/LIGO%20Lab/T080019-01-R.pdf.
• We are pursuing a "hard gold" finish for the barrel of the compensation plate. The ESD mask that we have on the existing ERM at LASTI does not have a silica overcoat.  Navitar recommends not putting one on the Compensation plate either.
• Bill Kells has used the CSIRO pathfinder map in an FFT simulation (with some approximations) and finds the single mirror figure loss to be of order 28ppm.  Our "budget" is 20ppm.  This may be largely due to a spherical aberration to which our system is particularly sensitive.
• Muzammil Arain has provided a nice summary of losses and corrections for curvature in the recycling cavity, we expect a T-note soon.
• ASML reports that the pathfinder as provided by Coastline optics to Tinsley measures 7 nm rms over a 300mm aperture, mostly in spherical abberation.  They feel this is well within their correction range.  ASML has completed manufacture of their reference sphere.  It measures 1973.4 ± 5m.
• Tinsley anticipates a schedule slip of order 15 days, we have told them that it does not make sense to do redundant metrology (which they had planned) at Tinsley.  In the end the ASML metrology will stand as the final measurement.

• Neither the Corning nor Heraeus contracts have been signed by the companies, however both are getting product in line and are firming up delivery estimates. We have clarified some QC questions from Heraeus already;  They will be measuring OH content on the blank itself, across the entire diameter.  In initial LIGO they measured the OH content on a witness sample taken from nearby material.
• Rod Luna has requested that each blank coming in from overseas be accompanied by a unique invoice.  This allows us to ship them around as individual pieces rather than constraining them to be shipped as a "lot" each time.

• OPTICAL LAYOUT: Luke is in the process of revising the optical layout in the input optics section.

• SLC: Mike is continuing to revise the SLC conceptual design document.
• OPTLEV: Tara, Giovanni, and Zach have compared the angular jitter noise of a He-Ne laser, a green pointing laser of unknown configuration, and a white LED flashlight. The green laser appears to be more stable than the He-Ne in the I -10 Hz band. In the frequency band below 1 Hz, the noise seems to be instrumental in nature, independent of the light source. The cause of the noise is being investigated.
• TCS: Aidan completed a catastrophic failure analysis of various CO2 laser mirrors. The gold-coated pyrex turning mirrors has a low damage threshold, and crack. Silicon substrates have a much higher damage threshold, and do not fracture due to concentrated absorption of the laser spot. Copper mirrors are reputed to have the lowest damage threshold and are being purchased to replace the turning mirrors in the exiting TCS CO2 laser projectors at LLO and LHO.
• Phil is in the process of making an FEA failure analysis of the ZnSe vacuum viewport due to heating as a result of absorption of the CO2 TCS beam.  Under normal conditions, the intrinsic absorption of the ZnSe material and the AR coatings will cause a few degree C temperature rise and will not cause stress failure. However; if all of the CO2 laser energy were absorbed in a millimeter-sized spot due to the spontaneous increase in absorption, such as might occur if a bug landed on the window, the ZnSe window would rise to hundreds of degrees and would likely undergo stress failure. He is investigating ways to mitigate the "bug" problem.There is also a question about the tolerance build up of the assembled window conflat components and whether the ZnSe window has stress concentrations due to pressure against the mating conflat surfaces.

• SLC: Luke and Ken made revisions to their ELIGO baffle installation procedures based on their recent experience at LHO.
• Ken is completing the documentation for the ELIGO manifold baffle prior to submission to the DCC.
• The Staff at LLO are in the process of installing the ETMY Baffle.
• A foreign substance was found along one edge of the cleaned MMT1 baffle when it was taken out of the package and inspected at LLO. At the moment the source of the substance is unknown.

• We completed phase I of the PSL upgrade at LLO. The PMC is running with 35 W input power, 90% visibility and 86% transmission. The reference cavity visibility is 80%. We also completed the ISS beampath. (Antonio, Volker)
• IO also worked in HAM1 at LLO. We aligned  the Faraday isolation check beam and measured the power budget at Faraday Isolator. The Faraday transmission is 91%. The Faraday isolation is 28dB. The most notable loss is from the thin film polarizer (4%). We re-directed REFL beam to exit centered in its viewport. We also noted that the beam is centered on MMT3. (Kate and Guido)

• We worked on the parallel modulation MZ experiment and AdvLIGO modulators. (Volker)
• We made calculations for RIN stabilization behind the adv LIGO mode cleaner. (Guido)
• Work on the BS flatness requirements and other ROC errror correction is  on-going. The results so far show that one compensation plate (CP) can be used to take out the differential ROC errors in the recycling cavity. This would correct both the errors in SRC as well as PRC. A technical note describing various details is being prepared. (Muzammil)
• Work continues on updating solidworks model of advanced LIGO  in-vacuum layout. (Luke)

• We have completed the bid package for the mirror blanks for the IO of advanced LIGO. (Rodica)

• The final draft of the laser incident threshold document was submitted to the DCC.
• A test beam dump for the 35-W laser is being fabricated.

• The (hopefully) final draft of the preliminary design document is complete, pending any other final comments that we hope to have by the end of this week.  Some other review related documents were posted to the AdL wiki by Benno.
• I hope to have a revision of the safety plan completed by the end of next week.  Am currently drafting up the FMEA.

• DuoTone board work is converging. Synchronized waveform generation (square, sine, DuoTone) was demonstrated. Minor tune-up will probably be required and extended tests need to be set up.
• Test documents for the Slave modules and DuoTone generators are available. At the moment they are going through internal review and hands-on test use (before posting).

• Converting FrameWriter to use latest version of Frame cpp.
• Adding new components to code generator:
  • bitwise operators.
  • Driver complete for new 32 bit binary output module.
• Modifying commercial chassis as test for new PCIe I/O chassis.