The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday, January 26, 2009 will be:

(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

1. Announcements

2. LSC - Reitze

3. Focus Topic

Monthly financial review of LIGO Operations through end of December - Lindquist

4. Change Control Actions

There are no open Change Requests for LIGO Operations

5. Advanced LIGO

Overall - Shoemaker
Project Management - Wilkinson

6. Enhanced LIGO - Adhikari / Zucker

7. Sites

Hanford - Raab
Livingston - Giaime
MIT - Shoemaker / Fritschel

8. Caltech

Administration - Lindquist
Engineering
Optical and Mechanical - Coyne
Control and Data Systems - Bork
Lab Computing - Anderson
Instrument Science - Gustafson
Data Analysis and 40M - Weinstein

Adjourn [except for site managers and business group]

9. Site-related business

Giaime:
- Business Services Group plans to support Observatory Operations
Raab:
- How to set up interferometer fabrication accounts under new CA terms

Calendar of future Executive Commitee Meetings

LSC Issues (Reitze)

Many LSC members gathered in Puerto Rico this week to attend the Gravitational Wave Data Analysis Workshop (GWDAW). The theme of this year's GWDAW was "Bridging Gravitational Wave Astronomy and Observational Astrophysics". In addition to many talks and posters by LSC and Virgo members, there were presentations from supernovae, neutrino,and pulsar timing experts, as well as a satellite workshop on neutron stars.
The first Einstein@Home paper, the S4 all search, was published in Physical Review D: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.79.022001

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

For status of MOUs press here.

PROPERTY ACCOUNTING (Luna)

No report.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

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

Working on the DCC-DocDB Wiki Page.
Working on addressing bug reports for DocDB.

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Funaro, Oracion)

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

Currently working on various FY2009 financial status reports/charts.
Requested expenditure reclassifications related to FY2009 LIGO Cooperative Agreement.
Link to FY2009 LIGO Operations poetas: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/docuserv/FY2009_LIGO_OPs_PTAs_v3.pdf
Link to Advanced LIGO poetas: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/docuserv/FY2009_Advanced_LIGO_PTAs_v1.pdf
Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport. (For passwords contact Karl)
SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Arvizu, Champagnie, Jasnow, Marroquin, Salone)

>From: Rudy Arvizu <arvizu_r@ligo.caltech.edu>

See Advanced LIGO Report.

>From: Jackie Champagnie jchampag@caltech.edu

See Advanced LIGO Report.

>From: Steve Marroquin smarroqu@caltech.edu

See Advanced LIGO Report.
Executed Basic contract with Grieve Corporation for electrically heated convection oven with modifications and options.
Executed order with Battelle for continuing gigabit Ethernet transport service for LHO.
Executed Basic contract with Tri-Cities Valve and Fittings for Swagelok valves and fittings.

>From: Gina Salone gsalone@ligo.caltech.edu

See Advanced LIGO Report.

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

See Advanced LIGO Report.
Reviewed and commented on MIT Operations contract.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist, Beckett)

We will review the financial status as of the end of December of LIGO Operations. A pointer to a presentation for the old cooperative agreement has been distributed. Information for the new cooperative agreement will be sent out.

CHANGE REQUESTS (Lindquist)

There are no open change requests.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

The next Staffing Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 9.
A Staffing Committee meeting was held on Friday, January 16th and the minutes and action items have been posted on the SC web page.
All files for the Staffing Committee are up-to-date and posted on the SC web page.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

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

During this period continued working with David Nolting on the LIGO Safety Officer transition. A plan discussed with the Directorate.
Assisted Nolting with resolution of an issue of wording to include in "on-site" construction contracts relative to "drug-free" requirements.
A "basic" laser safety class is scheduled for Monday 26 January 2009 at 2:00-3:30 PM in the ECR, Bridge Annex room 39.
If you're new to LIGO and/or have not attended a laser safety class before, please plan to attend this class if possible.

ADVANCED LIGO SAFETY IS BEING REPORTED UNDER ADVANCED LIGO, BELOW

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

Summary of Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory
(compiled by K. Kawabe)

eLIGO

20W, 12Mpc for a short while. Right now we are commissioning at 14W and higher.
A series of measurements (see here, here, here and here) are going on to understand the TCS heating pattern and its effect on the IFO.
Injection study showed that the 150, 500 and 800 Hz-ish peaks in DC DARM spectrum are most likely coming from the tip tilt mirrors or OMC.
As we increased the power, 1.4Hz peak originating somewhere became problematic. Increasing the MC WFS gain at 1.4 Hz seemed to help squashing the peak in the DARM by a factor of 2, and this is probably one of the stack resonances.
WFS work continued for high power configuration (see here and here for example). The WFS noise coupling were measured.
Some more measurements of the DCPD oscillation.
A new failure mode was found at 14W whereby the DARM optical gain decreases and eventually the DARM starts to oscillate at 60Hz. This seemed to be related to temperature-dependent modal spacing of the OMC and eventually it was found that the dither alignment is turning the tiptilt mirror into some non-optimal position.
A bug in awgtpman related to the last leap second (2008/Dec/31) was finally fixed.

Astrowatch (B. Behnke)

H2 had a rough week: one of the cables plugged into one of the MC boards has been loose and caused trouble. We couldn't lock H2 for almost a week. After fixing it we started having regular shifts again on Tuesday. Up from that day H2 locked easily and we had a steady inspiral range around 7 Mpc. On the second night after fixing we already had a lock stretch of ~19 hours.
We are having trouble with light scattered from H2 mirror reflected back by H1 mirror when H1 mirrors are swinging. It is visible in a sudden decrease of the inspiral range to 3 or 4 Mpc. After some time it is coming back to 6-7 Mpc. Shivaraj is starting a project with Robert Schofield to work on that.
On Wednesday night we had numerous gamma ray transients.
Even though a PSL alignment was done, we still have red lights on the PSL stats. Investigations are ongoing.

Outreach (D. Ingram)

On 1/20, LHO hosted a tour for David Reeploeg, Central Washington Director for the office of WA Senator Maria Cantwell.

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

Enhanced LIGO Commissioning (Valera Frolov):

The interferometer noise budgeting continued last week. The laser frequency noise, the short Michelson dofs (MICH/PRC) control noise, the interferometer angular control noise, and the OMC beam jitter noise contribution to DARM have been measured. No dominant noise source has been identified in the low frequency range (40-200 Hz) so far. The total sum of the known noise sources is expected to be a significant fraction of the measured DARM noise. The analysis of the data will determine how much of the DARM noise remains unexplained.
The second POX photodetector was installed in attempt to improve the signal to noise ratio for the MICH/PRC dof sensing. The improvement was commensurate with the increase of the detected light but the lock acquisition appears to be slower than on the nominal BS pick off port. To achieve eLIGO sensitivity goal the MICH SNR needs to be improved by a factor 2-3. The PRC noise was measured to be smaller in DC readout than in RF readout and not be a problem as expected.
The transfer function from the OMC input beam jitter to DARM was measured using the OMC steering mirrors as excitation and the calibrated OMC QPD sensors as the cavity basis read back. The noise of the OMC input beam motion was estimated based on the OMC QPD signals. More modeling and measurements are in progress to evaluate this noise source.
The commissioning of the TCS intensity stabilization electronics has started this week. The noise contribution from the TCSX laser to DARM was observed by increasing the TCSX annulus power to the test mass to 1 W. This produced an excess noise around 80 Hz in DARM about 10 times above the noise floor and therefore establishing the necessary TCS laser intensity noise suppression.
The final ISI commissioning effort is underway to finish the control loop design and performance characterization.

CDS Computing (Keith Thorne):

Upgrades:

8 new Linux workstations installed in MSR, including DVI extenders. One workstation is fully installed in the control room.
Setup new 'fb0' framebuilder machines (fb0c,fb0w,nds0,ldasgw0). Initial tests of GDS broadcaster code were successful (worked with Rolf Bork, Alex Ivanov).
Stood up new remote login machine 'cdsportal' to free up 'lloscript' machine for running CDS scripts.
After failure of existing router, completed move to new CDS-only NAT router (most work by Shannon Roddy).

Commissioning Support:

Completed setup scripts to set up 'ops' environment for Linux - required for crontab scripts.
Worked with Brian Lantz, Jeff Kissel to diagnose mDV problem.
Worked with Phil Ehrens, Shannon to diagnose cvs login failures after router change.
Set up accounts as needed by visiting commissioners.

Livingston Outreach: (Amber Stuver):

Gave control room tour and exhibit presentation of the 'Giant Slinky' to ~50 5th grade students.

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)

Controls and Data Systems (Bork)

See Advanced LIGO

40-Meter Interferometer (Adhikari)

The single arm lock instability was found to be caused by the mis-centered beams on the PO PDs. After centering those, the arm lock is now stable and the dither-alignment works well. We also found that the relative gain of the MC_L compared to the MC_F was a factor of two lower than it should have been. The MC_F gain was increased when we fixed the double path AOM, which had been single path for a while, a few months ago. Since then the cross-over frequency of the MC_L and MC_F was too low. We fixed it.
Kakeru and Peter are working on the calibration of the optical levers using the arm cavity g-factors and arm power as a reference. They calibrated Y-arm oplevs this week. They will extend the method to the recycling mirrors and the BS.
Alberto has done a simulation of the absolute length measurement of the PRC by injecting an auxiliary laser beam from the AS port. The signal seems to be small but he is trying this method to see if he can measure something.
In the meeting, it was decided that we will use 11MHz and 55MHz modulations in the upgraded 40m instead of 9&45MHz. The reason behind the decision is that the 9MHz SB requires too long power recycling cavity. Yoichi struggled for some time with the 40m optical layout CAD model and found that it is next to impossible to accommodate an 8m long PRC in our chambers using 2 or less folding mirrors. A bonus coming with the 11MHz base frequency is that we don't have to change the MC length. Yoichi is working on more detailed optical layout with 11MHz SB including PO beams and optical levers.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

(Akira)

Greg made progress in tracing noise sources and came to the conclusion that he needs to run the apparatus under vacuum. He found an acoustic noise peak at around 300 Hz. I am chugging along on the paper. Right now I am constructing the figures and tables.

LASTI (Mittleman)

BSC ISI

Fabrice is continuing to analyze the modal ISI/Quad data and preparing to take more data once the Quad is reinstalled and the ISI can be released. One interesting thing is that the some (not all) of the modes are very heavily damped in air, so comparing the in vacuum ISI measurements to the in air modal measurements is proving to be very tricky.

Quad Prototype

The Quad glass installation has continued. Thanks to the team (Russell Jones, Mark Barton, Joe O’Dell, Brett Shapiro, Phil Willems, Derek Bridges and Doug Cook) working through the long weekend we now have the suspension back in the BSC and reattached to the ISI platform. Norna Robertson and Dennis Coyne have also been here helping out.
The ring heater has been installed, there is a minor interference with the Quad tooling, We have a solution for this installation, we need to decide whether it is good enough for LIGO.
The first contact coating of the test mass seems to work, although there is excessive charging when it is removed so there is some more work that needs to get done there.
The compensator plate and test mass are installed and hanging, the ergo arm worked pretty well, there is room for some small improvements.
Doug tested out some equipment for aligning the optic and compensator plate.
There are a number of entries with pictures and at least one movie on this weeks Lasti ilog (http://www.ligo.mit.edu/ilog/).

SEI

We have started final checks on the new large actuator (coil impedance, cleanliness, magnetic field) most of the hardware has been cleaned and backed and we are starting to assemble the first actuator.

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

___________________

Becky Tucker:

Attempting to get an ihope dax generated.

___________________

Amber L. Stuver:

Continued development of software modules for the automated scope selection for LOOC-UP. I am currently working on the codes needed to check the status of each telescope and return which ones are available for use. Following this, I will proceed to the codes needed to determine if the source is viewable by the available telescopes. More details on this work in available in the LOOC-UP wiki: https://geco.phys.columbia.edu/projects/loocup/wiki/LUMIN

___________________

Kent Blackburn for the Grid Computing R&D team:

GRID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
GENERAL:

01/20/09: LIGO-Pegasus F2F meeting.
Attended DASWG, OSG-VO-Group and High Mass telecons.
Wrote agenda and led OSG-VO-Group telecon.
Open GOC tickets: can't create voms proxy, Can't run ws-gram job at OCI-NSF, RSV wish list.
Open ticket with LONI support: Can't run at LONI: LONI OSG machine.
Updated DASWG page: OSG-LIGO.

EINSTEIN AT HOME ON THE GRID ACTIVITIES

Effort is underway to upgrade the job submission management software to support both WS-GRAM and pre-WS-GRAM. Current status:
- Code deployment at 12 sites successful.
- GT2 test runs at 10 sites performed. For results, please see https://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/daswg/projects/OSG-LIGO.html.
- Deploy code at CIT_CMS_t2, AGLT2.
- Deployment fails at RCAC, SPRACE (.rep issue).
- Attempt GT4 submission with new code at AGLT2, CIT_CMS_T2, fail.
- Created a perl module "project.pm" to allow users to manage their own boinc@grid projects with respect to our MySQL database.
Maintain GT4 activity on 7 OSG sites with old code:
- Recent Average Credit (RAC):78,084.67861.
- E@H rank based on RAC: 13 (+1).
- E@H rank based on accumulated Credits: 75 (+ 15 from last week).
- Daily manual cleanup needed.
- High failure rates at Purdue_RCAC, CIT_CMS_T2, SPRACE.

BINARY INSPIRAL APPLICAITON ON THE GRID ACTIVITIES

In preparation for the S6 science run, injection (only) work-flows using one weeks worth of data for the highmass search are run on several OSG sites. The aim is to determine suitable OSG sites to run the analysis on within the time frame of a week and without any failures. Current status:
- Checked out tagged Pegasus version after stage_in fail of previous runs (Pegasus aware of version issue after new release).
- Test run at OSG_LIGO_MIT: stage_in of gwf files fail, can't find files on nemo data server, needs further investigation.

OSG INTEGRATION AND VALIDATION TESTBED
STORAGE RESOURCES:

Fixed the RedHat Cluster Suite problems (allowing udp + multicast on internal networks).
Cluster management tool luci operational and running at https://osg-itb.ligo.caltech.edu:8084.
Created 13 1.7 TB logical volumes to serve RedHat Global Network Block Device (GNDB) which is the foundation for the Global File System (GFS).
Updated all packages on all headnodes and nodes.
I agreed to setup SRM (ASAP) on the storage resource and to work with Britta to move ligo data into the SRM.

GRID MANAGEMENT

Sent out letters of invitation to non-member speakers planned for the OSG All Hands Meeting. A few have turned down invites but made suggestions for replacements. Still awaiting responses from the bulk of invitees.
Confirmed all LIGO and LSC speakers at OSG All Hands Meeting.
Began working with conveyers of the individual workshops to be given at the OSG All Hands Meeting to have their agendas in place.
Attempting to contact photography outfit that was suggested by Bonnie for a group photo at the OSG All Hands Meeting.
Attended the OSG Joint NSF/DOE Review in Washington DC. I considered the review to go very well and reported on this to the LSC CompComm at the request of the chair of that group.
Discussed reorganization of OSG Council with OSG's Executive Director to get some ideas on how to proceed. Established a strawman plan and a schedule to meet at Fermilab Jan 23rd.
Have been invited to attend the Collaboratories Workshop: Organizing for Discovery Science at the Extreme taking place in Chicago Feb 24th-25th by Susan Turnbull of DOE/ASCR and plan to attend.
Attended Executive Team Telecon to discuss area coordination and out-come of OSG review. Other topics included communications, software and storage areas.

___________________

Diego Fazi:

Finished implementing the chi-square veto for PTF and started testing it.
Submitted a bank-simulation job with spinning injections to compare results with similar tests by Andrew Lundgren.

___________________

Kipp Cannon:

Working on stack-a-flare review.
Working on s4 string cusp review.
Working on low-latency inspiral data analysis techniques.

___________________

Chad Hanna:

I worked with Antony on finishing up the inspiral sky localization code and putting it in the followup pipeline.
I held the usual high mass call and continued to work on my 2 months of analysis.

___________________

Drew Keppel:

Preparing the S5 1yr low mass CBC paper for submission to PRD.

___________________

Igor Yakushin:

Testing Coherent WaveBurst S6 online infrastructure on h(t) frames continuously generated by Shourov from 1e5 seconds of S5 data. Found and fixed a few bugs.

___________________

Antony Searle:

Preparing for, attending and presenting at GWDAW.
With Chad, working on CBC follow-up skymap.

___________________

Joseph Betzwieser:

Preparing for, attending and presenting at Neutron Star workshop and GWDAW.

___________________

Ajith Parameswaran:

Has joined our group and is getting settled.

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

The focus for this week has remained on the frameCPP library. The CDS group has reported a slowness with the library in one of their usage models. This slowness has been reproduced and the code is being profiled to identify the routine or routines responsible for the slowness.
The frameCPP library continues to be modified to support the current draft standard for version 8 frames. The table of contents reading and writing routines were modified to correct some corner cases.
Also, to enhance portability, LDAS as a whole is being ported to several additional flavors of Linux including Debian Lenny.
No system testing was done this week due to unit failures resulting from porting issues. System testing is planned to resume this week.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Phil Ehrens)

Installed new Travel Application Request suite onto travel.ligo.org and began implementing enhancements requested. This included modifying the webforms javascript library to handle date ranges properly.
Various certificate related user support tasks and maintenance duties.
Various Wiki and version control user support tasks and maintenance duties, including adopting the rule of vetting Procurement Wiki users via email exchange with Carol Wilkinson.
Worked with campus maintenance to diagnose and repair problems with "Liebert #2" in Synchrotron 215A. We are currently awaiting shipment of a water valve actuator from Emerson/Liebert.

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

Worked on smartd monitoring; accessing (ro) globus rls database to inventory file locations.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

Installed git on ldas-pcdev1 and ldas-grid.
Tracked down the reason for globus-job-run failure at LLO: xinetd was in a weird state; restarting it fixed the problem.
Troubleshooted gsi ssh connection to ldas-pcdev1 and ldas-grid at LLO for a graduate student at LSU: she could not connect from her computer at LSU (logs showed no trace of a failed attempt) but could first connect to CIT and from there connect to LLO; most likely there is some DNS entry at LSU with the old LDAS IP addresses (no such entries found on her computer in /etc/hosts).

(Doug Lormand)

Nodes 197 and 203 were down. Node 197 had a power supply failure and node 203 had a memory stick failure. I used parts from unused node 211 and brought both nodes back online as of 01-21-09.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

I fixed several problems with files that failed to transfer, and verified in the last week that archiving and transfer of minute and second trend data at LHO, LLO, and CIT, and raw and RDS astrowatch data at LHO and CIT are up-to-date.
The LDAS Tape Library System at LHO was successfully moved to its location for S6.

(Dan Moraru)

Helped move L700 tape library.
Worked on updating kickstart configuration to CentOS 5.2. Verified MAC addresses of all nodes and ran Seagate diagnostic tests on all offline nodes to verify that drives are in working order.
Automated process of adding GRID users.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

Set up machine for new cad person (Sam).
Some disk issues resolved paging.
Set Ken up with new machine and restored his old machine (algor license server).
Some disk issues with tintagle (sata dropping off).
Some cds networking issues.

Livingston

(Dwayne)

Continued development of parts management UI and testing.
Tracked down a couple network ports and moved to new network, everything should be off of the old network now.
Upgraded canIt appliance, twice in the last week.
Ran PCA on several Solaris machines.
Applied OS updates to kantech and rebooted.
Helped a user with transition to new PC, printer setup, backup scheduled nightly(user account) and weekly(system).
Pcard reconciliation.
Installed Matlab on a user PC.
Retrieved two Dell switches from upstairs in SEC and returned them to CDS.
Installed a new WAP connected to the external antenna.
Assisted a user with uploading documents to the new DCC.
Working with the clean/bake/assembly crews that are onsite to make sure parts are managed in the new system.
Worked a couple procurement items.
Numerous usual/unusual user support requests.
Cleared spam trap daily.

Hanford

(Jonathan)

JIRA overview with Mick.
Initial troubleshooting and configuration and rack mounting of the x2200 (currently elk) this will become a new mail server.
Initial install of u6 on the x4500 to be a new file server.
User support Paul Schwinberg (backup, configuration, ...), Carol (backing up and repurposing a laptop for a new worker).
Setting up a new Advanced Ligo user and getting acquainted with their systems.
Laser safety tour.

(Larry)

Minor troubleshooting of a couple of systems.
Going over different items with Jonathan.

Caltech

(Mike)

Setup a few more CIT, and pdmworks accounts.
Some research looking for a SolidWorks workstation that will handle our large assemblies. I'm going by SW recommended hardware compatibility list, and what other users are reporting online. We should be ordering something real soon.
PDMWORKS 2009 admin training.
Onsite user support, mostly working with new users connecting them to different network resources, installing additional software, and some hardware upgrades.
Other additional sysadmin tasks that includes working the dhcp server, mail servers, and adding additional mac addresses to our wireless access points.
Worked on the pdmworks server adding some scripts to fix some back up issues.

(Melody)

Provided user support for the new DCC.
Added some minor enhancements

(Veronica)

Ongoing work on a website for the LV March meeting. Moved the static part of the website to a permanent location. Continue working on an online registration tool. Submitted a request for an ecommerce account.
User support: web assistance (Dorothy), EVO (Sydney).
Ongoing work on a website for the NSF Open Data Policy review.
Various updates of the LIGO and LSC websites.

(Christian)

Melody Araya - Installed and configured new MacBook Pro laptop.
Re-imaged laptop that were returned to the loaner pull this week.
Toner cartridge replacement - 2flr E. bridge and 1flr W. Bridge.
Jackie Champagnie - Installed Oracle J-Initiator and configured export extension in Oracle to Excel.
Working on new Unattended Windows Xp with SP3. I'm adding additional Sata drive drivers and Office 2007 security patches.
Working a number of logistical issues with the group for the LSC meeting. Preliminary tests of tying into the PA system at the hotel went well.
Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Larry)

Wrapped up another p-card reconciliation and getting paperwork sent for another one. Multiple purchases taken care of with most of the equipment already having been delivered. Purchased items for LHO and they have received those as well. Still working on network quotes and purchases of new computers for different people. Purchased some more A/V equipment for the LSC meeting.
Built a number of new licenses for individual matlab seats. Reset Comsol license a number of time and hopefully fixed it to where it doesn't die every other day. Worked some Labview license items, now have to go over a new network license scheme for the pkg.
Still working logistics for the LSC. The work on this is now daily. We've been able to run a number of tests and so far the backup plan for remote communications appears to be feasible there are still a number of tests to run though. The preferred method for remote presentation is still up in the air, the Hotel doesn't know if they will be able to get the bandwidth we need.
Assisted a few visitors with resolving some problems they were having with some of their applications. Mostly mail services.
Assisting PMA with a couple of different logistical items for the upcoming Cahill building dedication.
Setup and updating of a number of user accounts. Fixed a few configuration issues for some of the new users.
Resolved a couple of server problems. A couple of processes that failed to reinitialize on two different after a network board problem that we had last week. There were no error messages and the processes appeared to be running but once they were reset problems with associated programs disappeared.
Cleaned up a few cron scripts.
Some minor ligo.org support for PSU.
The regular user support and mail alias modifications.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Management

From Carol Wilkinson

Project Controls (includes progress since December 12, 2008

Two ACRs are in progress.
ACR to consolidate the clean and bake activities in the assembly staging activity in Facility Mods. and Prep (FMP) is circulating for comments. Labor in the individual subsystems will be collected and moved to FM. Staffing estimates were also revised to take into account the increased work load for in-house cleaning as well as to correct an underestimate of the need for clean and bake and inventory control. The change includes a transfer of $553K from contingency to FMP. Approval and implementation is expected in January.
ACR to re-plan the budget for CIT support personnel to match the latest plan for adding procurement, property, and accounts payable support staff. This is a level II change for a budget re-profiling within a subsystem with no change in budget. The re-planning will improve the information conveyed by the variance reporting for Project Management (PM). Approval and implementation is expected in January.
The ACR for delay in PSL delivery schedule of 200 W lasers by 6 months will be processed and implemented in January. Uses schedule float and does not impact project schedule for installed units. Spares will be delivered after the install date.

Staffing

Negotiations are in progress to hire a contract optical scientist to replace Helena Armandula, who retired last year.

Procurements (summarized version including activities from previous weeks since December 12, 2008)

For Bert:

Working on procurement tracking system.
Participated in negotiations on the GS-13 seismometers for the internal seismic isolation,

For Ed:

As a result of discussions with Betsy Bland, Ed Jasnow contacted representatives of Mid-Columbia Engineering to urge them to accelerate deliveries of the test stands scheduled for delivery to LLO. Because of heavy workloads at the four machine shops available to do the precision machining of these stands, Mid-Columbia stated that they would not be able to deliver the stands until the end of January. That would severely impact the plans of several people scheduled to participate in the tests. After discussion, Mid-Columbia agreed to have the first test stand, unpainted, to LLO by January 22. This would be within the schedule window.
Details on the MOU between LIGO and the Caltech Purchasing Services Department are still being worked out. Issues remaining open are payment for FTE's and signature thresholds for their subcontract administrators.
Worked with Dennis Coyne on the details of getting Rand Dannenberg, optical coatings scientist, on board as a contract employee with Think Resources, Inc.
Submitted the contract with the Limerick Company for HEPI small machined parts to the NSF for review. Responded to Ann Miller's comments on the contract, which were very minor.
Participated in negotiations on the GS-13 seismometers

For Gina:

Certifications have been received from Cangelosi Ward for the warehouse improvement project at LLO. This completes all the requirements for the contract execution.
Trained and monitored Jackie Champagnie in LIGO contract administration.

For Rudy:

Circulated a draft specimen contract for the COC polishing to procurements and legal in advance of the actual selection and specific contract in an effort to reduce the time required for approval. The date for receipt of proposals for the COC polishing has been moved to January 20, 2009. This was requested by two of the RFP recipients. Additionally, the Evaluation Committee for this procurement has been named.
The Evaluation Committee for the COC polishing procurement met and discussed procurement options.
Trained and monitored Steve Marroquin in LIGO contract administration.

For Jackie:

The contract for the HEPI small machined parts with Limerick, Inc., has been approved by Purchasing Services and will be sent to the NSF via FastLane for their review. This review is required because two procurements were combined. Since this combination was not planned in advance, it did not appear in the Acquisition Plan approved by the NSF.

For Steve:

Executed Change Order No. 1 to Limerick for the replacement of parts made from wrong model as directed by Caltech.
Executed and awarded contract with Hiline Engineering and Fabrication, Inc., for the HEPI pump station control panels.
Executed Changer Order 1 with Lavallee Machinery, Inc., for custom nozzle (Parker DYP-25 Valve).
Executed and awarded contract with Newport, Inc., for purchase of SUS optical tables.

NSF Acquisition Approvals

A contract with the Limerick Company for HEPI small machined parts was sent to the NSF for review via FastLane on Jan 14. Ann Miller has done a preliminary review and has returned comments and requested some minor revisions.

Progress Updates

The Monthly Status report for December was sent to NSF on December 15.
Time verification reports for the current pay period are due by Friday, January 16.
Progress reports for January are due on Wednesday January 28.
The Annual Report for the Advanced LIGO project is being prepared, with a submission goal of January 30.

Meetings & Reviews

The next Monthly Progress Reporting Meeting will be on Thursday, January 12 at 8:30 AM PT. Subsystem leaders or their delegates need to attend.

Advanced LIGO Systems

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

AdL Project-Funded Activities
Design Reviews: For a list of reviews, see the main AdL wiki page Procurement Reviews:

Provided technical comments/review of the aqueous washer RFQ.
Provided technical comments/review of the SUS quad assembly tooling, machined parts RFQ.
Provided technical comments/review of the SUS fused silica (non-optical) mass RFQ.
Reviewing COC polishing bids.

Technical Review Board (TRB): see the TRB log

Vacuum Review Board (VRB): see the VRB log

Configuration Control & Documentation:

PDMWorks and SolidWorks: This week 12 of us from various LIGO sites are in Woodland Hills, CA for PDMWorks and SolidWorks training from Go Engineer. Go Engineer also spent a day with us at Caltech discussing our proposed workflow, lifecycle, revision scheme etc ...
DocDB: We had another DocDB training session this week which was attended by representatives from both sites, MIT and Caltech. A further training session for the LSC is being planned for next week.

Design:

Layout: working (Calum, Ed and Dennis) on preparing a plan for creating the overall layout for Advanced LIGO. For example, what is the best method to reduce the size of the large assemblies but still have them relevant / up to date. Ed and Calum have also been looking at ways to tidy the vault.
1st Opto-mechanical meeting: We held the 1st Opto-mechanical meeting this week. In the coming weeks and months we will cover general topics such as standard protocols, software tools, tutorials etc ... as well as discussions on resource sharing and common testing facilities. All of it will be relevant for advanced LIGO opto-mechanical engineers.
2 layer coating FEM: Liam and Calum have been exchanging results from our FEA model with Peter F. We have also been talking to Kentaro and Hiro about running equivalent models using Kentaro et al's formula.
Beam size: We have completed a trade study on the beam diameter in the vertex. The beam will have a 5.3 cm diameter at the ITM, as the 'optimal' balance between diffractive loss and thermal noise. A RODA will be issued to document this decision.

Interfaces:

See the RODA status pag e and the Interface Control page.
SUS/Test Mass Interfaces: At last weeks technical meeting Calum gave an introduction talk on the items associated with the test mass that want to be added post install e.g. violin mode dampers, gold barrel sleeve. This has led to several further discussions and a follow up at this weeks meeting. There will be more discussions on this in the coming weeks.

Modeling and Simulation

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

Static IFO Simulation (Hiro, Melody)

Hiro is adding new functions to simulate the AOC in SIS. Using this facility, telescopes outside of COC can be simulated and realistic signals can be calculated.
Also added is a support of DOS formatted files. Window's users experience problems running SIS when they edit input files in the Windows environment.

COC Design (Hiro)

The effect of baffles was further examined by comparing different baffle sizes, 210mm x 260mm vs 215mm x 260mm. The result was summarized in LIGO-G0810029-v4 and was presented at the COC meeting. The accuracy of the placement of baffles is estimated to be ~ a few mm, which depends on the requirement of the contrast defect.
It is up to COC and AOC group to choose the shape of the baffle based on the tolerance of the loss, imbalance and contrast defect.

Safety

From: David Nolting dnolting@ligo-la.caltech.edu

Visit to CIT this week to finalize the LIGO Safety Officer transition planning.
Assist LIGO Contract personnel with safety related requirements for Bid Packages.

Quality Assurance

From: William Tyler <tyler_w@ligo.caltech.edu>

Participated in a meeting with Jasnow and Cresta to resolve issues with what QA/QC requirements (reference LIGO-M080331) should be included in AdL contracts/procurements and the method/steps to follow to achieve an acceptable QA/QC plan for the contract or procurement.
A satisfactory "plan" was agreed upon and the information distributed to AdL staff.
Also, AdL QA specified that all contracts/procurements should as a deliverable, include an "End-Item-Data-Package".
A list of the contents (minimum set of items to include) was also distributed to AdL procurement personnel for their use.
The list of items to include will be "adjusted" as appropriate, during the contract/procurement negotiations.

Facilities Modifications and Preparations

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

FMP

LLO:

The case work that the LSU Emerging Technology Center surplussed have been received on site but are still in a shipping container. We are in the process of getting them unpacked and inventoried.
Work on the warehouse continues on schedule. All HVAC is installed and the electrical work is 70-80% complete. The ceiling grid will be complete by early next week and fan installation will begin.

LHO:

The final submittals for the staging building work have been approved so all materials are now on order. We have decided to spring for a stronger flooring material to help withstand the heavy lifting.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

BSC Controls and Testing at LASTI:

We prepare for the next set of modal analysis testing on the Quad-ISI:
- We plan the series of tests to be done in order to identify the Quad-ISI modes.
- We adjust the sensors, impact hammers and electronics to the size of each part to be studied (Quad, Stage2, Stage1, blades...).
- We define an experimental meshing for each part and train on the locked ISI (locked to allow the current work on the Quad). -- Fabrice

HEPI:

Actuator - All is going well as we have received the first shipment of parts from Next Intent. Packing was excellent and all parts arrived fine. The latest change to the threads on the Actuator Plate was completed and documented. Due to the comprehensive work done in getting things started, very few questions are coming in from the shop. -- Joe L.
Hugh Radkins is at LLO working with Joe Hanson in preparing for the HEPI assembly.

SEI Activities and Progress at LLO:

Brian Lantz, Mike Landry, and Corey Gray are at LLO working with Brian and Jeff on the simulink software and fine tuning the HAM ISI performance.

BSC ISI Design Changes:

Nick Hunter - Jones has created concept drawings for review of a flexure mount similar to the HAM design. This design uses the existing springs and flexures.

Suspensions

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

Operations Work

Last week and this week the SUS group efforts have been concentrated on the quad, with the quad noise prototype hang of the LASTI test mass on a wire suspension and with preparations for the quad training session which will start at LLO on the 26th Jan.
At LASTI an army of SUS folks have been working. Joe (RAL) and Russell (Glasgow) are over from the UK.for two weeks. Last week Janeen Ken Mailand, Mark and Bob Taylor joined them at MIT. This week Mark, Derek, Doug and Norna are there. In addition Phil W has been there to oversee the fitting of the ring heater. Brett, Rutu (student) Rich and Myron have all been very helpful. In the first week the lower section of the quad was taken out using Ken M's 5 axis tooling and conveyor and the two chains were separated. Bob T wired the compensator plate ESD. The ring heater was fitted. Over the weekend and early this week the CP and the test mass were hung. The triple tooling, use to see whether the pitch is Ok or needs adjusting after hanging new masses, was tested ( pitch was good for both chains). The chains have been moved together again and were reinstalled in the BSC chamber Thursday afternoon. We will hang them and do some preliminary alignment on Friday. Copious pictures and notes have been taken - see LASTI ilog. Mark is keeping notes on the various steps for a T doc. Russell is noting the procedure with a view to how it will go when we do a silica suspension.
Janeen and Mike are at a PDM works course this week along with various other LIGO engineers.

Project-Funded Activities

The box of quad parts from RAL finally arrived at LLO Monday and is being unpacked inventoried and ultrasonically cleaned. It will not be baked as previously planned due to shortage of time and manpower. The test stand (to support the quad) has arrived and is being assembled and fixed to the ground. Gary and Danny have been joined by Hugh Betsy and Jodi from LHO.
An OSEM account (for LIGO 1 style OSEMs) has now been set up. Revised costings for OSEMs and tooling is still being worked.

Prestabilized Laser

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

Operations

The beam propagation parameters of the 10-W laser were measured and the various components of the optical train are being installed.
I am working with Neslab about getting some documentation about the chiller electronics. They have already said that they have no spare boards in stock and are not planning to make any more.

Project

The dark current versus bias voltage for the quadrants of an FCI-InGaAs-Q3000 quadrant photodiode has been measured for a diode. The results have not been examined yet.
Parts for the 200-W engineering prototype continue to arrive. The ground base plate is expected to arrive at the end of the first week in February.

Input Optics

From: David tanner@phys.ufl.edu

eLIGO Commissioning

Kate Dooley spend a week at LLO working with a team doing alignment and work on TCS, WFS etc.

LLO Personnel

David Feldbaum has joined the UF LLO group, starting on January 8. He will spend a few days in Gainesville and then be in Livingston from the end of the month.

Core Optics

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

All three polishing proposals have been received. An evaluation committee meets January 23rd for award recommendation.
We have received another Input test mass blank, bringing the total glass on hand to:
ETM: 10 of 10
ITM: 5 of 10
BS: 0 of 6
CP: 0 of 9 will receive 3/mo starting 4-2009
FM: 3 of 3
PR3: 3 of 3
F-PR3: 2 of 2
SR3: 4 of 4

Auxiliary Optics

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

Work Under Operations Budget

ETM TELESCOPE SUS: Tests of the ETM eddy current dampened suspension are partially complete, Virginio wants to run additional tests next week, on the as-is setup.
ELIGO BAFFLES Eligo flat AC 'manifold' baffle parts drawings for the DCC and PDM works will be completed, after the ongoing tasks above.
ETM TELESCOPE: The design comparison between the refractive and the off-axis reflective designs is on hold.
OPTICAL LEVER: Eric, et al have updated the design requirements document for the Optical Lever subsystem, and are in the process of reviewing it within the AOS group.
FARADAY ISOLATOR: Niem Nguyen is making progress on designing the Faraday Isolator suspension with the design assistance of Riccardo. Mike has designed a blade spring for supporting the magnet table.
MANIFOLD/CRYOPUMP BAFFLE: Mike has designed a blade spring for the suspended manifold/cryopump baffle.
MEZZANINE LAB: Ken is continuing the preparations and setup of the SUS Mezzanine Lab .

Control and Data Systems

From: Vern Sandberg <sandberg@ligo-wa.caltech.edu>

Observatories