PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist, Beckett)

• Monthly report contributions for LIGO Ops for the end of April are due to Dave Beckett tomorrow, Friday, May 8.

CHANGE REQUESTS (Lindquist)

• LIGO-M0900124, version 3 - Change Request CR-090001 Rev 3, establishes the budget for FY 2009 LIGO Operations.
• LIGO-M0900125, version 1 - Change Request CR-090003, requests budget for FY 2009 LIGO Operations fabrication accounts, submitted by Dennis Coyne.

• Adjustments to reflect the staffing plan provided by Advanced LIGO for FY 2009.
• Fabrication account budgets submitted in change requests CR-090002 (approved - Squeezing Experiment) and CR-090003 (above).
• Adjustments reflecting the return of budget for positions that have not been filled through March 31, 2009.  The MIT budgets have not yet been adjusted.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

• The next Staffing Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 11th.
• A Staffing Committee meeting was held on Monday, April 13th and the minutes and action items have been posted on the SC web page.
• All files for the Staffing Committee are posted on the SC web page.

Quality/Safety (Nolting)

• LIGO Lab Safety is working on a few procedures that will bring some more consistancy between the LIGO LAB facilities. The procedures will be introduced soon to management for approval, then will be communicated to all LIGO for viewing...and for training support.

Computer Security (Singer)

• Hosted meeting exploring CDS and Authentication Project integration.
• Hosted meeting for developing software security analysis process.
• Authored copyright policy memo distributed last week.

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

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

• We plan to vent HAM6 again in one to two weeks. The primary mitigation plan for peaks in the bucket is to swap all three tip tilt wires (TT0-2) out for thinner ones. We have ordered new clamps which should be completed by Monday, wire to follow.
• The WFS input matrix was found to be in part erroneously zeroed out and thus modified. With this change SPOB was emminently smoother, paving the way for more high power efforts.
• Moving overly fast and thus inducing glitches in the interferometer, the waveplate rotator on the 4k PSL was modified to allow for slower slewing. We'll have a mini-review of this code on Monday, test out on TCS, make some mods to the code and add to the PSL.
• The newly revamped eLIGO photon calibrator was installed into EX.
• Beam jitter coupling in the tip tilts was compared for Hanford and Livingston, with the former calculated to be much more sensitive to TT0 angular jitter.
• A new POX photodiode was installed. Initially noisy on installation, the pd was tamed by toroid/balun combination.

Astrowatch (D. White)

• Average inspiral range was 6.7 Mpc, while the uptime = 36 % (H2 has been kept down during the daytime due to roadworks).
• Failure of H2susauxl0 caused significant problems last week. Optics had to be aligned by hand using SUS drift screens and optical lever centering using biases, resulting in several STAT's changing after reaching power up, and have been changed accordingly.
• Monday saw a drop in range from ~7.5 to ~5.5 Mpc, which lasted 2 days, due to h2awg0 not providing calibration lines.

Squeezer Update (D. Sigg)

• MIT (S. Dwyer): Sheila came to LHO last week to see the fiber stabilization set up there. The clean room came to MIT and we started unpacking it and moving more furniture out of rm. 69. Melodie is working on the beam propagation through the squeezer layout.
• LHO: Continued to work on the design and the prototypes of the RF electronics.

Outreach (D. Ingram)

• A. Merlin, D. Ingram and WSU TC undergrad Elizabeth Pearce represented LIGO at Pasco's Cinco de Mayo festival on 5/2 until torrential rains sent everyone home at midday. The skies cleared during the afternoon then the rain returned in the evening, just in time to swamp the LHO/Tri-City Astronomy Club Astronomy Day program. An audience of ~75 listened to talks by F. Raab and G. Mendell on the theme of "Galileo to Einstein, Jupiter to Black Holes." The telescopes never came out of their cases.

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

General Operations (Rusyl Wooley)

• We have completed the assembly of the new LDAS cluster racks.  We have added new HVAC discharge registers in the LDAS room.  The new FM200 fire suppression system has been roughed in.  We will commission that system after the cluster is installed.  We have also received the electrical components required to make the final hook-up of all the LDAS equipment.
• All optics are now off of their stops.  We completed with ETMX on Wednesday. We also did a quick vent of the vertex section in order to realign the 90/10 beam splitter.  The vertex is now being pumped out.  HAM6 is still open. The ISI group will be putting equipment on the HAM6 table in the next few days. We should close HAM6 early next week.
• We had a brief power outage last Sunday due to weather.  The site recovered from that outage without too much difficulty.
• Scanned all optics tables that currently have laser beams on them.

Enhanced LIGO Commissioning (Valera Frolov)

• The 50/50 DC/RF output beam splitter was changed to 97/3 (nominal) beam splitter. The alignment of the corner optics took most of the week. An additional short vent of the corner station was necessary to recover the output mode cleaner beam alignment i.e. centering the beam on the HAM6 septum window. After the vent the corner station was pumped, the mode cleaner re-locked and alignment was verified. Now all the beams exiting the vacuum cleanly including the HAM6 beam. The next step is to recover/verify the interferometer alignment including the long arms.

LLO Outreach

(Kathy Holt)

• Attended the IFI workshop in SFO on Assessing Informal Learning.
• Preparation for Open House.
• Participated and prepared for School visits.
• Ordered supplies for school visits.
• Developed templates for monthly reports Spoke with Highland Road Observatory about summer camp field trips.
• Prepared for Docent training.

(Amber Stuver)

• Traveled to APS April Meeting in Denver, CO.  While there, I attended the APS Council Meeting, the FEd Executive Committee Meeting, a portion of the Committee on International Freedom of Scientists and had a non-quorum meeting of the FGSA Exec. Comm.  (see my update in the CIT Science Group section).  My term as APS/AAPT Member-at-Large began at the Exec. Comm. Meeting.
• I will be editing the Spring 2010 Newsletter on the GK12 program and the outreach efforts made by undergraduates, graduates and postdocs.
• Gave control room tours to ~150 students.
• Began drafting a wave properties classroom activity to be used during school visits, teacher professional development workshops and/or to be send out to schools as pre- or post-visit activities.  The activity involves a short introduction on wave properties and then uses this information to derive these properties of graphs of waves.  The activity includes constant frequency/wavelength amplitude vs. time graphs and amplitude vs. distance graphs, and estimating average parameters between given times of a chirp waveform.  This document will be in the DCC as T0900219.

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 also Advanced LIGO

Controls and Data Systems (Bork)

See Advanced LIGO

40-Meter Interferometer (Adhikari)

• This week the locking of the 40m became fairly regular. The initial acquisition is still done with the a common mode offset in the arms. During the reduction of the CARM offset, the error signals are handed off and the DARM demodulation phase is continually adjusted to account for the rotating carrier field from the CARM detune.
• Currently the common mode servo's MCL handoff succeeds ~2/3 of the time and the switching of the CARM error signal from REFL_DC to REFL166_I succeeds ~1/2 the time, so there's a total success rate of 30% for lock acquisition.
• The lock is also currently happening on the anti-spring side and the dark port image is not very clean (left hand monitor in this elog entry:  http://nodus.ligo.caltech.edu:8080/40m/1561). Analysis of an OMC mode scan is ongoing, but it looks messy.
• Next up is to stabilize the acquisition some, do some noise coupling measurements, and then try for the SRC offset that gives the standard optical spring configuration.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

• Not much to report for this cycle. Akira is preparing his talk for the Lago Mar conference next week, and Greg is out sick.

LASTI (Mittleman)

LASTI

• We have sealed the vacuum chamber and have started pumping down.
• The HAM-SAS isolation system was successfully removed and loaded onto a truck and disappeared in the direction of Columbia (University).
• Rai has been wiring up the old ESD electronics in anticipation of renewed cavity work.

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

__________

Antony Searle:

• Fixed the NaN bug in CBC followup skymap code.
• Large scale Omega runs on CIT and Atlas.
• Working on reliability of offline running.

__________

Cristina Valeria Torres:

• Integrating new parameter test (SNR Ratio) in follow up pipeline, should be ready for use this week.
• Posted latest edition of follow up document at https://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~ctorres/followUpLivingDoc_
  LAST.pdf.
• Assisted Kathy Holt with LIGO SEC event (elementary) 40 students.
• Sumitted GWDAW proceedings to P&P to begin interval review

__________

Amber L. Stuver:

• Traveled to and attended the APS April Meeting in Denver.
• Attended the APS Council Meeting in Denver.  The FGSA bylaws amendment I proposed was approved by both the APS Committee on Bylaws and Constitutions and the APS Council.
• Attended the FEd Business Meeting and the FEd Executive Committee Meeting in Denver.  My term as APS/AAPT Member-at-Large began at the Exec. Comm. meeting and I expressed interest on behalf of the FGSA in working with the FEd and the AAPT.  I will be editing the 2010 FEd Newsletter (see my update in the LLO Outreach section).
• Invited to a portion of the Committee on International Freedom of Scientists meeting in Denver.  I proposed a refinement of the APS ethics statement on the "Treatment of Subordinates" regarding graduate students (this refinement would be in the form of a document of considerations regarding graduate students), in conjunction with other APS ethics guidelines and the AAPT/APS Task Force Report on Graduate Education, and they expressed interest in cooperating on this.  I have circulated a draft document to the FGSA, the FEd and the AAPT Committee on Graduate Education in Physics.
• Had an unofficial (non-quorum) meeting of the FGSA Executive Committee.
• Presented my work at the APS April Meeting on a follow-up module to measure the physicality of a GW event given the detection delay between detectors and their respective measured SNRs (LIGO-G0900403-v2).
• Had a meeting with other LUMIN developers.  I am also continuing work on the EM transient post-processing (which is a bit stalled right now) and am working on developing the human notification system (including an MEDM screen) when a candidate GW event is selected as a candidate for EM follow-up.

__________

Ajith Parameswaran:

• Continued the work on spinning IMR waveforms.
• Some more extra features in the LAL phenom. waveform code for using it for MCMC searches.
• Refereed a paper for CQG.

__________

Peter Kalmus:

• Presented SGR stack paper at APS in Denver.
• Ongoing work on S5y2 / A5 SGR analysis.

__________

Anand Sengupta:

• Multivariate statistics: optimization of run parameters, trying PCA and ICA on the inputs.
• I watched the videos of Ilya Narski's lectures on Bagged Decision Trees.
• Co-ordinating with SURF student on writing the draft of project synopsis.

__________

Drew Keppel:

• Resubmitted the S5 1Yr Low Mass CBC paper to PRD and arXiv.
• Finished making corrections to my thesis.

__________

Joseph Betzwieser:

• I have been working with Karl Wette comparing the Crab targeted search upper limit scripts with the newer Cas A search upper limit scripts on the same data sets.
• I have also been working on reducing the computation time necessary for the coherent follow up scripts for the Powerflux candidates.

__________

Chad Hanna:

• I worked on Coinc table and SQLite based post-processing.  Duncan, Colin, Kipp and I are now trying to merge our efforts.
• I worked with Romain on running LLOID on E13 and starting to transform it into a multi ifo algorithm.

__________

Kipp Cannon:

• Worked with Chad Hanna and Romain Caillou on the LLOID low-latency  inspiral analysis tool.
• Worked with Chad Hanna, Duncan Brown, Collin Capano on inspiral  post-processing tools / S6 preparedness.
• Worked with Chad Hanna on the S5 high-mass inspiral search.
• Assorted maintenance tasks in lscsoft software.
• Telecons:  inspiral, inspiral code, inspiral high-mass.

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• The diskcacheAPI is progressing well. In this past week, the standalone utility has been successful in rescanning all of the 42 million files on the /archive file system. The standalone utility has been extended to support a daemon mode where the scanning of the mount points happens in the background and user requests are accepted on the standard input. Also, the use of the StatVFS optimization has been re-enabled after the cause for the failure had been discovered. By next week, this code will be tested in a full LDAS system.
• A new version of frameCPP was release this week. The version number is 1.12.2. The framecpp_dump_channel program now can be used to dump the data portions of the FrVect structure uncompressed to aid in diagnostics. These changes have been merged into the LDAS development branch.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

• Still rearchiving the A5 frames that were on T10KB format tapes but didn't have ssum set. Less than 26428 files out of 267870 in this set remain to be done.
• Shipped 90 9940 tapes to LHO.
• Did more LDR work to give ANU access.
• Helped Greg with failed ZFS disk in 3510.
• Got new 5600 fibre channel switch licensed for all the 4Gb ports.
• In the process of getting the serial number off of the new 5600, accidentally knocked out the power cord out of one of the old ones.  Spent some time cleaning up QFS/SAN stuff.
• Managed to stage some data from a damaged tape at LHO long enough for LDR to transfer the data, but could not reproduce it. Will recover the data permanently when LHO is back up.
• Helped Greg with controller replacement on 3511-8 at LHO, upgraded/downgraded firmware to make it identical to our other units.
• Handed off cluster framecheck task to Josh.
• Worked with Greg to clean up some temp files/directories in LHO's /archive.
• Mapped out current CIT QFS metadata allocation/usage.

(Josh Abadie)

• Fixed file system errors on cluster.
• Worked on network quotes.
• Babysit cluster.

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• Some Bates stuff; hardened kerberos machine, waiting for hostname from mit before requesting keytab.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

• All the racks for the new LDAS cluster have been built with the help of Matt, Jeremy, Doug, Denny and others.
• Restarted 5 CDS servers that went down after Sunday's power outage.
• Ordered a new UPS for the server rack.
• Received a new tape cabinet.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

• Replaced failed disk and failed RAID IOM in 3510 and 3511 disk arrays.
• Helped with LDG issues at Caltech.
• Helped track down problems reading v8 frames.
• Worked with Dan Moraru to shutdown all of LDAS at LHO for power and duct work upgrades.
• The LHO and LLO SPECIAL and TIMING RDS data set I have been generating at Caltech has finished, reducing data to past the end of the S5 run.

(Dan Moraru)

• Helped replace faulty I/O controller in a Sun 3511 array.
• Shut down remaining computers, removed all cabling, and helped relocate some head nodes to the mass storage room in OSB.
• Helped move new cabinets into position next to tape robot.
• Worked on configuration for new cluster.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Setup mds (16MB ram xeon ) node for comsol and matlab for John M remote access.
• Renewed comsol license.
• Ordered a couple of barebones (cds/latsi gateway router and desktop for Brennan).
• Working on networking and related logistical issues for the upcoming Dec conference.
• Fabrice laptop -- migrating stuff to desktop machine in prep for laptop repair.

Livingston

(Dwayne)

• Graphics problems on Dell Precision 4400 have disappeared (at least for now) after reseating system memory.
• Troubleshooting of kantech issues in HPLF and with front gate. HPLF was resolved.
• Updated JIRA install to version 1.0.  Phase I installed and ready for usage in production.
• Created a TEST instance of JIRA for demo and testing purposes, also using LIGO.ORG authentication and local authorization.
• Downloaded latest version of Arkeia software to be installed on all backup clients
• Restarted arkeia server.
• Upgraded a couple Mechanical Engineer monitors to 24" LCD.
• Installed printers on a new hire PC, various software installs.
• Another round of adobe javascript bugs.  Sent reminder to disable when not needed.
• Moved 44" plotter and printer in area 51 -Attended a few meetings.
• Worked a couple small procurement items -Numerous usual/unusual user support requests.
• Cleared spam trap daily.

Hanford

(Jonathan)

• Auth project security review meeting.
• Meeting with Shannon re LDAP, Kerberos, and possibly utilizing the auth projects work.
• Backed-up rainier2's old disk.
• Removed rainier2 and disk, and old ad-ligo server from rack to clear room for new machines.

Caltech

(Veronica)

• WebComm:  Implemented several minor fixes.  Briefed the Committee on some common legal aspects of website development/operation (copyright, privacy policy, accessibility compliance etc) to be taken into consideration.  The Committee is working out the logistics of content generation and maintenance, as well as last-minute layout tweaks. Specific content issues have been assigned to committee members.
• Ongoing support of the upcoming PAC meeting.
• Ongoing support of the GWADW 2009 website.
• Updates of the LSC/Lab related web apps.

(Christian)

• Karl Oracion - Installed and configured Adobe Acrobat.
• Toner cartridge replacements - 3rd/flr W/bridge.
• Finished updating the new Windows XP Unattended. The new DVD includes (Windows Xp SP3,Office 2007 SP3, Adobe Acrobat 9, Zip-7, Malwarebytes, Windows Defender, Norton 10.2, Thunderbird, F-Secure, and 500MB of new drivers.  I'm also customizing the DVD for each site.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Melody)

• DCC User support (removing wrong files and versions, allowing access).
• Released a new version of DCC to include author groups and authorship permissions.

(Larry)

• Went through a number of procurement items. Ordered items for different groups. Delivered items that have arrived. In the process of renewing a number of the Solidworks licenses. Placed and in the process of ordering more SUN workstations. Going through a list of notebook computers that need to be updated. Cleared up a couple of p-card items.
• Helped on the wrap-up of some of the items from the NSF review at LHO. Overall things went well but still have a need to augment a few items there.
• Spent some time going over EVO and network setups for conferences. Just as a note, presently we do have some equipment to loan to help with the meetings but it is only for LIGO and LSC sponsored meetings here in the U.S. Working with Fred on some of the logistics for the Dec. LSC meeting in Boston.
• Reworked a number of dns entries and mail aliases.
• Assisted a number of users in scanning and cleaning up of their computers. More users have been concerned about security and asking some assistance to make sure things are running correctly on their boxes.
• Performed monthly back-up the home accounts. Worked on some new scripting to automate some of the backups on different servers. So far they are working as planned. Just need to get them implemented on the different machines.
• Little more work in supporting people with different documents. The latest MSoffice has caused some confusion for people trying to use it. Then there has been the regular user and lab support.

(Mike)

• End of month backups on NTSRV's.
• Worked on old DCC server "Antares" regarding a database issue.
• Some EVO testing with Larry with the Hanford meetings this past week. Christian and I also setup and monitored the conference rooms here at CIT for users to join the ADVLIGO all hands meeting via EVO.
• Loaded another Engineering workstation, and swapped user out with this unit, including new monitors.
• More work on backups for ADVLIGO/PDMWORKS servers.
• Other misc. onsite/phone user support, pdmworks administration, and other sysadmin tasks.

Distributed (Grid) Computing R&D (Blackburn)

Grid Application Development

Einstein@Home on the OSG:

• New version of the Einstein@Home submission code currently being tested on the OSG Testbed at Caltech. This code will boost our efficiencies once deployed onto the OSG Production Grid.
• Ran at a higher rate this week, though we are down from the all time highs seen with the GT2 support of a couple of months ago. There have been some issues with GridFTP transfers to one site and an increased likelihood of having our jobs preempted by jobs from a community users with higher priority than LIGO's.
• Both of the issues above gave us cause to look into the job submission codes ability to handle unusual situations. We are retooling to make these corner cases more robust.
• Current OSG ranking statistics: Recent Average Credit (RAC) = 79,602.20 up from 50,545.73 last week; E@H ranking based on RAC = 7 up by 3 from last week; E@H rank based on accumulated credits = 39 (no change).

Binary Inspiral Application on Grids:

• Developing a Python based script to manage transfers of LIGO Frame data to Storage Resource Management (SRM) storage elements on the OSG to be used in Pegasus workflows without having to move the data as an integral part of the workflow - more like LDG workflows. This will also allow the population of an RLS server with catalog info about the frame files stored in SRM.
• Currently running a shell script to transfer one week's worth of Frame data into the SRM on the OSG Testbed at Caltech.
• Successfully completed a workflow which included injections and vetos at LONI that was started last week.

Open Science Grid Integration & Validation Testbed

• Discovered a limitation of Hadoop while attempting to use it for a subversion code repository. Hadoop does not support certain operations on files and directories (reopen after write, append to file). Began to look into xrootd at the advise of Kent in case these limitations impact any of the applications we are planning to run with SRM from LIGO.
• Configured a GUMS server and PRIMA to be used for authentication on the OSG Testbed at Caltech.
• Conducted a test of the load on a gatekeeper associated with the GRAM2 interface as the number of running jobs increases. Found that the load remains fairly reasonable up to a point (60 jobs on our Testbed) and then grows out of control as the number of jobs increases beyond this. Globus has a beta release coming out soon that is reported to address this issue with GRAM2.
• Supported project to store LIGO Frame data in the SRM on the OSG Testbed.
• Updated all Operating System packages on all the nodes in the Testbed.

Grid Management

• Organized and posted agenda for monthly OSG Council Telecon to be held next week. Sent out announcement to Council with agenda.
• Attended a telecon with OSG Project Manager and OSG Council Chairs to discuss open issues and planning for the near term.
• Began planning and logistics for the face to face OSG Council Meeting to be held in August near O'Hare in Chicago.
• Reviewed request from OSC Council Representative to STAR to have an OSG Council statement on developing Virtual Technologies for OSG.
• Organized a teleconference with OSG Production Coordinator and the CMS Grid Manager to understand issues with Einstein@Home jobs on OSG sites which are preempting these jobs and how to better understand the problem and how to improve the reliability.
• Held two meetings with OSG Staff to review Einstein@Home job rates and credits after recent improvements to code and to discuss the issues of reliability in the code under unusual circumstances (failing GridFTP servers and job preemption based on user priorities). Developed a plan to make the submission engine more robust in these situations and to post HTML webpages of the important log messages the submission system is encountering on individual OSG sites.
• Assisted Syracuse University in their efforts to renew a grid administrator.
• Handled the usual number of certificate and application challenges to get new users onto the LIGO Data Grid.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Management

From Carol Wilkinson

Project Controls

• Project controls staff submitted the FY09-Q2 quarterly report two weeks early so that it could be provided to NSF reviewers.
• Staff participated in the NSF Review of the Advanced LIGO Project, including a presentation on procurement guidelines.
• Month end reports for April are in preparation.

  Staffing

• Current hiring for site assembly staff is complete. The filled positions are: 1 logistics support, 1 clean and bake tech, 1 inventory control tech, 1 SEI assembly tech, and 2 SUS assembly techs at LLO; and 1 clean and bake and 2 assembly techs at LHO.
• Ads are out for additional staff, including: 2 real time programmers for the sites, 1 optics tech at CIT, 1 ME and 1 draftsperson for Systems engineering, and 1 Electech at CIT.

Procurements - Covers the period from April 17 to May 7

For Ed Jasnow

• Advanced LIGO - Worked on overseeing the definitization of the field change order log into the Cangelosi Ward contract.
• Executed purchase order to Gerbig Engineering Company for Thirteen Airecell Class 100 Cross Flow Workflowstations.
• Reviewed the list of solicitation and contract templates being prepared for use by the LIGO Purchasing staff.
• Advanced LIGO - Prepared response to Ann Miller, NSF, regarding the proposed contract with Columbia University for the timing distribution system.
• Reviewed the draft RFP's for the two core optics coating contracts.  The RFP's are scheduled to be released tomorrow, May 8.
• Reviewed several RFQs for the seismic isolation components, including the blades, springs, and the maraging steel procurements.

For Steve Marroquin

• Selected Next Intent, Inc. in response to RFQ SM-143 Maraging C-250 Steel Blades solicitation. The purchase order should be approved NTL May 11, 2009.
• Attended LHO Site for NSF Review from 4/29-5/1.
• Executed and approved purchase order with Columbia Basin Hotsy Inc. for the aqueous part washers.
• The RFQ for the Prototype Blade Springs for HSTS/HLTS Maraging Steel was submitted to eighteen vendors on 4/17/09. The bids are due 4/27/09.
• Executed requisition and purchase order for FM-101-A “Air Bake Oven” bids to Thermal Product Solutions (TPS)/SeaTek.
• Executed Change Order No. 1 to Reiboldt Mallonee Construction for LHO Warehouse Modifications.
• Executed Change Order No. 2 to Triad for Alexander Ivanov support on Adv LIGO Project SUS software coding for quad test stands for FY09 performance period 4 April 09 through 5 June 09.
• Executed purchase order to Varian Inc. for a T-V301 NAVIG PUMP.SYS-CFF 6 IN.120/220, AIR COOLING KIT FOR TURBO-V301 NAVIGATOR, and NAVIGATOR VENT VALVE N.O.

For Rudy

• Resubmitted the documentation for the requisition authorizing the ARES Contract Rev 1 Budget and SOW. ARES omitted a labor category, which required a clean up. There is no change to the total Budget in Rev 1 as approved by Carol Wilkinson.
• Prepared a draft RFP and specimen with revised technical requirements for CO118 Core Optics Test Masses Coating solicitation (RFP #RA-141). Alan Wilkins has pointed out that the other Optics Coating for the Recycling Cavity have equal priority from a schedule need (RFP #RA-145).  Both of these procurements, different groups of contractors, make up AdvLIGO Procurement Item CO-118. LIGO Purchasing will now run these solicitations in parallel using the same RFP template and Garilynn Billingsley who is finalizing the technical requirements for both solicitations is aware of this schedule issue.
• MIT Subaward No. 75ADV-1085563. The FY2009 funding modification was issued on 4/10/09.
• The contract modification for ARES Corp. Contract No. 75ADV-1085615 was issued the week of 4/27/09.  ARES Corp. provides AdvLIGO Program Management support at LHO (PM102).  The amount of support was increased (period of performance 4/1/08 - 9/30/14).

NSF Acquisition Approvals

• Ann Miller has responded with questions on the sole source procurement with Columbia University for the timing system included in the Acquisition Plan for the second half of FY2009 sent to NSF on April 17. The plan includes four Suspensions procurements as well as the Data Acquisition contract with Columbia University for the timing system. Ann’s questions are being addressed by procurement and Data Acquisition technical staff.

Progress Updates

• The quarterly report was submitted early this month in order to be available to reviewers on the NSF review of the project at the end of April. The project status reported in both the monthly report and quarterly reports at the end of March was the basis of the reports to the NSF in the first annual review of the project on April 28-30.

Meetings & Reviews

• Variance reports for the month of April are due on Tuesday, May 12.
• The next Monthly Progress Reporting Meeting will be on Thursday, May 14 at 8:30 AM PT. Subsystem leaders or their delegates need to attend.
• Annual NSF review of the Advanced LIGO project was held at the Hanford Observatory on April 28-30; report is pending.

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>, Ed Chavez <chavez_j@ligo.caltech.edu>,  Bob Taylor <taylor_r@ligo.caltech.edu>,  Mike Smith <smith@ligo.caltech.edu>, Mike Zucker <mike@ligo.mit.edu>, Hiroaki Yamamoto <hiro@ligo.caltech.edu> see the Adv. LIGO Systems wiki participated in the NSF review of Advanced LIGO, 28-30 April and the Adv. LIGO team meeting, 30 April

AdL Project-Funded Activities

Design/Readiness Reviews: For a list of reviews, see the main AdL wiki page.

• Optical Lever Design Requirements Review & Conceptual Design Review (DRR/CDR) has begun (Mike L. chair).
• Review of the UK provided ETM/ITM quadruple pendulum suspension electronics continues (Jay H., Vern).
• The Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for  Interferometer Sensing and Control (ISC) has begun (Daniel S. chair).

Procurement Techncial Reviews: see the procurement wiki.

• Provided technical review of RFQ SI-148b, HAM-ISI Machined Parts (Dennis).
• Provided technical review of RFQ SI-148d, HAM-ISI Flexure Rod (Dennis).
• Provided technical review of RFQ SI-148e, HAM-ISI, Spring Support Post (Dennis).
• Started technical review of  RFP CO-118a, Test Mass Coating (Dennis & Stan).

Technical Review Board (TRB): see the TRB log.

UHV & Vacuum Review Board (VRB): see the VRB log.

• Small Parts Washer: (Bob Taylor): I Have turned in a ticket on the electrical installation for the new Parts Washer in the Bake Lab. I have worked out a plumbing plan for the new Parts Washer and pre-fitted the parts. I had a meeting with campus safety, Larry  Martines  &  Karen  Baumgartner, on waste water disposal. They believe that there should be no problem with putting the water down the drain.
• Oven Temperature Stability: (Bob) I am testing the temperature calibration of Oven C in the Bake Lab.
• Optical Contamination Cavity Testing: (Bob T., Liyuan)
  • Cavity 1: 7 production BOSEMs.
  • Cavity 2: carbon-loaded PEEK; proposed as spool for the new value engineered OSEM (nickel plated PEEK might be a fallback).
  • Cavity 3: Started to reconfigure the OTF Lab to make more room for the third cavity being built and to correct some safety violations.
  • Queue:
    • Tra-Bond 2103 epoxy (a medium viscosity, low outgassing, general purpose epoxy) -- proposed replacement for Vacseal.
    • Krytox low vapor pressure lubricant (we have samples).
    • Torr-Seal (Varian adhesive -- proposed replacement for Vacseal).
    • Barrierta-IS (a German Company low vapor pressure lubricant alternative to krytox, that New Focus thought may be cleaner) (we have samples).
    • Retest ADE position sensor materials (2 Tra-Con epoxies) due to the anomalous test results (no samples in hand).
    • Copper & kapton clad fiber optic. Brian Lantz wants to test this material for use with an optics table, optical lever system. Could be used for ALS etc. Likely "inherently" vacuum compatible, but worth checking since it has a polymer. 
    • Nedox solid lubricant (for potential BSC-ISI tooling use (class b) but perhaps useful in vacuum as well) (had small sample -- likely inadequate in size).
    • Tungsten carbide/carbon (WC/C) sample (for potential BSC-ISI tooling use (class b) but perhaps useful in vacuum as well) (had small sample -- likely inadequate in size probably inherently vacuum compatible).
    • Cesic sample (composite ceramic of SiC, Si and C) possibly inherently vacuum compatible application is not clear (high stiffness to weight structure) (sample size adequate?).

Configuration Control & Documentation:

• Nothing significant.

Design/Planning:

• Systems Layout and associated items: (Calum, Ed) My talk from last weeks 'most hands' meeting at Hanford can be found here, G0900418 This week Ed and I have been concentrating on HAM 2 with Luke Williams. Yesterday Luke took ownership of all of the suspensions on the table and moved them to new positions, while at the same time Ed added the periscope assembly and in other locations and none the wiser to what was going on others including Andy Stein and Derek Bridges worked on the assemblies that Luke was moving around. I think we are now close to the point where I can say we are using the full power of the PDMWorks vault. Ed completed the SW model for BSC1-L1 Top Level Assembly, including the Excel BOM. Ed also added the In Vacuum Periscope to the Top Level Assembly of HAM2.
• Optical Layout: (Dennis) Held a Systems meeting 5/6 to review the status and work toward close-out of the actions reported in L0900030. A revision to L0900030 with answers/responses to many of the action items will be posted soon.
• Vacuum Equipment Layout: (Dennis) I've taken ownership of the SolidWorks VE files in the PDMWorks vault and am revising these models to e consistent (to parallel) the VE equipment arrangement organization. I am also revising the end station spool definition to be consistent with the optical layout.
• HLTS and HSTS on a HAM table: (Calum) I now have several results from my FEA model including a fully loaded table and am now at a point to look at an actual layout, probably HAM 2. I am also looking at how I will add a stiffener / damper to the model and need to talk to SUS about the representation of the non-sus mass in the FEA version of the HLTS structure. Liam Cunningham from Glasgow has offered to help me with the FEA. As I progress with this work the data with be posted at LIGO-T0900193
• COC: (Calum, Ed) Ed and I have now detailed the parts and assembly for the ETM / ITM "cake tins". Ed is now working on modifying his assembly for a FM test mass, since it is the first one that is required. He will then make a full set of engineering drawings for the FM sized cake tins for review. All of this work is being done with Mike Gerfen's input. I talked to various folks about the ergoarm while I was at Hanford and believe we now have an understanding on what changes will be applied to the existing arm, currently with Mike Gerfen. The one item that needs a bit of work is the addition of a vacuum monitor and alarm. Steve Vass has provided an idea for this and I will pass it along to Mike Gerfen for inclusion. At present we are going with the assumption that the ergoarm is first needed by SUS and COC at LASTI in late July.
• OMC Structure FEA (re-visited): (Calum) The report on the OMC Structure FEA is now complete and can be found at LIGO-TO70086. At Hanford last week I passed on the sensitivity of clamp position to relevant folks working on the OMC at both sites and discussed the possibility that for advanced LIGO we may need "stronger", "stiffer" dog clamps. I also sent a new set of dog clamps (cleaned and baked) to Hanford.

Interfaces: see the RODA status page and the Interface Control page.

• On and around the test mass: (Calum) The full list of proposed items, actions required now and a draft order of assembly are posted at LIGO-T0900092. Also included at this link is a first cut at a 3D layout, e-drawing, with all of these items included.
• PSL enclosure: (Dennis) Held a meeting with PSL group 30-Apr at LHO regarding the clean room/enclosure for the PSL. Discussed cleanliness requirements/approach and the desireability of raising the table and the floor in the PSL room.

Modeling and Simulation

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

TCS Simulation Using Static IFO Simulation (Hiro)

• Effect of gold shield Phil prepared two transmission phase maps induced by the CP plate which is heated to compensate the ITM thermal lens, one with and one without gold shield on the barrel of ITM. They can be very well characterized by a parabolic shape with ROC of 130km for the case with gold and 16.5km without. These are the values to compensate the ITM thermal lens with full load, i.e., the intrinsic thermal lens ROC is 5km. With the approximation that all thermal effects are of parabola shape, it is possible to heat the CP by 30% more to compensate the combined thermal lens of the intrinsic and CP-induced.
• Effect of surface deformation and ring heater Under the assumption that the CP thermal lens can fully compensate the intrinsic ITM thermal lens, the thermal effect which cannot be compensated is the ITM and ETM surface deformation. A ring heater is modeled by adding additional curvature on the HR side of test masses. Two cases were tested. One is that two ring heaters are placed to make the beam sizes and curvatures match to the cold state case values both on ITM and ETM. The additional ROC added to ITM is 120km and that to ETM is 160km. This restored almost perfect cold case FP cavity. Second is that one ring heater is placed at ETM. This case, the ROC added is 93km. With this configuration, the beam size on ITM is constrained to be the cold case value of 5.3cm. Because the ROC of the leaking field is different from the promptly reflected field, there is some loss of the signal, but the loss will be less than 1%.
• Requirement of the phasemaps in the CP plate If the diverging lens in the CP is assumed to be a nice parabola shape, the signal loss can be larger than 10% because the intrinsic thermal lens in ITM is not a parabola shape. The intrinsic thermal lens in ITM is parabola only within 5cm radius. So the net loss of the TCS system will be determined by the thermal lens in CP in the tail region, outside of 5cm, how well it can reproduce - or suppress - the intrinsic thermal shape.

Safety

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

• No notable activites, just safe work going on.

Quality Assurance

From: Mick Flanigan flanigan_m@ligo-wa.caltech.edu

• Phase one of the Inventory Control System is installed being tested. Phase two is in contract discussions.
• Following up on standard QA activities.

Facilities Modifications and Preparations

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

LHO Warehouse Progress:

• http://ilog.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=05/07/2009&anchor_to_
  scroll_to=2009:05:07:09:58:34-john.

LLO:

• We completed the new LDAS cluster assembly and are now starting the final prep of the high bay for SUS and SEI assembly.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

aLIGO Project Activities

SEI  Electronics Design and Fabrication:

• Four of the HEPI chassis are now ready for production.  These are the 8-Channel Valve Driver, Pier Interface, STS-2 Interface, and the STS-2 Distribution Board.  I'm finalizing the counts, and will begin the ordering process today. Gary is ordering the ADCs, DACs, AA and AI chassis that we will need.
• Mohana is finalizing the sheet metal drawings and PCB for the newest incarnation of her Coil Driver. The L4C cables are at Ticor Industries, and are in production.  I expect them back in a week, or so. ~Ben A.

HAM ISI Design and Procurement:

• Finished all machined parts drawings for Advanced LIGO HAM ISI. ~Andy
• The statement of work and drawings have been posted for the pod assemblies, miscellaneous machined parts, flexure rods, and spring support posts have been completed this week. Each of these are to be competitively bid. ~Stephany

SEI activities and Progress at LLO:

• Work continues with setting up the HEPI hut which contains the actuator flushing stand, the filter flushing stand and the valve calibration stand. We are almost done baking the parts for the tuned mass dampers, these will hopefully be installed next week.  ~Brian O.

BSC ISI Testing:

• We have installed the actuators JIG and identified the actuators transfer functions. They confirm the “Current/Drive” measurements who showed that the actuators have low frequencies poles and zeros. The large actuators have a first pole at 32Hz. The small ones have a first pole at 50Hz. Compensation filters will be implemented on the output of the front end to account accurately for those poles and zeros. This will make the ISI transfer function much closer of an ideal 1/f2, -180deg around the ugf, which is a systematic way to simplify the amount of control design work to be done.
• We are re-measuring the electronics transfer functions (GS13, Anti aliasing, anti image...) and time delay. Once this is done we'll start installing the new damping loops. ~Fabrice

Suspensions

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

Operations Work

• We have notified the vendor for the blade prototypes. Procurement is working on the PO. The material is being sent from Caltech to the vendor.
• Norna has updatd the RODA on choice of magnets on Advanced LIGO suspensions, after input from Systems (Peter Fritschel). In summary, all magnets used for dynamic controls signals will be SmCo.
• Dennis has approved use of clinch nuts for the large triple weldment prototype. The weldment drawing is being finalized now.

Project-Funded Activities

• The BOM for the OMC SUS is being finalized as part of the procurement preparation work.

Prestabilized Laser

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

Operations

• Whilst Bill was out, I was trying to find out the steps required for an eye exam at the Center for Occupational Health. Unfortunately we don't have an electronic version of the form but that is being worked on.

Project

• After the discussion about the Laser Area Enclosure at last week's NSF Review, a note was circulated listing the issues discussed. The note requested opinions on the issues raised such as:
  • Raising the height of the optical table.
  • Having a false floor.
  • Whether the size as described in the preliminary design document was sufficient.
  • Number and location of convenience electrical power sockets.
  • Location of utility and plumbing hook ups.
• All notions will be sorted out as part of an RFP to cleanroom vendors.

Input Optics

From: Rodica Martin <rmartin@phys.ufl.edu>

ELIGO Commissioning (LLO)

• We are working on aligning the input beam after unlocking the optics. (Kate)

ALIGO Design

• We are working on HAM2 layout. (Luke)
• We have been working on comparing various Gouy phase design in terms of thermal lensing tolerance and compared our results with Hiro's FFT results. Still more work is required. (Muzammil)
• We are modeling the Advanced LIGO interferometer in ZEMAX using the latest IO and COC optics specifications and coordinates, for an independent check of the beam propagation in the IFO. (Rodica)

ALIGO R&D

• We continued testing the LMA coatings at 90W incident power and ~45 micrometer beam diameter. (David F.)
• We are testing Watlow heaters for vacuum compatibility. These heaters have a built-in thermocouple. The initial test results are encouraging. There is still teflon insulation on the wires. Right now we are only testing the vacuum pressure. With heating turned off, our vacuum chamber provides about 3 x 10^-7 torr. With heating turned on and the temperature of the heater to 220 degree C, the vacuum degraded to 4.5x10^-7 but it is improving with time. The heater did not go through a bake cycle so we are baking it inside the chamber, in a sense. Next we would connect an RGA to the chamber. (Muzammil)

Core Optics

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

• A comparison of scatter measurements of RTS and CASI is basically done with one 1" HR mirror. While the micro roughness parts measured by the two systems are basically consistent, it's hard to get the consistent average of total integrated scattering (TIS). It's probably due to that the TIS of CASI inferred by its raster scan at 10 degree is not quite good for the high scattering points. Further investigation is underway.
• On a 3" HR mirror, a series of scans are just started to test different cleaning process carried out by Rand.
• Optical Coating Specifications are in the final approval process.

Auxiliary Optics

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

Work Under Project Budget

OPTICAL LAYOUT:

• Luke is working on the HAM2 layout. Rodica is in the process of verifying Mike's ZEMAX layout.

Work Under Operations Budget

OPTICAL LEVER:

• Mike and Doug made preliminary measurements of the angular sensitivity of the initial LIGO optlev test transmitter/receiver in the LHO lab under ideal conditions. The angular sensitivity is better than the +/- 0.7 microrad requirement for ADLIGO by >> an order of magnitude. The long term drift appears to be due to instabilities in the mounting and steering of the transmitter telescope assembly. Doug is in the process of testing the long-term stability and angular pointing noise over a period of several days. Cheryl confirmed similar angular sensitivity in the 1-100 Hz band. Riccardo sent out a rough draft of the conceptual design doc to the optlev review committee. Craig is completing shop drawings to be sent out to make a prototype pylon, which will be tested along with a more stable transmitter/steering design.

OUTPUT FARADAY ISOLATOR:

• Niem is testing a prototype of a wire clamp for the suspension. Mike and Ken are checking the drawings of the apparatus Niem designed for measuring the FI suspension characteristics.

35 W AIR-COOLED BEAM DUMP:

• K. Mailand's shop drawings  are complete, and Mike has checked them. Ken is awaiting completion of the DCN process before releasing the drawings to the shop.

MIDSTATION BAFFLE:

• Mike calculated that approximately 33 Watts will be scattered from the 4 COCs onto the proposed midstation baffle. With radiative cooling, the baffle will undergo a 15 deg C temperature rise. The scattered light analysis of the back-scatter from the baffle into the IFO mode is pending. Approximately 1 W of scattered light from each H1 COC travels down the arm and cross-couples into the opposite H2 COC at the other end of the arm. The midstation baffle will eliminate essentially all of the cross-coupled scattered light between the COCs of H1 and H2, and allow the two IFOs to make uncorrelated measurements of gravity wave background noise.

Control and Data Systems

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

Operations: R&D, ELIGO DAQ, and Electronics

LHO - Electronics:

• For eLIGO COmmissioning Diagnostics: Ran temporary cabling for an OSA on ISCT-4, which included cables for the AWG, DAQ, and a cable to a "Fibox" located in the LHO Control Room.
• Working with Benton PUD for new transformer for the warehouse. Demolition of the electrical for LDAS started Tuesday afternoon.

LHO - Systems/Software:

• Authcom-cds meeting raised the question of replacing the CDS wiki with a standardized common wiki; "moinmoin" and "twiki" are contenders.
• Linux workstation upgrades in control room continues.
• Verifying the validity of the frame8 frames.
• Moving DMT-GDS machines off the CDS network, migrating DMT data from hanford1 to dmt-raid, and getting arranging for Virgo-h(t) data to be written to dmt-raid.

eLIGO - DAQ:

• Working on standardizing the up-sample and down-sample fliter code for SEI. Base operation will be at 65,536 Sa/sec.

Project: AdvLIGO Systems

SEI:

• Four of the HEPI chassis are now ready for production. These are the 8-Channel Valve Driver, Pier Interface, STS-2 Interface, and the STS-2 Distribution Board. Starting procurement of the ADCs, DACs, AA, and AI chassis that will be needed.
• Finalizing the sheet metal drawings and PCB for the newest incarnation of the Coil Driver.

SUS:

• Continuing work on testing, qualifing, and reviewing SUS electronics for the triple systems.

DAQ:

• Work in progress on the first fullscale, 20-slot IO-chassis "Bluebox" (the chassis housing the ADC and DAC converter cards) for a many card test.
• Finishing the network drivers for the myricom networks and using ethernet.
• Writing drivers for the Inovative Integration ADC/DAC (a candidate for advLIGO converters).
• Testing of UK top coil-driver electronics for BSC test stand.

ISC:

RF Distribution

• Finished a prototype design schematics for an RF AM measurement device as well as an RF AM stabilization servo to drive an EOM or AOM.
• Finished a prototype design schematics for a frequency difference divider which can be used as a low noise VCO driver as well as frequency shifter for the green beam in the end stations.
• Added test procedures for the RF source, the RF amplifier and the demodulator.
• Added a generic design/BOM for the N patch panels.
• Preparing for a design review next week.

For additional information about this report, contact Albert Lazzarini