PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist, Beckett)

• Dave sent the monthly report to the NSF last Friday.
• A final report is due to the NSF at the end of June for the LIGO Operations Cooperative Agreement now completed.  Last week I issued some proposed writing assignments for the portions of the report required by FastLane, but which are not part of the “Activities and Findings” section, which is being handled by Stan.  The outline and assignments were discussed during the Executive Committee meeting and a revised version has been issued incorporating proposed modifications.  The material is due the first week in June.

CHANGE REQUESTS (Lindquist)

• LIGO-M0900124, version 4 - Change Request CR-090001 Rev 4, 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 been adjusted, and there may be some wiggle room in the MIT accounts.
• Funds were removed from the equipment budget for WBS 1.5.1 to reflect computers that were purchased under the MIT account.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

• No report.

Quality/Safety (Nolting)

LIGO Lab Safety:

• The revisions to the LIGO Observatory Operational Safety and Environmental Protection Manual is nearing completion.  Much work and research has been put into the new revision to ensure that the most current rules and regulations, as well as best safety practices are addressed.
• Peter King advised that there is nothing new to report from the Caltech LIGO Lab.

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

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

• Installing thin wires in the TTs was laborious, with multiple breakages on bothing hanging and install. We chipped the TT0 optic too, but a replacement was obtained. As of early Friday morning, all optics were back in HAM6 and the mode matching deemed sufficient. After some final closeout procedures, we will pump down and look at the impact of the work on the resonances in the 150-200Hz region.
• The first TT to have thin wires was OMC-shutter actuator TT1. This TT alignment was shown to be hysteretic under the large throw and latch of the (first hardware then) software shutter, displacing the beam off of the QPDs. The software shutter control was filtered to latch only for 3ms, then scale back signficantly. This new tailoring meant that gross misalignments on restoration from shutter to shutter were eliminated.
• Tuned mass dampers were installed on ISI blade springs.
• Central spot TCS beams on both arms were aligned, and electronics mods were made, so that the TCS subsystem is now ready for S6.

Astrowatch (D. White)

• Inspiral range = 6.5438Mpc, Uptime = 24%. There were 6 GRB's this past week, two we were up for: GRB 090515A occured at 04:45:09, GRB 090516A occured at 08:27:50.
• Dewhitening filters on the ETM's have been modified to try and improve on side coil alterations made previously. PSL has also been re-aligned, so we now get correct requested power.

Outreach (D. Ingram)

• LHO RET Mark Buchli (Issaquah -- Seattle area) brought Liberty High School's "Physettes" (young women's science club) to LHO for a visit on 5/15. On the evening of 5/14, four members of the Tri-City Astronomy Club plus LHO's Dan Moraru graciously provided a star-gazing session at LHO under windy but very clear skies.

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

General Operations (Rusyl Wooley)

• We opened the last three 48" gate valves this week.  This opened the main volumes to the beam tubes and allowed us to begin commissioning again. We completed the power wiring of the new LDAS cluster.  However, we still need to tie the shunt trip of the three distribution panels to the newly installed FM200 fire suppression system. We had five new people start at LLO this week.  Two aLIGO techs, two Mech Eng. Interns from LSU and one new grad student from LSU.

Enhanced LIGO Commissioning (Valera Frolov)

• The new OMC reflected port wave front sensing (AFWFS) was installed (in HAM6) and commissioned. The AFWFS consists of two quad photodetectors. The signals are demodulated at the OMC length modulation frequency to produce the angular alignment signals.
• The tuned mass dampers were installed on the ISI (HAM6) blade springs. We expect a factor of several reduction in the 153 Hz blade resonant peaks in the DARM spectrum. The ISI table motion couples to DARM presumably through the OMC beam jitter.
• The interferometer arms were open on Wednesday.  The arm cavities were locked and aligned. The input optics and the recycling mirror were also realigned. The ETMX mirror required relatively large pitch bias to align the cavity. The cause of this change is under investigation (it could be charging, rubbing, broken actuator).
• There was a problem with locking of the corner power recycled Michelson interferometer. It was found that the response of the reflected port RF photodetector was much smaller compared to the reference (the reference was taken with a single bounce RM beam and offsetting the MC from its fringe to produce the known amount of RF AM). The REFL PD was replaced with a spare PD. The PRM now locks with nominal settings.

CDS (Keith Thorne)

Upgrades:

• With Alex Ivanov, upgraded FB1 frame-writer and NDS server to final S6 config (64-bit code, compressed frames, GPS-index frame sub-directories).  Still need to upgrade frame concentrator code. Installation of GDS broadcaster, second NDS server waiting for Infiniband adapters to arrive this Friday.  Upgrade of FB0 systems waiting for LDAS to be setup and running with all frame archiving completed.
• Moved FB1 RAID and LDAS disk archive back to LDAS racks, which are now installed and powered.  Expect FB1 RAID back next week.
• Dan Kozak has finally set up DMT RAID system. He is still testing it before releasing to CDS for file installation.
• Xavier Amador has produced working GDS RPMs with all GDS tools (DMTViewer, diaggui, etc.) needed for Linux workstations in CDS control room.
• Still working to get TCS Chiller EPICS interface fully working.

Commissioning Support:

• Worked with Brian O'Reilly to understand failure of HEPI check valve script.  Root cause is non-determinant end of awg excitations by 'tdssine' function.
• Got ISI, OMC status variable databases from Tobin Fricke and Jeff Kissel.  These will be added to l1iocstat tomorrow.

System Administration:

• Ordered LCD monitors, Infiniband adapters.
• Reconfigured Computer Users Room space to accommodate two racks for storage of S6 spares (computers, switches, etc.)

LLO Outreach

(Kathy Holt)

• I attended the MSP Administrators conference in Baton Rouge for 3 days.
• We had one school visit of 41 students of 3rd and 4th grades and 15 parents from a local private school.
• Purchased new books from the NSTA in preparation to develop new professional development programs.
• Scheduled 5 new visits the upcoming school year.
• Spoke with an organization called Opening Doors, Inc. about displaying a mural in the SEC created by EBR students that combines Science and Art.  We are currently planning an event that will include the Councilman from the Gardere area, the Mayor of Baton Rouge and will present the students with certificates.
• Compiled time sheets for docent for the spring semester and faxed them to Luria.

(Amber Stuver)

• Gave control room tours to ~45 students, ~10 parents and 3 members of the public.
• Continued to develop new content for the new ligo.org web pages as part of the WebComm.  I am currently finishing up the "LIGO 101" introduction to gravitational waves and organizing various information for the students/teachers/public section.
• Confirmed with the Highland Road Park Observatory to give the Friday night lecture on 12 June on LIGO and Multi-messenger Astronomy in honor of the IYA09.

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)

• The ETMY coil balance looked bad. This was noticed by leaving the arms locked for a long time and monitoring the transmitted power change. The Y arm power slowly drifted and it had a very good correlation with the DC feedback force to the ETMY coils. If the coils are not balanced, the DC force meant to be applied to the beam direction also causes rotation of the mirror. By running f2pRatio script, which calculate the length to pitch coupling using the oplevs, we re-balanced the ETMY coils. Now the length to pitch coupling is much smaller for ETMY.
• When running the f2pRatio script, we found that the ETMY oplev was too noisy (about a factor of 10 worse than the others).  There was a lens mounted on a skinny long rod in front of the QPD. This lens induced a lot of seismic noise coupling to the ETMY oplev. We removed the lens.
• Caryn has been measuring the relative drift of the temperature sensors by putting them in a cooler box and recording the temperature readings with spare PEM channels. She observed some data drops in the recorded data. We don't know why at this moment.
• With the fclose problem fix suggested by Chris Wipf implemented, the seisBLRMS script has been working for 3 weeks without a crash.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

• This week Greg tested the new samples in the photothermal experiment. The overall amplitude of the effect is reduced, as expected, but the samples still are still exhibiting some anomalous behavior. The photothermal response, for example, does not scale linearly with the pump power, as you would expect. Greg is continuing to debug the apparatus.

LASTI (Mittleman)

Cavity Work

• Matt, Lisa and John continue to work on the cavity and think that they are close to being able to test the ESD drive. There is an entry on the LASTI ilog (http://www.ligo.mit.edu/ilog/) on Wednesday the 20^th.

ISI

• Fabrice is making progress on the ISI re-commissioning. He has installed damping loops, normalized the actuators and GS13 sensors, and started taking data for the damped plant. There is an entry on today’s Lasti ilog (Friday May 22).

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

__________

Chad Hanna:

• I have been working on high mass post-processing and gearing up for the review in Cardiff next week.
• I have been working on LLOID with Romain.

__________

Antony Searle:

• Compiled Matlab issues.
• Reviewing a paper for CQG.

__________

Cristina Valeria Torres:

• Work on test case data for autotrack development.
• Begin integration of autotrack (hybrid codes Matlab, Python) into the appropriate LIGO software repos.
• Submitted GWDAW13 proceeding article to CGQ.

__________

Stephen Privitera:

• This week I continued working with Chad and Antony on testing the sky map algorithm's sensitivity to uncertainty in the calibration response.

__________

Peter Kalmus:

• Contributed the ExtTrig results section to the Burst Group whitepaper.
• Submitted SGR storm stack paper to ApJL.
• Continued efforts on S5y2+A5 SGR analysis.

__________

Ajith Parameswaran:

• Helping the SURF student with the project proposal.
• Refereed a paper for CQG.
• Continued working on the spinning IMR waveforms.

__________

Amber L. Stuver:

• Continued working on human notification system (AKA drag you out of bed in the middle of the night software) for LOOC-UP's LUMIN software.  I am currently inquiring to TAMA about their infrastructure for crewless operations which also has this functionality.
• Requested information from the DAC on what MATLAB versions are needed for compiled codes and interactive codes for the up coming runs.
• Continued contributing to the new ligo.org pages as part of the WebComm.

__________

Anand Sengupta:

• Reviewing paper for CQG.
• Reviewing research proposals for Anahita Maghami and Tristen Miller (both SURF students) and answering many questions related to their project which would help them write their proposals.
• Highmass search run in various configurations of trigScan parameter/minimal match value and ethinca parameter to understand systematics. This would enable me to run the snr dependent ethinca which promises to reduce high snr background triggers.

__________

Pinkesh Patel:

• This week I worked on getting a little test script written for the review committee so that they could test the time series creation part of the code.

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• This week saw the introduction of a symbol table to map variable from the TCL layer to the C++ layer. This buffering step allows variables to be safely modified and used independent of threads. The variables are treated as read-only at the C++ layer. Now that the diskcacheAPI has its new core functionality implemented, system testing is resuming. Some problems have been found and are being tracked and corrected.
• The basic documentation for version 8 frameCPP library has been completed.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

• All A5 frames are now on T10KB format tapes with ssum set.
• Rearchived some older data that couldn't have md5sum/FrCheck done (e.g. /archive/40m) to T10KB.
• Finished building LLO /dmt and handed it over to Keith Thorne.
• Started configuring LHO /dmt.
• Helped rack new Thor box and 6140+expansion tray.

(Phil Ehrens)

• Configured authcore-dev.ligo.caltech.edu prototype and started configuring authcore.ligo.caltech.edu to be used by the myligo/roster system.
• Tried to install gridftp from the Globus Toolkit source on ldasdata8. Failed due to mismatched tool versions.
• Tried to install the latest version of the RT request tracking system on my desktop CentOS machine. Installation went okay, but configuring the RT::Mason Perl module with Apache has been fraught with problems. Will try installing the rpm version for CentOS next, which is getting rather old.
• Various user support activities.

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• No issues.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

• I have been testing LDAS RDS and hoft generation for E14.
• I have been keeping the archiving and the transfer of trend and raw astrowatch data running during the current LDAS downtime at LHO.  This includes adding tapes to the tape library and assisting with troubleshooting of problems as they occur.
• I have started preparing for the next release of LDG.
• I have purchased a PDU to distribute power to new servers for E14 and S6, and I am continuing to work with LDAS on plans to bring LDAS at LHO back online after contractor works finishes next week.

(Dan Moraru)

• Helped test LDG/VDT on Debian.
• Finalized layout of new cluster and determined cabling requirements.
• Set up VPN server and started configuring head nodes.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Warranty repair Sony notebook.
• Set up Ken's new precision laptop.
• Setting up lenovo S10 for brennan.
• Reinstalled xp 64 for stephany.
• Some more work on central logging (ligolog.mit.edu) using rsyslogd.
• Some printing problems on ligo.

Livingston

(Dwayne)

• After installing same version of Arkeia on all clients and server, Arkeia still hangs after three or four consecutive successful backups. I have generated the debug file and will open a support ticket.
• Created two more email accounts for new hires, added to mailing lists.
• Ordered and received three new workstations from Dell for assembly techs, re-imaged two with Christians unattended image.
• Continued assistance of setup of workstations for ME interns, replacing failed power supply in one.
• Patched and rebooted silenus after filesystem was marked read-only.
• Suspended cron job that was running snapshots on VM server.  I think this was causing the filesystem read-only problems as it was experienced on a couple of VMs.
• Ordered new laptop for a scientist.
• Received x4600 from Keith, installed Solaris 10 U 6, to serve /home for GC LIGO.ORG accounts and to serve applications.
• Updated JIRA to version 1.2.2, cleared all previous data from TEST system -Patched and rebooted kantech.
• Patched and rebooted conference room Mac Minis.
• Attended a few meetings.
• Worked a couple small procurement items.
• Numerous usual/unusual user support requests.
• Cleared spam trap daily.

Hanford

(Jonathan)

• Shipped spares back to CIT that were sent for NSF review.
• Moved DHCP server from green to paradise (new hardware, outside of my office).
• User support Mary Kurtz, Doug Cook, Hugh Radcliff, Jim Warner.
• Troubleshoot WAN problems with Larry, Pnnl, & es.net.
• Checking internal equipment, tracing a few cables, ... related to WAN and LAN issues.
• Troubleshoot some internal lan problems, apparently a GBIC needed to be re-seated.
• Installing a LIGO.ORG KDC (awaiting keytab file from auth project, I have the stash file however).
• Assisted an outreach presentation.
• Routine SPAM and dhcp work.

Caltech

(Veronica)

• Updates of the LIGO/LSC web applications.
• Updates of the GWADW09 meeting website.
• WebComm:  Posted various updates /fixes, troubleshoot scripts by Dennis and Amber.  Web content remains to be finalised.

(Christian)

• Ken Mailand - Installed and configured Autocad 2002.
• Cindy Akutagawa - Configured loaner laptop for Cindy to use on travel.
• Re-imaged two laptops that were returned to the loaner pull this week.
• Minor tweaks on the unit in the display case.
• Tested the deployed the latest Microsoft security patches.
• Working on new leopard 10.5.7 bugs/fixes.
• Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.

(Larry)

• Still working different procurement items. Wrapped up the latest SUN order and it should ship next week. Renewed some more matlab licenses. Working on a few more solidworks licenses. Received new comsol pkg. and will distribute it. Working on a couple more workstation and notebook procurements. Placed orders for misc. support items and still a few more things to order.
• Assisted a couple of users with printer/plotter and other misc. hardware setups on their computers.
• Setup VirtualBox on a couple of units.
• Worked on a number of new and old user accounts. Mostly, cleanup of old items.
• Ran new cabling in the computer room. Cleaned up some of the old cables. Rack mounted and installed a number of new servers. Removed some of the old equipment. Still cleaning up and organizing items from the conference.
• Delivered a projector for outreach use. Still checking on new projectors and will be getting rid of one of the projectors that has some hardware problems.
• Working with Jonathan to resolve a network performance issue between LHO and CIT.
• Working with Shannon on a new server setup in augmenting the ligo.org system.
• Helping other groups with logistics on conference setups. Fortunately, requests and related work have diminished this past week.
• Assisted in troubleshooting a couple of different licensing issues.
• Regular user assistance.

(Melody)

• DCC User support (removing wrong files and versions, allowing access).
• Working on a script to figure out the LSC Author List based on the Directory Services 2.
• Continuing with setting up myligo in authcore-dev.
• Some quick enhancement to increase the text entry field for DCC's Related Documents.

Distributed (Grid) Computing R&D (Blackburn)

Grid Application Development

Einstein@Home on the OSG:

• Even though we have reduced the number of jobs submitted to any single OSG site, we are seeing very similar throughput and credit generation.
• Made some improvements in the code to address signal handling issues seen on grid sites. On going testing to resolve difficulties catching signals. This is at least in part due to a Virtual Machine hosting the gatekeeper where this problem is being seen.
• Added new Globus timeout support to code and tested on Integration Testbed here at Caltech.
• Current OSG ranking statistics: Recent Average Credit (RAC) = 114,113.48 up by ~3,000 from last week; E@H ranking based on RAC = 10 down by 1 from last week; E@H rank based on accumulated credits = 36 up by two from last week.

Binary Inspiral Application on Grids:

• All Frame data for one week data analysis run is now in the Caltech torage Resource Manager (SRM).
• Have populated the catalogs in the ISI RLS server with locations of this week's worth of frame data for use by Pegasus workflow planner.
• Still writing a python script to do the SRM copy of Frame files onto OSG SE sites as well as populate the RLS server at ISI with the the catalog information for each SE.
• Modified Pegasus properties files to use SRM in workflows and currently testing.

Open Science Grid Integration & Validation Testbed

• In the process of testing out a new Validation Testbed (VTB) software stack on the Caltech cluster.
• OSG-JOBS has now seen a second crash while running binary inspiral jobs with a misconfigured Pegasus input file. This second time it was traced to an out of memory error.
• Identified some firewall constraints that were preventing Condor-G job submission on the cluster.
• Provided ongoing support for SRM use by LIGO applications.
• Hosted the OSG ITB "campfire" CHAT on Thursday of last week.
• Made travel plans to attend the OSG Storage Workshop at Fermilab and to visit with the Condor developers at UW Madison to discuss Condor-G.

Grid Management

• Recommended changes to the "The OSG Project Management Process" document to reflect role of OSG Council and to reflect the flexibility in the process to address anomalies in project plan.
• Reviewed and made suggestions for changes to a proposed MOU from Junwei Cao of Tsinghua University.
• Reviewed posted list of Council Representatives on the OSG web pages and identified several corrections to the web master.
• Assisted STAR VO representative to find policies and procedures for Virtual organizations to join the Open Science Grid.
• Continued to support LSC certificate and account request and to unravel odd situations seen by users.
• Discussed needed communications lists for SCAT announcements to LIGO Data Grid computing resource administrators and ways in which the Auth Project could facilitate registration on the lists. Presented plan to CompComm.
• Primarily worked to draft a response to EVO related questions from the NSF with the EVO team.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Management

No report provided.

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

AdL Project-Funded Activitie

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

• Optical Lever Design Requirements Review & Conceptual Design Review (DRR/CDR) continues (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) continues (Daniel S. chair).

Procurement Techncial Reviews: see the procurement wiki.

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

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

• Small Parts Washer: (Bob Taylor) I have been working with the campus electricians installing the 220vac 3 phase electrical for the parts washer in the Bake L:ab. It is done and I will finish the plumbing tomorrow. I should be able to test it tomorrow.
• OTF Lab: (Bob Taylor) I have built and tested a new temperature controller for the new test cavity in the OTF. I have installed new safety curtains in the OTF PSL & Test cavity rooms.  I am in the process of installing the Vacuum system on the New Test Cavity in the OTF. We will call the new cavity; Test Cavity 3 and I will make a Log sheet on the Bake Lab web Site tomorrow that will keepeveryone up to date on it's construction.
• 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: pending -- see above.
  • 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:

• COC support (Calum) 3 FM "cake-tins" have been ordered from Mike Gerfen (Caltech/CES). Ed is still working on the 3D SolidWorks drawings. However, Mike can start these in advance since he is the originator of the designs. Mike has a copy of the FM drawing. Rand and I met with Ric Paniagua in the Physics shop. Ric is going to make a prototype application jig for the 1st contact. The test fixture will be made for an initial LIGO sized optic. Ed is working on a 3D SolidWorks, advanced LIGO, sized design, based on the prototype. As well as being used for future full sized prototypes this will be used in my 3D assembly of items around the test mass. 
• COC / SUS support (Calum) 2 further ergo-arms have been ordered from Mike Gerfen (Caltech/CES) and one of the two remaining design questions on the existing one, which is being refurbished, has been resolved. The only outstanding question is whether or not we can incorporate the alarm in time on the refurbished one. (The alarm has a 12 week delivery time.)
• Workshop coordination (Calum) I have talked to Mike about all of the items he is working on for LIGO and have arranged the cake tins and the ergo-arms as the priorities. (He will also complete the large triple structure.) As a result of setting these priorities I went out to a local shop with the test structures, see below. 
• Coupled HAM/Payload Test Structures & Analysis (Calum) Today I visited a couple of local vendors with a view to them making 2 HAM triple weld-ment mock-up structures. I hope to have quotes by tomorrow. These will be used for damping / stiffening tests. The FEA analysis on this topic is continuing.
• Optomechanical Integrated Layouts (Calum) Ed and I are working on the Optomechanical layouts in SolidWorks. We now have 8 HAM's completed with all of  the major items represented with envelopes & mass budgets. Towards the end of the week we hope to have an additional 4 HAMs complete and will then move onto the BSC's. (A number of the BSC's are also close to completion but need checking.) We also hope to move on to adding the laser beams, imported from Zemax.

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

• On and around the TMs (Calum) in the following document,  LIGO-T0900092 you will find a list as I understand it of all of the items proposed for the area on and around the test mass. The purpose of this technical note is to summarise all of the changes that are required to accommodate these items in the parts leaving the UK in ~ May 2009 (mostly checking / adding / replacing holes in the lower structure face plates and other interfacing structural items), highlight any problems, offer recommendations (for consideration) and attempt to layout an order of assembly for these parts. I have also summarised the status of all of the items and have included a plan for updating all of them in a 3D CAD assembly, see 1st related document below, LIGO-D080475, as the designs develop.

Modeling and Simulation

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

TCS Study Using Static IFO Simulation (Hiro)

• The effect of the thermal shield designed by Calum was studied using the phase map studied by Phil. The non uniformity induces a prism effect in the vertical direction for the RF sideband and signal sideband, with the size of 0.35 micro radian.
• The effect of the thermal lens induced by the ITM ring heater was studied using the calculation by Matt. The lens induced by the ring heater provides almost idealistic lens effect and very small CP phase correction is enough to to make the mode matching almost perfect. Use of the ring heater on ITM may introduce additional noise, and the balance point should be studied.
• They are summarized in the following COC Wiki: http://ilog.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:7285/advligo/COC_
  Modeling?action=logout&logout=logout.

Safety

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

• Advanced LIGO recently hired two Technicians that will be dealing with inventory control and clean & bake activities.  AdL Safety held a meeting with both technicians to review the LIGO Vacuum Compatibility, Cleaning Methods and Qualification Procedures (LIGO-E960022) document…stressing safety precautions for rigging and lifting of parts. 
• Participated in the Design Review of the RF Distribution System on 5/20/09.
• Conducted a safety inspection of the areas of the LLO facility that support AdL activities, and was pleased to observe good housekeeping and safe work practices by workers in those areas.

Quality Assurance

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

Inventory Control System

• We have successfully completed the loading of our first official parts lists into the production system this week, and we can now proceed rapidly to populate the system with as many legacy parts as possible, as well as populating incoming PO based parts.
• Phase 2 development is underway. I have completed the workflows for the loads and modification records, as well as completed the initial designs of the parts views and load views. These items are now in the hands of the programmers and I will begin testing these this weekend. We have already seen our first load, clean load, come to the test system for review, and I am very happy with what I am seeing.
• Next week will begin the in house development of the defects integration effort to the JIRA system, as well as continued work on the permissions schemes. These will take several weeks to finalize, and I hesitate to say "finalize" because this will be an ongoing task as people are trained, or staff joins LIGO.

QA Issues

• Received 4 deviation reports from MCE related to the test stands they are manufacturing. Three of the reports were related to the stand already delivered to LLO last month, and these are known issues that we will address in house. A fourth deviation report was around an elevation error on a piece that was reported as non mating, however we have decided to take a closer look just to make sure there are no issues.
• There are some new vendors being looked at for electroless nickel plating, as well as potential machine shops more local to Hanford. I will be working with LIGO team to review the QA plans of these companies and perform audits so we can assess whether they are good choices to add to the accepted vendors list for their specific work.

Training

• I will traveling to CIT next week to work with Rod and Robert to go over JIRA and get them prepped for receiving goods, inspecting. Also will be spending time with Dennis to review the software, Rich to gather requirements for his electronics and others to introduce the new features in JIRA.
• For those with access, you may review the progress on the Phase 2 deployment and the design documents here: http://ilog.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:7285/advligo/Inventory_Control_System.

Facilities Modifications and Preparations

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

LLO:

• We finished the crane installation in the warehouse. We rebuilt the test stand for the quad suspension build. The last two aLIGO techs started this week.

LHO:

• The warehouse ceiling grid is in, lights are installed, hepa units are going in. Mechanical test stands from MCE arrived on site today. Warehouse ceiling - http://ilog.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=05/21/2009&anchor_to_scroll_to=2009:05:21:14:54:35-john.

Seismic Isolation

aLIGO Project Activities

SEI  Electronics Design and Fabrication:

• I spent some time reading up on the RF Distribution system and reviewing it on Wednesday.
• We have been getting together the cable and wire lengths for the HAM ISI in-vacuum wiring.  It's not needed for a while, but it has a long lead time, and some development will be needed for the in-vac backshells and shielding.
• We have made a new PCB layout for the GS-13 in-pod cables that incorporates  the new pressure sensor.  I 'm getting in some parts to check fits, then I will send the board out for fab next week.
• Alex is working to install LIGO programs onto the Single Board Computer for the HEPI pump servo.  Once he's done re-compiling, and stuff, I'll try to get a servo working.
• The PCBs and parts have come in for the STS-2 Interface, STS-2 Distribution Chassis, the Pier Interface, and the 8-Ch. Valve Driver.  We are going to kit up the parts and boards, and send them to Screaming Circuits by next week. ~Ben A.

HAM ISI Design and Procurement:

• We are working on bills of material for the HAM ISI hardware.
• The paperwork for the majority of the high-dollar-amount procurements for the HAM ISI has been submitted to procurement.   The smaller, shorter lead time items will start the procurement process next week.
• Arrival and Cleaning of SEI parts:  I’m putting together a part arrival schedule and cleaning time line for each of the sites for SEI parts.  I’ll be working with Betsy and Jodi at LHO on a process for all teams’ parts to go from arrival to cleaning and kitting at the sites.  We will have this ready by July when the SEI parts will begin arriving.
• All bids for the large plates have been received, we are evaluating the bids which may need NSF approval.

SEI Activities and Progress at LLO:

• Work continues on getting the HEPI hut up and running. Work continues  on calibrating valves and on getting the calibration program running on a newer version of LabView. New isolation loops are being designed for the HAM-ISI table. After the recent in-vacuum work (Tuned Mass Dampers, Extra Clamps etc.), the plant is now very clean below 100 Hz. A witness GS-13 is being used to compare the residual motion of the table at 100 Hz with the ground motion. ~Brian O.

HEPI Procurements and Assembly:

HEPI -- Jim Warner, Erik Allwine, Jodi Fauver, Hugh Radkins

• Pump Station -- Minor Pump Station assembly continuing.  Setback with Manifold--eight completed units arrived at electro-polish shop in poor condition.  UPS is investigating for insurance claim by fabricator.  I saw photos and don't think they will be too bad for repair/clean-up--fabricator agrees.  All units will be returned for 100% inspection and repair before again heading to polish.
• Machined parts -- LLO needs 2 more items for mid-June assembly push.  Have been promised these by June 5--meets schedule.
• Actuators -- KineOptics shipped 27 units this week.  Will start assembly of additional ~34 units next week. ~Hugh R.
• Kaman sent us another modified version of the DIT-5200 displacement sensors which were tested by Rich Mittleman. The results are posted in the SEI log  They told us they changed the bridge gain returning to its original value, the gain on the initial amplifier stage has been raised and the gain on the second stage of amplification lowered. Noise measurements are considerably better and meet our requirements.

R & D Activities

BSC ISI Design and Test:

Design

• Stage0: we are making progress on the "monolithic" approach. Stage0 will be made of two halves (each monolithic and 6in high) bolted together. Celine is optimizing the stiffness of the stage by doing iterative steps of webbing adjustments/Static FEA. A design review will be held tomorrow with SEI group.
• Pods: the adapter plate Sam has designed has been shipped to LLO. Joe will make leveling test on the horizontal GS13 to check this new design with minimum adjustability.
• Stage1: pins are added to each plates for the parts positioning. A design review will be held next Friday with the SEI group.

Control

• Normalization filters have been implemented to make the corners symmetric.
• Compensation filters have been implemented to account for the electronics and actuators dynamics.
• Damping loops have been implemented on Stage2. They have been designed to minimize the gain peaking at the lower ugf (~1Hz) and the upper ugf (~7Hz).
• We are going through the same steps for stage1. ~Fabrice

Suspensions

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

Operations Work

• Held a meeting with the blade vendor to review manufacturing specification. They have extensive experience on flexures, which is helpful. They've also sent a schedule of work, and will be sending weekly status reports on the fabrication effort.
• HLTS: Self clinching nuts have been ordered and should arrive at Caltech by Friday. Submitted or about to submit DCNs for mounting pads, rotational adjuster, earthquake stops, upper blade library of clamps and lower blade library of clamps. Continuing fabrication effort.
• HSTS: Structure is stable at 104 Hz first mode with no baffles and same clamping as used for testing initial input mode cleaner prototype structure. Work will start shortly to incorporate changes to the non-suspended mass.
• A mechanical engineering intern will be working this summer at LLO on a design for an automated blade spring testing machine.

Project-Funded Activities

• RAL provided packing slips and shipping info for the first quad parts shipments to the sites. LLO's box should be arriving next week. Rod Luna is working the LHO shipment in Seattle Customs.
• Provided suspensions assembly overview to new LLO technicians and inventory personnel.
• Reviewing SOW info for the OMC weldment/machined parts procurement.
• Had first monthly meeting with Mick Flanagan on a range of topics including upcoming assembly work, ongoing and upcoming procurements, test plans, inspection requirements.

Other Activities

• Monthly SWG telecon held on 15th, minutes posted. Meeting included discussion on updating instrument science white paper.

Prestabilized Laser

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

Operations

• Nothing significant to report.

Project

• I completed most of the as-built PSL rack drawing for LLO. A small number of signals need to be resolved.
• The 200-W engineering prototype laser has been installed at the AEI. Apart from some minor flooding, the installation went well. Some re-alignment of the system is required. The laser is back up and running, although it is not injection locked at present.
• I have started sketching out the mechanical assembly for the power stabilisation photodetector. As part of the assembly, I have been looking for manufacturers of 0.25 in. non-polarising beamsplitter cubes to split the light between the photodetector and the alignment quadrant photodetector.

Input Optics

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

ELIGO Commissioning (LLO)

• We worked on realigning the interferometer now that the arms are open. The PRM won't lock, so we've helped try to diagnose the problem. We've also been helping develop a method to center the beam on all mode cleaner optics. (Kate)

ALIGO Design

• We are working on IO layout LLO (almost finished!). (Luke)

ALIGO Acquisition

• We are working on substrate drawings for RMs and PMMTs. (Luke) We are working on polishing specifications for the small recycling mirrors and PMMT mirrors for Advanced LIGO. (Rodica) We are preparing a bid package for polishing the small recycling mirrors and PMMT mirrors. (Rodica)

ALIGO R&D

• We continued high power testing of the LMA coatings. (David F.)

Core Optics

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

• One of the 3 polish demo HR mirrors has been scanned on RTS for the integrated scattering after drag wiping with methanol and First-Contact cleaning respectively. While the result of drag wiping is 5.4 ppm, the result of FC cleaning shows an increase of about 1 ppm. On the 2d map, it looks like that something is left there after the FC cleaning. Further investigation under microscope is ongoing. Scanning the 2nd mirror on RTS is just started. Unlike for the 1st mirror, we'll measure it without cleaning, after FC cleaning and drag wiping.
• Hiro has modeled phase change due to an asymmetrically shielded TM http://ilog.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:7285/advligo/COC_Modeling
• We had a successful kickoff meeting at Tinsley, attended by representatives from all subcontractors. Presentations will be posted in the DCC as Lab Business.

Some Highlights:

• TDM for 1/2 tolerance goal on ITM wedge, this can be done at no cost.
• Spec change for R3 rocs (official change order), this can be done at no cost.
• Put in a RFQ on tooling and reference flats.

LIGO to provide:

• Provide clear aperture on CP bumper holes.
• Do we need CP holes polished? (what is the shape tolerance?).

Auxiliary Optics

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

ADLIGO Work Under Project Budget

OPTICAL LAYOUT:

• Luke has almost completed the HAM2 layout for L1.
• Mike has a preliminary layout for all the optlev beams in H1, and part of H2. In addition, he has a layout for the photon calibrator beams for H1 and H2.
• K. Mailand worked with Edwardo and mounted his preliminary SW model of the elliptical baffles with their suspensions inside the BSC2 chamber in the integrated SYS layout.

Work Under Operations Budget

OPTICAL LEVER:

• Tara calculated the heat-induced curvature of the ITM HR and ETM HR surfaces with various arm powers for AdLIGO. With high power, the induced curvature at approx. 4 cm from the mirror center has a slope of > 1 mircrorad, which is about the same tilt angle the optical levers are trying to monitor. It should be possible to make a new spool piece adapter viewport ring with viewports located at the correct circumferential positions to enable the optical lever beam to hit the exact center of the mirrors.
• Doug and Cheryl are in the process of testing the long-term stability and angular pointing noise of the initial LIGO optlev over a period of several days. Craig is working on the pitch/yaw mechanism and the mounting base for the optlev telescope, which mounts to the new pylon.
• Mike has determined the launching and receiving heights above the floor for the optical lever beams and the position where the beam hits the optic, using the ZEMAX layout.

OUTPUT FARADAY ISOLATOR:

• Some of the parts for the FI suspension prototype have been ordered. Niem is modifying some of the drawings.

TCS:

• K. Mailand is working with Phil to design a heat-stabilized enclosure for the TCS laser.

PHOTON CALIBRATOR:

• Mike's layout concept for the photon calibrator beams uses periscopes mounted to the walls inside the manifold adapter to steer the reflected beams out thorough a viewport.

Control and Data Systems

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

Operations: R&D, ELIGO DAQ, and Electronics

LHO - Systems/Software:

• Installed S6 hardware for the DAQ system. Working with LLO staff to standardize the DAQ systems across the sites. 
• Porting the control room from solaris to linux workstations continues. 

LLO - Systems/Software:

• Upgraded FB1 frame-writer and NDS server to final S6 config (64-bit code, compressed frames, GPS-index frame sub-directories). Still need to upgrade frame concentrator code. Installation of GDS broadcaster, second NDS server waiting for Infiniband adapters to arrive this Friday. Upgrade of FB0 systems waiting for LDAS to be setup and running with all frame archiving completed. 
• Moved FB1 RAID and LDAS disk archive back to LDAS racks, which are now installed and powered. Expect FB1 RAID back next week.

Project: AdvLIGO Systems

SEI:

• Collecting the cable and wire lengths for the HAM ISI in-vacuum wiring. It's not needed for a while, but it has a long lead time, and some development will be needed for the in-vac backshells and shielding. New PCB layout for the GS-13 in-pod cables that incorporates the new pressure sensor. 
• Installing LIGO program set onto the Single Board Computer for the HEPI pump servo. 
• We have received the PCBs and parts for the STS-2 Interface, STS-2 Distribution Chassis, the Pier Interface, and the 8-Ch. Valve Driver. 
• ISI Coil Driver - The PCB layout has been sent to the Sunstone for fabrication. Finalizing the BOM for the parts to be ordered.

SUS:

• Presented the final design of the Triple Suspension Acquisition Coil Driver to the CDS group. It appears to meet all of the requirements. 
• The final board layout for the Acquisition driver has been completed and 3 pre-production prototypes will be fabricated. One these have been tested and the design verified, the entire design package will be given to the UK group for production. 
• Review of the UK Coil Driver and Monitor electronics for post-prototype readiness.

DAQ:

• Software driver written for new 18bit DAC; DAC testing started. 
• Modifying realtime code generator to handle longer model names (present limit of 3 char).

AOS:

• TCS - Tested and will ship the TCS Thermistor circuit, DCC number D040509, to LLO for the chiller work.

ISC:

• Finished study of triboelectric noise on ESD drive cable. Conclusion is that the induced triboelectric noise produced by the ground motion of the HAM or BSC chamber is below the threshold of concern so far as producing motion on the optics via electro static deflection. 
• Measuring the linearity of op-amps and demodulators used in AdLIGO RF detection chain. A note recording measurements is being prepared. So far, the limiting component in the detection chain is the RF operational amplifier used in the RF photodetector head. An alternate, more linear amplifier is being measured. 
• Participating in the design of the new AdLIGO OSEM design. My part is to create the prototype flexible circuit board design that couples the LED/PD and coil wires to the connector. 
• Sent a newly designed, in-vacuum stainless backshell for the B-OSEM connector to the UK for consideration. This design allows simple shielding of the four OSEM connections. 
• Review of the RF Distribution System proposed for AdLIGO for fabrication readiness. 

For additional information about this report, contact Albert Lazzarini