PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist, Beckett)

• We submitted the report for the end of June to the NSF on Wednesday.
• We submitted the Final Report for LIGO Operations (FY 2002-FY2008) to the NSF (via FastLane). 
• Contributions for the Annual Report for LIGO Operations (FY 2009) were due Friday, July 17th.

CHANGE REQUESTS (Lindquist)

• Dennis Coyne has submitted change request for CCB consideration; there has been no action on it yet.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

• No report.

Quality/Safety (Nolting)

LIGO Lab Safety:

Peter King:

• Conducted a safety briefing for a few new hires and students. 
• Reviewed draft of a temporary SOP for an experiment in the sub-basement of W. Bridge.

David Nolting:

• David Nolting met with Caltech Safety regarding safety training options for LIGO employees. 
  A plan is now in effect and a working product will be presented at the next Safety Steering Committee Meeting on 8/6/09.
• Met with Peter King and Bill Tyler to finalize the outline for Laser Safety Re-certification training, which will also be presented at the next safety meeting.
• LIGO Safety met with Phil Ehrens to discuss the creation of a new “initial” first reporting form for incident and injury notification. 
  Also, the LIGO Laboratory Safety Page will be updated to reflect access to all safety related information across the project.

Computer Security (Singer)

• Got cfengine working and tested for LHO CDS.
• Planning for NSF Cybersecurity Summit in September in Washington, D.C.
• Planning for myLigo code revew next week.
• Wrote pages for Auth project wiki on some kadmin practices.
• Set expiration dates on kerberos credentials for SURF students

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

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

• Lock durations are still shorter than desired. Once in a while we see 4-hours continuous operation, but most of the time it is still 1 to 2 hours or shorter. We're also suffering from what seems to be the digging activity in Hanford site, but when it's quiet the inspiral range goes to 16+ Mpc.
• Lightning struck somewhere near LHO on Sunday night, causing a short power glitch. Many computers as well as the PSL and TCS lasers were shut down. H1 came back the next morning.
• Power supply of the ion pump that used to sit on top of HAM6, and wall wart type power supplies for CCD cameras on HAM6, were found to be one of the biggest emitter of 60Hz lines. Pump supply was moved to the mechanical room, and the wall wart was replaced by 12V DC supply. After these changes, 60 Hz line in DARM_ERR got noticeably smaller.
• Feed forward from the magnetometer nearby HAM6 to OMC tip-tilt coils is being tested to further squash the 60 Hz line.
• Detchar group reported that most of the big DARM_ERR glitches come with OMC QPD3 glitches. This turned out to be the ADC saturation, and as a fix the hardware whitening for OMC QPDs were made less aggressive. It is not clear if the QPD glitch was the cause or result, though. We'll have to wait for another report from Detchar about any change in the glitch behaviors.

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

Enhanced LIGO Commissioning

• No report this week.

LLO CDS (Keith Thorne)

Science Run Support:

• Updated conlog query scripts to run on both Linux and Solaris. This allows their use on the new LLO CDS web server.
• Updated Figure-Of-Merit (FOM) templates and scripts to meet DetChar specification.
• Corrected scripts for automated posting of per-shift FOM and science segments.
• Installed working DMT Viewer on Linux workstations.  Still need lscsoft RPM that has working dtt, awg as well.
• With Alex Ivanov, fixed filled-up FB0 Frame file system, filling in missing frames from FB1 system.

Commissioning Support:

• Updated channel lists to add OMC QPD1,2 to frames.
• Readied TCS Chiller upgrade for future maintenance period.

SysAdmin:

• Reinstalled OS on Linux workstation that had failed during updates.
• Received and starting configuration of new CDS laptops for sysadmin and operator tasks.
• Installed trackballs on Linux workstations.

LLO Outreach (William Katzman)

• Visited with Luria Stubblefield and Joseph Meyinsse of Southern University to talk about the partnership and grants.
• Cleaned the internal parts of the Distilled Light & Soap FIlm Painting exhibits.
• Continued scheduling field trips and tours.
• Had one public tour with A Southern University Physics professor and guests.
• Prepared for project MISE.
• Ordered classroom and exhibit maintenance supplies.
• Investigated possible exhibit purchases

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

Hysteresis & Tiltmeter R&D (Andrey Rodionov):

• In Lab 04 Gong Pu, Andrey Rodionov, Riccardo DeSalvo were debugging/repairing/improving electrical circuits for the LVDT coil drivers. In particular, after discussing the circuit design with Virginio Sannibale, we decided to replace several resistors in the circuits to avoid the saturation effects. Also, fans were added to our coil driver circuits to provide cooling. These coil drivers are parts of the setup for the future experiment comparing the behavior of maraging and glassy metal GAS springs. Waiting for the struts to support the mini -AS filters.  We expect it will take 2-3 weeks to build the experiment.
• In lab 56 the tiltmeter behavior has been further studied fitting the data.  Problems seem to indicate trouble with the LabView program speed. Special attention is paid to analyzing the response of the system to the two types of excitation (step-like function and kick-like function) for various values of the kEMAS parameter. As a reminder, by varying the EMAS (Electro-Magnetic Anti-Spring) parameter in our Labview-based control program, we change the effective stiffness coefficient kEMAS of the oscillations of the tiltmeter. Changing the EMAS is equivalent to moving the masses on the horizontal levers of the tiltmeter so that they are higher or lower from the pivot point, which leads to the change in the frequency of oscillation.
• Morgan Asaador is looking into the data for the response of the system to the step-function excitation of the tiltmeter. Her analysis is under way, and we want to compare her results of response to the kick excitation for various values of kEMAS coefficients (the case of kick excitation is studied by Amanda O’Toole). Different levels of amplitudes of the exciting step-function will be studied.
• Amanda O’Toole is continuing analysis of the response of the tiltmeter to the kick-like excitation for various values of the effective stiffness coefficient kEMAS. Effect on frequency and Q-factor is being investigated. Also, Amanda calculated the “Volts per Newton” calibration constant for the actuator coil driver.  In order to determine this calibration constant, we added the washer of known mass to a known position on the lever of tiltmeter, and measured the change in voltage needed to bring the system back to the balanced position.  By calculating the torque on the system from the washer, we were able to extract the calibration constant.
• Abhik is further exploring the stability and trends of the system that we recorded with no feedback during the long “4-th of July weekend”. In the first quarter part of the data he has found 4 jumps (discontinuations in the trend) and 2 re-excitations (followed by ringdown, without discontinuity of the trend). We believe that these 4 jumps cannot be simply explained by some outside noise, but that these jumps are rather indicating about some software/electronics problems. Abhik is going to continue his analysis.

From Homestake (Jan Harms):

• The 2000ft-B station is completed except for grouting the tile. The data during the day is not good due to drilling operations. So we will have to wait until tomorrow before we can look at the first correlations between 2000ft-A and 2000ft-B. The 4100ft would also be taking data now if we did not run out of flat cables (50ft is needed between instrument and computer chamber). We will buy flat cable in Rapid City tomorrow and finish the station on Friday. If we are lucky, then we will also have network on Friday.
• Larry has set up a weather station with thermometer, anemometer, barometer. The data are available to everybody as far as I know.
• Jan has given a very good outreach seminar to high school students, we asked that the seminar is repeated at Caltech Tuesday, August 4, 1:00 PM, PDT SCR, 351 W. Bridge: Jan Harms (Minnesota) “Black Holes and the Silence of the Homestake Mine”.
• Other information on Homestake can be found at (for password access please ask Vuk Mandic): https://zzz.physics.umn.edu/groups/cosmology/ligo/private/dusel/july_14_2009.

TNI & Coating R&D Notes

• The TNI vacuum chamber was opened and the mode cleaner mirrors were cleaned and are being reinstalled in preparation for the new mirror test.   E.T.A. of New mirror from LMA end of this month. ~Akira Villar
• Greg has nearly finished moving his experiment to the new lab room. ~Greg
• Riccardo and Innocenzo are working on a proposal to design an optimized coating using titania for the high index layers. ~Riccardo

Controls and Data Systems (Bork)

See Advanced LIGO

40-Meter Interferometer (Adhikari)

• Work continues on design of the tri-mod EOM, the acoustic noise cancellation, and the GigE phase camera.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

• Nothing significant to report this week.

LASTI (Mittleman)

No report provided.

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

__________

Stephen Privitera:

• I fully implemented a low pass filter to my Monte Ccarlo calibration code.
• I have begun to generate sample calibration response functions from this code and plot these results in python.

__________

Diego Fazi:

• Attended the Scimon Training Session.
• Started creating a project report page for Spinning Binary searches.
• Started working on the post-processing pipeline to include LIGO_LW xml output in the plotting scripts.

__________

Amber L. Stuver:

• Continued working with Brenden Simeneaux (LLO RET teacher) on initial LOOC-UP image processing pipeline development. His stay is nearing the end and we are wrapping up his project for presentation next week.
• Researched more sophisticated methods of determining the amount of shift between two images of the same thing. I've dug up a phase correlation method that I've tested and is showing promise. (This is for the continued development of the LOOC-UP image processing pipeline.
• Continued organizing with the MatApps team and DASWG for the conversion of the current MatApps CVS to an SVN repository. Interested parties are being identified and contacted to aid in this smooth transition.
• Ran shifts.
• Worked on organizing an invited session for the March APS 2010 Meeting on Education Scientist to Discuss Science and Religion.

__________

Drew Keppel:

• Investigating mounting options for accelerometers in the 40m related to adaptive filtering.
• Investigating different implementation of the chi-squared veto in LLOID

__________

Chad Hanna:

• Continued high mass post processing.
• Worked with the surf students on:
  • Mireia: Investigated time shifts for LLOID to reduce template number.
  • Anthony: Running followup pipeline on E14 Hardware injections to seek if the sky localization code worked

__________

Cristina Valera Torres:

• Work on tracking TCS lines with drumhead alias (7050Hz)lines which are in the raw frames as opposed to using a custom fast channel to see the 9334 Hz lines.
• Continue investigation into E14 iHope triggers which were coincident with cWB triggers. The results will be posted here when study is complete https://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/ligovirgo/cbcnote/Report_E14_Ihope_triggers_coincident_with_cWB which should be ready for brief discussion during next CBC telecon.
• Work on implementing new interface to follow up pipeline to match major code shifts in iHope output data product format.
• Finish last revisions to GWDAW13 paper addressing referee comments

__________

Anand Sengupta:

• Running MVSC on E14 triggers.
• Mentoring Anahita with her SURF research - in particular we made some progress with plotting horizon distances as a function of direction in the sky (with INDIGO).
• Mentoring Tristan with his project - we created a template HTML file which will be generated with MVSC.

__________

Kipp Cannon:

• Working with Dan Stratman (SURF student) on a new approach to deconvolving images produced by omni-directional aperture synthesis algorithms like the directional stochastic radiometer.
• Working with Mireia Crispin-Ortuzar (SURF student) on a technique for reducing the rank of inspiral template banks.
• Working with Chad Hanna and Drew Keppel on the development of a low-latency inspiral search pipeline (LLOID).
• Working with Chad Hanna and Collin Capano on improving inspiral post-processing tools.
• Working with Chad Hanna to complete the S5 high-mass inspiral analysis.
• Working with Larry Price (UWM) and Chad Hanna on issues related to IMR analysis.
• Spent some time organizing progress reports from people working on inspiral source localization.

__________

Ajith Parameswaran:

• At Marcel Grossman meeting.

_________

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• Several of the threading issues have been addressed. Long term testing of these modifications will start Friday, July 17th.
• Handling of active directories asynchronously from the deep scans is not yet thread safe and is currently disabled. This is the next task to address.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

Caltech

(Phil Ehrens)

• Supported MOU review process.
• Transferred seismic svn repository from betelgeuse to vcs.
• Various user support duties unrelated to the MOU review.
• Worked with Cindy Akutagawa to create new Visitor Application instruction document.

(Josh Abadie)

• Setup new network for cluster.
• Removed old network cables.
• Migrated all servers to new network.
• Fixed various issues on the cluster.
• Began work on new monitoring solution.
• Nearly finished installing 10gig backbone of new network.
• Monitored cluster and addressed user issues.

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• More Bates Computer Centerwork -- all hardware is in (except for 7 more network switches to arrive), and wired (except for racks awaiting switches). Dismantling the NW17 cluster room.

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

• Some of the rsync scripts had to be restarted due to LHO's gateway problems.
• Replaced 71 tapes.
• Resyncing corrected XML files from LLO and LHO.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

• Updated the LDG Server Installation instructions to turn on fetch-crl and informed the LDG cluster system administrators.
• Debugged and found work-arounds to get ligolw_segment_query to work, with help from DASWG.
• Set up the environment on the LHO cluster for ligolw_segment_query and ligo_data_find to automatically find the correct servers.
• Copied version 6 E13 frames to the LDAS archive.
• Worked with LDAS on recovery from several server crashes.

(Dan Moraru)

• Upgraded Condor to version 7.2.4 on nodes and central manager.
• Rezoned FC switch and brought qfs-nfs1 and qfs-nfs2 into production.
• Attended scimon training session.
• Assisted users with Matlab and other software.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Prep for next week mtg (went over A/V conf setup next door in plasma).
• Working on matlab license renewals.
• Set up new centos machine for brennan.

Livingston

(Shannon)

• GC/Net/Auth -Installed vmware server on M1.
• Installed and configured CanIT for ligo.org email filtering.
• Coordinated MX record changes with Larry.
• More alias & mailing list management & coordination with Larry.
• Rebuilt raid on my workstation... still some flakiness, suspect the Seagate drives.
• Notified Dwayne of some suspect traffic at LLO.  He is looking into one of the suspect machines.
• Reviewed IDS logs, account management, etc.

Hanford

(Jonathan)

• Installed ligotools on server redoubt to help scimons run omega scans while the full LDAS/web interface is being developed.
• Helped Dave Barker with Arkeia upgrade.
• Adjusted network shares to allow access from another control room system.
• Put pam_script PAM module into production use to transparently create LHO kerberos + SMB entries.
• User support Carol Wilkinson, Patick Thomas (c code), Rick Savage, Corey Gray.
• Checked GC systems after a electrical glitch (possibly storm related).
• Testing cfengine for system/config management.
• Rebuilt infected machine for Kyle Ryan.
• Helping Jodi F migrate off of temporary machine and back to her repaired laptop.
• Also looking at a webmail implementation. I will likely settle on Horde as it supports Kerberos authentication.
• Routine spam and dhcp checking.

Caltech

(Veronica)

• More work on the old DCC migration.
• Updates of the PAC website.
• Updates of the LSC internal wiki.
• Updates of other LIGO/LSC webpages.
• User support -- Cindy with the roster database/website.

(Mike)

• Worked on swapping out a user from a workstation to a laptop. A lot of work copying over her data, and loading additional applications. Also setting up her docking station/monitor.
• Trouble shot a problem with ADVLIGO server. This turned out to a software issue that was causing adobe to crash when printing reports in PRISMPM. This would cause adobe distiller to crash.
• Restored a users mail file to replace the corrupted one, which occurred during a system power failure. This was a project, due to the users mail being left up on the server growing to over a Gigabyte. I had to clean up his old mail, before I could recover his current email.
• Loaded SUN workstation for a user due to hard drive failure.
• Finishing up another windows build to push out a new workstation.
• Continued work on swapping out a Engineering workstation. This is an on going project.
• Surplus some old equipment for a user that has been upgraded with a complete new workstation with monitors.
• Ordered some equipment for GC, and users.
• Spent time on reconciliation.
• Worked on ADVLIGO backups.
• Other misc. onsite/phone user support, plus sysadmin tasks.

(Melody)

• DCC User support (removing wrong files and versions, allowing access, creating new groups).
• Continued addressing myLIGO trouble tickets which has been mostly adding and removing users from the roster.
• Still need to work on the LAAC wiki to assign the access levels using DS2's position codes.

(Christian by Larry)

• Assisted a number of users with setups on PC and Mac machines.
• Tested equipment for another EVO setup.
• Wrapped up a Labview computer setup.

(Larry)

• Worked a number of procurement items. Wrapped up a number of license items and have a few more to do. In the process of getting more Solidworks and Comsol licenses. Assisted others with their P-card issues. Worked on reconciliations, there were a number of items needing charges to be resolved.
• Installed another server. Still some final work needs to be done. Need to rework the installation of one of the test boxes. Rack mounted another box in the server room as well.
• Assisted a number of the SURF students with different items. They are all getting settled in and working.
• Worked with a couple of labs on getting their equipment setup. As part of the work we were able to confirm the NIS+ setup works on virtual boxes.
• Setup a couple of new user accounts. The last of the SURF students has arrived and is setup. Worked a number of alias modifications.
• Assisted on some logistical issues for the PAC meeting coming up.
• Regular user assistance and meetings.

Distributed (Grid) Computing R&D (Blackburn)

Grid Application Development

Einstein@Home on the OSG:

• An issue with the use of symbolic links in filenames was discovered while running at MIT-CMS. This is straightforward to fix.
• A configuration issue which caused preempted jobs to unsuccessfully restart at MIT-CMS has been resolved by their site admins.
• A new branch in the Einstein@OSG code base was started in the code repository to support the a new Condor-G based job submission mechanism. Condor-G should improve some of the load issues seen in the past on gatekeepers and allow a greater number of job slots to be used on large sites.
• Have been testing the next OSG software stack on the OSG ITB grid with the E@OSG codes. A few minor issues have been found but quickly resolved. At present, this code has successfully run at 5 out of 6 sites on the ITB grid.
• Recent Average Credits for the past week were 170,393 credits, up from last week's 152,378 credits; Weekly rank based on Recent Average Credits rose by 2 last week, but dropped by one this week; Accumulative rank for total credits for all time is now 25th for the past two weeks.

Binary Inspiral Application on Grids:

• Testing of the CBC codes against the new OSG software stack has been very challenging. The codes use Pegasus which uses VORS to gather site information on the OSG. OSG has deprecated VORS in favor of MyOSG. But Pegasus doesn't support MyOSG yet. This is impacting our ability to test CBC codes on the OSG Integration Testbed.
• There are several feature changes to Pegasus that Duncan Brown has requested in support of a new version of the ihope CBC code base. These are needed to move forward on being able to run contemporary ihope/LAL code bases on the OSG.

Open Science Grid Integration & Validation Testbed

• Participating in the pre OSG 1.2 software stack testing on the OSG Integration Testbed Grid. Testing has been going well, though a significant number of issues have been discovered.
• Encountered a memory resource issue with frame data transfers onto the Caltech ITB cluster. Robert found the problem in the configuration of the Virtual Machine and testing has resumed.
• Robert will begin acting as the Documentation Architect for the ITB group beginning this fall.

Grid Management:

• Met with staff to get update on status of ongoing testing and development.
• Organized and held monthly OSG Council Telecon. Minutes are now posted on the OSG Council Website.
• Discussed agenda items for next months OSG Council Face to Face with Ruth Pordes and Paul Avery. Will be working to include TeraGrid Management in the meeting.
• Reviewed several documents regarding a "coherent national cyberinfrastucture" vision that the OSG is working toward for the funding agencies.
• Discussed a suggested satellite proposal and key elements that should go into such a proposal with Council co-Chair (Paul Avery).
• Resumed responsibilities for LIGO X509 certificates and LIGO Data Grid user accounts from Scott Koranda after returning from vacation.
• Was interviewed by iSGTW (international Science Grid This Week) writer for an article about LIGO and its use of grid computing to appear some time in late August.
• Provided OSG Project Manager with quarterly report per our Statement of Work.
• Worked with Karl to track down the status of a no-cost extension to the OSG subaward. The terms of the current subaward end next month. University of Wisconsin Madison has processed the paperwork. It should be in the hands of the Caltech SRO.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Management

From Carol Wilkinson

Project Controls

• There were no change requests processed this week.

Staffing

• Ads are out for additional project staff, with interviewing of candidate in progress: 2 real time programmers for the sites, 1 ME and 1 draftsperson for Systems engineering, and 1 Electech at CIT.
• The project has agreed to hire another drafter at MIT to help with the drawings for Seismic Isolation procurements.
• LIGO management has agreed to hire 2 temporary designers/drafters for SUS and AOS development and design efforts. A contract designer has been brought on board for the SUS work at LLO.

Procurements

For Ed Jasnow

• Participated in negotiations with one of our coaters on the core optics coating contract.  Many issues were resolved and a revised contract has been sent to them.
• Presented a counteroffer to the other coater regarding Risk of Loss on the core optics coating contract.  They are considering the offer, but have, meanwhile, submitted a proposed revision to the contract.  This under review now.

For Jacqueline Champagnie and Gina Salone

• UK Optics; Preparing final contract for Procurement review.
• COC Microscope: Vendor has been chosen, contract preparation progress.

For Steve Marroquin

• Working on draft RFQ solicitation for SM-152 “LIGO Eight Channel Valve Drive Assembly” (Tech Rep: Ben Abbott-SI-2AE).
• Working on draft RFQ solicitation for SM-153 “OMC SUS Structure Fabrication” (Tech Rep: Doug Cook, Procurement ID SUS-313a).
• Working on draft RFQ solicitation for SM-151 “Large Optic Carriers (Cake Tins)” (Tech Rep: Calum Torrie, Procurement ID CO-122).
• Executed Techmart purchase order contract to Transducer Techniques for the purchase of Smart Sensor Indicators. (Tech Rep: Marie Woods)

For Rudy Arvizu

• Continued to coordinate the Contract requirements for coating the AdL Core Optics CO-118. There was a productive conference call with the one of the coater's management in Australia on 7/14/09 that focused on terms and the Caltech Office of General Counsel is providing its full support. A similar conference call is planned with the other coater's management in France on 7/16/09.  The plan is to settle both contracts early next week and execute 7/31/09.

NSF Acquisition Approvals

• Answers are being prepared for questions from Ann Miller of NSF for the award packages for the Core Optics Coatings (Procurement ID CO-118 that is waiting for her approvals.
• A package is in preparation for the 4 awards for SI-148, the HAM SEI small mechanical parts. These bids are below the AdL budgeted cost, leading to the need for re-approval due to a deviation from the approved estimate.

Progress Updates

• The monthly project status report for June was sent to NSF.

Meetings & Reviews

• The next Monthly Progress Reporting Meeting will be on Thursday, August 11 at 8:30 AM PT. Subsystem leaders or their delegates need to attend.

Advanced LIGO Systems

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

• Interviews for an additional Systems designer/drafter & Systems Engineer continue.

AdL Project-Funded Activities

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

• Report from the Optical Lever Design Requirements Review & Conceptual Design Review (DRR/CDR) is pending (Mike L. chair).
• Review of the UK provided ETM/ITM quadruple pendulum suspension electronics continues (Jay H., Vern).
• Report from the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for  Interferometer Sensing and Control (ISC) is pending (Daniel S. chair).
• Report from AOS Stray Light Control (SLC) PDR is pending (Peter F. chair).
• Report form the SEI BSC-ISI PDR is pending (David S. chair).
• The AOS Thermal Comnpensation System (TCS) PDR is underway (Eric G. chair).

Procurement Techncial Reviews: See the procurement wiki.

• Techncial review of the GS-13 BeCu flexures RFQ is complete (Dennis).
• Techncial review of the OMC structural weldment is underway (Calum).
• Techncical review of the COC optics carriers is about to start (Dennis).
• Technical review of the COC metrology is complete (Dennis).

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

• The Gold Barrel TRB met this week and concluded that the Test Mass barrels should not be gold plated and that even a stand-off thermal shield is not necessary. A memo on the trade study and conclusion will be created (Dennis).

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

• Parts Cleaning procedure (E960022): A revision of the basic parts cleaning procedure for UHV service is being written and will be issued shortly (Dennis).
• Small Parts Washer: (Bob Taylor) I am still cleaning the parts washer and should be done next week.
• Assisting RAL with their large vacuum bake oven (Bob) Helped RAL in commissioning their vacuum bake oven.
• Suspension Weldment Mock-up Cleaning: (Bob) Cleaned mock-ups of the suspension structure weldments (HLTS & HSTS) to be used in modal and damping tests.
• SEI-ISI PSI Actuator Parts: (Bob) Cleaned and baked aluminum connector mounts for the actuators for PSI. Cleaned and am baking the Peek connector parts for PSI actuators. They are baking at this time andshould be ready for scanning on Friday.
• PEEK bake temperature testing (Bob) There is some evidence that particular formulations of PEEK, particularly in relatively thin sections, may warp at the nominal 200C bake called out in E960022-B. I have received some QPD connector PEEK parts for Bake temperature testing to establish a new default teperature for UHV baking of PEEK.
• Optical Contamination Cavity Testing: (Bob T., Liyuan) 
  • Worked on realigning Cavity 2 in the OTF. We have locked it and taken two days of data on the First Contact samples.  I will put the data on the web tomorrow. 
  • We have the new Laser for the third cavity and have mounted it on the table. Liyuan will test it tomorrow, then we can begin to build the optic chain.
  • Cavity 1: 7 production BOSEMs, soon to be removed & replaced with Masterbond low outgassing epoxy (EP30AN-1). I checked with Master Bond today and they will ship the epoxy tomorrow.
  • Cavity 2:  First Contact(TM) samples (cavity mirrors also cleaned with FC).
  • Cavity 3: being set up and should be available next week; Krytox samples will be placed into this chamber.
  • Queue:
    • Krytox low vapor pressure lubricant (we have samples)
    • other low outgassing epoxies, if/as needed after testing EP30AN-1 (Masterbond EP30-2, EP37-3FLFAO, EP65HT-1).
    • Copper & polyimide clad fiber optic, IVG Fiber CU1300. 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. 
    • 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).
    • 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 to report.

Design/Planning:

• Containers (COC): (Calum & Ed) Working on technical input for an RFQ for the optics containers. Due to urgent schedule needs, the 3 FM optic containers that are being produced by Mike Gerfen (Caltech CES shop) are now ready for UHV cleaning. Margot is going to help with the associated paperwork for this effort.    
  
  Completed all detailed drawings (v1 Rev) for all components for each of the following assembly models:
  • D0901299 FM Optic Container
  • D0901315 ETM Optic Container
  • D0901332 CP Optic Container
  • D0901394 SR Optic Container
  All drawings and models have been saved in the PDMWorks vault (directory: COC\MIRROR CARRIER CONTAINER).

• Mock-up Structures for Damping Designs (Calum) I am also working on preparing the various mock-up structures and support table for both Caltech and Stanford. We plan to bolt a stiff  breadboard for attaching structures and damping struts to the floor of a new Lab in Robinson by 7/28 for use in modal testing training by B&K on 7/29 and 7/30.

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

• Nothing significant to report

Modeling and Simulation

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

Static IFO Simulation (Hiro, Logan)

• Updated the document about the thermal deformation and TCS corrections.
• Mode matching and cavity loss in FP with thermal effect and TCS.
• 1ppm level absorption can induce ~100ppm diffractive loss, which degrade the recycling gain.
• Attended the TCS Preliminary design review.
• Logan has found a proper prescription to implement the reflection by a mirror with finite incident angle, which will be used to calculate the astigmatism in the Michelson cavity.

Time Domain Simulation (Melody)

• Seiji Kawamura has arrived, and wants to work with e2e to study the lock acquisition for LCGT. Melody has updated alfi, front end GUI of e2e, using the latest version of JGo, a library of GUI. 

Safety

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

• Ongoing participation in subsystem design document reviews, addressing safety related issues.

Quality Assurance

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

HEPI Measurements:

• Visited the site where 39 additional HEPI actuators were assembled and performed a series of measurements to allow the engineering team to determine what, if any, impact there was to taking these units using the bellows from a batch that had many questionable bellows. I found that the measurements were consistent and that we definitely had some deviation from spec. However there is not a sense of what impact these deviations will have at this time. The team is crunching the numbers and several experts are looking at the FEA models to determine if there is any issue. We are also comparing to units put in service made in 2003 time frame, which have been performing well for several years. We hope to have some more answers in the next week.

Inventory Control System:

• Continued to work on the rack, chassis and schematic modules of the inventory system, and have run through a few iterations with th programming team, and it is looking much better today. We still have some kinks to work out and get this out to production early next week.
• There is also an ongoing discussion on the methods for tracking electronics parts, and we will continue this discussion in Pasadena in a couple of weeks, and over the phone next week. At issue is how to identify and track changes against a board, and align JIRA with DCC or vice versa.

Inspections:

• This week will be visiting the parts washer manufacturer and hooking up a new system and testing prior to delivery to the sites.

RFQ's:

• Working with Calum and the optics group to review RFQ's going out for various jobs, ensure the QA requirements match the level of scrutiny a job needs, and modify the one size fits all approach a bit.

Facilities Modifications and Preparations

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

• Nothing specific to report. Progress on cleaning equipment.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

aLIGO Project Activities

SEI Electronics Design and Fabrication:

• Sam is making up 15 STS-2 Interface Chassis. He's finished 11, and should have them all done today. Tomorrow, we will begin testing them
• I am working on re-designing the Pump servo schematic. After a fruitful discussion with Rich, I am making the new version more inline with what we ended up wanting and using.
• The 8-Ch. Valve Driver chassis build should be going out for quote this week.
• The GS-13 Socket Board with Pressure Sensor is working, and I need to send it to someone who can tell me if it fits into the vacuum pod with the new board area. I'll ask people on the Friday telecon who that might be. ~Ben A.

HAM ISI Design and Procurement:

• Editing HAM ISI assembly procedure, to incorporate Advanced LIGO design changes. ~Andy
• Mick Flannigan visited Kineoptics this week to inspect the completed actuator assemblies at Kineoptics and inspect the bellows prior to welding into the actuator assembly.
• Brian O. and Jeff Kissel are at Geotech to witness the testing of the first lot of GS-13 seismometers.

R & D Activities

BSC ISI Design and Test:

• The presentation portion of the PDR was held on last Friday. We are working on actions necessary to answer some questions and suggestions of the committee. Among our priorities is to study more carefully the low frequency noise (0.1Hz and below).
• Celine is visiting from LLO to help complete the design of the BSC flexures and spring installation tooling.
• Andy is working on details of bolted interfaces for the stage 2 structure. ~Fabrice
• Test Stand: HAM-Adapter bars need to be sent to LLO, and 4 more HAM-Adapter bars need to bordered for LHO. Support tube modifications are still in progress.
• Trillium: Nanometrics will add 4 M3 holes around the MIL-C connector to the LIGO specific design (for mounting the cable PCB).
• GS-13: Completed functional design and clearance study of stress compensating interposer. ~Sam B.

Suspensions

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

Operations Work

• Ongoing work on HLTS prototype: a few drawings are still to be finalised and we await some quotes. Some (fixture) parts remain to be designed. We have discussed how to divide up the remaining work to get parts out for fabrication as soon as possible.
• Recommendations from the blade test stand review have been considered and integrated into the design.
• Remodeling of the HSTS parts has been completed and re-designing the parts that require attention has been started.
• New designer Wes Rasch has started and is learning our procedures for drawings.
• The suspensions activities for last year and plans for the coming year have been written up for the upcoming MOU review.

Project-Funded Activities

• A-OSEM drawings are being finalized for quotes for 10 first articles.
• Preparation work for LASTI monolithic suspension going well. Silica penultimate masses have had ears and prisms removed in preparation for bonding on new ears (using silicate bonding) and prisms (using epoxy) in revised positions.
• First shipments of quad machined parts have now arrived at both sites and are being inventoried. Cleaning has started at LHO.
• OMC procurement (structures and machined parts) SOWs are now with the procurements team.

Prestabilized Laser

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

Operations

• Nothing significant to report.
• Dug up some information about costs of Beckhoff Automation hardware for Rolf, as this is apparently being considered for slow control and monitoring.
• Other things to consider include software support and programming.

Project

• Nothing significant to report, as many AEI and LZH folks are on holiday.

Input Optics

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

Advanced LIGO R&D

• We again started testing heaters for adaptive heaters. The heaters under test are http://watlow.com/literature/specsheets/files/heaters/fenult1007.pdf A rigorous vacuum test is underway. The heater performance is extremely good. Monitoring various gases while the heaters are under test do not show any variation from the cold state. (Muzammil)
• We ordered the feedthroughs and thermocouples for in-situ monitoring the SiC test. The SiC test piece is being shipped to Caltech for baking. (David F.)

Advanced LIGO Design

• We are working on ALIGO building Coordinate System Document. We are determining where to place the PSL table and we are finishing requirements document for HAM AUX (SOS) suspensions. (Luke)
• We are working on coating specifications for the first batch of IO polished optics (IMCMs and SMs). A first rough draft is being circulated within the IO group for internal review. (Rodica)

Advanced LIGO Acquisition

• All the materials and the drawings for the transportation containers for the suspended optics are at the UF machine shop for fabrication. (Luke)
• We are closely monitoring the polishing of the 1st batch of IO optics: The process is on schedule. All Input Mode Cleaner Flat Mirror substrates are in final inspection. The curved IMC mirrors are in the final stage of fabrication. (Rodica)
• We are working on a bid package for coating the first batch of IO substrates. (Rodica)

Core Optics

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

From: Liyuan Zhang

• The transmission measurement of the three polish-demo mirrors has been done, no 'holes' are found. Since the 1st and 3rd pieces have no wedge and the other side is not AR coated, some interference fringes are observed. The 2nd piece has a wedge, so there is no problem. Underway is checking the transmission of the 1st and 3rd with a small incident angle.

From: Rand Dannenberg

• Vendor selected for the defect counting microscope bid. They will be issued a contract. The microscope will be here 4-6 weeks from reciept of the PO.
• All the equipment that was on lab 37 has now been carried down to lab 015A, and now we need tables for the lab set up. Ric Panagua modified the vacuum ring for First Contact, and it now hold vacuum overnight. The next iteration is to add an inner ring to stretch the webbing across it.
• Joe Haggerty got the teflon in for making the peanut jar lid dust cover prototypes, and will have the first protoype in by early next week (its prototype is an iLIGO test mass). I will work with Calum on iterations for full AdL TM's, where the lid would need to work with the earthquake stops in place.
• Tracking / following the AdL coating negotiations.

Auxiliary Optics

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

Work Under Project Budget

• None.

Work Under Operations Budget

OPTICAL LEVER:

• The prototype oplev pylon is still being fabricated and is expected in a week or so. SURF student Ian is building a prototype telescope for test in the Bridge subbasement at Caltech. Two transmitter lasers were destroyed under test when they received too much supply voltage. Craig Conley has had limited success in finding commercial telescope steering mechanism as a backup to his spherical washer design, so he and Ken Mailand are evaluating a flexure mount Ken Mailand designed ten years ago for initial LIGO to this end. Craig is finishing design drawings, and while Mike Smith is away, Ken Mailand will review them and Dennis Coyne will sign the appropriate DCNs.
• Hiro Yamamoto has proposed to the oplev team that they use a three-beam design, as he feels that a twin beam design is insufficient to characterize the mirror curvature under simultaneous IFO heating and ring heating. Phil, Hiro, and the oplev design team will investigate this further at next week's oplev meeting.
• The question has arisen as to whether the oplev intensity noise will be observable in the GW signal band. We have no analysis of this yet but will produce one.

PHOTON CALIBRATOR:

• Rick Savage is reviewing Phil's draft of the Pcal preliminary design document. He has discovered during a recent visit to install Pcal upgrades at LLO that the free space around the viewport ring where the oplev and Pcal piers will reside has different layouts at the two sites, due to interferences by vacuum gear and cable trays. It appears prudent to make a conceptual design of the layout of oplev, Pcal, and any cameras and illuminators now while the piers are being designed for oplev and Pcal. Eduardo Chavez is constructing a model of the vacuum and facilities layout and we will coordinate with him to ensure the shared space needs are accounted for. At the least, the ETM camera at LLO will need to move to another viewport to make room for the Pcal reflected light monitors. Pcal will need accurate weight measurement of the ETMs for calibration purposes, and it appears that SUS is already making these measurements to help choose blade springs, but we need to review their procedure and request slight modifications if necessary.

TCS:

• The Advanced LIGO TCS preliminary design document is currently under review.
• In Enhanced LIGO, the TCSY projector at LLO has been causing trouble. The TCS photodetector AC channels were not operating; this was traced to a disconnected cable and has been fixed. The same projector has been shown to be injecting a noise peak at 155 Hz into the DARM channel. This appears to be caused by backscatter from the polarizer beam dump. Steps are now being taken to mitigate this backscatter.

Control and Data Systems

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

Operations: R&D, ELIGO DAQ, and Electronics

LHO

Electrical Engineering - R. McCarthy

• A power glitch Sunday night (July 11, 2009) took hours to recover from. A spike in power Sunday tripped the access control system thus shutting down the 35W laser. Needed to reset ISCT3 to get the laser back on. Also created issues for a few frontends that needed to be rebooted. The problems continued after the PMC was locked at less than optimal and the power into the MC rotation stage would not function due to the tight limits on the scripts. Took us a couple of hours to figure this out. Continued to have problems with 2k mid stations on the 5579 reflective memory loop. The CPU would rail and stop working. I believe this has been fixed with a restart of h2dcuepics which is the common link between these crates.
• Installed a Magnetometer on Ham6 feeding into the OMC ADCU0 channels 9,10,11. This is for a feed forward loop in an attempt to minimize sidebands caused by TT jitter. This led to an investigation of 60 Hz sources around Ham6. Moving Ion pump power supply and converting camera power supplies to DC distribution eliminated some of the sidebands. Further investigation needed.
• Worked with contractor to get the Staging building roll up door to close.
• Started installation of network link to warehouse from staging building. This utilizes Cisco access points and directional antennas between the two buildings. Initial testing is complete and the system works well. Need to finalize cabling as one end is just run across the floor at the moment.

Systems/Software - D. Barker

• Statevector code was ported from VxWorks 3.2 Epics to Linux 3.14 Epics. This was needed to allow the statevector sequencer to connect to both om1 and om2 testpoints for the purposes of taking H1 out of science mode if an OMC excitation is run.

LLO

Systems/Software - K. Thorne

• Science Run Support
  • Updated conlog query scripts to run on both Linux and Solaris. This allows their use on the new LLO CDS web server.
  • Updated Figure-Of-Merit (FOM) templates and scripts to meet DetChar specification.
  • Corrected scripts for automated posting of per-shift FOM and science segments.
  • Installed working DMT Viewer on Linux workstations. Still need lscsoft RPM that has working dtt, awg as well.
  • With Alex Ivanov, fixed filled-up FB0 Frame file system, filling in missing frames from FB1 system.
• Commissioning Support
  • Updated channel lists to add OMC QPD1,2 to frames.
  • Readied TCS Chiller upgrade for future maintenance period.
• SysAdmin
  • Reinstalled OS on Linux workstation that had failed during updates.
  • Received and starting configuration of new CDS laptops for sysadmin and operator tasks.
  • Installed trackballs on Linux workstations.

Project: AdvLIGO Systems

SEI - B. Abbott

• Sam A. is making up 15 STS-2 Interface Chassis. He's finished 11, and should have them all done today. Tomorrow, we will begin testing them.
• I am working on re-designing the Pump servo schematic. After a fruitful discussion with Rich, I am making the new version more inline with what we ended up wanting and using.
• The 8-Ch. Valve Driver chassis build should be going out for quote this week. The GS-13 Socket Board with Pressure Sensor is working, and I need to send it to someone who can tell me if it fits into the vacuum pod with the new board area. I'll ask people on the Friday telecon who that might be.

SUS - J. Heefner

• Finished "AdL AOSEM Final Design Review and Fabrication Readiness Review", LIGO-L0900116-v5.
• Completed design for the Triple (acquisition mode) driver electronics.

DAQ - R. Bork

• Remaining test system chassis are being finalized. These chassis will ship today to LHO and be installed next week. I'll be at LHO next week to commission the equipment. In theory, the system should be complete to the point that we can run several frontend computers, with timing and I/O, through to a full DAQ system.
• Continuing to put together system test plans.
• 18Bit DAC test report is complete (LIGO T0900338-v1).

ISC - R. Abbott

• Laying out dual frequency RF readout wavefront sensor circuit board for Advanced LIGO.
• Laying out the End Test-mass QPD readout for Advanced LIGO.
• Did prototype run of new PEEK braid for in-vacuum cabling to preclude shield shorts.
• Sent out prototype flexible circuit boards for Advanced LIGO OSEM redesign.
• Spent time with committee working on electronics documentation.
• Re-designed the in-vacuum cable clamp with the help of Bobby Moore from LLO. It is now a factor of 10 cheaper to make using injection molded PEEK. Submitted part for patent approval through Caltech under NSF grant funding.

For additional information about this report, contact Albert Lazzarini