A COSMOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF GRAVITATIONAL-WAVES PRODUCED BY SUPERNOVAE IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE

Simple arguments demonstrate that the rate of supernovae within a reds hift horizon of z similar to 2 is at least of the order of 10(10) yr(- 1) or 1000 s(-1) , This rate could be enhanced by more than an order o f magnitude if the supernova rate in the early Universe is enhanced as predicted by star formation models, metallicity observations and the recent observations of an abundance of faint blue galaxies at high red shift, The gravitational waves from supernovae in the early Universe c reate a continuous stochastic background, The amplitude of this backgr ound depends on the efficiency of gravitational wave production in sup ernovae, which in turn depends on the fraction of collapses which ct-s ate neutron stars and black holes, the dynamics of the collapse and th e post collapse evolution of the system. It is shown that the stochast ic supernova background is detectable by the cross-correlation of near by detectors if the efficiency of gravitational wave production exceed s 10(-5). The expected spectrum is in the frequency band well-suited f or both laser interferometer and resonant mass detectors and cross-cor relation between advanced bars and interferometers provides an appropr iate means of dectection.