Stochastic background of gravitational waves - art. no. 124015

A continuous stochastic background of gravitational waves (GWs) for burst s ources is produced if the mean time interval between the occurrence of burs ts is smaller than the average time duration of a single burst at the emiss ion, i.e., the so-called duty cycle must be greater than one. To evaluate t he background of GWs produced by an ensemble of sources, during their forma tion, for trample, one needs to know the average energy flux emitted during the formation of a single object and the formation rate of such objects as well. In many cases the energy flux emitted during an event of production of GWs is not known in detail; only characteristic values for the dimension less amplitude and frequencies are known. Here we present a shortcut to cal culate stochastic backgrounds of GWs produced from cosmological sources. Fo r this approach it is not necessary to know in detail the energy flux emitt ed at each frequency. Knowing the characteristic values for the "lumped" di mensionless amplitude; and frequency we show that it is possible to calcula te the stochastic background of GWs produced by an ensemble of sources.