  The authority of J. A. Wheeler in many areas of gravitational physics is
immense, and there is a connection with the study of relic gravitational waves
as well. I begin with a brief description of Wheeler's influence on this study.
One part of the paper is essentially a detailed justification of the very
existence of relic gravitational waves, account of their properties related to
the quantum-mechanical origin, derivation of the expected magnitude of their
effects, and reasoning why they should be detectable in the relatively near
future. This line of argument includes the comparison of relic gravitational
waves with density perturbations of quantum-mechanical origin, and the severe
criticism of methods and predictions of inflationary theory. Another part of
the paper is devoted to active searches for relic gravitational waves in cosmic
microwave background radiation (CMB). Here, the emphasis is on the
temperature-polarization TE cross-correlation function of CMB. The expected
numerical level of the correlation, its sign, statistics, and the most
appropriate interval of angular scales are identified. Other correlation
functions are also considered. The overall conclusion is such that the
observational discovery of relic gravitational waves looks like the matter of a
few coming years, rather than a few decades.

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;Astrophysics;High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;High Energy Physics - Theory