Energy Spectrum of Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic Rays according to Data from Ground-Based Scintillation Detectors of the Yakutsk EAS Array

Abstract

Results obtained from an analysis of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays with energies in the region of $E_0 \ge 10^{17}$ eV over the period of continuous observations from 1974 to 2017 are presented. A refined expression for estimating the primary-particle energy is used for individual events. This expression is derived from calculations aimed at determining the responses of the ground-based and underground scintillation detectors of the Yakutsk array for studying extensive air showers (EAS) and performed within the QGSJET01, QGSJET-II-04, SIBYLL-2.1, and EPOS-LHC models by employing the CORSIKA code package. The new estimate of $E_0$ is substantially lower than its counterpart used earlier.