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

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the energy spectrum of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays using data from Yakutsk array detectors collected over four decades, introducing a refined energy estimation method based on extensive simulations.

Contribution

It presents a new, lower estimate for primary cosmic ray energy and applies it to a long-term dataset, improving the accuracy of cosmic ray spectrum measurements.

Findings

Refined energy estimation method for cosmic rays.

Extended dataset from 1974 to 2017.

Lower energy estimates compared to previous methods.

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.