Measuring extensive air showers with Cherenkov light detectors of the Yakutsk array: the energy spectrum of cosmic rays

The energy spectrum of cosmic rays in the range E similar to 10(15) eV to 6 x 1019 eV is studied in this paper using air Cherenkov light detectors of the Yakutsk array. The total flux of photons produced by the relativistic electrons (including positrons as well, hereafter) of extensive air showers in the atmosphere is used as an energy estimator of the primary particle initiating a shower. The resultant differential flux of cosmic rays exhibits, in agreement with previous measurements, a knee and ankle feature at energies of 3 x 1015 and similar to 10(19) eV, respectively. A comparison of observational data with simulations is made in the knee and ankle regions in order to choose the models of galactic and extragalactic components of cosmic rays that describe well the energy spectrum measured.