Theory of coherent Raman superradiance imaging of condensed Bose gases

We describe theoretically the dynamics of the off-resonant superradiant Raman scattering of light in a prolate atomic Bose-Einstein condensate, from the initial stages governed by quantum fluctuations to the subsequent semiclassical regime, and within a multimode theory that fully accounts for propagation effects. Our results are in good agreement with recent experimental results that exploit Raman superradiance as an imaging technique to probe the long-range coherence of condensates, including the observed time-dependent spatial features, and account properly for the macroscopic shot-to-shot fluctuations resulting from the quantum noise that initiates the superradiance process.