The angle and temperature dependence of the photon scattering rate for Bose-stimulated atom recoil transitions between occupied states is compared to diffraction and incoherent Rayleigh scattering near the Bose-Einstein transition for an optically thin trap in the limit of large particle number N. Each of these three processes has a range of angles and temperatures for which it dominates over the others by a divergent factor as N→∞.

• Received 29 August 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.55.1140