N two-level atoms in a driven optical cavity: Quantum dynamics of forward photon scattering for weak incident fields

We investigate the photon statistics of the light transmitted from a driven optical cavity containing N two-level atoms, with emphasis on the weak driving field limit. This limit is of most interest from the point of view of quantum fluctuations. We find that various types of nonclassical behavior are possible, even with large numbers of atoms in the cavity, under conditions of strong atom-field coupling, which we refer to as the cavity quantum electrodynamics limit. We describe the system with a pure-state formalism valid for weak fields, and also use a Fokker-Planck equation obtained by a small fluctuation linearization. We examine the conditions under which the linearized theory is appropriate, and explore the sensitivity of nonclassical effects in the system to atom number, transit-time broadening, and detunings. @S1050-2947~99!04803-9#