Coherent emission of a photon by many atoms

The theory ofWeisskopf andWigner of the natural line width is extended to a case where many atoms at given positions interact with one common quantized radiation field. At timet=0, one quantum of radiation energy is stored by the atoms, which however does not mean necessarily that exactly one of the atoms must be excited. We study the process of the creation of a photon in dependence on the positions of the atoms and on the state of the system of atoms att=0. The dimensions of the emitted wave train and the decay time of this excited atomic state depend sensitively on these parameters.