We present a detailed theoretical analysis of Bragg spectroscopy from a Bose-Einstein condensate at T=0K. We demonstrate that within the linear response regime, both a quantum field theory treatment and a meanfield Gross-Pitaevskii treatment lead to the same value for the mean evolution of the quasiparticle operators. The observable for Bragg spectroscopy experiments, which is the spectral response function of the momentum transferred to the condensate, can therefore be calculated in a meanfield formalism. We analyse the behaviour of this observable by carrying out numerical simulations in axially symmetric three-dimensional cases and in two dimensions. An approximate analytic expression for the observable is obtained and provides a means for identifying the relative importance of three broadening and shift mechanisms (meanfield, Doppler, and finite pulse duration) in different regimes. We show that the suppression of scattering at small values of q observed by Stamper-Kurn et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 2876 (1999)] is accounted for by the meanfield treatment, and can be interpreted in terms of the interference of the u and v quasiparticle amplitudes. We also show that, contrary to the assumptions of previous analyses, there is no regime for trapped condensates for which the spectral response function and the dynamic structure factor are equivalent. Our numerical calculations can also be performed outside the linear response regime, and show that at large laser intensities a significant decrease in the shift of the spectral response function can occur due to depletion of the initial condensate.
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