Dynamics of the collective modes of an inhomogeneous spin ensemble in a cavity

We study the excitation dynamics of an inhomogeneously broadened spin ensemble coupled to a single cavity mode. The collective excitations of the spin ensemble can be described in terms of generalized spin waves, and, in the absence of the cavity, the free evolution of the spin ensemble can be described as a drift in the wavenumber without dispersion. In this article we show that the dynamics in the presence of coupling to the cavity mode can be described solely by a modified time evolution of the wavenumbers. In particular, we show that collective excitations with a well-defined wavenumber pass without dispersion from negative to positive-valued wavenumbers without populating the zero wavenumber spin wave mode. The results are relevant for multimode collective quantum memories where qubits are encoded in different spin waves.