  We demonstrate, analytically and numerically, that the ferromagnetic phase of
the spinor Bose-Einstein condenstate may experience modulational instability of
the ground state leading to a fragmentation of the spin domains. Together with
other nonlinear effects in the atomic optics of ultra-cold gases (such as
coherent photoassociation and four-wave mixing) this effect provides one more
analogy between coherent matter waves and light waves in nonlinear optics.
