  On the universal bundle of unit spinors we study a natural energy functional
whose critical points, if dim M \geq 3, are precisely the pairs (g, {\phi})
consisting of a Ricci-flat Riemannian metric g together with a parallel
g-spinor {\phi}. We investigate the basic properties of this functional and
study its negative gradient flow, the so-called spinor flow. In particular, we
prove short-time existence and uniqueness for this flow.
