  A quantum phase transition between the symmetric (polar) phase and the phase
with broken symmetry can be induced in a ferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein
condensate in space (rather than in time). We consider such a phase transition
and show that the transition region in the vicinity of the critical point
exhibits scalings that reflect a compromise between the rate at which the
transition is imposed (i.e., the gradient of the control parameter) and the
scaling of the divergent healing length in the critical region. Our results
suggest a method for the direct measurement of the scaling exponent nu.
