Spin-gradient-driven light amplification in a quantum plasma

It is shown that the gradient "free-energy" contained in equilibrium spin vorticity can cause electromagnetic modes, in particular the light wave, to go unstable in a spin quantum plasma of mobile electrons embedded in a neutralizing ion background. For densities characteristic of both the solid state and very high density astrophysical systems, the growth rates are sufficiently high to overcome the expected collisional damping. Preliminary results suggest a powerful spin-inhomogeneity driven mechanism for stimulating light amplification.