  Alongside superfluidity, itinerant (Stoner) ferromagnetism remains one of the
most well-characterized phases of correlated Fermi systems. A recent experiment
has reported the first evidence for novel phase behavior on the repulsive side
of the Feshbach resonance in a two-component ultracold Fermi gas. By adapting
recent theoretical studies to the atomic trap geometry, we show that an
adiabatic ferromagnetic transition would take place at a weaker interaction
strength than is observed in experiment. This discrepancy motivates a simple
non-equilibrium theory that takes account of the dynamics of magnetic defects
and three-body losses. The formalism developed displays good quantitative
agreement with experiment.

Quantum Gases;Strongly Correlated Electrons