We present an extensive numerical study of the ground-state properties of confined repulsively interacting fermions in one-dimensional optical lattices. Detailed predictions for the atom-density profiles are obtained from parallel Kohn-Sham density-functional calculations and quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The density-functional calculations employ a Bethe ansatz based local-density approximation for the correlation energy that accounts for Luttinger-liquid and Mott-insulator physics. Semianalytical and fully numerical formulations of this approximation are compared with each other and with a cruder Thomas-Fermi-type local-density approximation for the total energy. Precise quantum Monte Carlo simulations are used to assess the reliability of the various local-density approximations, and in conjunction with these provide a detailed microscopic picture of the consequences of the interplay between particle-particle interactions and confinement in one-dimensional systems of strongly correlated fermions.

• Received 8 December 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.73.165120