  Ground-state properties of fermionic mixtures confined in a one-dimensional
optical lattice are studied numerically within the spinless Falicov-Kimball
model with a harmonic trap. A number of remarkable results are found. (i) At
low particle filling the system exhibits the phase separation with heavy atoms
in the center of the trap and light atoms in the surrounding regions. (ii)
Mott-insulating phases always coexist with metallic phases. (iii)
Atomic-density waves are observed in the insulating regions for all particle
fillings near half-filled lattice case. (iv) The variance of the local density
exhibits the universal behavior (independent of the particle filling, the
Coulomb interaction and the strength of a confining potential) over the whole
region of the local density values.
