Oscillations of atomic fermions in a one-dimensional optical lattice

A semiclassical model is used to investigate oscillations of atomic fermions in a combined magnetic trap and one dimensional optical lattice potential following axial displacement of the trap. The oscillations are shown to have a characteristic small amplitude, damped behavior in the collisionless regime. The presence of a separatrix in the semiclassical Brillouin zone phase space is predicted and shown to produce a strongly asymmetric phase space distribution function.