  We point out a connection between anomalous quantum transport in an optical
lattice and Tsallis' generalized thermostatistics. Specifically, we show that
the momentum equation for the semiclassical Wigner function that describes
atomic motion in the optical potential, belongs to a class of transport
equations recently studied by Borland [PLA 245, 67 (1998)]. The important
property of these ordinary linear Fokker--Planck equations is that their
stationary solutions are exactly given by Tsallis distributions. Dissipative
optical lattices are therefore new systems in which Tsallis statistics can be
experimentally studied.
