  The excitation spectrum and the band structure of a Bose-Einstein condensate
in a periodic potential are investigated. Analyses within full 3D systems,
finite 1D systems, and ideal periodic 1D systems are compared. We find two
branches of excitations in the spectra of the finite 1D model. The band
structures for the first and (part of) the second band are compared between a
finite 1D and the fully periodic 1D systems, utilizing a new definition of a
effective wavenumber and a phase-slip number. The upper and lower edges of the
first gap coincide well between the two cases. The remaining difference is
explained by the existence of the two branches due to the finite-size effect.
