  We study a quantum mechanical system consisting of up to three identical
dipoles confined to move along a helical shaped trap. The long-range
interactions between particles confined to move in this one dimension leads to
an interesting effective two-particle potential with an oscillating behaviour.
For this system we calculate the spectrum and the wave functions of the bound
states. The full quantum solutions show clear imprints of the tendency for the
system to form chains of dipoles along the helix, i.e. a configuration in which
the dipoles are sitting approximately one winding of the helix apart so that
they can take maximal advantage of the strong head-to-tail attraction that is a
generic feature of the dipole-dipole interaction.
