  We consider a model of colloidal spherical particles carrying a permanent
dipole moment which is laterally shifted out of the particles' geometrical
centres, i.e. the dipole vector is oriented perpendicular to the radius vector
of the particles. Varying the shift $\delta$ from the centre, we analyze ground
state structures for two, three and four hard spheres, using a simulated
annealing procedure. We also compare to earlier ground state results. We then
consider a bulk system at finite temperatures and different densities. Using
Molecular Dynamics simulations, we examine the equilibrium self-assembly
properties for several shifts. Our results show that the shift of the dipole
moment has a crucial impact on both, the ground state configurations as well as
the self-assembled structures at finite temperatures.
