  We investigate the effect of dipolar interactions in one-dimensional systems
in connection with the possibility of observing exotic many-body effects with
trapped atomic and molecular dipolar gases. By combining analytical and
numerical methods, we show how the competition between short- and long-range
interactions gives rise to frustrating effects which lead to the stabilization
of spontaneously dimerized phases characterized by a bond-ordering. This
genuine quantum order is sharply distinguished from Mott and spin-density wave
phases, and can be unambiguously probed by measuring non local order parameters
in-situ imaging techniques.
