  We study the physics of ultracold dipolar bosons in optical lattices. We show
that dipole-dipole interactions lead to the appearance of many insulating
metastable states. We study the stability and lifetime of these states using a
generalization of the instanton theory. We investigate also possibilities to
prepare, control and manipulate these states using time dependent superlattice
modifications and modulations. We show that the transfer from one metastable
configuration to another necessarily occurs via superfluid states, but can be
controlled fully on the quantum level. We show how the metastable states can be
created in the presence of the harmonic trap. Our findings open the way toward
applications of the metastable states as quantum memories.
