Semiclassical theory of trapped fermionic dipoles

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We investigate the properties of a degenerate dilute gas of neutral fermionic particles in a harmonic trap that interact via dipole-dipole forces. We employ the semiclassical Thomas-Fermi method and discuss the Dirac correction to the interaction energy. A nearly analytic as well as an exact numerical minimization of the Thomas-Fermi-Dirac energy functional are performed in order to obtain the density distribution. We determine the stability of the system as a function of the interaction strength, the particle number, and the trap geometry. We find that there are interaction strengths and particle numbers for which the gas cannot be trapped stably in a spherically symmetric trap, but both prolate and oblate traps will work successfully.