EVALUATION

As noted, this is possible in mustang - here's a sample code fragment to demonstrate how an application can create a heap dump of its own heap:

import java.lang.management.ManagementFactory;
import javax.management.ObjectName;
import javax.management.MBeanServer;

:
MBeanServer mbs = ManagementFactory.getPlatformMBeanServer();
ObjectName oname = new ObjectName("com.sun.management:type=HotSpotDiagnostic");

Object[] params = { "heap.bin" };
String[] sigs= { "java.lang.String" };

mbs.invoke(oname,  "dumpHeap",  params, sigs);
  

The HotSpotDiagnosticMXBean was added via 6283436 so I'll this RFE as a dup.
                                     

EVALUATION

This is already possible using the dumpHeap operation on the HotSpotDiagnosticMXBean.