@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
   public List<Artifact> findDependentArtifacts(Artifact artifact) {
      Query query = em.createQuery("select a from Artifact a where :artifact in elements(a.dependencies)");
      query.setParameter("artifact", artifact);
      List<Artifact> list = query.getResultList();
      return list;
   }

package com.acme.dependencytool.persistence.model;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import javax.persistence.CascadeType;
import javax.persistence.Column;
import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.FetchType;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.JoinColumn;
import javax.persistence.JoinTable;
import javax.persistence.ManyToMany;
import javax.persistence.Table;
import javax.persistence.UniqueConstraint;

@Entity
@Table(name = "ARTIFACT", uniqueConstraints={@UniqueConstraint(columnNames={"GROUP_ID", "ARTIFACT_ID", "VERSION"})})
public class Artifact {
   
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue
    @Column(name = "ID")
    private Long id = null;
   
   @Column(name = "GROUP_ID", length = 255, nullable = false)
   private String groupId;
   
   @Column(name = "ARTIFACT_ID", length = 255, nullable = false)
   private String artifactId;
   
   @Column(name = "VERSION", length = 255, nullable = false)
   private String version;
   
   @ManyToMany(cascade=CascadeType.ALL, fetch=FetchType.EAGER)
   @JoinTable(
         name="ARTIFACT_DEPENDENCIES",
         joinColumns = @JoinColumn(name="ARTIFACT_ID", referencedColumnName="ID"),
         inverseJoinColumns = @JoinColumn(name="DEPENDENCY_ID", referencedColumnName="ID")
   )
   private List<Artifact> dependencies = new ArrayList<Artifact>();

   public Long getId() {
      return id;
   }

   public void setId(Long id) {
      this.id = id;
   }

   public String getGroupId() {
      return groupId;
   }

   public void setGroupId(String groupId) {
      this.groupId = groupId;
   }

   public String getArtifactId() {
      return artifactId;
   }

   public void setArtifactId(String artifactId) {
      this.artifactId = artifactId;
   }

   public String getVersion() {
      return version;
   }

   public void setVersion(String version) {
      this.version = version;
   }
   
   public List<Artifact> getDependencies() {
      return dependencies;
   }

   public void setDependencies(List<Artifact> dependencies) {
      this.dependencies = dependencies;
   }
}