We investigate the statistical equilibrium properties of a system of
classical particles interacting via Newtonian gravity, enclosed in a
three-dimensional spherical volume. Within a mean-field approximation, we
derive an equation for the density profiles maximizing the microcanonical
entropy and solve it numerically. At low angular momenta, i.e. for a slowly
rotating system, the well-known gravitational collapse ``transition'' is
recovered. At higher angular momenta, instead, rotational symmetry can
spontaneously break down giving rise to more complex equilibrium
configurations, such as double-clusters (``double stars''). We analyze the
thermodynamics of the system and the stability of the different equilibrium
configurations against rotational symmetry breaking, and provide the global
phase diagram.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure