The So-called “Bar” in the Large Magellanic Cloud

The off-centered "bar" of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is commonlyassumed, for simplicity's sake, to lie in the same plane as the LMC disk.Relaxing this assumption to the extent allowed by the observations, we candrastically change our interpretation of the microlensing events towards theLMC. We propose that the off-centered ``bar'' in the Large Magellanic Cloud isa foreground object slightly misaligned with, and offset from, the plane of theLMC disk. The small displacement and misalignment are consequences of recenttidal interactions with the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Galaxy. Thisproposal, though radical, is consistent with the kinematics of the LMC andnear-infrared star count maps from the DENIS and 2MASS surveys. It does notviolate any of the observational limits on the depth and structure of the LMC-- in particular, the reported 25 to 50 degree inclination range of the LMC andthe east-west gradient of distance moduli of standard candles. Contributions toLMC microlensing come from the mutual lensing of stars in the disk and the``bar'', as well as self-lensing of the disk and the ``bar''. The microlensingoptical depth of such configurations from self-lensing alone is comparable tothe observed microlensing signal reported by the EROS and MACHO groups.Possible observations are suggested to discriminate between our misaligned,offset ``bar'' model and the conventional picture of an off-centered, planarbar.Comment: This version includes slightly more material tban the version in press at The Astrophysical Journal (Letters