The Origin of the Microlensing Events Observed Towards the LMC and the
  Stellar Counterpart of the Magellanic Stream
  We introduce a novel theoretical model to explain the long-standing puzzle of
the nature of the microlensing events reported towards the Large Magellanic
Cloud (LMC) by the MACHO and OGLE collaborations. We propose that a population
of tidally stripped stars from the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) located ~4-10
kpc behind a lensing population of LMC disk stars can naturally explain the
observed event durations (17-71 days), event frequencies and spatial
distribution of the reported events. Differences in the event frequencies
reported by the OGLE (~0.33 /yr) and MACHO (~1.75 /yr) surveys appear to be
naturally accounted for by their different detection efficiencies and
sensitivity to faint sources. The presented models of the Magellanic System
were constructed without prior consideration of the microlensing implications.
These results favor a scenario for the interaction history of the Magellanic
Clouds, wherein the Clouds are on their first infall towards the Milky Way and
the SMC has recently collided with the LMC 100-300 Myr ago, leading to a large
number of faint sources distributed non-uniformly behind the LMC disk. In
contrast to self-lensing models, microlensing events are also expected to occur
in fields off the LMC's stellar bar since the stellar debris is not expected to
be concentrated in the bar region. This scenario leads to a number of
observational tests: the sources are low-metallicity SMC stars, they exhibit
high velocities relative to LMC disk stars that may be detectable via proper
motion studies, and, most notably, there should exist a stellar counterpart to
the gaseous Magellanic Stream and Bridge with a V-band surface brightness of >
32 mag/arcsec^2. In particular, the stellar Bridge should contain enough RR
Lyrae stars to be detected by the ongoing OGLE survey of this region.
