Abstract
An expression is provided for the self-lensing optical depth of the thin Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) disk surrounded by a shroud of stars at larger scale heights. The formula is written in terms of the vertical velocity dispersion of the thin-disk population. If tidal forcing causes ~1%-5% of the disk mass to have a height larger than 6 kpc and ~10%-15% to have a height above 3 kpc, then the self-lensing optical depth of the LMC is ~(0.7-1.9) × 10-7, which is within the observational uncertainties. The shroud may be composed of bright stars provided they are not in stellar hydrodynamical equilibrium. Alternatively, the shroud may be built from low-mass stars or compact objects, although then the self-lensing optical depths are overestimates of the true optical depth by a factor of ~1.5.
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