Formation of Warped Disks by Galactic Fly-by Encounters. I. Stellar
  Disks
  Warped disks are almost ubiquitous among spiral galaxies. Here we revisit and
test the `fly-by scenario' of warp formation, in which impulsive encounters
between galaxies are responsible for warped disks. Based on N-body simulations,
we investigate the morphological and kinematical evolution of the stellar
component of disks when galaxies undergo fly-by interactions with adjacent dark
matter halos. We find that the so-called `S'-shaped warps can be excited by
fly-bys and sustained for even up to a few billion years, and that this
scenario provides a cohesive explanation for several key observations. We show
that disk warp properties are governed primarily by the following three
parameters; (1) the impact parameter, i.e., the minimum distance between two
halos, (2) the mass ratio between two halos, and (3) the incident angle of the
fly-by perturber. The warp angle is tied up with all three parameters, yet the
warp lifetime is particularly sensitive to the incident angle of the perturber.
Interestingly, the modeled S-shaped warps are often non-symmetric depending on
the incident angle. We speculate that the puzzling U- and L-shaped warps are
geometrically superimposed S-types produced by successive fly-bys with
different incident angles, including multiple interactions with a satellite on
a highly elongated orbit.
