Bending instabilities at the origin of persistent warps

Based on N-body simulations, we show that realistic galactic disks are subject to bending instabilities of fire-hose type when the disks are substantially self-gravitating, that is, if they contain dark matter distributed in the disk. Depending on the degree of instability, S and U-shaped, as well as asymmetric warps are generated. In some cases, the warp may last several galactic rotations, particularly when the instability is marginal. Since the bending instability is very sensitive to the disk flattening, the fractions of dark matter distributed in the disk and in the dark halo are constrained. For a Milky Way like galaxy the extended dark halo can not exceed 30-40% of the total mass within 35 kpc if the Milky Way warp results from a bending instability. This mode of warping provides a unified picture of spiral galaxies, where bars, spiral arms and warps result all from disk gravitational instabilities, radial or transverse, which are constantly regenerated by the dissipative gas component.