  We numerically investigate the possibility that a close stellar encounter
could account for the high inclinations of the Kuiper belt, as originally
proposed by Ida, Larwood and Burkert, however we consider encounters with
pericenters within those explored by previous works. A star of mass 0.2 Msol
entering the solar system on a nearly parabolic, low inclination, retrograde
orbit with perihelion of 50 AU can scatter ~30% of the Kuiper belt into
moderate inclination (i>10 degrees) and eccentricity orbits, while leaving the
rest of the belt at low eccentricities and inclinations. This scenario provides
a possible explanation for the dichotomy of the Kuiper belt, accounting for the
scattered and classical populations, including objects with high eccentricities
and inclinations. High eccentricity objects that were not placed into resonance
with Neptune are more likely to be removed from the system by subsequent long
timescale evolution. Consequently this scenario suggests that some Plutinos
could have originally been objects in circular orbits which were scattered into
resonant high eccentricity and high inclination orbits by the stellar
encounter. Objects could have been placed into stable resonant regions with
Neptune by the encounter. However long lived regions of dynamical stability
should differ from those selected by resonance capture. This scenario predicts
the presence of objects in resonances with Neptune that are unlikely to have
been captured via Neptune's migration.
