Are Red Tidal Features Unequivocal Signatures of Major Dry Mergers?

Abstract

We use a cosmological numerical simulation to study the tidal features produced by a minor merger with an elliptical galaxy. We find that the simulated tidal features are quantitatively similar to the red tidal features, i.e., dry tidal features, recently found in deep images of elliptical galaxies at intermediate redshifts. The minor merger in our simulation does not trigger star formation due to active galactic nuclei heating. Therefore, both the tidal features and the host galaxy are red, i.e., a dry minor merger. The stellar mass of the infalling satellite galaxy is about 1010 M☉, and the tidal debris reach the surface brightness of μR ~ 27 mag arcsec-2. Thus, we conclude that tidal debris from minor mergers can explain the observed dry tidal features in elliptical galaxies at intermediate redshifts, although other mechanisms (such as major dry mergers) may also be important.