Merging galaxies with tidal tails in COSMOS to z=1

It remains to be explored how the tidal tails trace the assembly history of massive galaxies. We identify a sample of 461 merging galaxies with long tidal tails, from 35076 galaxies mass-complete at M*>=10^9.5^M_{sun}_ and 0.2<=z<=1, based on Hubble Space Telescope/ACS F814W imaging data and public catalogs of the COSMOS field.

The long tails refer to those with length equal to or greater than the diameter of their host galaxies. The mergers with tidal tails are selected using our novel A_O_-D_O_ technique for strong asymmetric features, along with visual examination. Our results show that the fraction of tidal-tailed mergers evolves mildly with redshift, as ~(1+z)^2.0+/-0.4^, and becomes relatively higher in less-massive galaxies, out to z=1.