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 10 ^ { 10 } M _ { \sun } , and the tidal debris reach the surface brightness of \mu _ { R } \sim 27 mag arcsec ^ { -2 } .
Thus , we conclude that tidal debris from minor mergers can explain the observed dry tidal features in ellipticals at intermediate redshifts , although other mechanisms ( such as major dry mergers ) may also be important .