Integrated Light Tidal Features Across the Mass Spectrum

Observations of tidal features around external galaxies provide a window into the infall orbit, mass, and stellar populations of the satellite progenitors that form these extended features. The Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) will cover more than 1400 sq. deg of the sky in five broadband filters (grizy) down to i~26 mag with a median i band seeing of 0.54”, offering an unprecedented view of the low surface brightness universe that is complementary to deep, targeted observations of nearby galaxies. Building on previous work in which we developed a method to automatically detect tidal features around galaxies and generated one of the largest such samples to date (Kado-Fong et al. 2018), I will examine the formation mechanism of such tidal debris around massive galaxies as a function of the  present-day morphology of the tidal feature system, and consider the correlation between the tidal feature morphology and the properties of its host galaxy. I will then present a sample of dwarf-dwarf mergers in the field, and examine the progression of star formation throughout the dwarf-dwarf merger sequence.