  Numerical simulations predict that minor mergers are an important channel for
the mass assembly of galaxies. However, minor mergers are relatively difficult
to detect using imaging, especially at high redshift. While such events are
much less violent than major mergers, they can nevertheless leave several
features on the kinematical structures of remnant galaxies which could be
detected using 3D spectroscopy. We present the first direct detection of a
minor merger in a z~0.6 galaxy. Such events could indeed be good candidates to
explain the kinematics of perturbed rotating disks observed with GIRAFFE at
z~0.6. We present photometric and kinematical evidence of such an event in a
combined analysis of three-band HST/ACS imaging and VLT/GIRAFFE 2D-kinematics.
Using these data, we are able to demonstrate that a minor merger of a
relatively small satellite (mass ratio ~1:18) is occurring in this galaxy. We
also derive a total SFR ~21Mo/yr. Minor mergers could be one of the physical
processes explaining the kinematics of perturbed rotating disks, which
represent ~25% of emission line intermediate mass galaxies at z~0.6. 3D
spectroscopy appears to be a very good tool to identify minor mergers in
distant (and local) galaxies.
