  We present an extensive parameter survey to study the influence of halo mass
profiles on the development of tidal tails in interacting disk galaxies. We
model the galaxies using a fixed exponential disk with a central bulge and vary
the halo potential over a range of parameters using both the Hernquist and NFW
mass distributions, probing the effect of the halo mass, extent and
concentration. We examine the consistency of the results against both
observational and theoretical constraints on halo profiles and comment on the
failures and weaknesses of different models. Galaxies with rising or flat
rotation curves dominated by the halo are inhibited from forming tidal tails
unless the halo is abruptly cut off just beyond the disk edge. Conversely,
models with declining rotation curves -- resulting either from compact, low
mass halos, or from massive disk components in low concentration dark halos --
produce tidal tails very similar to those observed in well-studied interacting
systems. As argued by Springel & White (1998), a unifying, quantitative
relation for all cases is that the ratio of the escape velocity to the circular
velocity at around the solar radius must be v_e/v_c<2.5 for tidal tails to be
produced. The galaxy models which appear to fit most of the observational
constraints are those which have disk-dominated rotation curves and low
concentration halos. We discuss our results in a cosmological context using
recent studies which link halo properties to cosmological models.
