Detection of H I Filaments: Pair Stacking versus Filament Stacking

Abstract The faint 21 cm signal emitted by neutral hydrogen in cosmic filaments is expected to be detectable. However, due to its weakness, stacking techniques are required. We assessed two stacking methods—pair stacking and filament stacking—using the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) and IllustrisTNG simulations. Pair stacking leverages the fact that cosmic filaments connect massive structures (i.e., knots) in the cosmic web, while filament stacking directly aggregates filaments identified from galaxy distributions. Our analysis indicates that, although pair stacking is convenient, it faces contamination from massive structures; after removing this contamination, the filament signal is significantly reduced. In contrast, H I detection via filament stacking appears more promising. The column density in filament stacking reaches ∼10 16 –10 17 cm −2 , even when all halos are masked, whereas pair stacking does not reach this level, even without masking, and is further suppressed by several orders of magnitude once masking is applied. The effectiveness of filament stacking can be further improved with higher galaxy number density and better spatial resolution in radio intensity mapping observations. With the advent of upcoming optical and radio data, the detection of H I in cosmic filaments remains promising.