HI Imaging the Low Red-shift Cosmic Web

Only in recent years has the realization emerged that galaxies do not dominate the universal baryon budget but are merely the brightest pearls of an underlying Cosmic Web. Although the gas in these inter-galactic filaments is moderately to highly ionized, QSO absorption lines have shown that the surface area increases dramatically in going down to lower HI column densities. The first image of the Cosmic Web in HI emission has just been made of the Local Group filament connecting M31 and M33. The corresponding HI distribution function is in very good agreement with that of the QSO absorption lines, confirming the 30-fold increase in surface area expected between 10 cm and 10 cm. The critical observational challenge is crossing the “HI desert”, the range of log(NHI) from about 19.5 down to 18, over which photo-ionization by the intergalactic radiation field produces an exponential decline in the neutral fraction from essentially unity down to a few percent. Nature is kinder again to the HI observer below log(NHI) = 18, where the neutral fraction decreases only very slowly with log(NHI). With the SKA we can begin the systematic study of the Cosmic Web beyond the Local Group. With moderate integration times, the necessary resolution and sensitivity can be achieved out to distances beyond the Virgo cluster. When combined with targeted optical and UV absorption line observations, the total baryonic masses and enrichment histories of the Cosmic Web will be determined over the complete range of environmental over-densities.