A fully Lagrangian, non-parametric bias model for dark-matter halos

We present a non-parametric Lagrangian biasing model and fit the ratio of the halo and mass densities at field level using the mass-weighted halo field in the AbacusSummit simulations at $z=0.5$. Unlike the bias expansion method widely used in interpreting the observed large-scale structure traced by galaxies, we find a non-negative halo-to-mass ratio that increases monotonically with the linear overdensity $\delta_1$ in the initial Lagrangian space. The bias expansion, however, does not guarantee non-negativity of the halo counts and may lead to rising halo number counts at negative overdensities. The shape of the halo-to-mass ratio is unlikely to be described by a polynomial function of $\delta_1$ and other quantities, and shows a plateau at high $\delta_1$. Especially for massive halos with $6\times10^{12}\ h^{-1}\ M_\odot$, the halo-to-mass ratio starts soaring up at $\delta_1>0$, substantially different from the predictions of the bias expansion. We show that for $M>3\times10^{11}\ h^{-1}\ M_\odot$ halos, a non-parametric halo-to-mass ratio as a function of $\delta_1$ and its local derivative $\nabla^2\delta_1$ can recover the halo power spectra to sub-percent level accuracy for wavenumbers $k=0.01-0.1\ h\ {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ given a proper smoothing scale to filter the initial density field, even though we do not fit the power spectrum directly. However, there is mild dependence of the recovery of the halo power spectrum on the smoothing scale and other input parameters. At $k 6\times10^{12}\ h^{-1}\ M_\odot$ halos, our non-parametric model leads to a few percent overestimation of the halo power spectrum, indicating the need for larger or multiple smoothing scales. The halo-to-mass ratios obtained qualitatively agree with intuitions from extended Press-Schechter theory. We compare our framework to the bias expansion and discuss possible extensions.