A generalized local ansatz and its effect on halo bias

Motivated by the properties of early universe scenarios that produce observationally large local non-Gaussianity, we perform N-body simulations with non-Gaussian initial conditions from a generalized local ansatz. The bispectra are schematically of the local shape, but with scale-dependent amplitude. We find that in such cases the size of the non-Gaussian correction to the bias of small and large mass objects depends on the amplitude of nonGaussianity roughly on the scale of the object. In addition, some forms of the generalized bispectrum alter the scale dependence of the non-Gaussian term in the bias by a fractional power of k. These features may allow significant observational constraints on the particle physics origin of any observed local non-Gaussianity, distinguishing between scenarios where a single field or multiple fields contribute to the curvature fluctuations. While analytic predictions for the non-Gaussian bias agree qualitatively with the simulations, we find numerically a stronger observational signal than expected. This suggests that a more precise understanding of halo formation is needed to fully explain the consequences of primordial non-Gaussianity.