Title: Galaxy bias and the consequences for tests of the early Universe

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Abstract:
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“Galaxy bias” describes the relation between galaxies and their large-scale environment, and studying it leads not only to improved cosmological constraints using galaxy data, but invariably also to new insights about the astrophysics of the galaxy-environment connection. In this talk I will go through a number of recent advances made in our ability to make predictions for galaxy bias using hydrodynamical galaxy formation simulations. By comparing to the bias of dark matter halos, I will discuss what these results can tell us about the environmental dependence of the galaxy-halo connection. I will also show how robust priors on galaxy bias from hydrodynamical simulations are imperative to the goal of many future galaxy surveys to constrain cosmology in general, but in particular, models of inflation through searches for local-type primordial non-Gaussianity and baryon-CDM compensated isocurvature.