  We present a direct approach to nonparametrically reconstruct the linear
density field from an observed nonlinear map. We solve for the unique
displacement potential consistent with the nonlinear density and positive
definite coordinate transformation using a multigrid algorithm. We show that we
recover the linear initial conditions up to the nonlinear scale
($r_{\delta_r\delta_L}>0.5$ for $k\lesssim1\ h/\mathrm{Mpc}$) with minimal
computational cost. This reconstruction approach generalizes the linear
displacement theory to fully nonlinear fields, potentially substantially
expanding the baryon acoustic oscillations and redshift space distortions
information content of dense large scale structure surveys, including for
example SDSS main sample and 21cm intensity mapping initiatives.
