We present the results of reconstruction analysis of the galaxy distribution in a spherical region of radius 50 { h ^ { -1 } { Mpc } } centered on the Local Group , as mapped by the IRAS Point Source Catalog Redshift Survey ( PSCz ) .
We reconstruct this galaxy distribution using 15 different models for structure formation in the universe , each model consisting of a set of assumptions regarding the value of the cosmological mass density parameter \Omega _ { m } , and the amplitude and nature of the biasing between IRAS galaxies and the underlying mass .
For every model , we also reconstruct ten mock PSCz catalogs derived from the outputs of numerical simulations that have the appropriate values of \Omega _ { m } and bias .
We quantify the accuracy of a reconstruction using a variety of statistics and compare the accuracy of each reconstruction of the PSCz catalog to the accuracy expected based on the mock catalog reconstructions of the corresponding model .
We find that gravitational instability of Gaussian primordial mass density fluctuations can account for the galaxy distribution in the PSCz catalog , at least for some plausible assumptions about the value of \Omega _ { m } and the biasing between IRAS galaxies and mass .
However , unbiased models in which IRAS galaxies trace mass fail to reconstruct the PSCz catalog accurately , both for \Omega _ { m } = 0.4 and for \Omega _ { m } = 1 .
Low \Omega _ { m } models in which IRAS galaxies are antibiased with respect to the mass distribution are the most successful in reconstructing the PSCz catalog .
In particular , a model with \Omega _ { m } = 0.4 and IRAS galaxies related to the mass distribution according to the predictions of a semi-analytic galaxy formation model is very successful in reproducing the properties of the PSCz galaxy distribution .