The one-point PDF of the initial conditions of our local Universe from theIRAS PSC redshift catalogue

The algorithm ZTRACE of Monaco & Efstathiou is applied to the IRAS PSCz cat alogue to reconstruct the initial conditions of our local Universe with a r esolution down to similar to5 h(-1) Mpc. The one-point probability distribu tion function (PDF) of the reconstructed initial conditions is consistent w ith the assumptions that: (i) IRAS galaxies trace mass on scales of similar to5 h(-1) Mpc and (ii) the statistics of the primordial density fluctuatio ns are Gaussian. We use simulated PSCz catalogues, constructed from N-body simulations with Gaussian initial conditions, to show that local non-linear bias can cause the recovered initial PDF (assuming no bias) to be non-Gaus sian. However, for plausible bias models, the distortions of the recovered PDF would be difficult to detect using the volume finely sampled by the PSC z catalogue. So, for Gaussian initial conditions, a range of bias models re main compatible with our PSCz reconstruction results.