Using perturbative least action to reconstruct the Local Group

In this paper, we apply the perturbative least-action method to model the L ocal Group of galaxies for various cosmological models. Our models suggest that the classical timing argument overestimates the true mass of the Local Group system. We further show that although the galaxy masses are theoreti cally good discriminators of Omega (M) given some observed Milky Way and M3 1 separation and radial velocity, current estimates of the masses are insuf ficient to make any cosmological claims.