Phase-parameter relation and sharp statistical properties for general families of unimodal maps

Abstract

We obtain estimates relating the phase space and the parameter space of analytic families of unimodal maps. Using those estimates, we show that typical analytic unimodal maps admit a quasiquadratic renormalization. This reduces the study of the statistical properties of typical unimodal maps to the quasiquadratic case which had been studied in \cite {AM2}. The estimates proved here correspond exactly to the Phase-Parameter relation proved in \cite {AM} in the quadratic case, and allows one to obtain sharp estimates on the dynamics of typical unimodal maps which were available only in the quadratic case: as an example we conclude that the exponent of the polynomial recurrence of the critical orbit is exactly one. We also show that those ideas lead to a new proof of a Theorem of Shishikura: the set of non-renormalizable parameters in the boundary of the Mandelbrot set has Lebesgue measure zero. Further applications of those results can be found in the companion paper \cite {AM3}.